2024-2025 Player Appreciation Thread

[InfinitePeng]

Hi all. We made it to the end of another quizbowl season! Congrats to Chicago, Stanford, Cornell, Harvard, Waterloo and all of the other teams that played nationals this year in what was perhaps one of the most competitive seasons I can recall in recent memory.

Given the launch of the Player Poll (which you can vote in, here) I believe it is once more time for the annual tradition of showing our appreciation towards the things that make quizbowl so wonderful. As a reminder: this thread is about shouting out any players, teams, people, teams, or organizations that you want to share any praise for as well as any stories associated with them. This is not any kind of player poll though you're certainly more than welcome to give some recognition. I am very excited as always to reading everything that people have to share!

[amundhe]

As someone in their last year of undergrad and no plans of grad school, I had one broad quizbowl goal: do as much quizbowl as possible so as to burn myself out. With a job on the horizon, my studying needed to shift from philosophy questions to actuarial exams, and I foresaw going "cold turkey" as the only possible beginning of my "next chapter." I believe that my "do as much quizbowl" approach ended up being as good as maximally possible for me due to many, many people who I'll list below (and no doubt many more who I simply don't have the room to talk about in the detail they deserve).

Firstly, I'd like to thank Aiden Dartley, who is the essentially the only reason I'm playing college quizbowl -- him joining Rutgers quizbowl made me start studying for a possible ICT DII top bracket run during my sophomore year. Despite his general studying burnout, he's naturally very intellectually curious about things from birding to history to (quite recently) biochemistry. He's an extremely funny person who's quickly endeared himself to all members of the Rutgers club -- I'm reminded of the time Aiden and I peer-pressured one of the freshmen into going to a bubble tea place with us to regale him with stories of 2021 high school quizbowl. To Aiden, I'm incredibly sorry for any moments in which my presence pressured you to engage with quizbowl in any way that you didn't want to.

Next, I owe a great debt of gratitude (and possibly money?) to Kushal Aluru, whose work on getting me reimbursed has been extremely diligent. It's shocking to me that he has the time to deal with Rutgers' organizational funding as much as he does, given that he is extremely active in other clubs and in his own biology research. I apparently once told Kushal when he was a high school sophomore to "lock himself up in a room and card for four hours a day" during the summer if he wanted to get better; while I don't advocate for such extreme methods anymore, his following of my directive probably helped lead to his great performance at ACF nationals and made me seem super wise for saying that.

Rutgers A's newest member, Vikshar Athreya, has been a steadying presence in our club, serving as a mentor for the other biologists in the club regarding research opportunities. Vikshar's an extremely responsible and deeply compassionate person who has helped me through an extremely dire personal situation, and he's always trying to make those around him engage in fun ways of quizbowl (like question writing). It's also personally nice for me to converse with someone who's lived through so much of the quizbowl history that I enjoy reading and discussing (yes, I'm calling you old). I hope that you find the time to keep playing quizbowl (and stopping by practice) throughout your time at Rutgers -- the club needs a presence like yours.

With that being said, the entire Rutgers club has been a joy to be a member of -- quizbowl practice attendance has tripled in size, and this is largely due to a great crop of new players who are friendly, enthusiastic, and remind me of all the ways you can love learning and quizbowl without spite-grinding philosophy. It's crazy to me that several members of the Rutgers club began their high school quizbowl careers at a tournament that I directed, and I'm thankful that so many of them continue to want to "give back" by staffing high school tournaments and being in tri-state area community spaces. For Mark, Aspen, Alex, Daniel, Victoria, Eliana, Paul, Ishan, Jason, Simon, ex-member Alan, and (my goat) Brian, I hope you continue to stay involved in quizbowl in any way you can, even as your lives get busier. I similarly hope that my term as Rutgers quizbowl president lived up to the standards of my predecessors, many of whom I still enjoy talking to and see as mentors. To Lexi, Darren, JJ, David, and Emmett (whose identity I stole at nationals), thank you for remaining involved as mentors long past your own graduation.

What I loved most about high school quizbowl was how close all the competitors were (thank you to Nic Pruitt for getting me involved in this while I was in HS); I'm glad that becoming active in college quizbowl over the past three years has led to many positive interactions. To that end, I appreciate the other clubs in the mid-Atlantic circuit for hosting fun tournaments!

There's a set of players I'm particularly close to, and acknowledging their kindness (and greatness as players) makes this post feel complete to me. With that being said:
Amogh Kulkarni is the best player in quizbowl, and yet one of the most down-to-earth people you'll ever meet; he is genuinely interested in everyone he converses with and has a natural gift for making me feel included.
When I first got involved in the quizbowl community, one of the first people who wanted to get to know me was Andrew Zeng (this was during the summer he started seriously grinding for quizbowl). It's satisfying that my last tournament ended with him winning a national championship.
Ben Chapman is potentially the most sane person I've ever met, and his presence on Booster Shot is what made me apply to my first college quizbowl writing "gig."
Forrest Weintraub is maybe my biggest fan and is always far more confident in my abilities than I am; I hope that I proved her trust in me as a player to be correct, and I'm glad that we live close enough to meetup semi-frequently.
When Jason Hong enters grad school, he will do so as the best player in quizbowl. I'm glad I got to know him more in college and for us to have gotten the opportunity to visit the National Gallery of Art together!
If there was a ballot for nicest person in quizbowl, my vote would be for Geoffrey Wu. He's a great club VP (contrary to anything I may have implied with my previous forum posts), writer, editor, and qbreader developer who always makes time out of his busy schedules to converse with people and make the quizbowl community a better place.
Owen Mimno is my boogeyman on music questions. I'm glad to see him doing well in quizbowl, and I greatly appreciate his film recommendations. I hope he starts editing for some high-profile sets.
Michał Gerasimiuk is the best-dressed person in quizbowl, and I'm glad he got to win his nationals too. Despite us having no real reason to interact with each other, he's always extremely kind and funny, and his intellectual curiosity is incredibly evident in conversation.
I've only recently met Mitch McCullar, but hearing him talk about literature has made me want to start reading again. Outside of that, he has a great sense of humor, and I'd encourage anyone to talk to Mitch in any sort of conversation.
Nathan Zhang's mentorship is most of the reason I really started to improve at philosophy; he's one of the most interesting people in quizbowl and someone whose writing ability makes me incredibly jealous.
Raymond Wang is someone I've considered a mentor for a while (both professionally and with us sharing many quizbowl categories). I felt extremely honored that he decided to watch several of my nationals games and considered my buzzes good.
Richard Niu is always there to hype up other people, and he's one of the best players I've ever had as a teammate. I'm extremely happy he got his own recognition as a player in ICT Finals.
Rosa Xia sometimes meows and often sends wholesome cat emojis, I guess.

While I'm still grappling with what graduation means for me and quizbowl, my many positive experiences with the overall community this year has meant that my door is no longer completely shut.

[jayk]

Since starting quizbowl less than 4 years ago, I've had the joy of getting to know so many intelligent, hardworking, passionate people in a short amount of time. Without some of them, I would not have made it to playing Nationals this past weekend, an end to my time playing quizbowl that I am ultimately quite satisfied with. Without further ado, here is a non-exhaustive list of people I'd like to thank.

Firstly, many thanks to Vivek Sasse, who I met in my first year as a newcomer to quizbowl, and who gave me the encouragement and confidence to continue playing and stay involved with the club despite reservations about my place here. Without Vivek, I do not think I could have continued quizbowl and gotten to where I am today. He is not only an amazing quizbowl player, but he is also one of the kindest and most hardworking people I have ever had the honor of knowing and being friends with. Thank you for having faith in me, and I'm glad I joined this club and hobby even if just to meet someone like you through it.

I'd also like to thank Amogh Kulkarni, who has been an awesome, steady friend both in and outside of quizbowl. He's incredibly humble, despite being a quizbowl GOAT. But outside of quizbowl, he has also been: an excellent voice for Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, a reliable source of kpop and kdrama recommendations (even if the kpop taste trends more contemporary than mine), and above all, a fantastic friend who has lent his ear innumerable times to my vibes and vents. Thank you for your constant friendship.

I would also like to thank members of Chicago QB generally, but I will particularly shout out: Megan Ha, for her uplifting energy, tireless work as club officer to bring us closer together, and the positivity and supportive attitude she brings to everyone on the team; Coby Tran, who has quickly and easily become a crucial member of our club, always willing to crack Gen-Z humor in the car rides to tournaments, yet while also being a deeply compassionate, understanding individual with a strong moral compass, all rare traits that I find admirable in him; and Alvin Guo, who is such a superb and good-natured player, is so full of real knowledge, and can hold endless conversations with well-thought-out takes on a slew of topics, including but not limited to jazz, literature, film, and A Minecraft Movie (2025). I'd also like to shout out Ezra Santos, Will Houston, and Samarth Ram, who are all not only excellent competitive players, but have chosen to dedicate their free time and resources to leading the club, an endeavor I know from experience to be underappreciated and often arduous. With all of you guys, the future is bright.

