New England 2014-2015

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New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

What's going on/What are everybody's thoughts with New England quiz bowl next year?

Anyway, here's what I know/think about the teams in (southern) New England for next year.

Top teams:
1. Darien-we bring back everyone except for Cameron van de Graff, who went to FAcT and Connecticut Invitational with us. Julia Tong will join us from Middlesex MS and should have some sort of impact. We will probably field an A team of Myself, Molly Bell, Andrew Benz, and Julia Tong. We will probably attend all the tournaments held in Connecticut, although we may not attend anything in MA besides Harvard Fall.
2. AMSA-I think they bring everyone back. They will probably compete with us for the top spot at several tournaments.
3. Lexington-I think they lose a couple guys. Does anyone know more about them?

In general, these teams will be better than they were last year (how much better they are depends on how much they study), and could all compete for HSNCT playoff spots if they attend.

Next Tier:
4. E.O. Smith-I know they had two seniors on their A team. They're an HSNCT regular, so they'll probably find a way to bounce back an attend next year. I'd expect them to be of a similar skill level this coming year compared to this past year, so they might go 4-6 again.
5. Acton-Boxboro-They lose Victor, but they took a B team to NSC this year so they should be decent.

Teams I know almost nothing about:

Northampton: They were pretty good at Connecticut Invitational, but it doesn't seem like they attended many tournaments.
Sharon: They went to NSC (and brought a B team).
I'm probably still missing a couple teams, so it would be great if someone else could fill that in.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Asterias Wrathbunny »

Lexington loses Arjun, their top history player, David, another geography/history player, and Reggie, their main lit player.
They keep Colin, Duncan, and Devin - all three performed well at HSNCT. I expect that the team continues to perform well at tournaments.

AMSA has a new player, Aniruddh, who was really an asset to the team at SSNCT - his focus is mainly science. They maintain Abhinav, Shashank, and Tim. AMSA finished 2nd at the SSNCT without Tim, who is arguably their best performer in the fine arts category. If AMSA continues to improve, they really could make a huge impact full-force at national tournaments.
See more here: http://www.naqt.com/stats/team-performa ... playoffs=1

Acton-Boxborough lost many of its players involved in quiz bowl. It may be a building year for the team, but they will still probably participate at some tournaments.

Arlington, Sharon, and Hingham lost many of their involved history bowl/quiz bowl players. Hopefully Massachusetts continues to express interest in quiz bowl.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by EasyBakeOven »

Lexington loses only David Yuan and returns the vast majority of their A team for next year.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by jmarvin_ »

Colin from Lexington has already become a more-than-capable player after only one year, and talking to him after playing them at HSNCT revealed that he studies well and with dedication. He clearly loves the game, and I think that continued improvement from him and the rest of Lexington will more than make up for their losses (though those losses are certainly significant).

Up in NH/VT, both Essex and Portsmouth Christian (my team) lose their seniors, by far their strongest players. Matt Bergeron could take Essex back to their dominant position, but it would take significant effort on his or his teammates' part. Likewise, Portsmouth Christian has some promising rising sophomores (including my brother) who could at least bring the team back to contention by next year, but they would need to work very hard. We've shifted our focus away from New Hampshire's Academic Hallmarks "league" and towards pyramidal/NAQT stuff, though, so this improvement will be encouraged and not impossible. It will mostly depend on how many books I can convince my brother to read this summer.

South Burlington loses Charlotte Mills, but retains their leader, Phil Holt, so they currently look like the next dominating force over in Vermont.

Hopefully the northern New England teams will try to be more involved in Massachusetts/Connecticut-area events this coming season.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by KnicksRule »

I'll post my full in-depth analysis on the 14th (was planning to do this but Mike beat me too it). But in my opinion Darien and AMSA are 1a and 1b (Darien beat AMSA twice by slim margins this year; however, AMSA got some new players who have improved the team a ton). Lexington is a step below them both, it doesn't lose anyone except David. They will be much better next year too, as they are committed to studying this summer.

In terms of nationals performance AMSA arguably had the best finishes: 2nd at SSNCT without a full A-team (Tim didnt come) and Top JV Small School, 3rd place JV overall in History Bowl. Shashank was a Semi-Finalist and I was a Q-F for Bee. I also repeated as USGO JV champion.

Lexington under performed at HSNCT, finishing 5-5 in around 105th place. They are much better at NHBB and unfortunately did not go. A playoff finish around/ just below AMSA's (anywhere in the 5-16 range) could have been expected.

Darien didn't go to any nationals. For some reason, Darien doesn't attend more tournaments. This is hypothesized to be an administration problem. Since, the circuit loses a ton of teams because seniors made up a majority of Arlington, Sharon, Hingham, A-B etc. Darien may need to attend more tournaments to keep the circuit alive and interesting. W/o Darien, if AMSA is hosting tournaments, their will be virtually no competition for Lexington, and vice-versa.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

I'll agree with you that Darien and AMSA are almost equal in strength, but we've never had our full A team play against your full A team, so everything's a gray area. Lexington shouldn't be too far behind either.

About tournament attendance: Yes, we do have an administration problem, but that only affected nationals. The other problem is our advisors can't do many events with us so we need to often ask other district faculty members (like our middle school team's coaches-this could also be seen as an administration problem, I guess). I do think going to some tournaments unaffiliated is an option, but our advisor has already stated that he doesn't think it's a good idea. However, I may still take a few other kids to tournaments unaffiliated.

Also, we are in the interesting situation of being able to attend tournaments on both the New England circuit and the Metro-NYC circuit. There seems to be 10+ tournaments a year within an hour and a half of our town (without traffic), and it is at least a 2 hour trip to any tournaments in Massachusetts. Because of this, the only tournament we may end up traveling that far for is Harvard Fall.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Asterias Wrathbunny »

KnicksRule wrote:I'll post my full in-depth analysis on the 14th (was planning to do this but Mike beat me too it). But in my opinion Darien and AMSA are 1a and 1b (Darien beat AMSA twice by slim margins this year; however, AMSA got some new players who have improved the team a ton). Lexington is a step below them both, it doesn't lose anyone except David. They will be much better next year too, as they are committed to studying this summer.

In terms of nationals performance AMSA arguably had the best finishes: 2nd at SSNCT without a full A-team (Tim didnt come) and Top JV Small School, 3rd place JV overall in History Bowl. Shashank was a Semi-Finalist and I was a Q-F for Bee. I also repeated as USGO JV champion.

