2024-2025 Player Shill/Appreciation/Shout-out Thread

[robby_redford]

Hey yall!

Quizbowl season is wrapping up (to my pace-and-nasat-going friends, good luck!), so I figured it was about time to put together the traditional shill thread.

You all know the drill; shout out anyone you think deserves a shout-out, whether it be because of their diabolical staline or lovely question-writing or aura. If you feel someone was underrepresented in the rankings or was an unsung hero of your team, be sure to give them some extra love.

I'll probably drop my own thoughts, both on my own team and on the circuit as a whole, sometime that isn't 11:49 on a Thursday. In the meantime, though, go crazy.

[Kaizon43]

Adlai E. Stevenson High School of Lincolnshire, Illinois, are good at the game of Quiz Bowl and winnats. The player by the name of Spencer manning went 45/40/19 which is extremely .

Also Northview High School of Johns Creek, Georgia, are quite cool and fantastically excelled at this year's High School National Championship Tournament. Kaiden Lee in particular needs to acknowledge the 'aura' that his statline of 38/38/12 generated.

[Somewhere in the Stratosphere]

Didn't play nationals so I really don't have many shoutouts in that vein (hopefully next year!) but my Arkansas-specific shoutouts go to all my fellow allstar finalists and Joe Feldman for writing what were easily the best questions AGQBA has had in years, and my only message is that, to my returning players both from Arkansas and beyond, see y'all next year.

Also, congrats to Russellville B for their second consecutive title of best chipbowl team in the country, to Jeffrey Robinson, Daniel Witsell, and Jacob Lewis for representing their schools and Arkansas as a whole at IPNCT, and to Batesville for representing us at HSNCT. Arkansas doesn't have a NASAT team or anyone playing PACE NSC, so that's all for this year.

[quizbowlchamp1]

Ok first off see my middle school post to know what I think about those dudes.

West Point: ROLL MF TIDE. Bringing some glory to the Yellowhammer State. Brodie is absolutely cracked (he dropped like 165 on me) and he has good teammates like Sean, JD, and Brady. I think they will be pretty good going forward bc they keep Sean and some others from their B team (Starr and Allan) + they bring up some pretty cracked middle schoolers (like Abram and Cole). Watch out for Auburn cuz they still got Will McCurley, Wil Hughes, Henry Bylinowski, and Gabi Hughes (who will all unfort be playing D1), but they also get Brodie and Tate Osborne. Speaking of Tate...

Tate Osborne: Again giving The Heart of Dixie some pride. I was really rooting for him to win IPNCT (rather unfortunate way to go out) but 2nd is very respectable. Still unfortunately missing his SSNCT belt (which he deserved). Definitely gets the title of best player in AL history. Auburn is scary.

Hoover. Krish Nathan is really scary. He is very deep in a lot of categories and I think holds the most points averaged record for our state? (EDIT: He does. 201 PP20TUH.) Also his teammates are pretty good. Shoutout to Sonny Bracamontes for being a crazy FA player.

I might do some non Alabama shoutouts soon, but that's all for now.

[3errs]

Hey folks. It's late at night and I'm waiting for a flight at Halifax airport, so let's power through this.

It has been ... a hell of a year, to say the least. Thanks for all the amazing moments -- both the good, the crushing, and everything in between -- and I hope to be back for one last HSQB ride next year. There's a good chance I miss a few names on this list due to just the sheer volume of people I had the pleasure of interacting with, but I'll try to keep it all here.

First, the team.

There is not a single bad thing I could say about any one of my teammates on our final A team to finish out the season. Alex Ma, Catherine Yue, and Ayan Khasgiwala -- y'all are absolute ballers and I am so glad you're with us and not with another bum institution *cough* WSC *cough* FRC *cough* SciOly *cough*.

Ayan -- I genuinely admire how well you've taken to filling a spot in the A team that didn't even exist at the start of the season. Coming into HSNCT and playing incredibly solidly on such short notice is tough as hell and you've made it. We ping off of each other in such a good way too; there's just pure chemistry here and we just need a few more tournaments to let it simmer to let it come to its fullest extent. Also, your geo skills are incredible, to say the least, and I am so damn excited to see how you do at both IAC and standard quizbowl in the next few years. You'll be an incredible team captain next year .

Catherine -- HOW DID YOU NOT JOIN QUIZBOWL SOONER‽ You're absolutely built for this and your presence around with infinite smiles and endless infodumping about ballet are such a great addition to this team, and your willingness to get better at the game is something I respect and appreciate so much. Your positivity around the game and our practices just never ends, and I am amazed at how you do it. Skills-wise, we've all grown so much over the past year, but seeing how you came into your own and carved such a weird and unique niche in the QB canon to farm points from has been especially gratifying. I am on Chapter 9 of The Power Broker as of 9 PM Eastern tonight -- please hold me accountable!

Alex -- we go so, so far back. It has been a tough year on all of us, and you and I are the last OGs from the last few years still hanging around. We got one more year of this living hell (/pos as much as possible) before we're free. Your science and AFA skills are so damn impressive to watch, both in practice and in tournaments, and I feel some strange peace of mind whenever "this composer" comes around as an indicator as I can shut off my mind and ignore everything. We've got a strange chemistry that could only come from a duo that's been around each other since the middle of elementary school, and I will sorely miss your presence once we're all off to university.

To us, together -- I love how we all work together and how much energy we've got as a team; this is the first ever time I've truly felt motivated to get better at the game and not lie flat for a summer, and I credit that to just how much we've grown in such a short time already. I have so, so much faith in us, and even if we don't find anything of worth in our results in the end, we can take solace in the fact that we tried so damn hard. But nevermind that -- next year is our year!

