NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.

Which team will be the most dominant in the 2014-2015 season?

Poll ended at Sat Aug 30, 2014 7:38 pm

St. Joe's
0
No votes
High Tech
33
61%
Ridgewood
0
No votes
Mountain Lakes
1
2%
Kellenberg
0
No votes
Hunter
1
2%
Charter
11
20%
East Brunswick
0
No votes
Bergen
3
6%
North Babylon
0
No votes
Great Neck South
0
No votes
Ithaca
5
9%
 
Total votes: 54

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NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

The region saw many teams perform well this season! Other teams are on the rise. So here are my full predictions for next season!

St. Joe's: They lose Jack Mehr, but Greg Burton is a capable player who can rise up to lead the team. Also, with a solid coach like Mr. Powers, St. Joes can quickly recover. I think they will be a low level playoff team in the early season that will make strides towards being a solid team later on in the year.

High Tech: They will return what could become the most powerful two man core in the region in Rohan and Adithya. They also have Andrew Huang (who I think will be a junior next year) who is a very good player. Expect them to dominate many tournaments throughout the season.

Ridgewood: Esther is leaving, but Ben can carry the team to at least a low playoff level. With a whole summer ahead of them, Ridgewood could return with a team just as strong as this year's.

Mountain Lakes: They lose their top scorer in Michael, but being a young team with a lot of motivation to improve, Mountain Lakes could quickly find themselves competing for the top spot at tournaments.

Kellenberg: Throughout his last season Joe Levano has been very dominant including a few wins against us. He has also lost some matches to teams with lower stats such as West Egg at Prison Bowl. He could return stronger than ever next season or could return the same, but either way expect him to have a season full of success.

Hunter: With many young players quickly developing, Hunter may be able to quickly recover from the loss of Marianna. They should be able to pick off right where they left off at the end of this season in the region at least.

Charter: Losing Jaimie will definitely be difficult, but if this HSNCT campaign has proven anything it is that Varun is capable of carrying the team on his back. With the addition of the majority of a B team that went 7-3 with a weakness in history and geography, Varun should be able to fill those gaps and quickly recover from losing teammates Jaimie and Naman. Our biggest weakness next season may be negging as both Varun and I are high risk players with negging tendencies.

East Brunswick: Shravan has been solid this season. From what I have seen playing him, he is a very good history and current events player. He is also a very capable generalist. If he can add some teammates with some depth this team could become very scary very fast.

Bergen: Bergen was a pretty good team this season. Bergen loses Abhiram so they might take some time recovering.

North Babylon: They lose Max Servetas, but Emmanuel Nimarko has stepped up this season and taken a huge scoring load. His development in the following season will determine how this team fares.

Great Neck South: This is a fairly young team that saw lots of success at Prison Bowl and GSAC. If they continue improvement they could be good. They will at least be a low playoffs team and could develop into a mid-level playoff team with some work. My information on them is limited though and I haven't played them enough to know how legitimate they are.

Ithaca: Casey returns so expect them to place pretty highly at each tournament. They lose several seniors but have some freshmen who are working very hard to improve. They could come to be even stronger next year than they were this year.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Al Hirt »

Might as well post my own analysis.

St. Joe's: Surviving the loss off the best player in the region is never an easy task. But Greg is a good player with strong history/religion knowledge, and a lot of people (especially from EB) thought St. Joe's would struggle once Alex Frey left (we all know how that turned out). They might stumble a bit early, but should be able to recover quickly, especially with Coach Powers.

High Tech: Far and away the best team on paper for the upcoming year. Rohan and Adithya are terrific generalists on their own and can put up ridiculous numbers. Andrew Huang and Sharan are also good players in history/science who should be able to continue the reign of the Lincroft Lords. If anything, I would expect this team to do far better at NAQT than on housewrites with the general CE/geo knowledge of the team, anchored by Rohan. Once again, they should probably be mainstays in tournament championship games.

Ridgewood: Losing Esther puts a gaping hole in their lit/fine arts knowledge, though Ben should be able to pick up RMP. I think between Ben and the Thomi, they'll continue being a good team. If they can get some administrative support (I understand that was a problem this year), more players will hopefully be able to come out to tournaments.

Mountain Lakes: Michael Wang is a very good player with knowledge in science/social science whose loss will be missed. However, I think they return Mark and Ron, whose specialties I don't exactly know but have gotten quite a few powers when I've seen them. The size of the program and Mr. Ibendahl's coaching should make rebuilding relatively easy.

Kellenberg: I've only played Kellenberg once and that was last year at Livingston, but Joe and Mark (is he graduating?) keep putting up crazy numbers. Joe also has a negging problem (though not as bad as mine), but he's a talented player who will probably continue to improve. Some extra support might help, but we're talking about someone who won a tournament by himself, so Kellenberg can do well regardless.

Hunter: Marianna is gone, and I don't know much about this team in general. But Albert (who played on B team) seems like a motivated player, and Hunter C (made up of mostly MIDDLE SCHOOLERS) played extremely well when we saw them at Scarsdale. The sheer size and motivation of the program should allow them to come back for another solid year, with an eventual hope of getting back to their 2012 eminence.

Charter: Mohan has no excuse for not playing on A team anymore since Jaimie won't take his points. I expect A team to be Shrayus, Mohan, Varun, and Jared, giving them formidable knowledge in each subject. Like High Tech, they should be able to get to championship games quite often, but unlike High Tech, they'll probably stay as strong in housewrites as well thanks to Mohan and Shrayus. Varun's methods are....unorthodox, shall we say, but they get results, and he should continue to be a top notch Geography/History player. Jared could be the next Sean McBride in terms of science knowledge, and hopefully he'll be able to attend nationals next year. They should be dominant as well.

East Brunswick: I feel like my teammates are underrated, especially on bonuses, since I have a habit of saying some of the most inanely incorrect things. Our A team next year should be myself (a mainly Hist/Geo/Ce/Trash specialist), Anand (who's a decent Sci player and needs to buzz), Jason (a decent lit player who needs to show up to tournaments), and Amil (a decent potpourri player who needs to study). I'm confident that we can contend among the best teams if we all put in more effort and actually study, and we have more experience than the past EB teams. I don't think most of you need to be reminded, but my negging needs to be curtailed immediately (and I think it will as my teammates improve).

Bergen: Don't know much about them, but Abhiram seemed to be the heart of their team this year. David Song isn't a bad player either, and considering their pool of students and youth I wouldn't be surprised if they were able mount an impressive campaign this year.