Lexington under performed at HSNCT, finishing 5-5 in around 105th place. They are much better at NHBB and unfortunately did not go. A playoff finish around/ just below AMSA's (anywhere in the 5-16 range) could have been expected.

Darien didn't go to any nationals. For some reason, Darien doesn't attend more tournaments. This is hypothesized to be an administration problem. Since, the circuit loses a ton of teams because seniors made up a majority of Arlington, Sharon, Hingham, A-B etc. Darien may need to attend more tournaments to keep the circuit alive and interesting. W/o Darien, if AMSA is hosting tournaments, their will be virtually no competition for Lexington, and vice-versa.
I agree with Abhinav here. Though I hear Shrewsbury and Northampton are growing (Saadya from Northampton is good especially at fine arts), the circuit will die in the next couple years unless interest remains. I don't think there enough remaining teams to run a New England only tournament, so Harvard Fall and MIT Fall for example will probably only occur if out of region teams (NJ/NY) sign up.

Many of the teams from the WGBH High School Quiz Show attended the state tournaments, but were probably discouraged by the remarkable performance of the teams who had previously attended tournaments (We had a 430 - 10 match, for example). Many teams in the state prepare for the High School Quiz Show but do not know enough about quiz bowl tournaments outside the TV show. I really hope we can encourage more of these teams to participate. I will do what I can to help AMSA and Darien find teams like this willing to attend their tournaments.

Western MA also has some good teams on their HSQS complement "As Schools Match Wits" and there are apparently a couple very good teams that participate in that show. I hope that a school like Northampton could host at least one NAQT tournament that targets Western MA and CT teams.

I'm encouraging Aidan and Spencer to both put a lot of effort in this summer in an attempt to replace the gap that the seniors at A-B left. Sid and Amrit are both good players but they do seasonal sports and cannot attend quiz bowl meetings/tournaments year round. A-B will attend as many tournaments as possible. There could be up to 2 teams again next year.

Also a correction - Reggie from Lexington is only a sophomore so they lose just Arjun (who attended several tournaments) and David.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Schmidt Sting Pain Index »

From an outsiders perspective, New England could still do well next year. NY NJ teams will probably attend some tournaments as teams such as AMSA and Darien have the capability to crack the top 150 teams in the nation this comming year. Lexington players have shown the proclivity to improve, and I also believe Arjun is returning. Charter is again planning on attending MIT, Harvard, and Yale tournaments this year.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Asterias Wrathbunny »

Oops, I'm messing up on all my years. Arjun is a Junior so they lose David. (facepalm)
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by hydrocephalitic listlessness »

vcpavao wrote:I don't think there enough remaining teams to run a New England only tournament, so Harvard Fall and MIT Fall for example will probably only occur if out of region teams (NJ/NY) sign up.
Just want to jump in and say that Harvard Fall is definitely happening, and we encourage all New England teams (as well as teams from nearby regions) to attend! We're currently accepting registrations, and you can find the tournament announcement here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15940
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

vcpavao wrote:Many of the teams from the WGBH High School Quiz Show attended the state tournaments, but were probably discouraged by the remarkable performance of the teams who had previously attended tournaments (We had a 430 - 10 match, for example). Many teams in the state prepare for the High School Quiz Show but do not know enough about quiz bowl tournaments outside the TV show. I really hope we can encourage more of these teams to participate. I will do what I can to help AMSA and Darien find teams like this willing to attend their tournaments.
I would say that that area should be more of a focus for AMSA, Williams, and other hosts in or close to MA, as HSQS and As Schools Match Wits teams probably wouldn't want to travel 2+ hours to the far southwestern corner of Connecticut for their first pyramidal experience. If we host a tournament (big "if" depending on advisor availability) we'd probably focus on teams/schools that used to be on "The Challenge" (our school was, and most of them were geographically close to us) and would probably need contacts from Yale and E.O. Smith. There are an increasing number of events in both states (I think Lexington plans to host in MA as well) and it's probably a good idea to get prospective new teams interested in more "local" options.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by KnicksRule »

Schmidt Sting Pain Index wrote:From an outsiders perspective, New England could still do well next year. NY NJ teams will probably attend some tournaments as teams such as AMSA and Darien have the capability to crack the top 150 teams in the nation this coming year. Lexington players have shown the proclivity to improve, and I also believe Arjun is returning. Charter is again planning on attending MIT, Harvard, and Yale tournaments this year.
Honestly, though our PPB begs to differ, I believe that AMSA is much stronger than sub 150. We came 2nd to Halsville beating them once, and beat Harmony at SSNCT, even without a full A-team. Both those teams finished T-21 at HSNCT. We may have not fared that well but I don't think it is reasonable to make an argument that we haven't already broke the top "150". That implies a 4-6 record at Nationals.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by KnicksRule »

Detailed Analysis of the New England Circuit:

Overview:

2013-2014 has been a relatively strong year for our circuit. We have multiple national playoff level teams, a few who have potential to be much more than that, and even some top finishes. Since many teams are losing a bulk of their players, the interest in QB may sharply decline in the coming year. To combat this and keep our circuit alive, it is imperative that existing teams recruit from their own school as well as contact HSQS teams/ Western MA counterparts and make them aware of QB. Also many teams play NHBB that for some reason aren’t interested in playing QB. This can be an easier market to tap into.

Team Specific Discussion:


Tier 1:

Darien A: Darien has a huge amount of potential, arguably the most in the region. Mike is probably the best player in New England, after Victor’s graduation, and if he gets a stronger supporting cast will lead a good team. Julia, a MSNCT leading scorer from this year, also joins the team and a B team member who averaged over 70 ppg on an IS set will as well. Darien is incredibly strong in Geography and History but lacks depth in Science, which may come back to bite them against Lexington and AMSA. Hopefully they can attend more tournaments and practice consistently. As far as I can tell, they are likely to go to at least NHBB next year.

AMSA A: Won a good amount of awards at national competition this year: 2nd place at SSNCT, 1st in JV Small School history bowl (and 3rd overall), and their two leading scorers earned individual awards at NHBB: Shashank was a SF in the Bee and Abhinav was USGO Champion and QF in the bee. They are likely to attend HSNCT/Pace this year. With the addition of Aniruddh, they cover many weaknesses such as Science and Lit. If Tim can pick up some more music knowledge, and Ani can expand his lit knowledge. They have a decent outside chance at cracking the top 25/ top bracket at PACE. AMSA's Power Rate is the highest among the three, but their PPB is the worst.