Also, carving out a special space for Yanlin Huang too whose geography skills just seem to get better with each passing year. He got a pretty small mention in my post from last year, but dear god has he gotten even better. He's gotta be one of the best underclassmen geo players in the nation, surely.

For the middle school team, it has been an absolute joy and my pleasure to just witness how much you've all grown over just the past year. Timo Ye and George Zhang came into the club two years ago as an awkward, quiet duo, and now are probably the most motivated people in the club to improve. Ishaan Dinesh is just so goddamn good at quizbowl, too. Rising star at MSNCT to give us our first school medal since 2021, he just continues to impress however he plays. Rounding out the pure vibes of the MS A team is Uriah Chen, who is one of the strangest (again, /pos) history players I have ever seen. His knowledge on AmHist is genuinely incredible, and he brings so much energy to this team.

To everyone else involved in BISV QB, I thank you dearly for keeping this machine running. Y'all are a part of something great, and I realize almost nobody from that club is going to see this, but stick around next year! We'll get more donuts, I promise.

Shoutout to my dad too for stepping into advise the club when our other advisor wasn't able to stick around anymore.

Let's run it back next year, fellas!

For some non-school shoutouts:

Lily Zhang (Nueva School, Burlingame, Calif.) is a great person who has one of the worst music tastes on the planet. From the Jets-posting to the indie rock discourse, this year has been much better with you hanging around. Praying for an SSNCT matchup next year, and I am ready to have it come down to the wire just like our very limited in-game interactions did this year! A mention here as well to Priyamvada Banerjee (Wayzata HS, Minn.), the final member of our Minnesotan Embassy. Thanks for the Minnesotapilling. I can't stop mentioning Duluth to everyone now. It's like an active cognitohazard. Whenever someone mentions Lake Superior I just have to drop in by reciting the entirety of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and listing off a bunch of Duluth facts. The Minnesotaposting will continue until morale improves I fear.

The DELTA headiting clan of Elijah Guenthner and Pranavkrishna Bharanidharan has been one of the funniest groups I've ever been a part of. Besides being good at quizbowl, you two are probably some of the funniest and genuine people I have met in the game. Bagel trip gone wrong was one of my favorite quizbowl memories from the whole season, too. I look forward to losing to y'all again and again for years to come. Oh, and the set is going to go well and the mainsite will happen too inshallah

Thanks to Fierro Grey for keeping my head grounded throughout the season. It's been mentally very, very tough on me for a variety of reasons and you've helped pull me back from the edge of burnout and completely shutting down several times. Appreciate 'ya.

And finally, some IAC (and various other assorted) shoutouts:

As always, starting with Robyn Miller (McMinnville, Ore.) and Teddy Fellrath (New Albany, Ohio) of the Dash 8 Appreciation Society for being absolutely brilliant amazing people. I have enjoyed every moment of IAC nats this year I spent running around with you doofuses, and the tournament -- and scene in general -- are so much better with you two around. When things got tough, you were there to help me get through it all, and when things were amazing, you bunch were there to celebrate. I can't thank you enough, and I can't explain your positive impact on my last three years of quizbowl in words.

To drop off some names now, as this post is getting unbearably long: Roman Gagliardi is really, really good at quizbowl, Malcolm McIntyre is genuinely terrifying at geohist and I worriedly wonder how he's gonna absolutely shred the DMV circuit if he pulls up to a quizbowl tournament, Evan Ting is a pure baller at the game and god am I excited if we end up playing at SSNCT, Chris Chor is very, very cool, Conor Thompson whacked me with a newspaper in person which is a photo op I had been waiting like a whole year for, Fern Fang has an unbeatable personality and is a joy to be around, and I probably missed many, many people.

And, finally, congratulations to Bobby on the HSNCT win. Thanks for the manifold points, among many, many other things!

If you took a BISV sticker this year: thanks! We will have more next year, hopefully with a new design too. More teams should do stickers :3

That will just about wrap it up. Thanks to everyone in Quizbowl for an unbelievable 2024/25 season. This post is way, way too long, but I don't care at all.

[beeeeeeeenji]

in no specific order

shout out to sheehan, daniel, conor, padraig, laurel (i have the neg 5 sticker on my phone right now), vidyut, evan, robbie w., graham h., lokajith, alex, sahil, arjun v., priyamvada, kaiden, bobby, claire, jeff xie, the shelby county team from alabama, pk, the whole of raleigh charter, the whole of north carolina (9 teams!), sowrish (who wasn't there), jonas (who wasn't there) and all the great teams i played and cool ppl i met that i cannot remember off the top of my head. also shout out to everyone who attended my friday night scrim at marriott during like 12am. also shout to the jefferson team from el paso, texas.

User was reminded to enable a complete signature --Mgmt.

[Ben Hellman]

A few people, in and outside the DMV, that deserve some appreciation:

The Country:
Padraig Finan wrote an entire question set (and a very good one, from what I heard from the players at our mirror of it) and finished 13th at HSNCT playing solo. I am not sure which of these is more nuts. He is an incredible history player who has generalized about as well as anyone. The sky is the limit for the next two years.
Grady Noble is Idaho Quiz Bowl and Idaho Quiz Bowl is Grady Noble. He is one of the nicest people in the game and a cracked generalist. I want to know how fast he got the Boise State tossup at HSNCT.
Robert Wang is undoubtedly the best player in the country right now and the best player I have ever played against. A History Bowl three-peat is crazy, as is 82 powers to 12 negs to win Livi the championship at HSNCT. I am 0-4 against him and barely unhappy about it. Congratulations for the well-earned hardware.
Liam Rojas of Wade Hampton hit some of the most diabolical science buzzes I have ever seen to sink us at HSNCT.