I would like to conclude with a more wide-encompassing thanks to the writers, editors, staffers, and all members of the QB community that make the sets, tournaments, and logistics that make up this activity possible. Interacting with people in those capacities have been some of my favorite and most insightful and gratifying experiences in quizbowl, and for all of those I am very thankful.

[NotAiden]

It has been a long winter, but today it finally feels like spring. To celebrate, I decided to do what I've normally done, but without my phone. I watch and listen. There's a robin digging for worms underneath the leaf litter, there's a group of freshmen chattering and gossiping outside the student center. And, of course, I take a few moments to reflect on this weekend, the weekend of the 2025 ACF Nationals.

I have many mixed feelings on this weekend. I am no doubt proud of what we did - I don't think any of us expected to make top bracket, let alone our final placement of top 7 teams. However, on the coattails of our victory is melancholy. This is the last closed tournament I will play with Aum Mundhe, a teammate of mine for the past 7 years since I was a freshman in high school. Aum Mundhe is one of the most devoted people I believe I have ever met in quizbowl. I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that the logistics, coordination, recruiting, etc etc etc of the club have rested on Aum's shoulders over these past few years. From writing over 100 questions in Scarlet Housewrite so far to juggling tournament logistics, Aum is one of the most devoted heads of a quizbowl club I have witnessed. In addition to a teammate, he is also a friend. Whether it be bonding over our shared appreciation of Dan Ni's AoPS posts or reminiscing about taking on cheaters in the days of online quizbowl in high school, I share many great memories of our time together. As I bid him farewell and watch as he ascends from quizbowl to whatever lofty successes I know await him, I hope that he'll treasure the times we spent together.

I do not understand Kushal. Every time I see him, it seems as though his spine is about to snap from carrying 20+ credits, daily lab commitments, and a manuscript; however, I am all the more flattered that he chooses to spend his very limited free time playing quizbowl with us. Kushal's masochistic love for Celsius-fuelled late-night pre-exam post-lucidity study binges only serves to demonstrate that 'I have no time' is no real excuse for when it comes to studying for quizbowl - and then, of course, I open up my cards and realize that the real excuse is 'I don't want to.' Nonetheless, Kushal clearly finds the time he spends sharing stories, gossiping, and talking about his journey through academia, which I am confident his diligence will render successful.

My last teammate at nats was Vikshar Athreya . Once again, I do not exaggerate when I say that Vikshar is one of the most knowledgeable people I know about world history. I so rarely find myself frightened by someone's knowledge of a subject like Vikshar in world history. We had one of the highest world history PPBs in the field thanks to him. With one of, if not the most, first buzzes in world history, I cannot help but wonder where he fits all this knowledge in his head.

Back in Rutgers, I have met many wonderful people through quizbowl. We had a surge in recruiting this year, welcoming several freshmen who played quizbowl and high school, like Alex, who takes a concerning delight in taking photos of me, and Jason, as well as many who had not touched a buzzer before this year, like Paul , Aspen, and Daniel. I'd also like to mention Mark, one of the future tetrarchs of Rutgers quizbowl, and Brian, who has hosted some of the most lively parties I have ever been to. Also worth mentioning are the alumni who have participated in Rutgers quizbowl, including staffing our tournaments and occasionally visiting practice - Emmett, JJ (my fellow packmate), David, and Liam. Lastly, I'd like to honor Alan, my milhist and War Thunder goat - you may have left Rutgers, but Rutgers will not leave you.

Outside of Rutgers, I have made many friends as well. While I might see most of them only a couple times a year, if at all, I hold the time I spend with them dear. First on the list are Anuttam of Berkeley, who I hope takes no offense at being publicly associated with me, and Rachel of Georgetown. After Nats, we spent the evening getting pizza and ice cream and wandering through College Park, howling in the street, photographing a yellow-crowned night heron, and watching what we thought was a fire but what I am now pretty sure was steam. I'd also like to mention Dan, one of the funniest people I know, Young, the little Korean with a big heart, James and Jeremy, who are locked in an eternal battle of cards, Sinecio, who, according to Coby's astute observations, is Sinecio, and Marc, whose kindness I can always and only admire, as I do not believe it is physically possible for me to match.

I close my laptop, slip it into my bag, and raise my eyes to the trees around me. The robin has flown off, the freshmen have long departed. The shadows are long, and the sky is spattered with orange rays. I will never relive the delight that this weekend was, but I have the memories to keep me company, and that's all I need.

[mutemagpie]

The end of my time at the University of Florida is something that’s been sitting with me for a while and that I’m still not sure how to feel about. Despite that, I couldn’t miss this opportunity to mention some individuals from the Florida circuit and beyond that have truly impacted my life over the past year (and more!).

I’ve been incredibly grateful to serve a club that I care for and have been cared for so much during my time here as president this past year. I could not have done any of it without the help of my vice-president: Jonathan Hunter. Jonathan is an incredible person whose knowledge of film is astounding, even though it makes him one of our greatest connoisseurs of brimstone, and his help over the past year has been incredibly valuable, especially for lifting most of the weight when it comes to the hardest part of this job: actually going to practice. I cannot wait to see how the club grows under his upcoming presidency. Similarly, I would like to shout out the selfless work of our equally amazing treasurer, Yuliang Huang, for doing the realest job of us all and keeping this club afloat. I have truly never met anyone as dedicated to something as he is to the Gainesville Regional Transit System, and it saddens me that I’ll miss any future iterations of his internet or Gainesville packets.

If I could mention every player in and out of the Florida circuit that has impacted me over the last 4 years, I’m not sure there’d be room for anyone else in the thread, not that that’s like, going to stop me from getting close. Nevertheless, my appreciation absolutely has to be extended to my ACF Nationals teammates: Biniam Alaro, whose knowledge of history (and management of the film packet sweatshop) will never fail to impress; Leo Law, an absolute mainstay of this club whose capability in science and every other category I will never not admire; and Qingyu Zhang, for his insane reliability and skill in “Qingyu content” and history as a whole, and for being somehow the only person on this team whose 50/50 rate might actually hit 50/50.

Thank you to everyone else who has been a member of UF Quizbowl over these past 4 years, which includes, but is certainly not limited to—Khanh Nguyen, who will be keeping the oldhead presence strong for the next year; Graham Cope, for The Conspiracy and saying things that quizbowlers truly say; Eve Maramba, for doing the thankless work of being historian this year (because god knows I didn’t remember to have a single team photo taken) as well as for being my Ohio brethren-in-arms; Sophie Torres, whose absence from UFQB still doesn’t feel right, has been an absolute joy to see at tournaments this past year and whom I hope so dearly I will be able to see at more in the future; John Nienajadlo, who might truly know the most out of all of us by force of Peter Griffin and tax law—real ones know that I only found my way into this club by messaging the then soon-to-be-graduating Taylor Harvey, who told me to email John; and Hayden Prather, for being one of the most enjoyable teammates/opponents you could ask for and for nobly increasing the club’s employment rate (it remains to be seen whether our current flight of graduates will follow in his footsteps or ignobly decrease it).

I also want to extend my appreciation to other members of this lovely circuit who have helped make any of the past year even happen: Tommy Tibbetts (UCF) and the rest of UCF who are all such talented players who have been so crucial to the circuit; Niru Shakya (FIT) for TDing some of the best-run tournaments I have ever seen; Sam Stella and Juan Landaeta (FSU) who are always a pleasure to see at tournaments; and Clete Reinberger and Chris Borglum (Valencia) for being all-round delightful people—I hope that UFQB is able to see Valencia at many more tournaments next year!

Words cannot express how I feel about no longer regularly seeing this group of wonderful people, but let me tell you: it is evil and weird and strange. It would also be remiss of me to not mention my friends and former teammates: thank you to Hari Parameswaran for, in certain ways, everything, along with Abby Cohen, Tegan Kapadia, Alan Xie, Arunn Sankar, Shourjo Ganguli, Aryan Desarapu, and Aditya Patnaik for all the time spent working on CREEK, watching bad movies, and playing bad games—if there’s one good thing that the end of this season brings, it’s that I’ll be able to see this amazing group of people more, and I look forward to all that is to come. Finally, I can’t write this post without mentioning Tracy Mirkin, who has given me invaluable support that I could never thank him enough for. He is the most brilliant person I know and a fantastic quizbowler and even better human being. He inspires me, day-to-day, to grow and be better, both as a player and as a person, and he makes me infinitely excited for the future. Put simply: I could not have asked for a better part of my life.

That’s me, signing off from UFQB. Thank you all for these wonderful, irreplaceable times—I wish you all endless more. Onwards and upwards :)

[Dantooine is Big!]