Lexington A: Easily the biggest wild card out of the Tier 1 teams. Devin Shang and Colin Cantwell will make up their core for the next 2 years and are becoming a lot better quickly. Despite their loss of David, they return three NASAT players and have the strongest Lit knowledge in the region. Colin and Duncan, another teammate, were the top two finishers in History Bee at the New England Finals and will look to repeat their success. Lexington, similar to AMSA, is much stronger at NHBB so look to see them have very close matches again, like this year. Lexington can make serious noise at NHBB nationals in 2015 as well as make playoffs in HSNCT. Best PPB in Tier 1

Tier 2:

Northampton: Probably the most underrated team in MA. If Saadya can use his NASAT experience as motivation to get his team to study, they will likely be a solid team. At HSAPQ States, they had 8 players of whom half of them were very capable (relative to the circuit).

Sharon: Lose Sid and most of the A team. Their team will likely consist of a few older members; Sharon B may not exist unlike this past year.

Hingham A: Lose Sam, Jared, and other members of their supporting cast. Hopefully they retain some members and continue playing at all regional tournaments.

Lexington B: Lexington has a solid foundation outside Collin etc. Either Duncan or Arjun S. will likely be on B team next year, the latter of which made the NASAT team. They also have a huge science bowl team, so they shouldn’t have a problem getting new recruits.

Acton-Boxborough: Lose almost their whole A team, including Victor who was easily the best player in MA last year. If his brother and co. decide to study this summer, this team could be in Tier 1 by December.

E.O. Smith: Lose plenty of A team scoring but have a lot of depth and interest at their school. They will continue to be a centerpiece in the New England circuit; by the time they host CT Invitational, this team could be much improved.

Tier 3:
Framingham: Not sure of their personal but they had close games with some stronger teams at HSAPQ Regionals.

Abbey Kelley: I believe they lose their top scorer and captain Abena, but hopefully they will still attend tournaments.

Hingham B: Was decently strong this year and had decent showings at Central MA fall and NHBB tourneys.

Arlington: Lose pretty much their whole team, except for their 4th scorer. They are likely to show up at a few tournaments this year.

Darien B: Will likely attend most CT tourneys.

Shrewsbury: Two of their teams attended Central MA Fall.

Wildcards/Misc:

Exeter: Has a strong duo of Tanmay and Matthew Robbins, but they need to actually attend tournaments.

Portsmouth Christian, Essex, Hanover etc. : It would be awesome if more NH, VT teams played in more MA tourneys.

Pioneer, Everett, North Quincy, Quincy: Only play NHBB but are very capable. In fact Everett and Pioneer host NHBB tournaments. NQ won quiz show a couple years ago.

BLS and BLA: These two schools are very accomplished in buzzer based events such as Certamen and, if introduced to quiz bowl, may quickly become mainstays in the region.

Other comments:

Science Bowl is another interesting competition we can look into for teams. The New England Regional had 68 teams, one of the largest tournaments in the country. There are a large amount of teams in southern New Hampshire, MA, CT, and VT that are strong teams that don’t play QB. For example, the Academy of Science and Design which repeatedly has top 5 finishes as well as Phillips Academy (Andover as well as Exeter). I am going to start communicating with the directors of NE science bowl to possibly advertise QB. This is surely the easiest way to grow the circuit exponentially.

Also, has HSAPQ considered allowing B teams to play in their regional/championship tournaments? With such a small circuit, what is the benefit of not allowing them to play? In my opinion this would only make sense in Texas, Illinois, California, Missouri etc.

Is any host thinking about holding an NAQT state final this year?
Last edited by KnicksRule on Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

Lexington could have definitely made the playoffs at HSNCT this year; we were quite unlucky with our matchups,facing 6/10 playoff teams during the prelims, as well as losing a 95 point halftime lead during the final game before elimination. Additionally, one could also make the argument that Lexington has surpassed AMSA after HSNCT. We beat Hallsville by 80 points during the prelims, and they eventually placed 21st. They also beat AMSA at the SSNCT.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Banana Stand »

Shangdevin wrote:Additionally, one could also make the argument that Lexington has surpassed AMSA after HSNCT. We beat Hallsville by 80 points during the prelims, and they eventually placed 21st. They also beat AMSA at the SSNCT.
As a general rule "x beat y, y beat z, x is better than z" is a very bad way of comparing teams for a variety of reasons. I don't have a dog in this fight; I'd just refrain from using that method to analyze teams.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

With regards to nationals for next year, expect a separate Darien history bowl club to attend NHBB nationals and we plan on attending HSNCT as well (though we will do NSC if that's all our advisors can do-considering we have 2 advisors plus the coaches from Middlesex we should have advisor availability for nationals and I anticipate we can get administration approval for a trip by February/March, enabling us to attend a national).

Edit: Also, our B team should not be great to start the season but may be in tier two by the end of the year, as we have a lot of depth with several dedicated players outside of our A team. We could theoretically field a D team next year (and Middlesex currently has 30-something kids, with only 3 of them moving up to DHS next year).

Edit again: We are also much stronger at NHBB than quiz bowl.
Last edited by High Dependency Unit on Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by KnicksRule »

Keep in mind that AMSA did beat Lexington in their last few matchups: at HBB New England Championships, CT invitational, and Quiz Bowl State Finals. That was with Ani playing his first tournament ever. Also, we beat Hallsville at SSNCT in the first game.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

I am also going to give my thoughts on our team next year.
Our A Team is going to be composed of me (So.), Devin Shang (Jr.), Arjun Sarathy (Sr.), and Reggie Luo (Jr.).
Reggie specializes in lit, myth, and social sciences, and is the strongest in the region in those areas, but he did not do so well at nationals.
Arjun is a very good history player, but will be our best science player next year as well. His science studying is our biggest wild card, but he did make NASAT for his science.
Devin has recently become very good at fine arts, as well as history. He knows biology and is quite good at computational math as well.
I am mostly a history and lit player, with an emphasis on US History. I also know religion, and am learning philosophy.
Duncan McCallum (Jr.) will lead our B team, and mostly knows history and art.
Our A Team only loses David Yuan, but that is a big loss for us. He is one of the top geography players in the country, and gets a huge NAQT boost. He was also our main science player this year.
We will be strong on lit and history, but weak on science, and David leaves a geo hole, as well.
Our B team will start out lacking lit, but Duncan is trying to study that, and we may recruit someone.
Our A team should compete with AMSA and Darien for best in New England, while our B team will be near the top of the second tier of teams.
I don't think we have definitely surpassed AMSA yet.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