The Circuit:
Deven Hagen was the undisputed best player in the DMV this year and one of the best science players in the country. TJ was always a fun matchup and it is also cool to see someone else representing the baseball/Quiz Bowl combo.
Janani Gollapalli is a fantastic literature/science player who has been carrying Lightridge for the past three years. She is a really nice person and one of the clutchest players in Quiz Bowl, running up four and five tossup comebacks to win GDOT.
I am worried about what Malcolm McIntyre is going to do to the states of our union at NASAT. He shows up to our practices, where we play HS nats and college sets, and makes the history, geography, and CE content feel like SCOP Novice. Now that I am graduating, I really hope that Jackson-Reed revives its Quiz Bowl team.
McLean has been our biggest rival all season and they are a team of great players and people. Edward Burros, their history player, is elite, as is their literature/bio player Ryan McKenzie. Sam Cohen is my favorite fellow Jew in Quiz Bowl and a really solid physics/math player. Angelika Tzioumis, hits a lot of FA/literature powers and almost never negs.
Liam Slattery is my favorite staffer in the country. He is a contagiously joyful guy who has staffed both tournaments we hosted and quite a few that we played at and does the staffing very, very well. While we haven't played his Poolesville History Bowl team, from what I have heard he is quite a solid player to boot.
At GDS, Alec Donath, Lomahn Sun, and Henry Fragale have all been invaluable to the program and certainly deserve the captaincy next year. Henry is a "generalist-specialist," the kind of player with interests across specific parts of all categories (Ireland to chemistry to dinosaurs to current events) and the deep bag to power them all. Alec is our trash specialist and absolutely automatic on Playboi Carti and Luigi Mangione content. Lomahn is just a hilarious guy and a demon on Korea content, sweeping a 3Q category at History Bowl Nationals. I will miss all of you guys.
Our coaches Shawn Miller, Randy Neppl, and Sue Ikenberry all put in a ton of work into making GDS Quiz Bowl function. Randy drove the whole team out to Charlottesville and coordinated 40 parent staffers, Shawn organized the trip to Atlanta, and Sue has read for countless practices and is coaching our fourth graders to be elite (2033 HSNCT champions?). But seriously though, thank you all.
And finally, Haughton Neppl. It has been an honor building up GDS Quiz Bowl over the last two years with you. You have shown me the right way to play Quiz Bowl, from carding and specializing to staying level through thick and thin, by example, and helped me escape my crippling neg problem. As a player, you are one of the very best–years of dedication leading to almost complete humanities coverage with plenty of science buzzes to keep the other team on their toes. It has always brightened by day playing Quiz Bowl with you. I wish you all the best.

Thank you all (and surely a lot more people that I forgot to mention) for an amazing season.

[zippyzobo]

This year was really fun, and I'm glad I took quiz bowl more seriously since I was able to meet lots of cool people. There are many to thank/shout-out, so this post will be a long one.

North Carolinians

The Early College at Guilford: Everyone at ECG deserves a note! Advay Mohan was an awesome co-president and friend; I will sorely miss playing quiz bowl with someone who can pull stuff from "Ben Hur" to "alcohol." ECG Quiz Bowl's secretary and treasurer, Emily Zhang and Ally Hoffman, respectively, also made this year one of, in my non-biased opinion, ECG QB's best-led years ever. They are amazing players in their own right too. Emily is just obviously the GOAT; it has been a great joy to play with (and talk to) someone so passionate about literature (Tolkien!). She's severely shadowed right now on ECG A, so next year, I expect more esteemed accolades for her. Ally is insane. She's a person who can first line linguistics, VFA, and trash. Our hours-long conversations in the car en route to tournaments are some of my fondest memories from this year. They will never be replicated. ECG QB will miss her leadership.

Jayden Cho, a freshman on ECG A this year, is stunningly talented. He gets crazy powers on math (theory and computational), AFA, biology, and mythology. Virinchi Tata and Nam Tran have some amazing geography knowledge that scales to somewhere beyond high school, and Bridgette Yang, Ava Kuecker, and Anushka Mundhra just have great camaraderie that translates to epic history, VFA, and literature knowledge. ECG '28 is on the way to winning SSNCT in a few years .

Jojo Sekyema and Teja Chitta are ECG's best science players right now. Their growth this year has been astonishing, and I'm very excited to see how they play as juniors. Sonja Bankman has some pretty cool AFA and trash knowledge; I am glad we got to play HSNCT together. Our last sophomore, Christopher Holmes, exemplified wonderful leadership as C-Team captain this year. His growth as a leader and a player have been equally remarkable over the past two years. Bryan Fernandes, the other ECG QB junior, has also become a club leader this year as well as a high-scoring player.

Finally, I'm obliged to thank our coaches. Mr. Haynes and Mr. Simonetti are the best club advisers and coaches a school could have. They are incredibly supportive: they drive hundreds of miles to watch us play at tournaments, deal with bureaucratic paperwork, supervise many hours of practice, and enable this club to do what it does. ECG QB could not survive without them.

Chapel Hill High School: CHHS is one of the most fun teams to play in NC. In particular, I want to acknowledge Robert Wisdom for one of the greatest single-year improvements NC has seen: going from 35 PPG at HSNCT to becoming an All-Star and 22nd at IPNCT in one year is a feat few people even nationwide have accomplished. His geography, history, and literature knowledge is an unmatched combination in NC right now. His co-captain Graham Hallquist is a top AFA player, but he gets many powers in other categories too. Lokajith Premkumar, CHHS' science player, is also a great tournament director (plus a certain friend, whom I'll mention later) who is carrying NC online tournaments. Soon, he'll help boost the in-person circuit as well. CHHS placed the highest out of any NC school at HSNCT this year, and they won our state championship commandingly. They're a school to watch out for next year, especially when some of Smith joins them.