I think I may have seen some messages on mainqb throughout this academic year that vaguely reference my retirement from the broader quizbowl community, but I otherwise don’t think anything about that has been made clear yet. I figured now would be a good moment to talk a little about that, reflect on my experiences in quizbowl since starting in high school, and thank those who have supported me along the way.

Earlier this academic year, I decided to “retire” from quizbowl indefinitely. This doesn’t mean a whole ton in terms of my playing career, since there isn’t a quizbowl club at my current institution and I haven’t really been playing closed tournaments. I did discontinue further writing and editing obligations along with any ongoing roles related to logistics; for the time being, the last tournament I have TD’d is Chicago Open 2024, and the last set I have edited for is PLAYTIME!. I don’t feel any real need to justify myself, but I’ll just generally say I made this decision because I feel my career and life has developed to a point where I feel I need to focus on other things and where continued participation in the broader community doesn’t feel that worth my efforts anymore. I won’t make any promises with regards to whether I’ll play any tournaments in the future or be involved in any future quizbowl projects; it’s probably safe to say I will eventually staff and/or play a tournament at some point in the future, or maybe pick up another editing gig at some point. I mean, we all know Weiner’s Law #2. I was never a top player, though, and probably never will be, so the part about playing or not playing tournaments isn’t really a big deal anyway. Though I have historically made an effort to, if possible, staff four nationals every year (ACF, ICT, PACE NSC, and HSNCT), I didn’t staff any national tournaments this year, and am unlikely to staff in the same capacity I used to in the future (though I might try to staff something every once in a while, maybe).

That all being said, quizbowl has been an extremely formative part of my life since I started playing seriously midway through high school until around now — and even then, I continue to stay in touch with a handful of my most cherished quizbowl friends. I have met many people on this journey that have left a positive impression on me through this beautiful game I will always have a soft spot in my heart for. I’m tempted to, as a tribute to the game itself, try to enumerate here all of the ways quizbowl has brought me to the point I’m currently at in my life (for the better, I would say). But here, I just want to focus on expressing gratitude to everyone who has supported me over the years.

I want to start by talking about Jordan Brownstein and JinAh Kim. I wanted this blurb to partly be a congratulations to Jordan on his well-earned Carper Award, so maybe it kind of is — but, to be honest, I want to talk about both Jordan and JinAh together in this context because both have been, in tandem, really important people to me for related reasons. I first reached out to Jordan after playing PACE NSC 2016, a set which he head edited, to thank him for his hard work on the tournament; I first reached out to JinAh when recruiting writers for Thought Monstrosity around the same time. Both were happy to talk to me, and ever since, both have been super personally supportive of me and all of my endeavors, whether quizbowl-related or not; both were more than ideal quizbowl role models, people I looked up to while growing as a young person and who, despite my younger self’s annoying social habits, were willing to help me along in my journey. I can’t thank them enough for that, and I hope to reciprocate all of that goodwill over the long run.

Illinois high school quizbowl, for me, is a marker in the rearview mirror that has long since passed, but I remember it quite fondly and proudly. Coaches Ryan Fedewa and Patrick Anderson had a big impact on me personally, as did everyone I met throughout the Chicago suburbs quizbowl circuit — I don’t think a short list of names can do justice to everyone, but Ali Saeed, Marco Laudati, Kazuma Shimanaka, Ankush Bajaj, Sunny Chen, James Zhou, Harrison Wang, BJ Ryan, Henry Roe, Ethan Strombeck, Jakob Myers, Jon Suh, and Rohan Narayan (even though he didn’t even go to high school in Illinois) were and are all very important to me. Stanford quizbowl is also a bit of a blur in my memory, but I still hold a soft spot in my heart for Jennie Yang, Natan Holtzman, Tim Morrison, Keoni Rodriguez, Stephen Liu, Austin Brownlow, Bryce Hwang, and Marianna Zhang.

I need to come clean about something: I have historically been a pretty terrible writer and editor from a deadlines standpoint, owing to longtime personal issues with productivity and executive function. I owe a personal apology to David Reinstein, Nathan Weiser, Kurtis Droge, and Austin Brownlow as specific editors who have suffered from my mistakes; I especially feel bad for David, since I told him I was going to do a bunch of work and was never able to do it, which is a terrible thing to do to an editor. (Uh, just to cover my bases, the list of “editors who have suffered from my mistakes” may be incomplete. “You may be entitled to compensation!”)

I definitely owe some thanks to a number of kind and beautiful people I have worked with on different quizbowl projects over the years. Another incomplete list: Ganon Evans, Caleb Kendrick, Chandler West, Henry Atkins, Alex Fregeau, Isaac Renert, Taylor Harvey, Victor Pavao, Chauncey Lo, Ani Perumalla, Ben Chapman, Ethan Ashbrook, Em Gunter, and many others.

I got to know the crew of editors and writers for PLAYTIME! back near the beginning of my MFA and am extremely grateful to know them all. Funny enough, being in that circle of friends was a big reason I got back into being involved in the broader quizbowl landscape after taking a bit of a hiatus after 2019 ACF Nationals. To them, I owe all of the good that has come out of soloing tournaments, working on PAVEMENT and multiple COs, TDing tournaments, editing here and there… After the last four years, I honestly feel I have done it all and seen it all, and I’m glad to have experienced everything so fully. In the end, I’m really not sure where I’d be today without them, and I feel perfectly content with not knowing.

There are many more people I have met through quizbowl that I really appreciate, and I don’t think I’ll be able to get around to everyone in this already-very-long post. In terms of members of the broader quizbowl community that I have interacted with, I want to at least send my regards to Eric Mukherjee, Jack Mehr, Henry Goff, Laurence Li, Mike Cheyne, Andrew Wang, Brad Fischer, Mitch McCullar, John Lawrence, Iain Carpenter, Geoffrey Chen, Forrest Weintraub, Annabelle Yang, Ivvone Zhou, Will Alston, and the many more people who have supported me over the years in some capacity.

I’d like to think my small contributions to the community and game (whatever those might be) weren’t for naught, and I hope quizbowl lives on so young people in the future might have their own relationship to the game which might bring beauty to their lives. I’m only at a pretty early stage in the long path towards being a poet and academic that teaches and publishes writing that someone cares about, but someday, if or when I “make” it (maybe when I finally publish a debut book of poetry or when I get an academic position, if any of that actually happens at some point), I’ll have to give quizbowl — the game itself, as well as, I guess, the concept of the community surrounding it — a shoutout just as long as this post, if not even longer. But I’ll have to wait until the time comes to write that one.

[mniebur]

As I look forward to my impending graduation, I figured I would take one last chance to procrastinate my school work with quizbowl related shenanigans. I'm moving to far away land of Germany for grad school, so I don't foresee playing much (if any) quizbowl in my future, so this seems as good a time as any for my "Thank you quizbowl" post. I've never made one of these so I have a lot of accumulated "thank yous" to give from almost a decade of playing this game. In a roughly chronological order:

I would like to thank all of the members of Hopkins A I've played so many tournaments with over the past two or so years: venerable grad students David Bass, and Seth Ebner, my compatriots Jonathan Lau, and Vaishali Sivamani, and the children Sinecio Morales and Aditya Shivaswamy. I've loved all of our early morning shenanigans, from oversleepers (you know who you are) to Taylor Swift singalongs, and everything in between. Thank you as well to everyone else I've played a tournament with in the past 4 years, including Jeevika Setzer, Elizabeth Jewlal, Derrick Liu, Jarrett Ren, Kuleen Sasse, Dennis Plotnikov, Saad Ansari, and probably some other people. I want to give a special thank you to the many people on this list for answering all of the art questions, especially the opera, so I could continue to ignore those for 4 whole years. As much as I love the competition of quizbowl, I am certain I would not have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did in college if I wasn't playing with all of you. Thank you again to Kuleen and Jarrett for helping me to an ACF Fall win, Sinecio, Vaishali and Dennis for our epic late night run to second at Winter, and David, Sinecio, and Aditya for winning Penn Bowl this year, and everyone mentioned for all the little moments that make tournaments so fun.

I would also like to thank all the people that make Hopkins quizbowl run the way its supposed to, starting with Louisa Benatovich and Vinu Harihar for welcoming me to the club as a new freshman, as well as Kuleen, Dennis, and Nihal "It makes sense because its the answer" Chatra for running our club incredibly satisfactorily in the face of an entirely uncooperative administration.