Some other scattered thoughts I didn't put in the first post:
1. I think Abena's a junior, so AKF could still be second to third tier.
2. It's not confirmed that Tanmay is going to Exeter, but if he is, I will encourage him and Matthew Robbins to play tournaments.
3. I will push quiz bowl at High School Quiz Show tapings and Super Sunday next year, hopefully before our and AMSA's tournaments.
4. Science Bowl could be a recruiting opportunity, but we haven't had much success getting Lexington Science Bowlers to do quiz bowl.
5. We should also have enough players to have a C team next year, that will show up at as many tournaments as possible (outside of Harvard Fall).
6. Portsmouth Christian still returns two starters, and I will encourage them to come to more MA tournaments.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

By the way, Michael, about administrative problems.
We have never been to a non-NHBB quiz bowl tournament with a faculty member.
Does the administration fund you, or was it a field trip thing?
We are a pretty student-run team, but I would not recommend it.
We are disorganized, and it takes away from our practice, as we spend more time than necessary on logistical things.
Hopefully, we can improve that next year.

Also, clarifying what I said about us and AMSA.
I do not think either of us is significantly better than the other. We are both improving teams and serious rivals.
I look forward to some tough matches against AMSA next year, and hopefully we will both make a national impact, as well as Darien.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by heterodyne »

Banana Stand wrote: As a general rule "x beat y, y beat z, x is better than z" is a very bad way of comparing teams for a variety of reasons. I don't have a dog in this fight; I'd just refrain from using that method to analyze teams.
Basically the QB Condorcet paradox.

We played Lexington in consolations as they mentioned (we being Sam E and I) and while we were obviously shorthanded, Sam and I aren't exactly bad at qb and I was quite impressed with Lexington's knowledge. They seemed young- is that true? If they don't graduate many people they could be quite good next year.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

@Alston, yes we are relatively young, as is AMSA.

Our A team roster at HSNCT was
David Yuan (Senior, starter)
Colin Cantwell (Freshman, starter)
Devin Shang (Me, sophomore, starter)
Reggie Luo(Sophomore starter)
Duncan McCallum (Sophomore)
Arjun Sarathy (Junior)

Yeah so everyone will be returning next year aside from David, and Alston that was a very good game, you guys did well with just two ppl
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Smith »

I am pretty sure Sam Q from Hingham is a Junior, and they have a strong B team, and non Jared members of A team, so they will probably remain a good team, mostly for NHBB though. Also have we confirmed that Tanmay "Boss Tweed" Khale is going to Exeter? And does Matthew Robbins still do the Bowls?
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

I believe Matthew Robbins went to NHBB nationals. No confirmation on Tanmay. Hingham A and Lexington B should fight for the third best team in Massachusetts.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Asterias Wrathbunny »

AMSA has incredible potential next year, but I would like to note that both A-B and Lexington have beaten AMSA more than once in history bowl and/or quiz bowl and AMSA lost to Sharon at the state championship. Both Lexington and A-B did not perform to their potential at nationals this year. It is true that AMSA has improved but I want to play devil's advocate here and balance the perspective toward what I believe is a more realistic view; they will be successful this coming year but there is still a lot to be done.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Schmidt Sting Pain Index »

vcpavao wrote:AMSA has incredible potential next year, but I would like to note that both A-B and Lexington have beaten AMSA more than once in history bowl and/or quiz bowl and AMSA lost to Sharon at the state championship. Both Lexington and A-B did not perform to their potential at nationals this year. It is true that AMSA has improved but I want to play devil's advocate here and balance the perspective toward what I believe is a more realistic view; they will be successful this coming year but there is still a lot to be done.
True, likewise, I have privately suggested that they focus on actually studying instead of just hyping themselves up repeatedly on the forum. They are potentially a top 150 team but should continue studying in order to fulfill their potential.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by ewalrod »

Hi everyone,

This is Edward Walrod. I was on Hingham High A during quizshow seasons 2-3 when Hingham made it to quarterfinals during those years. Some of you may or may not know me from around the circuit as well considering we went to Harvard, Yale, MIT, History and Quizbowl nationals and other tournaments during our Golden age. I am writing to let you know that Sam Quillen is not leaving the circuit and is a senior for the next academic year.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

In the past couple of weeks I have learned that friends of mine who played quiz bowl at either Middlesex or Darien and will be at Fairfield Prep and St. Luke's School (in New Canaan) next year will be starting teams at their schools.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

KnicksRule wrote:
Exeter: Has a strong duo of Tanmay and Matthew Robbins, but they need to actually attend tournaments.
I am not exactly sure how noted quiz bowl analyst Abhinav Kurada arrived at this erroneous conclusion. Primary sources indicate that Tanmay Khale has NOT transferred to Philips Exeter and thus will continue playing for Lexington (if he is diligent enough) next season.

EDIT: Nevermind... that "primary source" received incorrect information... Tanmay Khale is indeed transferring but I am unsure what school he is going to attend.
Last edited by Halved Xenon Stinging on Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by KnicksRule »

Members of your own team told me he now attends Exeter; I am sorry for the grievance I have caused you.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

So here is my detailed analysis of the New England circuit before the season starts. First of all, Tanmay Khale is not going to Lexington HS next year, but will possibly not be going to Exeter either. I know virtually nothing about Vermont teams, so I won't try to put them in here. Each tier is in no particular order, as each team in each is generally about equal.

Tier 1:
Lexington A: I've already talked about us earlier, so this will be shorter. Devin Shang and myself will lead our team. Devin has arguably the best fine arts knowledge in the region, and was very dedicated to studying over the summer. Combined, we can cover most subjects. We only lose one key player in David Yuan from our disappointing 5-5 at HSNCT, our science specialist and one of the best geo players in the country. Replacing his losses will be tough, and nearly impossible at geo, with Abhinav Kurada and Michael Borecki in the region. Arjun Sarathy will handle most science and add some history. Some combination of Reggie Luo and Duncan McCallum will round out our A team, with Reggie mostly a lit/RMPS player and Duncan a history/arts player. Lexington has suffered bad losses due to negging and fatigue in the past, but has a lot of potential.

