Top 100 Player Ranking

Elaborate on the merits of specific tournaments or have general theoretical discussion here.
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Serpentine284
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Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Serpentine284 »

Over the course of a whole 4-5 hours, I created a list of who I believe to be the top 100 players in collegiate quiz bowl right now. Before the rankings, though, I want to say a few things about this post.

First, I did not try to mask my biases in this ranking, because that would just be impossible. I was certainly more likely to rank people highly that I had seen play a lot than players who my only exposure to was through online stats.

Second, I had to confront the classic ranking issue of specialist versus generalist. I think I leaned toward favoring strong specialists over solid generalists, but either way, I tried to find a balance between the two that I hope was at least somewhat successful.

Third, I wasn't totally sure who had graduated the previous year or was still playing quiz bowl, so I might have accidentally excluded people who I believed were no longer playing collegiate quiz bowl.

Finally, this is by no means a perfect ranking. I did not spend days poring through stats to make this, so I am definitely going to have missed a lot of good players and performances that may have changed my decision on some of these. I 100% invite any and all people to respond with placements that they disagree with and/or people that they feel should be ranked or even just deserve a shout-out. There are so many ridiculously good players, and I want this thread to also be an opportunity for those players to get the recognition they deserve.

Ok, here are the rankings:

1. Matt Jackson
2. Itamar Naveh-Benjamin
3. Matt Bollinger
4. Caleb Kendrick
5. Tim Morrison
6. Geoffrey Chen
7. Matthew Lehmann
8. Hari Parameswaran
9. Ethan Strombeck
10. Jerry Vinukurov
11. Jonathan Tran
12. Chris Ray
13. Lia Rathburn
14. Daniel Ma
15. Arya Karthik
16. Natan Holtzman
17. Vincent Du
18. Adam Fine
19. Grace Liu
20. Daniel Sheinberg
21. Eve Fleisig
22. Amogh Kulkarni (Chicago)
23. Raymond Wang
24. Arthur Delot-Vilain
25. Amogh Kulkarni (Emory)
26. Charles Hang
27. Eric Wolfsberg
28. Jason Hong
29. Michal Gerasimiuk
30. Andrew Zeng
31. Jack Lewis
32. Benjamin McAvoy-Bickford
33. Ned Tagtmeier
34. Ricky Li
35. Anson Berns
36. Eric Bobrow
37. Mitch McCullar
38. Halle Friedman
39. Bradley Mclain
40. Aiden Dartley
41. Justin Chen
42. Mazin Omer
43. Arjun Nageswaran
44. Tegan Kapadia
45. Moses Kitakule
46. Tony Chen
47. Alex Schmidt
48. Andrew Hanna
49. Vedul Palavajjhala
50. Ashish Subramanian
51. John John Groger
52. Jonathan Shauf
53. Nathan Sheffield
54. Vittal Bhat
55. Dean Ah Now
56. Matthew Siff
57. Stan Melkumian
58. Walter Zhang
59. Karsten Rynearson
60. Kevin Park
61. Rasheeq Azad
62. Vivek Sasse
63. Justin Wytmar
64. Geoffrey Wu
65. Aum Mundhe
66. Shahar Schwartz
67. Ryan Sun
68. Cormac Beirne
69. Annabelle Yang
70. Ethan Ashbrook
71. Justin Hawkins
72. Conor Thompson
73. Joseph Chambers
74. Joel Miles
75. Stevie Miller
76. Owen Riley
77. Todd Maslyk
78. Justin Lee
79. Claire Jones
80. Chris Sims
81. S. A. Shenoy
82. Rohan Shelke
83. Anuttam Ramji
84. John Marvin
85. Jacob Robertson
86. Pratyush Jaishanker
87. Katherine Lei
88. Sky Li
89. Robert Condron
90. Jim Fan
91. Karan Gurazada
92. Nathan Zhang
93. Ian Chow
94. Dan Ni
95. Ben Chapman
96. Eric Yin
97. Jonathan Lau
98. Tomas Aguilar-Fraga
99. William Groger
100. Cade Reinberger
Last edited by Serpentine284 on Thu Feb 02, 2023 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by vishdog101 »