I want to thank all of the people that helped make me fall in love with quizbowl all those years ago, especially Ben :Dillon, and Tomás Aguilar-Fraga (who I have not forgotten has an accent on the a) for teaching me how to study (I did listen, even if my 100 total Anki cards don't make it seem like I did), how to use these silly forums, and, of course, playing tournaments together. I still brag about the time we beat BHSU at that trash tournament, which I think was mostly Tomás. Even though I know none of them will ever read this, I want to thank my awesome high school teammates Olive Moser, Patrick McGreevy, and Sam Thomas for 2 awesome years of winning tournaments, even if we had to do it virtually for a year. I certainly won't forget our back-to-back epic state runs, even if they were the product of double-elim brackets.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has put in the effort to write and edit all of the questions I've played, it is of course an arduous process, and I, along with everyone else who just sits around playing questions, is of course immensely grateful for all of the work you put in to allow us to continue playing this beautiful game. I also want to thank all of the moderators, even the bad ones in my tiny high school league, for taking the time out of their days to read quizbowl questions, for little if any, compensation.

As I said above, I don't know if or when I'll get to play an in person tournament again, so this feels a little like good bye. If anyone is looking for someone to write some science, I could probably be convinced. And if I haven't mentioned you, thank you anyway for being part of this amazing community. But if you want the short version, all of this is really just to say:

Dear quizbowl,
Thank you
– Max

[jmarvin_]

However bittersweet a note the year may have ended upon for us, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for my teammates, whose hard work and faith in me gave me a chance to realize a dream I honestly thought could never come true. I had made peace over the years with the idea I'd never so much as have a chance at winning a national championship; after spending my undergraduate career losing the vast majority of our games and later seeing the unbelievable quantity of super-players that come through Chicago, I was convinced that I'd never realistically be better than whomever was 5th best there in a given year, let alone in a circumstance where the team composition would make sense, and even besides that my inconsistency as a player would make me a liability anyway, or so I thought. I really did not feel any frustration about this—after all, if I was only invested in the game for winning's sake, I wouldn't've lasted a day in college quizbowl after going 0-11 at my first tournament, where the kindness of Grace Liu, Lloyd Sy, Stephen Eltinge and others indirectly reassured me this was all worth my time—and my enthusiasm for the game has only grown despite being nowhere near any national titles. When, to my surprise, circumstances conspired to give me the chance to join the A-Team this year, I knew I had been blessed with a very special opportunity, and it wasn't one to waste. Without my teammates' faith that my support could make the difference, without their encouragement that I could finally get my act together despite all the hundreds of negs staining my history, and without their concerted efforts to do their best because they believed I was doing mine too, this miraculous and long-dismissed dream of mine could never have come to fruition. There's nothing I could say that would do justice to how deeply moved I am by my teammates' dedication and support, how lucky they have made me feel to be alive exactly where and when I have found myself - but the least I can do is try.

Adam Fine is not only one of the most unjustly under-lauded players in the game's history in his own right, his (highly reductive) "specialist" designation belying his indispensability for every serious team he has played on, but is moreover a paragon of what it means to be a good teammate in this game. Ask anyone who has ever played on a team with him and all will agree: Adam's very presence on your side of the buzzers—his cheerful and lighthearted enthusiasm and humor even in the bleakest of game/tournament situations, his rare consistency in his areas of expertise (and penchant for securing a wide variety of necessary cycles all over the place (he has cards you'd never believe)), and much more in the way of intangibles—somehow makes even you a better player. It has been a privilege to compete alongside someone who will eventually go down as an all-time great competitor (as will my other teammates, be there any justice in history), but it has been all the more a blessing to have him as a truly great friend (as I can and will say for my other teammates as well). Reminiscing years down the line, I'll remember all of our in-game moments just as clearly and fondly as I will the long hours we spent playing poker into the night, shooting the shit about the NFL and Melee, and having deep and emotional conversations about our own political destinies and what we must do in these times of ever-compounding crises. The only reason I don't go on more is because I respect him too much to embarrass him further - and I still have to embarrass the others, too!

When Ned Tagtmeier arrived at Chicago with the reputation of an impressive high school competitor, I thought he'd certainly do well enough overall, but that scaling to Nats difficulty would be a completely different matter, and would take a few years to come together at best, if ever. I don't think that even the worst of my myriad of lifetime negs has ever come close to being as wrong as I was about Ned back then. Not only did Ned immediately prove himself to be a serious threat on a variety of categories with a seemingly unbounded difficulty ceiling, he did so in such a manner that there was no dismissing him as a mere grinder or cardsmith (such things though he may also be), showing himself to be someone truly curious, engaged, clever, and thoughtful, someone I enjoyed talking with as much as anyone about basically everything. Across all my time playing with or against Ned, a pattern emerged: almost literally without exception, if both of us know the same thing in a tossup, Ned gets it first - never before did I feel like my mind was actually noticeably aging! It didn't matter if I took a whole course on the book years ago and he read the Wikipedia article once in high school (see the Truth and Method tossup this year for a literal example): he'd be on the ball while I am trying to make sure my internal model isn't hallucinating. I am literally paid to be an expert about philosophy and religion, but under the gun I'd trust Ned about most things before I'd trust myself - a truly humbling thing to accept. This changed my play for the better, since I no longer had to worry about taking a lot of risks when someone so solid can do my job better (see the Nats final where I was busy agonizing over "what the hell Freud specifically titled that essay on 'the uncanny' I read in that literary theory class" and "am I really as sure as I feel about the Dharma Wheel" while Ned's clarity of mind saved me). But even beyond that irreplaceable sense for the game and astounding breadth of knowledge, it will be the Ned I knew beyond the buzzer that I'll never forget, miss dearly, and go out of my way to spend time with in the years to come - a true seeker of all things good and interesting in this world, a fellow-traveler enthusiast for reality in all its messy depths, and a friend I'd trust with the whole of my heart.

The only reason what I am now going to say about Claire Jones is not an even more ebullient paean is that I respect her far too much to risk further embarrassing her with cringe-inducing earnestness - though I'm sure I might end up hazarding some of that anyway, despite my intentions. Claire has played alongside me in both my worst and my best moments, back in the B-team days as well as now, having calmly survived my most heinously stupid decisions without ever losing hope (at least not aloud) that I could get it together when it counts. When ICT's final played out as it did, I recognized this as one of the most gracious gifts anyone has ever given to me. My teammates are too humble to tell this story for themselves, but I feel that it's necessary to get my appreciation across: when we lost our first two matches of the ICT playoffs (including to a 5-power untouchable half from "Chard" Niu to put us down 305-20 versus Cornell), the vibes were obviously rancid, and I don't think anyone would have blamed us for concluding it just wasn't our day and moving on. But Claire, after we took a moment to gather ourselves, somehow knew that the tournament was far from over and still ours to win, and talked all of us right back into it. She was correct, I realized quickly: in a chaotic top bracket, we could still weather the storm.

At Nationals, we again found ourselves in an awful position by round 3 of playoffs (after a disastrous game against an on-fire Northwestern at the zenith of what will be remembered as one of the stranger national championship result tables of our game's history, and after a mostly close but ultimately blown game versus Stanford). I didn't know it was possible until I was living it, but the vibes were even more catastrophic than at ICT. Inspired by Claire's crucial morale-management efforts two weeks prior, I tried to take the initiative and convince my teammates that, just as we had at ICT, we could still certainly turn things around and float to the top of what was already a chaotic top bracket. Miraculously enough, despite nobody having any of my nonsense whatsoever and feeling even less confident having tried to say what I did, this ill-conceived effort did not ultimately backfire (and to be clear, I wouldn't've blamed anyone but myself if it had). When we found ourselves down yet again by over a hundred points to Illinois by halftime, however, I seriously considered that I might've buried us with my poorly timed efforts at "motivation." Tossup eleven went dead; we would have to get the remaining nine tossups in a row to win, in all odds. By hook or by crook, in what is surely the most tenacious and even (dare I say) clutch half of quizbowl I have ever participated in (and surely considering its consequential circumstances, among those superlatives of all time), we somehow did just that - and after a neg-heavy day partly responsible for landing us in this cliff-hanging position, I was barely able to clinch the game by grabbing tossup 20. If I didn't have exactly the three teammates I was lucky enough to find myself sitting with, this game was over, and so was our run - if any one of us had failed to hold on to just enough faith in our teammates and our own selves to keep playing to win, there is no chance it comes together. Suddenly, first place (and the unprecedented 4-peat) was back on the table. Emboldened by this miracle, every game suddenly appeared within our reach, and they all certainly were, even as we barely fell short against Toronto and in the final. None of that happens without Claire, despite my own shooting her in the foot so many times over the years and over that very day, maintaining her belief in me, something in these moments I felt I had a solemn duty not to waste.

I'll never forget these moments, these paradoxical feelings of mutual absolute trust despite all reasons pointing to the contrary, a sort of solidarity I've never felt before I'd been in the high-stakes trenches of a serious chance at a national win. I came to know the other side of what I had seen Claire feel in years past as she competed on the A-team, as I told wild tales of my years as an emo basement rat among literal others to give her mind something other than loss to think about, the agonies and ecstasies of it all. I came to recognize that this was all not unrelated to all the things I appreciated about the Claire I knew beyond quizbowl, fighting for our union and for the greater historical forces in which it participates, carrying on the beauty of ages through song, being much more of the model scholar I aspire to be even as her colleague and peer, all of these pursued with her whole person. Were it not for her, Adam, and Ned—friends among friends, fellow omnivores of all that is good in this world, people with whom I'll forever share a connection only we and few others will ever have been in the position to deeply understand—this would have been just another year for me. But with the faith that we could make something of each other, the galvanizing effect of our friendships, and the tenacity to see it through, everything came together - divine intervention to put the Palo Alto tossup in the finals vs Stanford and preserve the physical impossibility of the 4peat aside, of course.