AMSA A: This team is also very strong on history, like all tier 1 teams, and is one of the best "small schools" in the country. Shashank Madhu performed very well at NASAT and will be a very strong history and science player. Ani Iyengar only recently joined quiz bowl, but is one of the best science specialists in the region. Abhinav Kurada adds some coverage of most subjects, and Tim Morrissey can rival Devin in arts. AMSA probably has the best reputation of New England teams outside New England, and has more experience than Lexington and Darien, with an all-junior team.

Darien A: I don't know as much about Darien. Michael Borecki is very good at history and geo, and I think this team should be good at lit as well. Science looks like Darien's main weakness. Most of their players have middle school quizbowl experience, which made them a good high school team last year. They did not go to any nationals, which makes them more of a wild card for this year.

Tier 2:
Hingham A: Sam Quillen is a good history player who should keep this team relevant in his senior year.

Northampton A: Saadya Chevan showed at NASAT that he is quite good at music and some lit, and can keep Northampton at a playoff level at most New England tournaments. This team has upset potential against a tier 1 team.

Lexington B: Duncan McCallum or Reggie Luo will be the main scorer on this team, which will also include a good history/science player in Harvey Wang. However, they probably peak in tier 2.

EO Smith A: A longtime quizbowl team, they return two players who make this team a preseason tier 2. If the team studies, they could reach tier 1.

AMSA B: AMSA B will probably feature Ashwin Varghese, who, I think, knows lit and some science. Since it is a charter school, AMSA can easily attract smart people for a team. With Ashwin's areas of knowledge, this team has a lot of upset potential as well.

Darien B: I don't know much about them, but they will probably feature some former Middlesex players who would bring quizbowl experience.

Nashua South: A History Bowl team getting into quizbowl. They are going to Harvard Fall, and I think they are relatively young. If they study, they could be good.

Exeter?: If Tanmay ends up going to Exeter and forms a quizbowl team with Matthew Robbins, they would be pretty good at history and science.

Tier 3:

Acton-Boxborough: They lose their main scorer in Victor Pavao. Though they brought a B team to NSC, it doesn't look like they are studying much and will likely not contend this year.

Sharon: Also loses most of their scoring. Similar to Acton-Boxborough

PCA: Loses main scorer in John Marvin Sipp. See Acton-Boxborough and Sharon.

Abby Kelley Foster: Abena is pretty good and could maybe make playoffs at a local tournament.

Arlington: They return 1 player, and might go to things.

Lexington C: Will likely exist at some tournaments, but will probably be a solid tier 3.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

Does anyone have any other thoughts on how the region is going to look this year after MIT Fall?
Exeter was definitely impressive in finishing third, and is probably a tier 1 or 2 team.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

Lexington and AMSA both looked incredibly strong (based on the stat report). It remains to be seen where Darien stands in comparison, but it is possible that we could have slipped to the third-best team in the region. More information should be available after FAcT. Lexington and AMSA have clearly studied alot over the summer. I wish the same could be said for my teammates, so we'll see what happens in a week. Edit: I also have had a total of six tossups of practice since the start of the school year, so I may be rusty.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Please try to make substantive posts, rather than lazily lobbing insults at each other.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by KnicksRule »

After MIT and Yale Here is how things pan out in my opinion:

T-1
-----

1. Lexington -- Cleared MIT and Yale fields

2. AMSA -- 2nd place at MIT and Yale

3. Phillips Exeter - Surprised many teams while finishing 3rd at MIT. Beat AMSA by 320 at MIT.

4. Darien- Borecki is a beast and is by far the best player in New England.

T-2
------
Middlesex, EO Smith, AB, Northampton, Lexington B
Last edited by KnicksRule on Sun Sep 28, 2014 5:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

Once again, the finals at FaCT, like MITFAT, featured an extremely contested game between Lexington A and AMSA A, with Lex coming out on top by a slight margin (something like 25). Darien placed 3rd, beating out Lexington B, which subsequently placed 4th.

Lexington A- Highest PPB and PPG, and 2nd in powers. Also 1st in negs (Half of them coming from yours truly)
AMSA A - Most powers, 3rd in PPB, 2nd most negs
Darien A- 5th in PPB, 3rd in powers, only 9 negs, less than half of both AMSA and Lex

Hingham A also looked pretty strong at the tournament, placing 6th.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by heterodyne »

Is there a reason that NE runs several A set tournamrnts each fall despite having more than competent teams? (This is probably a stupid question.)
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Harpie's Feather Duster »

Turner Island wrote:Is there a reason that NE runs several A set tournamrnts each fall despite having more than competent teams? (This is probably a stupid question.)
I would assume a big factor is the desire to introduce new teams to the game in a still quite young circuit, especially early in the academic year.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

Shangdevin wrote:Once again, the finals at FaCT, like MITFAT, featured an extremely contested game between Lexington A and AMSA A, with Lex coming out on top by a slight margin (something like 25). Darien placed 3rd, beating out Lexington B, which subsequently placed 4th.

Lexington A- Highest PPB and PPG, and 2nd in powers. Also 1st in negs (Half of them coming from yours truly)
AMSA A - Most powers, 3rd in PPB, 2nd most negs
Darien A- 5th in PPB, 3rd in powers, only 9 negs, less than half of both AMSA and Lex

Hingham A also looked pretty strong at the tournament, placing 6th.
Regarding ppb, I was out for 1.5 games-I will be calculating our ppb from when I was playing. Edit: Some of the stats seem incorrect regarding our ppb (looks like they credited us with 2 extra powers and 30 fewer bpts in one game, then double-counted that game), not sure what to do about that (Second edit: after correcting for stat errors we had 23.80 ppb, which was 6th, and when I was in we averaged 24.35 ppb which was 5th, and is probably a better reflection of what we are capable of doing). It should also be worth noting that we had more tossups converted than anyone else. Lexington (A) was very impressive and is definitely a top-50 team this year, if not top 25. AMSA should also be top 50. Regarding us, we're probably a top-100 team with a good amount of room for improvement, particularly in science, and we can probably compete with AMSA and Lexington if I step up my history game and Julia continues to work on lit (it's 4-5 months until BHSAT and CT INV so there's plenty of time to catch up). We also plan on attending HSNCT this year.