The Rest of North Carolina: Leading his team to victory at MSNCT, Ahadi Yara is one of the most impressive people I've met. He is a great player (honestly an understatement, but I'm not sure how to describe his categories—just an amazing MS generalist), and along with Loki, a successful TD as well. Given how empty his circuit is, Benji Rackley is one of the most committed players I know. I wouldn't be surprised if Parrott sneaks into HSNCT playoffs next year.

The World

Sheehan Banka is one of the nicest people you'll meet in HSQB. Everyone knows he's a great player after Northview's stunning finals run, but his kindness and friendliness should be just as celebrated. His worldlit knowledge is actually insane, not to mention geography. 2026 Northview, much less 2028 Northview, will be scary.

The most GOAT-ed ATLA fan I know, Vidyut Arvind, is one of the best generalist players in the nation (though most people already know this). Playing against him in NCQB scrimmages is always fun, and I know he's preparing to destroy IPNCT and HSNCT next year.

Although he's part of the HSQB dictatorship, Chris Chor is an awesome player and friend. It was a pleasure meeting them in-person at HSNCT; Hanover will rebound deep into playoffs next year.

He is without a doubt one of the greatest players in all of North America: Daniel Merida's high school quiz bowl career, as short as it may have been, has been truly incredible. You can't do much better than fourth at IPNCT and 5-5 at HSNCT. His literature and VFA knowledge is awesome, and I am glad we got to play a few online tournaments together.

Playing Venetian is what made me really interested in quiz bowl, so I must thank Owen Riley for being a good businessman and introducing me to the format .

There are many people I'm surely forgetting, so I apologize for that. But thanks, everyone, for a wonderful season!

[Vainglorious yet Victorious]

I thought I should shout out some people and groups of people who helped make an awesome year of quiz bowl for me:
Minnesota
Arjun Vivekraj: While Eden Prairie unfortunately bowed out of playoffs earlier than I would have liked, don't let that distract you from one of the greatest-and most impactful- MN HS quizbowl careers of all time. Arjun was an HSNCT All-Star last year, did such things as put up 55(!) powers on a regs set playing solo this year, and has had some of the most preposterous lit powers I've ever seen. Just as important, however. have been the things he has contributed to the circuit as an organizer and leader. He rebuilt the Eden Prairie program into a state powerhouse from their very lowest point, he organized and helped direct a handful of housewrite tournaments like FARSI and SITH when no one else in the state was hosting housewrites or even hosting tournaments (aside from the U of M/Burnsville) on a consistent basis, and he has helped build a very strong and tight-knit quiz bowl community. Arjun, it's been a blessing to play against you and talk to you, and I hope that the success I know you'll find down the road doesn't prevent you from continuing to be involved in quiz bowl!
Beckett Pursey: Beckett absolutely deserves a ton of credit for doing similar things to Arjun in terms of creating and maintaining an excellent quiz bowl program at Edina (as well as being such a kind person). Not only did he lead Edina to T33(!) at HSNCT, he did it while this was Edina's first full season of NAQT quizbowl! Unfortunately, I think there was a lot of general apathy to Beckett's attempts to pass the torch to a successor, but this was an incredible year of quizbowl from Edina that will not soon be forgotten. Unfortunately, I didn't get to interact with them as much, but I'll shout out the rest of Edina's HSNCT team. Jack is an incredible geo/FA player and a very talented individual. Jo has been a constant for the Edina team for a long time, and I wish them all the best of luck in their future endeavors. Aidan was friendly at INPCT (good job, by the way!) and I've heard that he might be on the grind this summer.
Ananth Ramsankar: While I knew Ananth was a very nice person from my previous year of QB, I just wanted to mention how wonderful becoming friends with him this year was. Through a little juice box bribery, (your debt is cleared after that Lexington game!) we started to get along, and Ananth has been not only a great friend but a great role model as a team leader and just all-around great person to me. He might be the master of self-deprecating humor, but he really does have a heart of gold and has been a huge positive influence on the circuit this year. Also, can we talk about how he turned himself into one of the better lit players in the country in two years of quizbowl? In what was Wayzata's magnum opus, they had what was for my money the best quizbowl individual game by any team this year, demolishing Lexington in the first half in HSNCT playoffs and holding on in the second half for a stunning win. Ananth was a huge part of that, going 1/2/0 to Shishir Bharadwaj's 1/2/1. We talk in sports about winning your matchup-for my money, one of the better "defensive" performances of all time, helping neutralize one of the best players in the country. I could write lots more, but suffice to say Ananth will be missed next year as a friend, player, and mentor.
Sam Huebschen: He might be stoic, but Sam is, no doubt, a great leader as well as a good quizbowl player. When our previous QB coach at Providence had to step down due to a personal tragedy, Sam, along with Matthew Weisz (the funniest man in MN quizbowl), stepped up to organize the team and run practices. He's a great captain and steadying force in QB games, and if I have an off game, I know Sam will be poised to step up to keep us in the game. Also, he quietly was one of the deepest history players in MN, frequently outbuzzing me (and I'm pretty good at history) on history and getting double-digit powers as a history main with another history player on the team. Sam, we'll miss you a lot, and I'll try to lead the group as well as you did next year!
Now, some teams:
EP is awesome, and I know they'll do great post-Arjun next year. Anish had a SUPERB HSNCT, and looks like he might take a leap next year. Arnav (my history bee friend!) and Aarav did a nice job, as well. Atharva is very funny and a great myth player, and Sankalp is an excellent science player. Aish and Aaron are awesome, and I know their leadership will be missed next year. Jackson is a very nice guy and very good at politics/CE; I look forward to seeing your growth!
Wayzata is, of course, wonderful, but I might have to abbreviate a little bit due to the size of their team. Priyamvada is a very good player and provides very good advice; Richard is very smart, funny, and had an absolutely fantastic QB career (congrats on Stanford!). Kevin demonstrated that he's one of the better science players in the entire country, as did Sriram with his outstanding humanities generalism. Yan-Ru Cao is a wonderful human being and maybe poised to be one of the best players in MNQB in a couple of years. If I missed some people, I'm sorry about that!
Minnetonka not only will probably be one of the best teams in the country next year, but they're also great people. Alex is a very scary player at this point in hist as well as other categories, and is fun to talk to. Rian is crazy at geography and is also very nice. Mihir is very cool and very friendly, and is very, very good at science. Shout-outs to Gus and Ani for being entertaining and to Jack for a great rookie year/INPCT performance!
And now, a few non-MN shoutouts:
Albert Lu is genuinely one of the nicest people I've ever met at a quizbowl tournament. He was very sociable with me, and his humor and good spirit were top-notch as we ended up playing multiple INPCT rounds together. Thank you so much for helping me have a great day! Deke and Zane were also great competitors and impressive history players-keep it up, Indiana!
Meadows were HIGHLY impressive when we played them in SSNCT playoffs as a middle(!) school team; I feel very disappointed that their fantastic prelims performance at MSNCT was curtailed pretty quickly, and hope they keep the Meadows program going strong.
And finally, all the people that I didn't name and had great experiences with (and there were many), thank you so much for being great people. I'll see you next year!