North Babylon: Emmanuel is a good player, and they seem to have enough players to draw from. I've only seen them once, so I can't speak to their future, but they seem motivated enough to continue a successful season.

GNS: They return quite a few people, and if I recall correctly their B/C team have talented players as well. Like Ridgewood, they seem to have some administrative troubles, but if their good players and returners (Chris, Lucia, etc) can push for their team, they could have a good year as well

Ithaca: Never played them, but having met Mr. Blish, looking at stats and seeing Casey put thousands and thousands of points on protobowl, they seem like a motivated team that has strong balance in subject matter. I think they lose some science, but they should stay strong and improve.

Livingston: David Song and Chris Tseng were two excellent generalists, capable of putting up over 100 PPG playing separately, so they'll be hard to replace (as well as arts player Grace). Livingston B took us to the last tossup at States though, and I think they also have a good balance of subject knowledge. I don't know how they do it based on what I've heard from the players themselves, but they will continue to be a contender in the state (classy too).

Regis: It's hard not to give Chris Hillenbrand some credit here: after defeating his team by triple digits at Mountain Lakes, Chris almost single-handedly defeated us at GSAC, locking down science with incredible prowess. They might be a sleeper to look out for, especially if he can get some help in history/lit.

Pingry: No one mentions them much, but beating St. Joe's and finishing 8th in the state is quite the accomplishment. They're a good team with youth and depth, and with a little studying they could be regular top bracket contenders.

MAST: MAST B is a decent team, going 3-2 at states. Reuben is a very good player, but I don't know if he returns (does he?). With Reuben, they should improve; if he graduates they should suffer a drop off.

Millburn: Not sure exactly how they make their A/B teams, but they have enough decent players that they could stay a good team. I have little knowledge of graduation or anything else, so I can't really say much.

Horace Greeley: Loses Max, but if they come to more pyramidal tourneys, I'm sure they'll improve and have more success. They're a generally balanced team with potential.

There might be other teams I've missed, but these are the ones that caught my eye. Any other information would be great.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Al Hirt wrote: Charter: Mohan has no excuse for not playing on A team anymore since Jaimie won't take his points. I expect A team to be Shrayus, Mohan, Varun, and Jared, giving them formidable knowledge in each subject. Like High Tech, they should be able to get to championship games quite often, but unlike High Tech, they'll probably stay as strong in housewrites as well thanks to Mohan and Shrayus. Varun's methods are....unorthodox, shall we say, but they get results, and he should continue to be a top notch Geography/History player. Jared could be the next Sean McBride in terms of science knowledge, and hopefully he'll be able to attend nationals next year. They should be dominant as well.
Apparently, due to impending employment commitments Varun will most likely not be available on Saturdays next year. :mad: I still think our team will be strong as our current B team could play as the A team and still finish strongly at tournaments as we finished top 4 at several tournaments this year. Also adding Mabel D'Souza on to our team will provide for some serious FA/RMP depth.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Although I haven't been to many tournaments, I might as well post what I think is going to go down.
These are roughly in order of general rankings, but they're entirely interchangeable.

High Tech: Both High Tech teams have had terrific runs this season, and although they lose key scorers in Sean, Pat, Srishti, and Stephen, they will be able to recover, and well. Rohan and Adithya are excellent players, and some players from the B team (Sharan, Christiaan, Andrew) could certainly get a lot done over the summer. I expect High Tech to do very, very well.

Charter: Charter A suffers two major losses in Jaimie and Naman, and they (possibly?) return Varun and (definitely) Mabel, a sophomore who is very good at fine arts and RMP stuff. Aside from this, Charter B had an extremely strong season this year, finishing at the top of many major tournaments. Mohan and Shrayus playing as a two-man team ended up doing very well at a couple of tournaments. I'm sure with lots of studying and a decrease in negging, Charter could return and possibly dominate at High Tech's level.

Ridgewood: Although Esther leaving will leave a major dent in Ridgewood's A team for next year, I can see them recovering easily with Ben and the Thomases taking over the A team. They could get very good, depending on how hard they work over the summer. During the season, with experience sans Esther, they will do well.

East Brunswick: With Shravan returning, EB could be very, very good next year. Negging may be a problem, but it's something that they will have to work on. They will be starting next year without losing anyone, which gives them a huge advantage. I think that EB could end up being a very formidable force if Shravan's teammates also study up.

Hunter: Although Hunter will suffer from Marianna's graduation, they have many young players who will certainly rise to the occasion. Jonathan Lin, Sarah Hamerling, and Brent Morden are all juniors on this year's current A team who should be able to do very well sans Marianna, and Hunter's strong middle school program will certainly ensure many strong A teams in the years to come.

Ithaca: With myself (lit and some history and fine arts) and at least one other freshman going to ACE this summer, I can see us rapidly improving. Although all of our teammates are graduating, we have started studying together and will be a force to be reckoned with next year. I will have to work on powering more tossups, and with that, our bonus conversion should increase. At the beginning of the year, we probably won't be that great. However, I think we can end up doing about as well at nationals as our A team did this year, and since we're all going to be sophomores next year, we could get good enough to be a dominant quiz bowl force in years to come.
For next year, though, I don't know how we will fare against very good teams. Our science is going to be very shaky, and I will try my best to bear the brunt of lit and history, as well as RMP. Our most solid area will probably be fine arts.
(Scott Blish is trying to establish a pyramidal quiz bowl culture in upstate NY, which is dominated by MasterMinds (played on A-sets). There may be promise. However, Ithaca will not be able to attend many tournaments in the tri-state area due to the distance. We will try to squeeze at least two, whether it be with Ithaca or Erewhon.)

St. Joseph's: Although Jack leaving is a huge loss (as well as Justin Lin), Greg Burton and may be able to rise to the occasion if he works hard enough. Him and Dan Blackburn could lead a solid St. Joe's for next year if they step up a lot. We don't know how good they could be without being shadowed by Jack, but I'm sure they will be enough for St. Joe's to be a contending team by the start of next year, and they can only get better.

Regis/Gotham: Chris Hillenbrand is a strong generalist who has science locked down - if he continues to improve and gets support from his team, they could end up doing very well. His teammates didn't do awfully at HSNCT without him, and they show incentive to do well.