But none of that and indeed none of anything I've done at Chicago comes together without the club at large, and especially the stalwart officers who have kept it moving. I know firsthand how much of a task such a thing can be, having done so ex nihilo in my undergraduate years, an experience that left me relieved I'd never have to be responsible for such things again. I must especially give my thanks and express my extreme respect for Jay Kim and Ezra Santos on these fronts. Jay has, in her time as a key figure for the life of the club, navigated so much behind the scenes with such grace and solidity that I would feel indebted were this not something I know she would already forgive. She is a player after my own heart—a true lover of prose, someone who tirelessly wrings out every drop of further meaning to be found in this life, someone here for what's behind the questions—and I think the more such an attitude is celebrated in our community's culture, the better its future will become. Ezra, likewise a cornerstone of the function of UChicago's club, stands similarly as an exemplar of what it means to play for the love of the game. If you told me someone who never really played in high school was going to have their first ever college practice in the summer against Matt Jackson and Adam Fine, I would have taken hugely negative odds that they'd never return again. Yet, this is exactly how Ezra started, and when he kept on coming and steadily improving with utter fearlessness and drive, I knew immediately that the guy was special - a player after my own heart too. These two have made the past few years of fun I've been so privileged to have possible, and I hope they know that this public proclamation of thanks is the least I could do in return.

I'd be remiss not to say something about the rest of the friends I've had the pleasure of playing alongside at the club, and each of them deserves a post of their own, but I'm already stretching the limits of the contemporary average attention span, so I'll have to keep things brief. Having learned my lesson with Ned, I did not make the same mistake with Alvin Guo, who is the real deal, an ace player and omnivore of all things beautiful and interesting both; interacting with him has singlehandedly restored large portions of my fraught faith in the younger generations, and I look forward to playing with him in our coming years. Megan Ha has been as much the social (and practical) lifeblood of the club as anyone in my time here has been, and I'm always delighted to have another chance to hang out with her. Liam Starnes, now by far the most well-known of the current players in our club after his legendary Jeopardy run this past few weeks, is an inspiration on that front and others; it has been a pleasure playing alongside and against him, and seeing his love of so many things behind the questions. William Houston, Samarth Ram, and Coby Tran have been lovely individuals to get to know, are astute players in each of their own rights, and have been key voices in this current incarnation of our community. I would not have made it to this point were it not for Chicago quizzers of past years, teammates and/or friends all, such as: the great John Lawrence (one of my intellectual role models in general), the supreme Matt Jackson about whom any short quantity of words utterly fail (this little apophasis aside), the dynamic Kai Smith, the inimitably brilliant and incisively clever Lou, the great enemy of the worse of my idiosyncrasies and thankfully eventual friend Halle Friedman, the unbelievably and so casually cool Olivia Kiser, the authentically ingenious and infectiously joyful Vivek Sasse, the exacting yet effervescent Ben Miller, my compatriot in jazz and fellow lover of life Teddy Knox, the effortlessly mature aesthete and eventual vintner Robert Condron, the always-solid and astoundingly (com)passionate Matthew Lehmann (who has been one of the most encouraging single voices in my life and that of many others), the endlessly creative Wonyoung Jang, the hilariously frank and broodingly thoughtful Henry Cafaro, and the ever-impressive, infectiously enthusiastic, and inspiringly driven Amogh Kulkarni, to but scratch the surface of all those whose paths in life I'm so grateful my own has crossed, whose absences I feel with bittersweet constancy since our time together. I could enumerate all the other players here now and before, and sing each of their praises in turn, but we'd be here all day, so I will only say that: if you're reading this and you wish I had mentioned you, I am thinking and feeling the same thing.

~ + ~

There is certainly much more to be said about all the friends I've made across the other teams, and it has been a privilege to compete against them and their own tireless dedication just as well, but I've already gone on long enough just about this very special university and club; instead, I'll stop myself after just one more remark, as I think these quite worthy stories haven't been immortalized on the forums or wiki yet. Eleven years ago, Tim Morrison—boogeyman among boogeymen to me at this point, though being built different I suffer no heartrate-theoretical consequences of course—faced off against me and my team in the New Hampshire capitol building for the state "quizbowl" title, in a match that was supposed to be moderated by then-Dartmouth-frat-dude Will Alston (the hilarious reason he gave for his no-show is a story for another time, if Will is ever willing to suffer some youthful embarrassment for the comedic enjoyment of the public). The year before, a Will-coached NASAT team featuring myself, Jordan Brownstein, Graham Reid, and my erstwhile teammate Jonah Abraham (who never ended up playing in college) failed to materialize after Will's funds-seeking came up empty-handed; nobody knew about 9th-grade Tim then, but after he beat our ass on Granite State Challenge (which, for the record, can be watched for free online) in a devastating upset the next year, it was clear he would've been a shoo-in in my or Jonah's place. I think all can agree this is among the great little "what-ifs" of quizbowl history (the answer to that question is that I neg us out of everything we might have had going for us, naturally).

We managed to beat Tim pretty soundly at that state "championship," and I thought I had had the last word in our "rivalry." It was utterly impossible for any of us, I'd think, to so much as imagine—let alone foresee—that all four of us would become top college players, three national champions, and one the strongest player of all time, coming out of our tiny rural state's circuit and its all-but-worthless openly recycled "questions" (some of which have to be heard to be believed). I would have thought it absurd to suggest that, more than a decade later, Tim and I would again be facing off (approximately) in the nation's capital for one of the most prestigious titles in all of quizbowl, on the hardest closed questions of the year. To my lamentably cocky and pretentious punk teenage self, Jordan was just the impeccably dressed dude from Plymouth I had some kind of vague crush on, Graham the gesticulating genius I was pissed I couldn't come close to outbuzzing, and Tim the twerp from Nashua (a city that us rural New Hampshirites look down upon as a mere Massachusetts tax haven) whose cool demeanor and uncompromising humility made his wins over us all the more infuriating to me. I was lucky to have the chance to get to know Tim as a friend when we were both here in Chicago, have greatly enjoyed every chance I've had to talk with Jordan for real over the years, and wish I got more opportunities to get to know Graham beyond the game, but I've come to appreciate them all as much richer people than I think any of us even knew ourselves to be as adolescents. To see Jordan win the Carper as deservedly as anyone ever has was, I think, a worthy capstone to this era of New Hampshire's unprecedented relevance in college quizbowl, one I think all our old high school coaches would be proud to see and not find too hard to believe. I'm not sure what it is, if anything more than a constellation of contingencies, that made New Hampshire the incubator for what we all became against so many apparent indications to the contrary - but in any case, "live free or die."

~ + ~

I'm greatly looking forward to competing alongside the younger players of Chicago in the coming three years, and hope I can foster and encourage their own curiosity and dedication as well as all the great players at Chicago before them did for me. If I make even an iota of the positive impact on the game itself and our club's players that John Lawrence had on myself and the others during my earlier years here—if I can be even a fraction of the inspiration Matt Jackson has been to all of us, or embody anything like his unparalleled dedication and diligence—I will count it all among the proudest achievements of my life. God willing, we'll have some more surprises in store for you all yet.

Finally, I'd like to finish this heartfelt post on a comic note with a punchline, and thus will leave two links here without comment: exhibit a, and exhibit b (see the final remarks) - make of them what you will.

[Serpentine284]

Wow.

When I first started Quiz Bowl in high school, I genuinely had no idea how much this activity would enrapture me and how much I would give to it. Even after 8 years, I still can't really believe it. Quiz Bowl has meant and still means so much to me, and it wouldn't have anywhere near as much meaning to me if not for all of the incredible people I met along the way. Each and every friend I made through this game has genuinely shaped and molded me into the person I am today, and I'll always remember the people that impacted me so. To avoid the curse of Weiner's Law #2, I'm not going to claim that it is 100% certain that I won't play collegiate Quiz Bowl in my last year, but it looks unlikely at the moment. We'll see. In the event that I don't end up continuing, though, I would like to take this (very long) time to reflect on my full time in Quiz Bowl, both high school and college, and thank those people who touched my heart over the years. And if I do end up playing next year, I just won't do an appreciation post then.

Major disclaimer: I don't think I could ever match the beautiful language of John's earlier post, but I hope you'll forgive the fact that I ended up matching the length of it.