[Vainglorious yet Victorious]

Oh, and also: shout out to some of my former Brooklyn Bridge Battle (if you know, you know) teammates at Northview for second at HSNCT. Legitimately one of the best runs in any competition I've seen in a while.

[rhwisdom]

North Carolina

Starting with Chapel Hill, Graham Hallquist is the best teammate and co-captain I could ask for. He's been with me at every single tournament this year (except for IPNCT, of course), and I'll be forever grateful for him as the reason I don't have to learn AFA. Aside from his scary knowledge in fine arts and European history, the CHHS quizbowl team quite literally wouldn't exist without him.

Lokajith Premkumar improved at science extremely quickly and was a huge asset to the team. He's also capable of getting extremely good buzzes in mythology, while at the same time offering some comic relief to the team. Alex An made a similarly huge improvement this year. This guy is reading Wikipedia 24/7 and it really shows in his buzzes. He's also a candidate for the most nonchalant quizbowl player I know. Although she couldn't make it to nationals, Lucy Zarzar has done an incredible job as the team's social media manager, while also leading the B team to several strong finishes. She's also the only person sane enough for me to feel good about handing the captainship to once I graduate. Andrew Carneiro knows a lot of things and came in super handy at tournaments despite showing up to a single practice all year. Shoutout to those guys, plus everyone else on the team for keeping this program alive.

Outside of Chapel Hill, Zoe Wang is simultaneously the best player in North Carolina and the nicest. She's extremely skilled at literature but is capable of buzzing on virtually anything. I'm going to be honest, the thought of having to play quizbowl against Zoe Wang was one of the primary things motivating my improvement this year. Aside from Zoe, ECG as a whole was a super fun team to play against and hang out with this year, particularly Emily Zhang and Advay Mohan. The only team to rival ECG as most fun to play against would be NCSSM, particularly Spencer Thomas, Adrian Tejada, and Aaron Castelino. East Chapel Hill offered great competition as always, particularly Andrew Seta (who was often the only player to show up and performed well anyways), Sanjay Rajagopal, and Max Green. However, the most dedicated player in North Carolina may very well be Benji Rackley, who wakes up at 5:30 to drive to every single tournament. He's also become a very solid literature player in a scarily short amount of time. Additionally, Carter Lovelady has done a great job building Carrboro's quizbowl team from scratch in only two years.

I'm pretty sure I got everyone. Thank you so much for making the North Carolina circuit stronger than it's ever been.

Not North Carolina

Quick shoutout to everyone I met this year, even if it was just in passing: Padraig Finan, Sreekar Vajjha, Andrew Gao, Grady Noble, Shishir Bharadwaj, Claire Chan, Fern Fang, Priyamvada Banerjee, Robert Wang, Edward Kim, Sheehan Banka, Daniel Merida, Chris Chor, Laurel Tu, Evan Ting, Tomal Khan, Pranavkrishna Bharanidaran, and Vidyut Arvind (who I technically met last year but obviously had to include). I hope to see all of you again next year, either as players or as staffers.

Also taking a second to shout out people who aren't in high school: thank you to our club advisor Mr. Tate for helping things run smoothly this year. Thank you to Mr. Holmes for being the reason that I know what quizbowl is. Thank you to Conor Thompson for being cool and Jacob Hardin-Bernhardt for immortalizing us on the NAQT liveblog. Thank you to Ahadi Yara, Alex Wright, James Li, and Om Dessai for winning MSNCT and making me really happy.

I really hope that's everyone. Thanks for a great season.

[mmaaz10]

Ok so I'm just a random but why not make some shoutouts for North Carolina

Firstly, shoutout to all of Raleigh Charter, particularly WISDOM OBAIGBENA, the goat himself. He led Raleigh Charter to a T97 finish and put up a goated 45 ppg. For now, he might be one of the top 3 high school history players in all of NC.