Kellenberg: Kellenberg will have to recover a bit from the loss of second scorer Mark, but Joe is getting very good. If his teammates study and Joe continues to improve, they may be able to do better next season than they did this season.

Bergen: BCA graduates Abhiram, but they have a strong program with a lot of potential. I can see them being stronger than they were this year, which was a bit shaky.

Mountain Lakes: Coming off of the loss of Michael will take some work. However, with Mark staying and a couple of freshmen showing incentive to get better, Mountain Lakes could improve and still break the top 200 next season.

North Babylon: I don't know how far Emmanuel can go alone, but if his teammates step up, they can cover what Max did and go on to do well.

Pingry: Pingry could bounce back from Neeraj's graduation well. It wouldn't take much for them to improve so they could crack the top 200 again, and possibly go even farther next season.

Horace Greeley: If Max stays and they go to more pyramidal tournaments, they could do pretty well next season.

MAST: I don't know if Reuben graduates; if he does, MAST is in trouble, and if he doesn't, they will be able to come back as a decent competitor.

Millburn: I don't know anything about this team.

I don't know who I'm forgetting. Most of these teams are going to look different from how they looked this year, but I'm sure that this will still be a competitive region.

edit grammar
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Al Hirt »

No idea why we have 1/9 of the replies New England does so if anyone else of any region wants to make an insight please do.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Ha.

I don't think there's that much to say. I'm going to have three other rising sophomores with me at the Kutztown ACE camp - are any other schools sending people?
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Schmidt Sting Pain Index »

Crazyflight wrote:Ha.

I don't think there's that much to say. I'm going to have three other rising sophomores with me at the Kutztown ACE camp - are any other schools sending people?
Some younger players from charter are attending. Looks as if we will have a promising B team again next year. Our A team roster will most likely be 4 out of Jared Saquing (who wasn't able to make it to nationals) and the 5 core returning members from from our nationals A and B teams (myself, Mabel Dsouza, Mohan, Shrayus, and Rohan Narayan). So the remaining two will lead our B team in addition to probably Alan Balu and Jeremy Sontchi, who both now have nationals experience.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by jonpin »

I'll be there as a coach. I brought it up with my team but I don't think any of them are going. Have you guys received any follow-up information after the original registration email?
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

I didn't get any other information, no. I don't know what else we'd need, though.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by jonpin »

Stuff like check-in time and location, what to bring for the dorm rooms, etc.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

jonpin wrote:Stuff like check-in time and location, what to bring for the dorm rooms, etc.
I'm pretty sure that's all on the website.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

So,

After PHSAT, Its safe to say that Bethlehem caught a few of you by surprise.....
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Yeah. Bethlehem is REALLY good. I hope we'll see them at more tournaments in this region!
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Bosa of York »

We hope to go to tournaments in this region also, though we will likely split our attentions between the New England and New Jersey circuits, due to them being about equally really far away.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

So, in other news, whoever voted in the poll was a bit off.

Although I think we can come to a general consensus that — barring any rapid improvement in the next couple of months — Bethlehem and Charter A will be the dominant northeastern powers, I feel like the rearrangement of teams under #1 could fluctuate. I think the set might make a difference as we move into QuBIT and UMD housewrite; there's more lit, slightly less science, considerably more fine arts, slightly more history, much less geography/current events, more RMP, less trash, and slightly more social science. This is from a comparison of the two distributions. I think the removal of the NAQT boost and the subsequent boosting of some other categories could make the difference in some rooms. Many of them were awfully close. However, it doesn't seem like many of the teams that made the playoffs at PHSAT will be attending QuBIT, and if it's true that most of Charter A & B will be absent, I don't really know how it will pan out. I expect the number one spot to be either EB or Hunter, but unpredictable seems to be the adjective of choice for our region in recent times.

It's also really late and I haven't slept in 24 hours, so this might not make any sense.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

I wouldn't say we're anywhere close to being a dominant northeastern power...Bethlehem certainly is, and I think High Tech would be the other. It is definitely true some of our members improved over the summer, but most it seems got worse, so this will quite certainly be an interesting season for us.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Al Hirt »

Crazyflight wrote:So, in other news, whoever voted in the poll was a bit off.

Although I think we can come to a general consensus that — barring any rapid improvement in the next couple of months — Bethlehem and Charter A will be the dominant northeastern powers, I feel like the rearrangement of teams under #1 could fluctuate. I think the set might make a difference as we move into QuBIT and UMD housewrite; there's more lit, slightly less science, considerably more fine arts, slightly more history, much less geography/current events, more RMP, less trash, and slightly more social science. This is from a comparison of the two distributions. I think the removal of the NAQT boost and the subsequent boosting of some other categories could make the difference in some rooms. Many of them were awfully close. However, it doesn't seem like many of the teams that made the playoffs at PHSAT will be attending QuBIT, and if it's true that most of Charter A & B will be absent, I don't really know how it will pan out. I expect the number one spot to be either EB or Hunter, but unpredictable seems to be the adjective of choice for our region in recent times.

It's also really late and I haven't slept in 24 hours, so this might not make any sense.
There's usually a little less history in housewrites, from what I've seen. We get a tremendous boost from CE/Geo/Trash/Other NAQT Specialties, so I'd be surprised if we can keep up this level of play at QuBit. Fine Arts and Lit by far are our two worst categories, so we'll see what happens. Negging is still an issue, but I'm hoping I can find some innovative method to control it this year.

Inconsistency seems to affect almost every team. Charter A beat us 505-190 (or something similar), and then we pull off a win on the last question. We lose to Manheim and Livingston, but beat High Tech A. Livingston once again will be a great team (these guys just don't go away), and Manheim, especially with Ahan and Jake, could be a force to reckon with.

I'd argue High Tech and Bethlehem are the two best teams in the region, followed by Ridgewood, Charter, Livingston, EB, BCA, and Manheim in no specific order.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Al Hirt wrote:
Crazyflight wrote:So, in other news, whoever voted in the poll was a bit off.

Although I think we can come to a general consensus that — barring any rapid improvement in the next couple of months — Bethlehem and Charter A will be the dominant northeastern powers, I feel like the rearrangement of teams under #1 could fluctuate. I think the set might make a difference as we move into QuBIT and UMD housewrite; there's more lit, slightly less science, considerably more fine arts, slightly more history, much less geography/current events, more RMP, less trash, and slightly more social science. This is from a comparison of the two distributions. I think the removal of the NAQT boost and the subsequent boosting of some other categories could make the difference in some rooms. Many of them were awfully close. However, it doesn't seem like many of the teams that made the playoffs at PHSAT will be attending QuBIT, and if it's true that most of Charter A & B will be absent, I don't really know how it will pan out. I expect the number one spot to be either EB or Hunter, but unpredictable seems to be the adjective of choice for our region in recent times.