---

While I technically did play a Quiz Bowl tournament in my freshman year of high school, I like to think I officially started my career in sophomore year. In my freshman year, I was all in on policy debate and barely paid any attention to the activity that would later consume my whole life. Due to blind luck, however, Wayzata slowly fazed out the policy program at the school, and in a move of desperation, I decided to go with Quiz Bowl as my primary activity for the rest of the year. I actually only joined originally Quiz Bowl because one of my best friends Ash Halepet was in it, and they roped me in. Thank goodness they did, because I loved every minute of it. The trivia, the competition, the fast-paced nature, the community, the game. They all lured me in too quickly. I am so, so grateful to the leadership in the club for welcoming me and encouraging me to join the team. In particular, I'd like to thank Brian Lin, Ben Weiner, and the incredible Shao twins, Bryanna and Cece, for integrating me into the club and taking a chance with me on the A team. It really meant a lot creating such a strong community that I could be a part of. I'd also like to thank our incredible former coach Lucas Sun for always being there for the team, taking charge and showing his passion for our club more than anyone else did. I also need to thank all of the wonderful people and friends I made in the club for making those three years of high school as enjoyable as they were. I know I'm probably forgetting some people, but a massive thanks to Ash (as mentioned before), Richard Gu, Lea Wittman, Emily Liu, Anuk Dias, Sam Buan, Ai Xing, Rani Mukherjee, Sarayu Goduguchinta, Samarth Ram, and many more for making the experience leave such a positive mark on me. The club was at its best for me when all of you were there, and in high school, I was at my best when I got to spend time with all of you. Lastly, I'd like to thank Andrew Yang, whose eternal friendship and impact on my life I cannot enumerate in a simple Quiz Bowl forums post, mostly because he did very little in Quiz Bowl except fall out of his chair once and play the rest of the game on the floor. But I feel as though I can't do any sort of retrospective on my life without bringing him up in some capacity, so there's your little shoutout.

Outside of the Wayzata Quiz Bowl, I do also have to mention two other Minnesotans who were so kind and great to me during my high school years: the former Mounds View players Shardul Rao and Maxwell Ye. These two first introduced me to the idea that I could be friends with a wider QB community outside of the confines of my school club, and I am truly happy to have met them. Shardul was also the first person I considered to be a friendly "rival" and inspired me to study 10x harder for Quiz Bowl, so thank you for perhaps unintentionally pushing me down that long path.

---

Before I move onto my college years, I have to talk about the group of friends I made outside of Wayzata and remain some of the closest friends I have today. It was pretty much a total coincidence that I met them; literally, what are the odds that you find two high schoolers heavily invested in Quiz Bowl named Amogh Kulkarni? And the fact that this coincidence led me to become friends with so many great people... truly magnificent. The aforementioned other Amogh Kulkarni is so intelligent and driven and honestly we don't meet enough for friends who live in the same state. Let's get Taco Bell or something sometime. His former Arcadia teammate Ryan Sun is such a nice and passionate person and I love every second I get to spend with him malding over video game content and "high school stock clues." I think my happiest individual moment in Quiz Bowl came from seeing a message he sent to me after the 2021 IPNCT finals. I'm so glad he decided to continue playing in college, if only so I got to selfishly see more of him (I just realized upon re-reading that I said this exact same thing in last year's appreciation thread, but screw it, it needs to be said twice). We'll always have Mario's Time Machine <3. Josh Rubel is one of the kindest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, and even though we don't talk as much as we used to, I know that I can always count on him to be there for me in a heartbeat if I ever need anything at all. That's the sign of a true friend. I must also show some love for Rohan Venkateswaran, who I'm so proud to call not only a close friend, but also a mentor figure of sorts. He has unknowingly taught me so much about being a mature and strong person, and I can't thank him enough for it. Both Justin Chen and Pratyush Jaishanker need to be mentioned as well for being the absolute maniacs they are. Kidding... but also not really. I love these two so much, and hearing about their non-career-related escapades always brings a smile to my face. I also want to show some appreciation for Abhinav Karthikeyan, Lewis Fuller, and for being great friends who were there for me when I needed it most. I really hope we don't fall out of touch in the future, this group has felt like a true family to me for such a long time. I cannot overstate what they mean to me and how much they have done for me emotionally. I don't know when we'll meet again, but I'll be very angry if we don't do so sometime soon.

---

Wow, that was already so long and I haven't even gotten to my college years yet! Thankfully, we're finally on this next chapter of my Quiz Bowl life, and boy was it also filled with so many people who deserve appreciation.

When I went to UChicago, I told myself that I would be much less involved in Quiz Bowl, even quitting it for a very short but very committed amount of time. However, I was fully brought back into the fold by Aayush Goodapaty, one of the greatest people I've ever met. It's so great getting to talk to him about the NFL and random history tidbits. Seriously, he is so nice and accommodating and self-assured, I'm jealous of him sometimes. That is, until I remember that he could only name one rapper in the past 15 years, and the only one was Kanye because of his politics. Then I'm glad I'm not Aayush. Of course, I can't mention him without also talking about Connor Blake and Shawn Meng, my other incredible DII ICT teammates who made playing that tournament such a blast. That team was probably my favorite closed team I've ever been a part of, and I'm so grateful the three of them took that roller coaster of a journey with me. Unfortunate that we didn't end up winning the event, but it was a blast trying. I also need to thank Ned Tagtmeier for all that he did to help me find my place in the club. I was very uncomfortable being in a new environment at first, but he helped me get accustomed to it and even still kindly offered me a place to stay when I traveled to Chicago for ICT this year. Speaking of Ned, I have to talk about the rest of his great teammates now. Adam Fine was such a fun presence to be around during my time at Chicago, and I'm incredibly lucky to have recently discovered that he's a huge NMIXX fan, so there is absolutely no way I'm falling out of touch with him now. To say that Matt Jackson was a mentor for me in Quiz Bowl is selling him short, because the way he inspired me to reframe how I thought about Quiz Bowl significantly affected me for the past three years. Claire Jones is the warmest and kindest person ever, period. Whenever she says she's happy to see me, it feels so much more real than when anyone else says it. She's living proof, along with John Marvin, that grad school students, contrary to popular belief, do actually have a heart! Speaking of John, he's such an inquisitive person as well, one of the most fun teammates to have, and just an overall great person to talk to about anything. I don't think I've ever been more pleasantly surprised to find out that he's a big fan of the NFL. I'd also like to thank Nermeen Rahman and Ezra Santos for being such bright presences in the club and truly accepting me in despite my avoidant nature at first. You two are the best and I can't wait for your next chapters.

Even though I've now left the university, I'm so glad that I've remained close with Vivek Sasse. He's such a positive and bright soul, I can't imagine my life without him. His passion for physics and mathematics is actually unmatched, I cannot believe he actually likes that stuff, he's crazy. It was so great working with him again on ARGOS and getting another opportunity to play alongside him at WAO. It's always great talking to him, even if 70% of our conversations nowadays are about Balatro, and it was so nice seeing him again in Chicago. Finally, I want to close out the Chicago era by showing some love for Jay Kim, who I unexpectedly had the pleasure of getting much closer with this year. She is such an amazing person and I'm really happy to see how much she's grown even just over these past few months. She's great company during the Ace Attorney playthroughs and has been such a massive help on my fledgling journey to learn all of Korean. Her music recommendations are always welcome and her drama recommendations even more so. I'm incredibly proud to call her my friend. And I hope she knows that, like the Duolingo bird, I will continue to forever bug her with questions about grammar rules that she does not remember. You cannot run from it.

---

Now, the Georgia section. I did technically move to Georgia right after high school and I did meet these people before transferring to GSU, but it's nicer to group it this way, I think. Leaving UChicago for GSU was definitely one of the hardest decisions I made, but ultimately while it did have repercussions in other aspects of my life (both positive and negative), I'm glad to say that it did not hurt the relationships I share with the Quiz Bowlers I met, and I was fortunate enough to forge a few new ones as well.

When I first moved to Georgia, I felt pretty lost. I didn't know anyone here and I locked myself up in my room a lot, silently hoping I'd be able to make friends in this frighteningly new place. Thankfully, that opportunity presented itself to me in the form of three amazing people. Vishal Sareddy is the most positive and energetic people I've ever met; he's just so full of boundless love for everyone that it's hard to imagine that he's a real person. He made me feel right at home in this new environment and gave me a big hug to go with it. Such a superb guy, honestly. Alison Yau is one of the most kind and caring people I've met, and it's honestly pretty insane that she still puts up with the three of us making fun of her height all the time. I'm so lucky that I've gotten to be her friend these past few years, she's truly outstanding. Last but not least, Jonah Turner has been the heart of this little group and shown me so much love despite me being a massive newcomer to the state. The two of us will perpetually be waiting for Vishal and Alison to show up on time, it seems, and there's no one else I'd rather be waiting with.