Hingham is definitely upper tier 2. I'm not sure whether Exeter would be above or below us in tier 1.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

Lexington B looked pretty impressive yesterday, too. I think the reason there are so many A set tournaments in our region at the beginning of the year is, like Dylan said, that we have many reasonably new teams. Playing tournaments at the start of the season on A sets is definitely beneficial for new teams. I know that helped me get interested in quizbowl. A SCOP mirror in New England would probably be even better for new teams, as they don't have to face AMSA, Darien and us. Unfortunately, it's probably a little late to start talking about holding one for this year.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Ithaca Cricket Ump »

Bethlehem, from the Albany area, made a slightly positive impression at the Princeton tournament on Saturday. Although located in New York, they are close enough to New England to be considered an "unofficial" New England team, and from what I hear from Eric and Ben are certainly willing to come to tournaments in the region. Counting them, you have another pretty decent team to add to the New England quizbowl circuit.

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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

With one major tournament left in the year (NAQT Massachusetts States) does anyone have any thoughts on where different teams are at in relation to each other at this point in the year as well as predictions for nationals?
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

My thoughts:

AMSA A - A VERY strong team that is evenly distributed across its 4 members, and has very deep knowledge, as far as i know, on every major category aside from lit. Abhi Korada is vry good at geo, and hopefully he can repeat as geo bee champion this year again. Shashank Madhu is very consistent at history, and Aniruddh is the best science player in our region. Tim is very good on the classics and fine arts, and from our games against them it seems he has good knowledge of some areas of lit as well.In addition, everyone on their team aside from Ani knows history well. As their team is 75% India, expect them to be very strong with questions about India. AMSA is the only team in New England that has beaten Lexington A this year, doing so in the first game of an advantaged final at the recent HSAPQ states. Also, as seen from their solid victory against Charter at BHSAT, this team has lots of potential if given a right packet. They should be able to win SSNCT without problem, and will do well at NHBB and HSNCT should they go.

Hingham A - Probably the third-best team in the region; they beat Bethlehem at Lexington Invitational, which shows their potential. However, they have historically struggled against AMSA and Lexington, which may pose a problem when facing better teams at nationals.

Lexington A - By far the most inconsistent team in the region as a result of our negs (50% of them by me). As far as the distribution among categories, we are less even than AMSA. Colin is our main Lit and RMPS player, Arjun does India and Physics, Reggie knows Mythology and things that no one else knows, and I do Fine Arts in addition to Math and Bio and Katy Perry. Everyone on our A team is decent at history with the exception of Reggie, so we are pretty good at history as well, similar to AMSA. As a team, we are very humanities based, good at lit, history, and decent at arts, however our glaring weakness is science which we struggle to convert against good teams. Although I can get the occasional math questions, we do not have knowledge too deep in the other aspects of science, which is something we need to improve in the months leading up to nats. Arjun is not going to HSNCT, so B-teamer Duncan McCallum will replace him. Duncan is good at geo and trash, which will help at NAQT events. I really don't know how we will do at HSNCT until we learn science better, but I think we will do decent at NHBB.

P.S. Shoutout to Mohen Malhotra for leaving us out of his predictions on the podcast
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

Shangdevin wrote:My thoughts:

AMSA A - A VERY strong team that is evenly distributed across it 4 members, and has very deep knowledge, as far as i know, on every major category aside from lit. Abhi Korada is vry good at geo, and hopefully he can repeat as geo bee champion this year again. Shashank Madhu is very consistent at history, and Aniruddh is the best science player in our region. Tim is very good on the classics and fine arts, and from our games against them it seems he has good knowledge of some areas of lit as well.In addition, everyone on their team aside from Ani knows history well. As their team is 75% India, expect them to be very strong with questions about India. AMSA is the only team in New England that has beaten Lexington A this year, doing so in the first game of an advantaged final at the recent HSAPQ states. Also, as seen from their solid victory against Charter at BHSAT, this team has lots of potential if given a right packet. They should be able to win SSNCT without problem, and will do well at NHBB and HSNCT should they go.

Hingham A - Probably the third-best team in the region; they beat Bethlehem at Lexington Invitational, which shows their potential. However, they have historically struggled against AMSA and Lexington, which may pose a problem when facing better teams at nationals.

Lexington A - By far the most inconsistent team in the region as a result of our negs (50% of them by me). As far as the distribution among categories, we are less even than AMSA. Colin is our main Lit and RMPS player, Arjun does India and Physics, Reggie knows Mythology and things that no one else knows, and I do Fine Arts in addition to Math and Bio and Katy Perry. Everyone on our A team is decent at history with the exception of Reggie, so we are pretty good at history as well, similar to AMSA. As a team, we are very humanities based, very good at lit, history, and decent at arts, however our glaring weakness is science which we struggle to convert against good teams. Although I can get the occasional math questions, we do not have knowledge too deep in the other aspects of science, which is something we need to improve in the months leading up to nats. Arjun is not going to HSNCT, so B-teamer Duncan McCallum will replace him. Duncan is good at geo and trash, which will help at NAQT events. I really don't know how we will do at HSNCT until we learn science better, but I think we will do decent at NHBB.
My thoughts are below. I'm listing New England teams that have qualified for nationals, but excluding Vermont teams since I know nothing about them and my predictions would turn out entirely wrong.

Lexington A: We do neg wayyyy too much, as evidenced by our 7 negs in the finals of Connecticut Invitational against Darien, and we have a well-documented science weakness. Our PPB probably covers up the fact that we have struggled against top teams, shown recently at BHSAT against High Tech. Devin covered our subject breakdown pretty well, but I'll add that when playing with Arjun, we are probably about equal on NAQT and mACF formats, but are only going to HSNCT and NHBB this year. When Duncan plays with A team, he becomes essentially a NAQT specialist, so we're definitely stronger on that format with him. Devin loses a lot of his arts points on NAQT, but does pick some up from his deep Katy Perry knowledge. I think we can probably go 7-3 at HSNCT, but will give up a lot of science questions in the process and be competing with Chattahoochee for the neg crown. We'll likely do better at NHBB with our 4 strong history players.