It's also really late and I haven't slept in 24 hours, so this might not make any sense.
There's usually a little less history in housewrites, from what I've seen. We get a tremendous boost from CE/Geo/Trash/Other NAQT Specialties, so I'd be surprised if we can keep up this level of play at QuBit. Fine Arts and Lit by far are our two worst categories, so we'll see what happens. Negging is still an issue, but I'm hoping I can find some innovative method to control it this year.

Inconsistency seems to affect almost every team. Charter A beat us 505-190 (or something similar), and then we pull off a win on the last question. We lose to Manheim and Livingston, but beat High Tech A. Livingston once again will be a great team (these guys just don't go away), and Manheim, especially with Ahan and Jake, could be a force to reckon with.

I'd argue High Tech and Bethlehem are the two best teams in the region, followed by Ridgewood, Charter, Livingston, EB, BCA, and Manheim in no specific order.
It's interesting that, looking at the NAQT distribution side-by-side with the housewrite distribution, that NAQT has a history distribution of about 3.9/3.75 history in the template. Some of the history might manifest itself in the huge amount of CE and miscellaneous stuff, but I don't know. The opposite is the case in Ithaca, with fine arts and lit being two of our best categories and the NAQT boost doing us no favors. We'll see what happens. In any case, our bonus conversion wasn't anything close to what I had hoped it would be, but it does give us a basis of where we need to improve so we can progress this year and next year (and the next year).

I definitely agree with that. I guess I put Charter above High Tech because I thought that they'd probably be doing better playing with Varun, but I don't know. They might be interchangeable, or High Tech might be better. At this point, with only one tournament having been played, it's hard to tell. I'd tend to agree with those general rankings as well. Emmaus also had a good showing; Ryan certainly held his own in the playoffs. We'll also be seeing Alex Schmidt for a while. Manheim also did unexpectedly well, at least to me, and they were without a lot of their teammates from last year. I do think the drop in ppb from last year is interesting.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by dollmi »

Crazyflight wrote:Manheim also did unexpectedly well, at least to me, and they were without a lot of their teammates from last year.
Since we've been mentioned, I should clarify that the Manheim Township on Saturday was not our true A team. It contains some members of it, but Saturday was our Homecoming. I brought the 5 students (out of 21) that signed up. This was one of those rare occasions where I only brought one team, but I would rather give all players as much practice competing as possible. Township A will compete together at a Saturday tournament for the first time at Carnegie Mellon on November 1st.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

dollmi wrote:
Crazyflight wrote:Manheim also did unexpectedly well, at least to me, and they were without a lot of their teammates from last year.
Since we've been mentioned, I should clarify that the Manheim Township on Saturday was not our true A team. It contains some members of it, but Saturday was our Homecoming. I brought the 5 students (out of 21) that signed up. This was one of those rare occasions where I only brought one team, but I would rather give all players as much practice competing as possible. Township A will compete together at a Saturday tournament for the first time at Carnegie Mellon on November 1st.
If you don't mind my asking, who is their A team if everyone from the club is considered? I'm going to assume Shayar, Jake, Ahan, Hans, Aaron? Something like that? I look forward to seeing them play at their full strength if we ever do cross paths again. I'm sure we will at History Bowl.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by jonpin »

Crazyflight wrote:
Al Hirt wrote:I'd argue High Tech and Bethlehem are the two best teams in the region, followed by Ridgewood, Charter, Livingston, EB, BCA, and Manheim in no specific order.
I definitely agree with that. I guess I put Charter above High Tech because I thought that they'd probably be doing better playing with Varun, but I don't know. They might be interchangeable, or High Tech might be better. At this point, with only one tournament having been played, it's hard to tell. I'd tend to agree with those general rankings as well. Emmaus also had a good showing; Ryan certainly held his own in the playoffs. We'll also be seeing Alex Schmidt for a while. Manheim also did unexpectedly well, at least to me, and they were without a lot of their teammates from last year. I do think the drop in ppb from last year is interesting.
Yeah, I thought it was very strange that Varun was on the D team. Was this a failed attempt to get multiple qualifications to nationals? Even in that event, I don't think they could've expected to get four teams to qualify.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Since so many people are questioning our reasoning for this let me break it down fully. I have given multiple reasons to many different people, most of which are true, some of which are excuses. Here's is what went into this decision in order:

1) Varun could not commit until the night before and didn't want to displace anyone on A team who has already committed.
2) We wanted to run Rohan and Jared off to see who the better science player was since Rohan drastically improved at science over the summer.
3) We believed we may have been able to get 2 teams qualified for nationals even though we knew this was a bit of a longshot.
4) It has yet to be determined whether 2 players with negging tendencies like Varun and I can play side-by-side without harming the team.
5) Varun didn't want to mess with the delicate balance of subject distribution on the B team from last year (which was the lineup of the A team at PHSAT) without additional practice time to work things out.

With a little less than two months ahead of us to work things out before out next tournament, I think our "legitimate" Charter A lineup will be in attendance at either HFT or LIFT or both.

I hope this answers all questions about our decision. If you have any criticisms feel free to voice them.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

Does your legitimate Charter A lineup include Varun or not?
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Schmidt Sting Pain Index »

quadrisecant wrote:Does your legitimate Charter A lineup include Varun or not?
yes, lol
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Chef Curry »

Crazyflight wrote:
dollmi wrote:
Crazyflight wrote:Manheim also did unexpectedly well, at least to me, and they were without a lot of their teammates from last year.
Since we've been mentioned, I should clarify that the Manheim Township on Saturday was not our true A team. It contains some members of it, but Saturday was our Homecoming. I brought the 5 students (out of 21) that signed up. This was one of those rare occasions where I only brought one team, but I would rather give all players as much practice competing as possible. Township A will compete together at a Saturday tournament for the first time at Carnegie Mellon on November 1st.
If you don't mind my asking, who is their A team if everyone from the club is considered? I'm going to assume Shayar, Jake, Ahan, Hans, Aaron? Something like that? I look forward to seeing them play at their full strength if we ever do cross paths again. I'm sure we will at History Bowl.
I am not sure of the A team composition, but I can tell you right now that Hans is not on the team this year. Something that we definitely need to work on is ppb, it is considerably low, and it is something that is costing us a lot of points and it's making the difference between winning and losing in some matches. We hope to work at it, and I look forward to seeing Ithaca and all of these other teams at future tournaments.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Dirty Water »