Can only really speak to Hopkins but big ups to Jonathan Lau and Seth Ebner. Seth hasn't played much this year but is an absolute stud based solely on ACF Regionals this year and should be on your top 100 list.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Halinaxus »

I'm guessing he was excluded because he hasn't played any tournaments yet this year, but Alex Pijanowski probably belongs on this list.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Liarr »

I am no longer playing quizbowl. Not as a result of this ranking being posted, there are lots of other reasons. I have finally escaped the bowl and am now scampering across the dining table. Sadly, most of you will be eaten.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by dni »

83. Anuttam Ramji
lmao WHAT???
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Sit Quietly, Alone »

Lol please take me off this list
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

u underranked billy
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Brandon Jones »

Serpentine284 wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:02 am 94. Dan Ni
lmao WHAT???
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by nyzhang »

Serpentine284 wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:02 am 64. Geoffrey Wu
lmao WHAT???
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Shahar S. »

I made a quick list of everyone I've played who I think should be a good deal higher than they are on this ranking

Matt Bollinger
Chris Ray
Eric Wolfsberg
Jack Lewis
Eric Bobrow (somehow underrated despite not being eligible)
Justin Chen
Alex Schmidt
Vivek Sasse
Shahar Schwartz (biased for obvious reasons)
Conor Thompson
Claire Jones
John Marvin
Jacob Robertson
Katherine Lei

Also made a quick list of people I've played in the past who I think got snubbed (in order of how close I am to them geographically)

Vinu Harihar
Swapnil Garg
Brian Lin
Kyle Hu
Josh Xu
Clark Smith (he has played officially with OSU this year fwiw)
Seth Ebner

Honorable mention to my teammates Kevin Ye and Steven Yuan, both of whom have a good argument to make the list based on their depth of specialist knowledge.

This list is not comprehensive, I have definitely missed people.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Ehtna »

Where is Joe Kammann
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by LeoLaw »

Tracy Mirkin is eligible this season. And I think Sean Farrell, a different Floridan, also belongs somewhere on this list.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by MMSANCHEZ »

All jokes aside above, I thought why not engage with this list in earnest.
Lia Rathburn, should be in the top 5 and probably number 1.
Gareth Thorlakson should absolutely be on this list. Top scorer in prelims on ACF Nats top bracket team. Probably in the 20-25 range.
Sky Li scores about even with Gareth, and should be in the 20-25 range as well.
Cormac Beirne beats both of them sometimes, and should be in the top 50 minimum, probably 25-30.
Tony Chen shouldn’t be ranked, he’s a real chump.
I outscored Lia at several game at ICT, I should be towards the back end of your top 50.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by CadenPetrosian »

I think if you're going to include Cormac Beirne, it would be a mistake to leave Andrej Vukovic off. His coverage is comparable and frankly his 18th century art knowledge puts Cormac's to shame. Take a look at any of his recent stats for proof.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by halle »

Some of this thread is in AHAN (aka social distancing ad nauseam) now. I have chosen to keep some lighthearted posts that technically contain genuine information or feedback in this thread. Please do not take the tone of those posts as license to keep shitposting in this thread when I have made a comfortable new home for that type of post elsewhere on these forums.

Signed, the second highest ranked forums staff member on this list (I think, idk, I didn’t actually check this.) (I originally claimed to be the highest ranked staff on the list but then I remembered Chris Ray is an admin. Next time someone makes one of these lists, they should underrank Chris much,
much more than this list does, lower than me, so I can claim this completely meaningless title. Thank you.)
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by benchapman »

halle wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 3:04 pm Some of this thread is in AHAN (aka social distancing ad nauseam) now. I have chosen to keep some lighthearted posts that technically contain genuine information or feedback in this thread. Please do not take the tone of those posts as license to keep shitposting in this thread when I have made a comfortable new home for that type of post elsewhere on these forums.
Sorry about shitposting, I'll make sure next time I post to only give genuine information and feedback by replying "lmao WHAT???".
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by halle »