AMSA A: AMSA is a very balanced team in terms of scoring, and recently became the only NE team to beat us in a round this year, thanks to 6 negs on our part. They are also probably a better NAQT team with their geo, though Tim is a very strong fine arts player. Being Advanced Math and Science Academy, they are very deep on science, as previously covered by noted fan of AMSA Devin Shang. I don't think they're going to SSNCT this year, but someone from AMSA please correct me if I'm wrong. I think they will be one of the stronger 6-4 teams at HSNCT this year.

Hingham A: They are a really strong History Bowl team, and gave us a run for our money at NHBB states, and did upset Bethlehem in the first game of an advantaged final at LIT. This is one of the deepest history teams in the area, and can play any team well. I don't think they're signed up for a national right now.

Acton-Boxborough: Acton-Boxborough has been right behind Hingham all year, and has had a higher PPB and more powers than Hingham of late, though Hingham has won head-to-head. Spencer is one of the most dedicated quizbowl people in Massachusetts and the addition of Josh, second only to Ani in science in the state has been huge for them. I'd say they're probably a 5-5 team right now, but rapidly improving and could go 6-4 with some good cards at HSNCT, for which they are signed up.

Darien A: Michael Borecki's teammates have gotten significantly better since the fall, and this team is definitely more well rounded than it was. They came pretty close to beating us at Connecticut Invitational due to our negs, and are definitely a better NAQT team with Borecki's geo knowledge. I'd say they're a borderline 5-5/6-4 team like Acton-Boxborough, that could make an upset of a stronger team with the right packet.

Northampton: This team is led by Saadya from the Massachusetts NASAT team last year, one of the only people in the state who can beat Devin Shang to a music question. I haven't seen them that much this year, since they're one of the few active quizbowl teams in western MA and have to go decently far for tournaments.

Phillips Exeter: Exeter kind of shocked some people at MIT Fall, upsetting AMSA and Kellenberg and coming in third. However, they haven't played another quizbowl tournament since then. They beat us on the final tossup of NHBB States, when we were playing without Duncan, and they are a team which I would definitely be worried about facing at NHBB, the only national for which they are signed up.

EO Smith: They return 3/4 of their 4-6 A team at nationals last year. I have not played them that much, but Harrison seems pretty good and was the 2nd prelim scorer at LIT, behind only Eric Wolfsberg.

Bishop Guertin: They are not currently signed up for nationals, but like Exeter, they are a New Hampshire team in their first season of good quizbowl. They qualified for NSC only at LIT by finishing fourth. Tim is one of the best players in New England. Bishop Guertin also gave us a scare at Connecticut Invitational due to another round of 7 negs from us.

Lexington B: Like Lexington A, they are going only to HSNCT and potentially NHBB, though they will be playing without Duncan at both. Without Duncan, they finished 3rd in second bracket behind St. Joe's and West Egg at BHSAT, and 4th overall at Connecticut Invitational, which is encouraging for nationals. Owen Davidson and Harvey Wang have been a very good 1-2 punch with little subject overlap. Their major weakness is fine arts, especially of the visual variety, which hopefully won't be as major of an issue at HSNCT.

EDIT: Forgot about EO Smith
Last edited by Maury Island incident on Sun Mar 08, 2015 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

So with the rankings I'll include some way too early nationals predictions for the teams attending HSNCT (nobody is signed up for PACE or SSNCT right now), and a teams best # powers per game on an IS set, plus their Morlan Ranking from February and best aPPB.

1. Lexington A (31*, 8.3 powers/game, 25.06 ppb): With the new Morlan Rankings, Lexington should move into the top 25. They are very good and consistently improving, and since alot was said about them above, I'll leave it at that. Prediction: Either 7-3 or 8-2, t-13 or t-21 at HSNCT.

2. AMSA (63, 7 powers/game, 22.02 ppb): A good, well-rounded team that probably just needs to improve its bonus conversion - they are better than 63rd nationally. Prediction: 6-4 or 7-3, t-33

3. Darien (162*, 6.3 powers, 21.78 ppb): Our Morlan rank should improve substantially after the Connecticut Invitational. We're strong in the humanities, but nowhere near as good as Lexington, and we are still trying to get some people to study science - we have a couple of potential science players right now, we'll see what happens. We still need to put in some work to do well against the likes of AMSA and other HSNCT playoff teams, but with 3 people studying, we're certainly able to improve. Prediction: 6-4, 0-1 or 1-1 in playoffs.

4. Acton-Boxborough (UR, 3.5 powers, 21.8 ppb): Josh needs to go to tournaments. No idea why they're unranked right now, but their power numbers are fairly poor when compared to their ppb. If Josh goes to HSNCT, they will do well. Prediction: 5-5 or 6-4, 0-1 in playoffs

5. Bishop Guertin (UR, 4.8 powers, 21.67 ppb): I'd rank them ahead of A-B if not for the absolute dud they put up in Vermont Friday. They powered 14 times in basically the same number of TUH as they had at CT INV, where they had 35 powers. Tim needs some support from his teammates. They're not currently signed up for any national.

6. Hingham (130, 4 powers, 19.61 ppb): Overrated. They're 5th in powers and 6th in ppb (I'm not counting Exeter for ppb). They're good, but they're not that good. Admittedly, I don't know much about them, but the stats suggest that they're not the third best team in the region. They're not currently signed up for any national.

7. E.O. Smith (113, 3 powers, 18.21 ppb): They were strong at the Scarsdale Invitational but have not played well on an IS set this year. We'll see what happens at CT states. Prediction: 5-5 at HSNCT

8. Lexington B (128, 3.7 powers, 18.36 ppb): They'll be even better when playing with Duncan. Prediction (with Duncan): 5-5 at HSNCT

9. Northampton (187, n/a, n/a). They have not played an IS set this year. Prediction: 4-6 at HSNCT

Unknown rank: Exeter: Needs to attend more tournaments. They should do well at NHBB nationals, though.
Last edited by High Dependency Unit on Sun Mar 08, 2015 3:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

I'd just like to point out that despite our new ranking as #17 or something I think our previous ranking of #31 is more accurate. AMSA is also better than their Fred ranking suggests.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

Mucho Macho Man wrote:So with the rankings I'll include some way too early nationals predictions for the teams attending HSNCT (nobody is signed up for PACE or SSNCT right now), and a teams best # powers per game on an IS set, plus their Morlan Ranking from February and best aPPB.