Al Hirt wrote: I'd argue High Tech and Bethlehem are the two best teams in the region, followed by Ridgewood, Charter, Livingston, EB, BCA, and Manheim in no specific order.
From the results at QuBIT, I would say that Hunter and St. Joe's should definitely be added on to that list.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Al Hirt »

The low roof'd Tortoises do dwell wrote:
Al Hirt wrote: I'd argue High Tech and Bethlehem are the two best teams in the region, followed by Ridgewood, Charter, Livingston, EB, BCA, and Manheim in no specific order.
From the results at QuBIT, I would say that Hunter and St. Joe's should definitely be added on to that list.
Sounds about right. St. Joe's was especially impressive considering they were playing on regular + and put up among the top PPB's in the tourney.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Yeah, I agree with that as well. Ithaca and Mountain Lakes, and Pingry to some degree, seemed to hold their own against many of the teams on that list at QuBIT, though, and they might deserve mention as well.
I don't know what happened with Livingston, but based on their performance at PHSAT, I was surprised that they didn't make playoffs. In all fairness, that prelim bracket was pretty loaded, but I did expect Livingston to come out on top.
Kudos to Bergen for doing so well. There were a lot of close matches at QuBIT, but it was really fun and I enjoyed myself.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Dead Parrot »

Crazyflight wrote:I don't know what happened with Livingston, but based on their performance at PHSAT, I was surprised that they didn't make playoffs. In all fairness, that prelim bracket was pretty loaded, but I did expect Livingston to come out on top.
They were missing two members of their A-team (Geoff and Nathan).
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Dead Parrot wrote:
Crazyflight wrote:I don't know what happened with Livingston, but based on their performance at PHSAT, I was surprised that they didn't make playoffs. In all fairness, that prelim bracket was pretty loaded, but I did expect Livingston to come out on top.
They were missing two members of their A-team (Geoff and Nathan).
Ah. That explains a lot.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Given that LIFT is coming up and not much has gone on in this sub-forum, I’ll post my thoughts on the region so far and rank the teams the way I think they currently stand with a housewrite ranking and an NAQT ranking. I’ll be doing the teams in the Morlan top 100 and perhaps some of his notable exclusions. So, let’s begin:

High Tech A (12): Rohan and Adithya form a power duo and have only continued to improve. The gaps in this teams knowledge appear to be filling quickly with Julian becoming a great player in his own right.

Bethlehem Central A (18): Eric Wolfsberg is crazy good. I have yet to observe him play, but at this point he is easily the best player in the region, and even playing by himself could possibly be the best team. His support seems to still be able to pick up points even with his amazing stat lines. If you find yourself in a bracket with Bethlehem, you should be worried.

East Brunswick A (37): East Brunswick had a great run at QuBit and it seems like Shravan may have gotten better at playing housewrites. East Brunswick is already a very good team on NAQT questions and thus should place very well in the upcoming LIFT.

Wilmington Charter A (48): We’ve had a disappointing season so far, but it seems that slowly Varun, Shrayus, and I can work out the kinks and be able to start working well together as a team. Depending on which science player we have at a tourney (Rohan or Jared) certain gaps may or may not exist. We’ll definitely be performing better on housewrites than on NAQT questions.

Millburn A (67): Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe Millburn has played this season. Not really much to go off of for them, but based on the ppb on hsqbrank they appear to be a pretty good team.

Great Neck South A (69): Its seems like this season GNS will make it back into the upper ranks of Greater NJ quiz bowl, that is if they can keep up their improvement rate. Their stats from Yale look good and the key improvement of several team members and the emergence of top scorer Lucia appear to have given them a solid boost. It remains to be seen how well their A set stats translate to IS set.

Hunter A (73): Having played Hunter at Harvard Fall Tournament, I can say that they are a very solid team and will give any other top team in this region a good fight.

Bergen A (74): Bergen is on track to have a very successful quiz bowl season. With a 5th place finish at Princeton and winning QuBit, this team could be a contender for top team in the region when it utilizes its full A team lineup.

Ridgewood A (76): Ridgewood is an excellent team, and in my opinion they are quite under-ranked on hsqbrank. Ben has returned even stronger which will help Ridgewood make many deep playoff runs.

Ithaca (95): Casey has found a strong teammate in Daniel Xu which will help to relieve a lot of the scoring load. This team has had mixed results so far with a great showing at Harvard Fall Tournament this past weekend, even defeating Dorman by a large margin.

St. Joseph A (96): Post-Jack Mehr St. Joes consists of mostly Greg doing the scoring, but he has some teammates who contribute a little bit. This team is nowhere near the level of St. Joes the past season, but they will still be a playoff team and contender.

Livingston A (unranked): Livingston A has shown great promise so far with a great finish at Princeton. Though their stats are low, we must remember stats don’t win games. This year’s Livingston squad may even find a way to exceed last year’s.

Emmaus (unranked): Ryan Bilger is the core of this team which has the ability to contend with any other team in the region. They still have a long way to go before they become more well-rounded and proper contenders.

Mountain Lakes A (unranked): Even though they lost their top scorer from the last season, Mountain Lakes still remains a playoff-level team behind new top scorer Ron Mucci. This team still appears to have a lot of room to improve.

Kellenberg A (unranked): Joe Levano hasn’t impressed yet this season, but I’m sure he will have lots of time to improve in the latter part of senior year. Hopefully higher finishes will follow.

Housewrite Rankings:
1. Bethlehem
2. High Tech
3. Bergen
4. Wilmington Charter
5. Ridgewood
6. Hunter
7. East Brunswick
8. Ithaca
9. Livingston
10. Great Neck South
11. St. Joseph
12. Emmaus
13. Mountain Lakes
14. Kellenberg

NAQT Rankings:
1. Bethlehem
2. High Tech
3. East Brunswick
4. Ridgewood
5. Livingston
6. Great Neck South
7. Wilmington Charter
8. Hunter
9. Bergen
10. Emmaus
11. Kellenberg
12. Ithaca
13. St. Joseph
14. Mountain Lakes

These are just my thoughts (yes I had quite a bit of spare time today haha). I’d love to hear what others think. Also, if there is any factual error here please let me know. Feel free to criticize or comment as much as you want!