benchapman wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 3:07 pm
halle wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 3:04 pm Some of this thread is in AHAN (aka social distancing ad nauseam) now. I have chosen to keep some lighthearted posts that technically contain genuine information or feedback in this thread. Please do not take the tone of those posts as license to keep shitposting in this thread when I have made a comfortable new home for that type of post elsewhere on these forums.
Sorry about shitposting, I'll make sure next time I post to only give genuine information and feedback by replying "lmao WHAT???".
As for why the “lmao WHAT???” posts remain in this thread: It’s not my job to decide which posts are good, it’s my job to decide which ones are off topic or rule-breaking. If you want to convey your surprise at how someone was ranked in the list without giving any further context, that isn’t what I’d call ideal posting, but it’s within the scope of a discussion about a ranking list on a forum where the goal isn’t to be completely humorless. If the intent of these posts is solely to draw attention to the poster, grow up and stop doing that. If my fellow moderators disagree with where I’ve drawn this line, I am extremely happy for them to chime in and move some posts themselves.

Now that there’s a designated thread in AHAN for quick and/or stupid responses, please restrict your “lmao WHAT???” posting to that thread.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Borrowing 100,000 Arrows »

Thanks for creating this fun little ranking. I think Itamar could honestly be number 1; when he plays, he often puts up numbers better than Matt Jackson (though he has less support than Matt). It's a shame med school is so time consuming, because he'd probably be in the GOAT conversation if he had played more in grad school. Echoing what other people have said Eric Wolfsberg and Jack Lewis seem under-ranked, both are excellent generalists who could definitely make the second bracket at Nats with no support. Also, Mitch McCullar seems under-ranked too.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Serpentine284 »

Decided to add on to my ranking with a ranking of possible D2 teams:

1. Claremont
2. Chicago
3. Rutgers
4. Berkeley
5. Stanford
6. Yale B
7. UNC
8. McMaster
9. WUSTL
10. Penn B
11. Florida
12. Princeton
13. Toronto
14. Williams
15. Waterloo
16. UIUC B
17. OSU
18. Purdue
19. USC
20. Truman State
21. GTech
22. Vanderbilt
23. Inver Hills
24. Nebraska
25. UCLA
26. Iowa State
27. Southern Union
28. UIUC C
29. Chipola
30. Yale C
31. Tallahassee
32. State College-Manatee
Last edited by Serpentine284 on Fri Feb 10, 2023 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by MMSANCHEZ »

I thought I'd add a list of my top 1 D2 teams

1. Claremont
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by FritoKahlo »

Alejandro Valdivia from Tallahassee Cc and Ursula Kushner from Manatee need to be added.

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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by MMSANCHEZ »

Guys have we gone too far? All Amogh wanted to do is provide an opportunity for players to get the recognition they deserved, and we belittled the whole endeavor. At the end of the day we can quibble about a Sims here, a Chapman there, a Chen everywhere and a Thorlakson nowhere to be found. But ultimately quizbowl isn't about finding the perfect ranking. It's about finding the community where you can have the courage to be wrong, and to know you still belong. We lost that today.
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by mdu »

Serpentine284 wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 9:50 pm Decided to add on to my ranking with a ranking of possible D2 teams:

1. Claremont
2. Chicago
3. Rutgers
4. Berkeley
5. Stanford
6. Yale B
7. UNC
8. McMaster
9. WUSTL
10. Penn B
11. Florida
12. Princeton
13. Toronto
14. Williams
15. Waterloo
16. UIUC B
17. OSU
18. Purdue
19. USC
20. Truman State
21. GTech
22. Vanderbilt
23. Inver Hills
24. Nebraska
25. UCLA
26. Iowa State
27. Southern Union
28. UIUC C
29. Chipola
30. Yale C
31. Tallahassee
32. State College-Manatee
agreed
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by dsnodds11 »

Serpentine284 wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 9:50 pm 15. Waterloo
LMAO WHAT?????
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by benchapman »

Decided to toss together my list of the top 8 D2 teams:

1. Waterloo
2. Rutgers B
3. Chicago D
4. Claremont
4. Stanford
6. McMaster
7. Princeton
8. Inver Hills
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Re: Top 100 Player Ranking

Post by Dantooine is Big! »

benchapman wrote: Mon Apr 03, 2023 12:25 pm Decided to toss together my list of the top 8 D2 teams:

1. Waterloo
2. Rutgers B
3. Chicago D
4. Claremont
4. Stanford
6. McMaster
7. Princeton
8. Inver Hills
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