1. Lexington A (31*, 8.3 powers/game, 25.06 ppb): With the new Morlan Rankings, Lexington should move into the top 25. They are very good and consistently improving, and since alot was said about them above, I'll leave it at that. Prediction: Either 7-3 or 8-2, t-13 or t-21 at HSNCT.

2. AMSA (63, 7 powers/game, 22.02 ppb): A good, well-rounded team that probably just needs to improve its bonus conversion - they are better than 63rd nationally. Prediction: 6-4 or 7-3, t-33

3. Darien (162*, 6.3 powers, 21.78 ppb): Our Morlan rank should improve substantially after the Connecticut Invitational. We're strong in the humanities, but nowhere near as good as Lexington, and we are still trying to get some people to study science - we have a couple of potential science players right now, we'll see what happens. We still need to put in some work to do well against the likes of AMSA and other HSNCT playoff teams, but with 3 people studying, we're certainly able to improve. Prediction: 6-4, 0-1 or 1-1 in playoffs.

4. Acton-Boxborough (UR, 3.5 powers, 21.8 ppb): Josh needs to go to tournaments. No idea why they're unranked right now, but their power numbers are fairly poor when compared to their ppb. If Josh goes to HSNCT, they will do well. Prediction: 5-5 or 6-4, 0-1 in playoffs

5. Bishop Guertin (UR, 4.8 powers, 21.67 ppb): I'd rank them ahead of A-B if not for the absolute dud they put up in Vermont Friday. They powered 14 times in basically the same number of TUH as they had at CT INV, where they had 35 powers. Tim needs some support from his teammates. They're not currently signed up for any national.

6. Hingham (130, 4 powers, 19.61 ppb): Overrated. They're 5th in powers and 6th in ppb (I'm not counting Exeter for ppb). They're good, but they're not that good. Admittedly, I don't know much about them, but the stats suggest that they're not the third best team in the region. They're not currently signed up for any national.

7. E.O. Smith (113, 3 powers, 18.21 ppb): They were strong at the Scarsdale Invitational but have not played well on an IS set this year. We'll see what happens at CT states. Prediction: 5-5 at HSNCT

8. Lexington B (128, 3.7 powers, 18.36 ppb): They'll be even better when playing with Duncan. Prediction (with Duncan): 5-5 at HSNCT

9. Northampton (187, n/a, n/a). They have not played an IS set this year.

Unknown rank: Exeter: Needs to attend more tournaments. They should do well at NHBB nationals, though.
As I said upthread, Lexington B will not be playing with Duncan at HSNCT.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by High Dependency Unit »

quadrisecant wrote:
Mucho Macho Man wrote:So with the rankings I'll include some way too early nationals predictions for the teams attending HSNCT (nobody is signed up for PACE or SSNCT right now), and a teams best # powers per game on an IS set, plus their Morlan Ranking from February and best aPPB.

1. Lexington A (31*, 8.3 powers/game, 25.06 ppb): With the new Morlan Rankings, Lexington should move into the top 25. They are very good and consistently improving, and since alot was said about them above, I'll leave it at that. Prediction: Either 7-3 or 8-2, t-13 or t-21 at HSNCT.

2. AMSA (63, 7 powers/game, 22.02 ppb): A good, well-rounded team that probably just needs to improve its bonus conversion - they are better than 63rd nationally. Prediction: 6-4 or 7-3, t-33

3. Darien (162*, 6.3 powers, 21.78 ppb): Our Morlan rank should improve substantially after the Connecticut Invitational. We're strong in the humanities, but nowhere near as good as Lexington, and we are still trying to get some people to study science - we have a couple of potential science players right now, we'll see what happens. We still need to put in some work to do well against the likes of AMSA and other HSNCT playoff teams, but with 3 people studying, we're certainly able to improve. Prediction: 6-4, 0-1 or 1-1 in playoffs.

4. Acton-Boxborough (UR, 3.5 powers, 21.8 ppb): Josh needs to go to tournaments. No idea why they're unranked right now, but their power numbers are fairly poor when compared to their ppb. If Josh goes to HSNCT, they will do well. Prediction: 5-5 or 6-4, 0-1 in playoffs

5. Bishop Guertin (UR, 4.8 powers, 21.67 ppb): I'd rank them ahead of A-B if not for the absolute dud they put up in Vermont Friday. They powered 14 times in basically the same number of TUH as they had at CT INV, where they had 35 powers. Tim needs some support from his teammates. They're not currently signed up for any national.

6. Hingham (130, 4 powers, 19.61 ppb): Overrated. They're 5th in powers and 6th in ppb (I'm not counting Exeter for ppb). They're good, but they're not that good. Admittedly, I don't know much about them, but the stats suggest that they're not the third best team in the region. They're not currently signed up for any national.

7. E.O. Smith (113, 3 powers, 18.21 ppb): They were strong at the Scarsdale Invitational but have not played well on an IS set this year. We'll see what happens at CT states. Prediction: 5-5 at HSNCT

8. Lexington B (128, 3.7 powers, 18.36 ppb): They'll be even better when playing with Duncan. Prediction (with Duncan): 5-5 at HSNCT

9. Northampton (187, n/a, n/a). They have not played an IS set this year.

Unknown rank: Exeter: Needs to attend more tournaments. They should do well at NHBB nationals, though.
As I said upthread, Lexington B will not be playing with Duncan at HSNCT.
Then they'll probably go 4-6 at HSNCT
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

I'm pretty sure that the new Morlan rankings mark the first time ever that 10 MA/CT/NH teams are in the top 200! With all the other teams removed, here's how they look.

1. Lexington A
2. AMSA A
3. Bishop Guertin
4. Darien A
5. Acton-Boxborough
6. Phillips Exeter
7. EO Smith A
8. Glastonbury
9. Hingham A
10. Lexington B

Really impressive to see Glastonbury with that high of a PPB from their first tournament ever! Unfortunately, they didn't get that much of a chance to do damage against what I think was the deepest prelim bracket at CT Invitational, which featured Lexington A and Bishop Guertin.

Bishop Guertin also rises a lot, mostly from Connecticut Invitational, while Lexington B falls significantly as a function of not having played with Duncan since HFT.
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Re: New England 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

For clarification Glastonbury was under the pseudonym "Zora" at the aforementioned first tournament.
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