Secondly, shoutout to all of Chapel Hill High School, particularly my king ALEX AN. He had some insanely clutch buzzes and even dropped a 3/0/0 in one game. Also shoutout to Robert Wisdom for just being him and leading CHHS to a T49 finish. Shoutout to Graham Hallquist for being the goated second scorer. And finally, Lokajith Premkumar was insane and even got a power on mythology (even tho he mains science)

Thirdly, shoutout to all of Early College of Guilford for the T65 finish. Zoe Wang was amazing this year and is insanely good at literature among other things. Also shoutout to some other members of ECG such as Emily Zhang and Advay Mohan.

Finally, SHOUTOUT TO BENJI RACKLEY OF PARROTT. He played an insane amount of tournaments this year and has actually become a deadly literature player. Parrott had insane improvement this year and a large part of it was because of Benji's insane dedication. I had the chance to play 2 tournaments with him and he's an awesome teammate, too.

Also, shoutout to Livingston A and Northview A for 1st and 2nd respectively at HSNCT. They were both amazing.

[Somewhere in the Stratosphere]

all the north carolinians are friends apparently (they're also very good at qb, particularly ahadi)

[Ad maiorem quizbowl gloriam.]

I will make this as long as possible(not really, just a lot of thanks to give)

Lets start off with Poolesville, my team:

Asher Lyons you are genuinely one of the most contagiously kind and funny players I know. It has been a joy to play with you in and out of QB and HB, and I will see you around in the college circuit!
Nico Cabrera I reserve judgement till next year.
Alex Wang See above. You're a cool guy tho.
Sayan Chandaroy I have genuinely never met a guy with such a fast turnaround in lit as you. You started at the beginning of the year, and by JHU Winter, you were already one of the best Lit players I've seen at Poolesville. Best of luck in your future endeavours.
Claire Barsness I know you haven't played NAQT, but it's been a joy to see you grow and progress in QB. Good luck at Purdue!

DMV Circut:

GDS:
Haughton Neppl is one of the nicest people I know in my year. You have been genuinely a joy to work with as a player, TD, and Staffer. See you next year!
Ben Hellman is one of the greats of the DMV circuit. A supremely talented player, and a great baseball player to boot(I would know as an umpire) The very best of luck at Swarthmore College! It's been a true pleasure
Alec Donath is a funny guy! Great staffing GEMINI and GDOT this year with you! See you next year!
Lomanh Sun is a great staffer! See you next year, to play territorial.io with you!

Sauren Kwatra from KJ is a great and upcoming QBer, as are the players from Cabin John MS, Burleigh Manor MS, Centennial Elementary, Cooper MS, and Longfellow MS


Montgomery Blair
Justin Rosentover is genuinely a talented player and a great guy. MABL was fun this year, and I really look forward to seeing what you can do in your senior year.
Sophia Jones is among the best people I have seen Blair produce in QB. Great at MABL, NAQT, and whatever else life throws at you. See you next year!

Richard Montgomery
Your team is so cool! Nam Dang, I'll see you next year!

MABL teams in general:
Thank you for a great season!

TJ
Deven Hagen is simultaneously one of the scariest and nicest quiz bowl players I've seen and met. It has been such a joy seeing you around this year. And even though I didn't get to umpire for you, it was fun discussing. You are truly a quiz bowl gem, and I hope you continue with it in University. See you around!
Abigail Lee, even though I have never had the honor of meeting you, I have heard wonderful things. I wish you all the best!
Sophia Guo. You are so kind and a great quiz bowler to boot. It was lovely meeting you at JHU winter! Stay amazing, and see you next year!
Angela Yan. It was great staffing with you at KJMS invitational! See you next year!


McLean:

Edward Burros. You are such a kind person, both in and out of QB. It was such a joy staffing and playing for, and against you. I hope to face you next year, for the first time in HB. All the best.
Ryan McKenzie, Sorry if I butchered the spelling, but you are genuinely an amazing guy. Good luck in college! Auf Wiedersehen!
Fern Fang, you're a wonderful staffer and a great person! Take care in college.
Sam Cohen You're such a great guy to talk to in and out of tournaments. I might actually play next year. Cya!
Angelika Tzioumis. You're such a wonderfully AFA type of person. I love that you enjoy your playing so much, and translate that into Quiz bowl. I will see you next year!

WCHS:
Y'all are yappers. See you in MABL!

Centennial is a huge up-and-coming team! I look forward to seeing you guys around!

Atholton's Julia Hu is a wonderful staffer and friend. I look forward to next year!

QO:
You all are amazing. Good luck in college for y'all leaving, and keep my home school in MoCo strong.

Northwest:
Evan Trask, carry on your legacy!

Malcolm McIntyre. Move off man! You're scarily good. Best of luck next year!

College DMV peoples:
Thank you to:
- Cole Hartung
- Rachel Ezrielev
- Sinecio Morales
- Matt Schinick
- Andy Yu
- Emily Bussa
- Meredie Cohen
Pleasure meeting y'all this year!

Non-DMV:

Padraig Finan is a scary, but kind soul. I am so happy you won IAC Nats this year, and look forward to 2 more years of greatness!

Hunter has been a joy to compete against. Also, great talking with y'all in the Metro in DC lol.

Robert Wang. It's been a journey, my friend. Thank you for all you did for quiz bowl, for me, and for future generations. You're amazing at what you do, and I hope you never cease with that passion. I hope to see you around, and at IHO. Take care!

Finally, some miscellaneous shout outs:
Sara DelVillano. You're a wonderful TD and a great person. Thanks for the Anna Lapwood tickets, I'll see you next year.

David Madden, Nowlenn Madden, and the IAC team Thank you for running the tourneys that you do, and I look forward to competing next year. Special thanks to Marshall Mullins.

Jason Thompson is one of the best mods I know. You're an inspiration to me as a mod, and are the basis of all moderating styles. See you next year sir!