I can't talk about my time in Georgia without also talking about the most passionate, intellectual, kind, driven, and overall amazing person I had the honor of being friends with. Arya Karthik was such an inspiration to me, both in Quiz Bowl and out of it. Every conversation with them was a treat to be a part of. It's hard, knowing that I won't get the opportunity to have one more lunch with them. Even now, it still hasn't fully sunk in. But the memory of them, the impact they left on me and everyone else, that will always be a part of me, etched into my heart. Arya will always be a part of my life, forever and more.

---

We've almost made it, chat. For my last section, I want to shout out the lovely members of the NCQB cabal. We did meet online and at very different times, so I couldn't neatly place this chronologically, but it feels fitting to have this as the grand finale. I hold each and every one of them dear to my heart, and I hope our future friendship only strengthens with time.

Considering how much the group has evolved over time, it's crazy to remember that the first one I met was actually everyone's least favorite cat, Rosa Xia. Thankfully, staying friends in unlikely circumstances never stopped us, and I'm very thankful I got to know her and all of her... "quirks" since. I normally can't commit to anything for a long period of time, so I was so pleasantly surprised when Rosa agreed to play through the entire Ace Attorney series with me (only just finishing the original trilogy after 1.5 years!!). She is the most genuinely nice person ever, and her extra-strength hugs are always welcome. Next, I want to talk about the cutest man ever to exist, Richard Niu. Richard is like everything I want to be in life: insanely good at quiz bowl, jacked.... yeah, that's about all I want. And he's got those two down. But in all seriousness, Richard has been the most amazing friend to me these past couple of years, during a time when I was seriously questioning if my personal life was irreparably damaged. I'm incredibly lucky to have stumbled into the way of the Chard Chrain, and I know I can never get off. Fellow Cornellian and poker enthusiast Nathan Zhang has proven time and time again that I cannot predict this man at all. Every time I meet him, he finds another way to lovingly surprise me. I really do hope he ends up pursuing his passion for philosophy in some fashion, it would be a shame to see his mind wasted away by computer science. The car himself Raymond Wang is like the experienced veteran who always seems to know everything, in QB and out of it. He has a strong sarcastic front, but he's such a giving person at heart who just wants to see everyone succeed. Truly one of the greats of our time.

I know I said I was jealous of Aayush earlier, but I don't think I've ever been more jealous (in a good way) of the one and only developer of QBReader, Geoffrey Wu. This man has a great job, great work-life balance, and is also somehow also still a beast at Quiz Bowl. Oh yeah, he's also a super sweet and fun person to be around. If I could bet on people, I'd be riding Geoffrey Wu stocks to the moon. Jason Hong has been such a bright spot in my life these past couple of years. Be it late-night review sessions of which I remember nothing or his impeccable Judge voice for Ace Attorney, it's safe to say Jason has dominated my nights this past year (pause). Letting me stay at his place and dealing with my drunk self during ACF Nationals was also very nice and unnecessary, but he did it anyway because that's just how great he is. Aum Mundhe is not only a great source of entertainment with all of his assorted animated responses, but is also an incredible friend who serves as a constant source of inspiration. Hopefully, we can continue complaining about Future together for a long time. Forrest Weintraub is such a strong-willed individual that it honestly astounds me. Whatever she sets out to do, she instantly becomes excellent at. While I must ideologically disagree with some of her cat-related tendencies, I'll always support her with everything I have. And when she comes back to Quiz Bowl, you all better be scared, she's only gotten better since graduating. I think Owen Mimno might have the highest proportion of banger messages of anyone I've talked to, this guy is hilarious. I'm a little sad that almost everyone else is graduating, because it means that I'll be visiting New York City less and that means missing out on more fun times with Owen.

After another resounding defeat at fantasy and a lost bet about Stanford's ACF Nationals run, I think I am finally forced to admit that Andrew Zeng has the best ball knowledge about QB players I have ever seen. I mean, he's still hilariously wrong a lot of the time, but he gets it incredibly correct sometimes. Might be my boogeyman. Anyway, I only have positive hopes for Andrew's future, he's got a real knack for writing. His fellow Stanfordian Michał Gerasimiuk might be giving Owen a run for his money on that proportion of banger messages metric, though. Michał's incredible fashion and overpowering aura might distract you from his fun nature and open heart. He's truly a joy to be around. I was tempted to make solely my comments about Mitch McCullar mean as a fun jab, but the truth is he's an absolutely great guy. I'm very envious of the passion he has for literature (not for literature for me though... I don't want to have that for literature, but other, better, cooler things). Watching him lose his mind over Andrew's takes these past few months has been a joy to watch, truly. He's brought so much levity into my life, it feels like I can't be down when he's around. I can't wait for Penn State to win nationals in 2050 or whenever the hell he gets done with his PhD. Last but certainly not least, I want to show some appreciation for Ben Chapman. He's such a nice guy who I wish was online more so I could talk to him more, but also shows real love for Quiz Bowl in these trying times. It's awesome to see and I hope for nothing less than the best for him.

This group has been my home in Quiz Bowl, and a lot of times outside of it, these past few years. These people have kept me going in this activity for the past couple of years, and I'm reluctant to admit that I'm happy that they did. One final big thank you from me to you for the great times we've had and that we'll hopefully continue to have. Japan trip? Japan trip? Japan trip?

---

Man, that was so long. If anyone actually read all of this, I seriously respect that. Especially if you don't know me very well. I know a massive retrospective on my life in Quiz Bowl is not exactly at the top of anyone's wishlist, so my last bit of appreciation goes out to anyone who decided to share in my story, even just a little bit. I encourage others to also share their full Quiz Bowl stories if they have the time and the patience, I would love to read those. Anyway, it's been a turbulent career, but if this is how I end up closing out my high school/collegiate time, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I wouldn't change a thing.

[rhn26]

I feel a bit self-conscious about my straightforward and reserved writing in a thread where it would give me no greater pleasure than to heap lavish and grandiloquent praise upon every one of my benefactors, especially after reading some of said florid prose upthread, but here goes nothing anyways:

I had never heard of quizbowl before starting college. Four years later on the cusp of graduation (edit: I put this post off long enough that commencement already happened… whoops), I look back on those first days of college and wonder what would’ve happened if I didn’t come across quizbowl by chance. I think I would’ve been more focused education-wise and more career-driven, which are certainly positive attributes that I wish I possessed — indeed, I would have saved both myself and my parents a lot of stress if I had devoted half the time I spent on quizbowl into finding a job. I would not, however, have experienced the countless memories and friendships that quizbowl has afforded me throughout college, for which I am eternally grateful.

I’ll begin with members of Cornell Quizbowl. During my time here, our club has grown from a group of 5-odd people reading packets in a dingy room in Baker Chem Lab to a full-fledged, diverse social community, which I’m really proud of. I’ll try not to ramble on too long here but there’s so many people that I have to acknowledge that I will certainly be failing.

I probably would’ve forever remained ignorant of quizbowl and its people if it wasn’t for a chance remark made by Allen Wang in Cornell’s Class of 2025 Discord server back in September 2021. Although he has since moved on from quizbowl, I owe him for this more than he knows. I should also thank him for dragging my ass through a CS course on more than one occasion. Apart from Allen, I met Nathan Zhang and Rosa Xia as fellow freshmen in 2021 and not only have they stuck around with me in the club for all four years, they’re also some of the closest friends I made at Cornell period. There’s so much memorable about Nathan, including his habit of showing up to the gym 30 minutes late without fail and the degenerate 4am LoL sessions in sophomore year, but what stands out most to me is his intellectual curiosity and big heart. Nathan has a certain flair to his presence which immediately makes him stand out within any social circle, which I hope won’t be dampened by the year of corporate work and chronic gambling poker marathons that he plans to undertake. The kindness Rosa irradiates to anyone around her, be it in the form of a crocheted plushie, a bone-crushing hug, or a simple yet edifying conversation on Discord, is unparalleled and I’m positive anyone who knows her will agree. The passion Rosa holds for her interests and the energy she has for sharing them with other people is infectious (this includes the various blob/cat emojis, of which I suppose I’m now an unironic user), and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been one such recipient (and I hope I will continue to be).

Raymond Wang’s presence motivated me a ton freshman year to get better at classical music and his voracious reading inspires me at present to read more. He also truly did anchor the club by virtue of having a car, and beneath his tsundere exterior lies a genuine disposition to help others, evidenced by his countless chauffeur services performed with only moderate grumbling. It was inspiring having Geoffrey Chen and Jonathan Tran in the club as mentor-like figures to look up to. Jonathan’s relentless output of study questions and unbounded enthusiasm for the game, even as a top-tier player, inspired me to improve, and Geoffrey’s down-to-earthness despite his fearsome reputation on science made me feel welcome to stick around when I entered the game only knowing some science. The big OG Andrew Heller is just a chill guy and I wish he gave us Louie’s discounts more, but I appreciate him staying with the club for as long as I’ve been here. Last but definitely not least from this period is the well-known and respected Dan Ni. I initially found camaraderie with him from our mutual Science Bowl background, and to this day I very much enjoy talking to him about science, quizbowl, CS, life, and just about anything. Dan is definitely an interesting character online but he’s truly willing to go to bat for those he cares about, and I look up to him in a lot of ways. I hope to get the opportunity to staff science bowl nationals with him sometime.