NOTE: I didn't rank Millburn because of a lack of stats.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Al Hirt »

There was some consensus last year that High Tech was the best team in the region, followed by Charter and then SJHS.

There can be no such consensus this year.

Bethlehem looks to be the best team so far, I'm interested to see how much they improve in the coming future. They're certainly a force to be reckoned with. The more tourneys the play in our area, it'll be easier to analyze them.

HT is....well HT. No one scales up on difficulty better than Rohan. Some teams might be able to pull a quick one over them, but it's not that likely.

The best team in the state of NJ is probably HT, and from then on it gets murky. There's quite a few teams hanging in there, and anyone from Ridgewood, SJHS, EB, Livingston, Bergen, even Pingry can make a run depending on the packet. More time will be needed to make a better distinction here.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Halved Xenon Stinging »

I would disagree when u say Bethlehem is the best team so far. CSW looked very vry impressive at HFT, though unfortunately, they did not play Bethlehem. In my opinion CSW could be around top 8 in the country with the addition of their captain Varun
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Has Ridgewood played a housewrite this year?
I think these rankings are great and accurate for the most part. The Morlan rankings did change today, shifting around some of the teams.
The next tournament that Ithaca will probably be attending is GSAC at St. Joe's, if anyone cares. Judging from the field, this will be another major tournament for the area with a lot of power teams in attendance. Most significant in my perspective is that it's a housewrite, which will definitely boost the results from Ithaca and likely other teams. I'm also excited to see Gotham and Manheim play at full strength.

I might edit this post with blurbs about each team later if I have time.
For now I can say that Daniel is definitely becoming an excellent player, covering most science, fine arts, and myth for the team. Andrey is an excellent history player and James is becoming very good at bio and deep specialty topics. We haven't really been doing much studying for quiz bowl for a number of different reasons (I mainly speak for myself on this front), and I'm not sure what that will mean for us later. I expect us to stay better at housewrites that IS-sets, mainly because I'd vouch for Daniel being one of the best fine arts players in the region right now (and possibly the best one) as well as our gap in things that NAQT focuses on. I'm fairly excited to see how Harvard stats play into this, because that was our best performance yet.

Devin: Charter played with Varun at HFT, and Bethlehem got screwed over by the SOCHS incident in their game against State College, which I think they could have definitely won if they weren't treated as empty chairs for a number of tossups. On a housewrite, it might be more up in the air, but I'd be willing to say that on your average set, Bethlehem would win most of the time. I slightly question putting Bethlehem at the top in housewrites.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by czheng0708 »

MoeMoney wrote:Given that LIFT is coming up and not much has gone on in this sub-forum, I’ll post my thoughts on the region so far and rank the teams the way I think they currently stand with a housewrite ranking and an NAQT ranking. I’ll be doing the teams in the Morlan top 100 and perhaps some of his notable exclusions. So, let’s begin:

Wilmington Charter A (48): We’ve had a disappointing season so far, but it seems that slowly Varun, Shrayus, and I can work out the kinks and be able to start working well together as a team. Depending on which science player we have at a tourney (Rohan or Jared) certain gaps may or may not exist. We’ll definitely be performing better on housewrites than on NAQT questions.

Great Neck South A (69): Its seems like this season GNS will make it back into the upper ranks of Greater NJ quiz bowl, that is if they can keep up their improvement rate. Their stats from Yale look good and the key improvement of several team members and the emergence of top scorer Lucia appear to have given them a solid boost. It remains to be seen how well their A set stats translate to IS set.
Somewhat in accordance with Devin, I think CSW is a phenomenal team (as are many other teams in this circuit). GNS wasn't at HFT and PHSAT this year; so, we haven't gone head-to-head against any of the teams that you've [Mohan] mentioned and I don't have a lot of first-hand experience of how good the teams in NY/NJ are. Since LIFT will be our first "regional" tournament against most of these teams, this conversation will probably get much more interesting during the weekend.

It's absolutely amazing Fred Morlan dedicates so much time to produce these rankings. And, while I see some value to it, I'm not going to buy into it too much, yet. Perhaps I'm the only one thinking this, but I think games become much more fun if you forget about the opposing team's rank and their reputation and just play a competitive and good game of Quiz Bowl. Anyone else?

As for your analysis of the region, I think you're [Mohan] are being a little hard on yourself and your team. A second place finish at HFT (yeah, I recognize that there were some issues that may have prevented certain matchups from happening) is pretty damn impressive. I'll wait until stats are released before I make conclusions, but it appears as if you guys filled the holes that Jaimie and Naman left behind. I'm curious to see how your "high risk players with negging tendencies" have positively or negatively impacted matches. Comparing PHSAT and HFT makes me wonder which CSW A will show up on Saturday? I'm curious to see what the addition of Varun will do for CSW A at LIFT! As for GNS, Lucia has definitely emerged as our top scorer and we're not quite sure what we can do as a team on an IS-set or a housewrite. As a result, I (and my teammates) am being cautious about putting us in the talks with the other teams in the Morlan's top 100. But, like you said, at the rate we're improving, we'll get there soon enough. I'm afraid to say anything else about the other teams in the region until after LIFT. With that, any predictions for LIFT? It should be an exciting and phenomenal tournament!! :smile:
MoeMoney wrote: Housewrite Rankings:
1. Bethlehem
2. High Tech
3. Bergen
4. Wilmington Charter
5. Ridgewood
6. Hunter
7. East Brunswick
8. Ithaca
9. Livingston
10. Great Neck South

NAQT Rankings:
1. Bethlehem
2. High Tech
3. East Brunswick
4. Ridgewood
5. Livingston
6. Great Neck South
7. Wilmington Charter
8. Hunter
9. Bergen
10. Emmaus
I think these rankings are interesting! I, for one, think that GNS is better on a housewrite than on NAQT. (Our first housewrite will be at Columbia in December). How did you come up with these? Do you think that the current events, geography, etc. in NAQT sets will make that big of a difference? Several teams have quite a difference in ranking between your Housewrite and NAQT rankings. And also, CSW should not be ranked that low for your NAQT rankings.