One last note, before my conclusion.Thank you to all the people that got me here. My parents, my friends, and all of you. Special thanks to this year's HB and QB Captains Annie Zhao, Eleanor Huber, and Asher Lyons again.

And finally. Thank you to all of you reading this. I know it's been long, but it's been a journey. All you seniors, this is not goodbye. It's merely, see you later. Quiz bowl is like one big family. And like that family, nobody is left alone and behind.


Post Scriptum: Sorry for anyone I missed.

[lokajithjpremkumar]

Guess I'll hop into the North Carolina glaze session as well.

Ahadi Yara, along with being one of my closest friends, is just about the most dedicated quizbowler you could meet. I'm extremely glad to be able to direct tournaments and troll through all of QB with him. He is easily a top 3 middle school player currently, and he genuinely can first line questions from any category.

Robbie Wisdom is one of the greatest generalists currently, and had a remarkable improvement from last year, and is only going to continue to get better at the 2026 HSNCT. He's incredibly dedicated, and is the best captain you could ask for.

Graham Hallquist is scary on AFA. He's recently accelerated his grind, and is a regular in NCQBS scrimmages. He also pairs very well with Robbie on bonuses, leading to CHHS's relatively high ppb.

Alex An is EASILY the most nonchalant player of all time. He doesn't know who he's playing, and yet still manages to pull the most insane powers from seemingly no where. I didn't catch this guy off of QBReader or Wikipedia throughout all of HSNCT, and he's probably still on them right now.

Andrew Carneiro is a clutch god (especially in tight games against ECG) and his sarcasm makes playing tournaments with him incredibly enjoyable. He is a formidable history player.

Boy oh boy where do I begin with my GOAT James "Jimmy" Li. He has a giant level of insanity that makes him one of the funniest guys I know, and he also real-knowledges his way to being an incredibly good quizbowl player. This guy tried to microwave a plastic waterbottle to make it explode in Carrboro High School.

The Early College at Guilford has been an incredibly impressive team this year, and I'm glad to have been a part of so many competitive games against them.

Zoe Wang is arguably the best NC quiz bowl player currently, and is INSANE on literature, VFA, and basically everything else. She's incredible on math and physics as well. Her engagement is the main reason why NCQBS scrimmages happen so frequently. I wish her the best of luck at Carleton and college QB, and the circuit won't be quite the same without her. Along with Advay Mohan, Emily Zhang, Ally Hoffman, the ECG Freshman, and everyone I'm forgetting, ECG was by far the most enjoyable QB team to play and hang out with.

Andrew Seta of East is insane on science, and leads to me crashing out immensely. He has been incredibly impressive, especially while soloing most of the tournaments, and even managed to defeat CHHS by himself at Carrboro Clash.

Carter Lovelady has made immense strides to make Carrboro a permanent member in NC Quizbowl, and I wish him the best of luck at NCSSM and his future math endeavors.

Benji Rackley is incredibly dedicated to literature, and has a large pool of real knowledge in history as well. In less than a year of taking quizbowl seriously, he has found an immense love of the game that I admire, leading him to travel hundreds of miles by car for even the smallest of tournaments, and join my online tournaments despite how much he hates the format.

I am sure to have forgotten several people, and I apologize to whoever that may be.

Thank you all for making this one of, if not the, best years in North Carolina Quizbowl history, and I hope to continue to grow this circuit along with you all (along with some in person tournaments, hopefully).

[beeeeeeeenji]

In light of my compatriots writing well thought shoutout posts, I think I'd also like to (more extensively) shoutout my fellow North Carolina Quiz Bowlers.

First and foremost, shoutout to Robbie Wisdom from Chapel Hill. In case anyone is wondering why I actually became active in Quiz Bowl, it is because Robbie sent me the invite to the North Carolina Quiz Bowl server at the end of summer in 2024. Apart from bringing me into Quiz Bowl, Robbie is also a top NCQBer, with, not only deep literature cuts, but also generalism that led Chapel Hill to a State Championship. Speaking of Chapel Hill, shoutout to the AFA GOAT Graham Hallquist, the TD of all time Lokajith Premkumar, the real knowledge GOAT Lucy Zarzar, and Andrew Carneiro. I also cannot forget the soon-to-be-CHHSer Ahadi Yara, who is fresh off his win at MSNCT and ready to take CHHS to (in my opinion) a deep playoff run in 2026 HSNCT. I'm privileged to see how this incredible team will perform in this upcoming season.

Moving on, the Early College at Guilford has been possibly one of the scariest teams to see registered for a tournament in North Carolina, but led by some very nice people. Notably, Zoe Wang is one VERY TUFF literature player, with Emily Zhang being just as good. I do not doubt that Emily can lead ECG after Zoe, Ally Hoffman and Advay Mohan leave, the two mentioned being key parts of ECG's strength in North Carolina. Specifically, Ally is great at linguistics, literature, and the Fine Arts, while Advay ostensibly doesn't have a category he doesn't buzz on. I'd also like to recognize the younger QBers of ECG, especially Nam Tran and Virinchi Tata who I know will keep improving, showing their geography dominance along the way.

Of course, this wouldn't be a real shoutout post if I didn't recognize my teammates from both "Meji", "The Third Triumvirate", and Parrott. Meji (or the Mejidom), consisted of me and some very great people: Tejas Kunduru, Mohammed Maaz and Wisdom Obaigbena. Tejas and Maaz I know can fill in the huge shoes left to fill after Wisdom graduates, bringing with him his elite history knowledge. I should also note that Maaz live-blogged me a bit during my HSNCT run (thanks GOAT). My two other friends from The Third Triumvirate who kept record of my team's run, Sowrish Komaragiri and Jonas Silvia-Winterstein, will, in my opinion, be scary generalists by the start of the next season. I'm hype to play upcoming open tournaments with them.