Yared Tadesse returned to Cornell in the spring of my sophomore semester, and I learned recently that he almost transferred out before doing so. I’m very glad he didn’t, because Yared is one of the funniest, most upbeat people that I know and his presence in the club is an unstainable bright spot. I’m very thankful he decided to play ICT this year after being initially unsure of what he’d contribute, which turned out to be invaluable rapport in and out of game as well as a stylish tiebreak-clinching buzz against Waterloo. Sarod Nori’s ownership of a car was equally invaluable and it’s been cool having him in the club as a contrast to its relatively youthful majority (in other words, he’s unc). I wish him all the best in his lawyer ventures. I also really enjoyed having Karthik Prasad in the club before he did something lame like “moving away for a job”; it was great seeing him at ICT this year. I remain constantly jealous of the LA Phil concerts he posts on his story and it’s motivated me to hopefully see the SFS more in the future.

As the club grew in my junior and senior years, I was unfortunately less active due to school and am thus unable to recount all our wonderful members. However, I would like to thank Elizabeth Larkin, Jude Garlic, Brian Hoff, and Jacky Xu, among others, for sticking around during the initial part of this transition period and remaining active members to this day. I wish them the best of luck in their upcoming study abroad semesters, as well as for the rest of their time at Cornell and beyond. I couldn’t forget Julian Bushlow for his heroic efforts in dealing with club management after us upperclassmen got too lazy to do anything. I can’t name all of our new members that I (infrequently) saw this year, but Alec Riso’s stories about high school quizbowl and his impressions of a certain man are very entertaining and Kevin Peng, whose passion for quizbowl reminds me of myself four years ago, was very kind to let a contingent of 9 of us stay over at his house in Maryland during Nats this year. I look forward to following the club’s fortunes and supporting them in the coming years.

I don’t want to go on for too long, so I’ll (try to) hasten my thanks for my other friends in the quizbowl community outside of Cornell.

Amogh Kulkarni stole my line because I held off on posting this for weeks, but he’s the cutest guy I know. I’m a bit concerned about how much of a koreaboo he’s turned into while refusing to listen to K-pop artists before 5th gen, but I really appreciate Amogh for being super easy to talk to about literally anything. It’s a privilege to be friends with this empathetic, outgoing, and resilient individual, and I hope his West Coast trip materializes in the near future. As the most prominent (and only?) member of Andrew Zeng’s fan club, I stand proudly behind every one of his takes; he’s one of the funniest people I know and it was amazing to see him pop off in Nats finals this year. Andrew truly has a skill for writing, and not just satiritical forum posts; I enjoy and will continue to enjoy reading his Stanford Daily articles. The lengths Aum Mundhe goes to in order to support others and his care for the well-being of his friends is touching; I still remember him driving 4 hours up to Ithaca just to drive us back another 4 hours for us to attend SCT at Rutgers in 2024. I know that he’ll excel at anything he puts the same drive into as he did into studying philosophy for quizbowl these past couple years. Ben Chapman is truly the paragon of sanity compared to the rest of us, but his genial presence and insider leaks on whatever the Canadians are talking about is greatly appreciated. Don’t stop doing that just because I pointed it out though. I hope he fulfills his dreams of working in Silicon Valley in the future. Forrest Weintraub is probably the most avid learner I’ve ever met — the amount of topics in which she’s either already an expert in or actively trying to learn more about is both staggering and inspiring, but she’s also incredibly supportive of anyone about anything. I await both her homemade audio quizzes and the day of her ascendancy to quizbowl overlordship. It’s probably quite evident from his enormous contributions to the quizbowl community for not much in return, but Geoffrey Wu is an immensely kind person who you can always count on for a laugh. Thanks to Geoffrey for letting us crash so many times at Columbia whenever we went down for a tournament and being a great host and friend; the cutthroat finance industry is lucky to have him. I really enjoy talking Bay Area tidbits and basketball with Jason Hong, which includes sharing a roller coaster of emotions stemming from being Warriors fans — hopefully we’ll get to play some ball in person soon. I admire his willingness to always try new things and give people the time of day. Like Forrest, he also got way too good at quizbowl after graduating. Michał Gerasimiuk never fails to entertain us with stories from his numerous other extracurriculars and his presence is delightful, but he’s also just an clipfarmer irl with his dapper dressing habits and aura-filled buzzes on “Palo Alto” and “yes” in Nats finals. I might finally start reading some of his menswear posts now that I’m supposed to be an adult. I’ve gotten to know Mitch McCullar more recently than the others, but a youthful and exuberant personality resides in that shiny bald head and his love for all things literature is part of what inspired me to pick up reading again. I’m looking forward to booting up Town of Salem 2 with him soon, but he should know that the original is always better. Owen Mimno’s dry wit and sophisticated posting habits are in stark contrast with the rest of us, who are in our 20s now but can’t stop posting brainrot. He’s always dependable for either a fulfilling conversation and/or an obscure music recommendation, and because of him I might finally hop on Apple Classical. Like Raymond, he’s always dependable for a lift if he’s around; unlike Raymond, he does it without complaining.

I look forward to seeing these individuals around in the near future — one day we’ll get the Asia trip out of the group chat and into a reality…

I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out Cade Reinberger, a perennial presence in the Upstate New York circuit for as long as I’ve played quizbowl. It’s been very fun battling with Cade at tournaments and he’s always such an upbeat, friendly person that it’s a joy to play him. I’m super happy that he got to play to play ACF Nationals this year and I hope he had a good time, though judging from his science domination and jaw-dropping American Literature buzzes I’m guessing he did. In a similar vein, I enjoyed playing Sanjeev Uppaluri from Syracuse a lot as well; I still remember the duels we had at ACF Fall 2022 (in which he came out on top both times and provided me with nonzero motivation to study more). In addition, shout out to Cade’s teammates Will Hoover, Tom Scheri, and Chris Scheri from RIT for being persistent and genial presences in the circuit as well. I should also mention Adam Swift while I’m talking about RIT-adjacent people for his herculean efforts in de facto running the whole Upstate show. It was also great to see Binghamton’s club grow during my time at Cornell; shoutouts are due to Sophie Ettinger, Matthew Christian, and Deric Wagner among others for their consistent attendance and TD efforts. I’m happy to see the Upstate circuit alive and well, and I hope the Cornellians after me do their part to contribute to its upkeep in the future.

It was awesome getting to see my former high school Science Bowl teammates Anirudh Bharadwaj and Jonathan Huang at ACF Regs and Nats this year, respectively. It’s a pretty cool series of events when you consider that our high school did not have a quizbowl club at all (though I later discovered that Anirudh was actually a menace on IS sets at a couple of random tournaments in high school, unbeknownst to me).

There’s so many other people who have made my experience in quizbowl great but I really don’t have the space to list them out here, so thank you at large to anyone I’ve ever interacted with in quizbowl, whether that be as an in-game opponent or as a shitposter on MainQB. In particular, I’d like to express my appreciation for all my opponents at ACF Nationals this year, as every one of them was gracious enough to sign my program :)

I don’t know what the future holds for my relationship to quizbowl. I currently find myself quite relieved to be distanced from the game after a whirlwind four years, but I know that can all change at the drop of a hat. If this is my play’s last scene, I can safely say that quizbowl has impute[d] me of righteous knowledge and a passion for learning that I can take with me into the next chapter of my life. Thank you, then, to quizbowl itself, for four years that I will never forget.

[astral]

First off, thank you to the LSE club. Andre, Andy, Catherine, Christina, Cormac, David, Henry, Leo, and Ryan - y’all have been excellent to drink, yap, club, play quizbowl, and whatever with. I’m so sad that most of you are graduating next year.

I’ve enjoyed my first year in the UK circuit. Special shoutouts to Imperial and Bristol, who I’ve especially liked playing against. (And not just your excellent A teams!) Special special shoutout to Imperial A - every game we’ve played is the most ridiculous, hilarious, close-fought fiesta. Also thanks Rhys for organising Quafia. That was fun.

Here’s one for the people from the Asian circuit I still talk to and pop up unexpectedly. Atharv, Cheyenne, Eveline, Kevin, Matthew, Percy, Seraphina - it’s crazy how we’re still in contact all these years later.

The biggest way I engage with quizbowl continues to be question writing. It’s been a fun year of writing questions with what I assume are cool people beyond their Discord usernames. Noah and Benjamin, it was nice briefly meeting you at Nats. Shoutout to the whole LIQBA crew too!