Anyway, thank you Mohan for taking your time to post a pre-LIFT analysis!
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Chef Curry »

Crazyflight wrote:I'm also excited to see Gotham and Manheim play at full strength.
I am also excited for what is going to be a fun tournament at GSAC. We hope to play some great teams and try to improve the best we can in the process.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Ahhh I forgot to rank Manheim, who by the way are really good as well this year. They gave High Tech quite a good run at PHSAT. I expect great things from a pairing of Ahan and Jake.

Chris, I pretty much came up with the rankings based on where I felt each team ranked based on the (limited) information I had. So yeah, they're probably not the best rankings or the most accurate, but I think they're good for spurring on discussion. As for the NAQT ranking I gave to my team, this is because even though Varun is a strong geography player, we (mostly me) tend to neg a lot, especially on questions that seem easier (like NAQT) which can hurt our finishes a lot. Perhaps we'll be able to finish higher than I expect, but this can only happen if we begin to work more as a team than we did last weekend.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

After LIFT I only have one comment to make. GNS is REALLY good. Watch out for more impressive finishes from them throughout the season.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

MoeMoney wrote:After LIFT I only have one comment to make. GNS is REALLY good. Watch out for more impressive finishes from them throughout the season.
Are there going to be stats for LIFT?

Looking at the field for GSAC, I'd be surprised if there were a more stacked tournament so far. All of the A teams look nationally competitive, and some of the B teams are no easy win either. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it ends up.

Edit from mod: User was reminded not to instantly ask for stats. - JP
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by czheng0708 »

Crazyflight wrote: Are there going to be stats for LIFT?
Stats are out.
http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... /combined/
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Dirty Water »

MoeMoney wrote: NAQT Rankings:
7. Wilmington Charter
LIFT XIV wrote: NAQT IS #140
Charter A
PPG 470.4
PPB 23.47
Yeah, no, you're good. Very good.
Does anyone know if the Millburn squad that played on Saturday is the full Millburn team?
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

There's no question that Charter, Bethlehem, and High Tech are going to be the top teams in the region, probably on both housewrites and IS-sets.
GNS did really well at LIFT, which should bode well for future tournaments. One team I hadn't heard of before was Kings Park, and they did very well, beating EB and never losing by 100 points except to Charter A. Although their ppb wasn't stellar, it could be enough for them to crack the rankings, and they could do pretty well if they had more experience. From what I could see, the last tournament they attended was last year's LIFT.

Another thing that I'd like to add is that St. Joseph's is also doing one hell of a job without Jack anymore. Greg has taken the role of top scorer and he's doing a great job. His power to neg ratio is incredible, and it seems like he's only improving from here.

However, at LIFT, it was clear that Charter was the completely dominant team overall, and I would really like to see how a matchup between them and Bethlehem or (full) High Tech A would go.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Mark Wolfsberg »

Crazyflight wrote: However, at LIFT, it was clear that Charter was the completely dominant team overall, and I would really like to see how a matchup between them and Bethlehem or (full) High Tech A would go.
Yes and it would be nice to field a full strenght Bethlehem team With Will, Ben, Eric, and probably Dan.
Last time that happened was a PHSAT. Will has been Involved in a Shakespeare production & Ben's availability is somewhat limited....
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Okay, here is a based analysis of teams in the Northeast, courtesy of me. They're sort of in order of how well I think they'd do in tournaments in general, but the order is interchangeable for the most part in general sort of

State College: I'm going to use this opportunity to quote His Most Honorable Fred Morlan: "Who knows, whatever. Toucan Sam! Goku! Billy Pilgrim! Cultural references!"

High Tech: They're really good. They've played PHSAT and some college tournaments. I think they'd probably beat any other team in the region most of the time. The combination of Rohan and Adithya is stunning. Yes.

Charter: This team seems to be led by Varun, although Mohan plays a prominent part in racking up the team's points - and negs. But that's okay because they get the job done, almost sweeping LIFT (Varun averaged 4 powers per game, Mohan averaged less than one neg per game) and doing well in every tournament they've attended so far. Also is Delaware even a state

Bethlehem Central: Eric Wolfsberg. Okay, honestly, there seemed to be a lot of hype around their PHSAT (sigh) performance, and while they continued to do really well in tournaments, the disparity in ppb and other stats was much less prominent between them and the other teams. Unless they're continuing to study and improve - which is considerably difficult for a mostly-one man team to do - they could be outplayed by some of the majorly competitive teams that exist. They have yet to play against Charter A, for example. We'll see.

Ridgewood: They were good at Princeton? I have no idea what was going on at Princeton. We'll see at GSAC. I expect them to place really well, but I don't know what to expect.

East Brunswick: Shravan is good and his teammates seemed to have actually picked up the buzzers, which is great. They're continually doing pretty well but not super stellar, and there's still a bit of a neg problem. No feist though. They're still good.

West Egg/GNS: Okay, LIFT was sort of a breakout performance and they did hella, especially Lucia. There's room for improvement, but hot damn.

St. Joe's: Greg Burton is doing really well. Not as well as Jack, but those are big shoes to fill. I think they'll continue to do well but they won't completely kill it unless Greg either significantly improves or gets significantly more team support.

Manheim Township: They've gotten good, and I think they could do really well in the playoffs of GSAC. I wish they'd play more tournaments in the area, and bring their full A team. Judging from their performances when the full squad was together, I'd say they're a team to look out for.

Livingston: These guys did really well at Princeton (what even was PHSAT), but have otherwise seemed to underwhelm, like at LIFT. Whether that is the result of them not having their full A team or just PHSAT weirdness, I don't know. I think they'll do well with their full A team when they bring them.

Ithaca: Aye, Ithaca. This group of sophomores has held their own in my opinion, and it seems like their performances have been going up since Princeton (like, did Bee Movie actually happen? I feel the same way about PHSAT tbh) and they did pretty well at HFT, even beating South Carolina powerhouse Dorman A by a large margin. Top scorer Casey Wetherbee notably got 2 powers throughout that whole tournament, so if he doesn't step it up, Ithaca may see a plateau. Second scorer Daniel Xu has taken initiative, though, and their performance on housewrites has been significantly bolstered by his ability to power most fine arts tossups. We'll see.

Lexington: Maybe they should play less A-sets. Morlan severely over-hyped this squad on the rankings, if their performance at HFT against better teams actually means anything, which it does in my opinion. They're still a solid, well-balanced team though. We'll see what happen if they actually play tournaments down here.

Bergen: QuBIT was also kind of weird in my opinion, but Bergen did really well. They're a solid team, but I think they'll face the same problem as Ithaca in the future against the top teams. David Song is a pretty good player, but he also does a lot of math things. Hopefully it doesn't compromise their performance.

Pingry: I know so little about these guys it's ridiculous. They do well but not overwhelmingly well and I don't know.

Hunter: Hunter is another solid team that is doing very well but could be doing much better. I'm not even sure what the composition of their A team is, but in any case, Morlan was right about them being replaced as the top NY team. No shade intended.

Kellenberg: Joe Levano has made himself known as a really good solo player. I think it was unfortunate bracketing at HFT that placed them in consolation instead of, say, Hunter B, but in any case, they aren't quite at the level of the other top tier teams. I think additional team support might help.

Emmaus: I'm excited to see if Ryan Bilger will deliver at GSAC. He shows promise, and is a great player. I don't think he'll do that well against the top tier teams unless he has significantly improved.

Mountain Lakes: Even with Ron, they haven't really been having stunning performances. I don't know if they'll be able to equate to what they were last year.

There are a bunch of teams like Millburn and MAST and North Babylon and Charter B and Livingston B and AMSA and etc. but I don't want to wear this thin.

This region is hella exciting and fun and tournaments are always a thrill.

I might as well include my quantified GSAC predictions here.
Top ten:
  • 1) High Tech A
    2) Charter A
    3) Deep Green A
    4) Ridgewood A
    5) GNS A
    6) Manheim Township A
    7) Livingston A
    8) Ithaca A
    9) Bergen A
    10) Hunter A
Actually I have no idea. Whatever.

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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Northern Central Railway »

Crazyflight wrote:
Mountain Lakes: Even with Ron, they haven't really been having stunning performances. I don't know if they'll be able to equate to what they were last year.
Mountain Lakes has yet to have it's #1 and #2 players togther at a tournament this year, due to Columbia's Science Honors Program as well as the school play. There's a decent chance we'll have the A-team together for a few rounds at Columbia's BISB mirror and and St. Joseph's GSAC mirror. If the A-team doesn't play a tournament together in December, with the way things are scheduled they probably won't play together until April or so.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Maury Island incident »

We (Lexington) played by far our worst tournament of the year at HFT, adjusted PPB-wise, like 2 points from where we normally are. I don't think that had anything to do with the caliber of competition we were facing, but rather with other factors like fatigue and negs. We are pretty inconsistent, though, with a tendency to neg a lot. This can lead to some horrific rounds like against Hunter B and Charter A at HFT. I think we are a better bonus team than tossup team, which might lead to some overhyping in the Morlan rankings, and are probably better on NAQT. Our PPB on IS-140, the same set played at LIFT, was 23.58, better than any team at LIFT's. About the A sets, it's not our fault that there were no non-A set tournaments in New England before November 1st. Hopefully, we'll see most NY/NJ teams at BHSAT and have a better showing there than at HFT. We might go to one tournament or so in the region before the end of the year.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by The Polebarn Hotel »

Northern Central Railway wrote:
Crazyflight wrote:
Mountain Lakes: Even with Ron, they haven't really been having stunning performances. I don't know if they'll be able to equate to what they were last year.
Mountain Lakes has yet to have it's #1 and #2 players togther at a tournament this year, due to Columbia's Science Honors Program as well as the school play. There's a decent chance we'll have the A-team together for a few rounds at Columbia's BISB mirror and and St. Joseph's GSAC mirror. If the A-team doesn't play a tournament together in December, with the way things are scheduled they probably won't play together until April or so.
Oh, okay. Will they play together at nationals?
quadrisecant wrote:We (Lexington) played by far our worst tournament of the year at HFT, adjusted PPB-wise, like 2 points from where we normally are. I don't think that had anything to do with the caliber of competition we were facing, but rather with other factors like fatigue and negs. We are pretty inconsistent, though, with a tendency to neg a lot. This can lead to some horrific rounds like against Hunter B and Charter A at HFT. I think we are a better bonus team than tossup team, which might lead to some overhyping in the Morlan rankings, and are probably better on NAQT. Our PPB on IS-140, the same set played at LIFT, was 23.58, better than any team at LIFT's. About the A sets, it's not our fault that there were no non-A set tournaments in New England before November 1st. Hopefully, we'll see most NY/NJ teams at BHSAT and have a better showing there than at HFT. We might go to one tournament or so in the region before the end of the year.
Cool.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Northern Central Railway »

Crazyflight wrote:


Oh, okay. Will they play together at nationals?
Yes - Science Honors Program ends on May 9 and there aren't any school theater productions going on then.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Bosa of York »

Crazyflight wrote: Bethlehem Central: Eric Wolfsberg
I would disagree with this assessment. While I clearly do get the tossups of anyone on my team by a large margin, both Ben and Will do get significant numbers of points also- they have averaged 25 and 30 PPG respectively, hardly buzzer rocks- and are of much use on bonuses, as is shown by my getting 20.13 PPB at Brainbusters Fall, a tournament at which my help was more or less minimal, but 21.81 -more than a point and a half higher even disregarding the increased difficulty- at HFT, where I had Ben, but not Will. Both of those people complement my strengths quite well, and our team is benefited by them.

That being said, most of the rest of what you say of us is right, and I'd guess that we'll start losing more as the year goes on. The biggest issues facing us, I think, are lack of strong art knowledge and the fact that I neg way too much. We'll see.

It's also worth noting that Bethlehem will literally be a one man team at Columbia, but that will hopefully be the only time that happens.
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Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Post by Lo, Marathon Ham! »

Jonathan Franzen wrote:
Crazyflight wrote: Bethlehem Central: Eric Wolfsberg
both Ben and Will do get significant numbers of points also- they have averaged 25 and 30 PPG respectively, hardly buzzer rocks- and are of much use on bonuses
What grades are Ben and Will currently in?

I can't contain my excitement for GSAC, the first time this season our entire B team lineup should be in attendance. I don't believe we've had more than 2 of our B team members together at any time yet this season, and they're stronger on house write so I can't wait to see what they can do.

The Columbia tournament confirmed that High Tech is the true number one team in the NJ area, with Rohan and Julian being able to win without Adithya. A full High Tech squad versus a full Bethlehem squad on a house write would be quite the exciting match-up. Ridgewood also proved to be a great squad at Columbia.

St. Joe's GSAC should be a great opportunity to see how the teams in the region will stack up against each other on a regular difficulty house write. I simply can't wait!
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