One last thing: thank you to everyone keeping North Carolina Quiz Bowl alive. Thank you to the coaches, the TDs and the players for coming out. I think that this season saw NCQB have a comeback, and, if that's not true, then I know that we as a circuit are definitely way more uniform (refer to the post where Michael said that it seemed that all the NCQBers were friends). See y'all next season.

[giantsfan1]

Before I begin, I would like to pay my respects to those who will read the entirety of this eyesore. I don’t know what motivates you, but I admire whatever it is. I thank you for spending your time to read my reflection on the second most fun year of my life, behind only my 7th grade year.

First, I would like to give my team some well-deserved appreciation:

Aditya Khambekar really showed up when it mattered the most at HSNCT, despite all of the anger I’ve directed at him over the season. His mythology and literature buzzes at the end of prelims got us an 8-2 record, which proved to help us out greatly in our quest to break the T65 curse. I can say without a doubt that he was the only reason we got T33 and not a lower placement. Perhaps, my frustration throughout the season got to him, and I’m glad that it did.

Andy Truong was also huge in our T33 run at HSNCT. I fear my toxicity as a teammate held us back as a team this season because we had placed Andy on B team to start the year. I’ve never been proven so wrong, and I’m glad that he was the one to do so. His ability to remain calm and collected for all 20 tossups saved us numerous times throughout the season. While he may not think so, Andy is the closest thing to a true captain.

Arjun Desikan’s improvement this season has really been inspirational. At the beginning of the season, I could’ve never predicted how good he would become at VFA and PSS - his work ethic is unparalleled among all four of us. Taking on new categories just because of my greed is something I’ll always admire him for. I will also note that he is a great roommate for being able to tolerate something close to a frat party in our hotel room.

Outside of our A team, I’d like to shout-out Aaron Wang. You could say that I look at him like I’m Victor Frankenstein; he horrifies me with some of the literature buzzes he gets in practice. I still can’t believe he’s improved this much after only a year of playing quizbowl. I also can’t believe that he’s only a sophomore and I have two more years with this king.

Now, outside of Seven Lakes:

I’d first like to shout-out Khang Le. He’ll never understand how much admiration I have for his skill (even my mom calls him “the goat”). It really isn’t a pleasant experience to get 4-0’d on history by Khang every time I play against him, but at least I learn something new from whatever obscure first-line he buzzes on. Also, the fact that he was on a team with Max Chen, Justin Wang, and Jacob Higgs is just stupid to think about. Outside of quizbowl, he’s very easy to talk to and will listen to anything you say with open ears. I’m truly grateful to be able to call him my friend.

I couldn’t submit this reply without mentioning Aaron Bates. I hope you’ve realized that everything I’ve ever said to you has been a joke and that you’ve never taken what I’ve said to you to heart; if I have, then I’ll apologize here. I can’t overstate how proud I am of Aaron for his HSNCT performance and for his improvement throughout the year. I could’ve never imagined that “Woodlands Scholars” would get a T33 placement - I probably would’ve laughed at that idea at the beginning of the year. Congratulations on a great high school career! I hope that I will see you powering literature for Washington next year.

How could I ever forget Jerry Dai? I can still remember seeing this chopped up (he lowkey had the Allonzo Trier cut) tall Asian kid with glasses GLUED to his laptop during practice last year. It’s clear that his time on his laptop has paid off given his performance for the big (again) “Woodlands Scholars.” Seeing his improvement at science throughout the year has been inspirational - I could almost shed a tear. I’m definitely looking forward to playing against you and the goat Pranjal Gupta next year.

Nelson Ma is easily one of the best literature players in the country. Singlehandedly getting T15 mACF on Groger is impressive by itself, but he has been so consistent throughout the whole year. It’s terrible for the Texas circuit that he has another year left because he might fry everyone. He’s also the most nonchalant demon ever, I won’t lie. He’s probably read No Longer Human at least 5 times, and knowing him as the epitome of nonchalance, he’s definitely laughed at the most gruesome parts. I also want to apologize for only giving you a measly $6 in return for a copy of Geometry Dash.

Probably the most inspirational improvement I’ve been able to enjoy this year came from Matthew He. It’s unbelievable how he turned a mediocre (no offense) team last year into a well-deserved T8 finisher. I never thought that Matthew would become as good as he is now at both science and literature. He definitely couldn’t have done it by himself, though. Pierce Janho, Alp Dinc-Oran, Carson Ting, and Ernest Boon all have improved at their respective categories over this year and each made Houston Memorial a very fun team to watch. I look forward to Houston Memorial’s continued greatness next year.

And finally, some shout-outs to people outside of the Texas circuit:

Travis Johnson is my goat, I won’t lie. He’s one of the most chill guys in the community and he deserves all of the praise he will get in this thread. His literature, fine arts, and RMPSS knowledge is unbelievable; I can’t imagine how good Pitt will be next year with him on the team.

I only met him a short while ago, but I think that Pradyumna Krishna deserves a shout-out. He’s one of the most underrated literature players in the community. Mission San Jose should definitely be on your radar next year given that they will be adding Abhiraam Girish to their already insane team.

Spencer Manning and Ani Srinivasan are somehow only sophomores. Shout-out to the goat Shreecharan Shreekumar for having some insane history and geography knowledge. Also, Monit, I will free you for your negging problems.

Lexington is mind-boggling to think about; it’s not right for Alvan Hossain, Shishir Bharadwaj, Aadi Pudasaini, and Atticus Oliver to all be sophomores.

Sky Hong is definitely in the T3 chillest people in the community. She’s certainly one of the most fun and interesting people to talk to, in addition to the fact that she’s one of the best science players in the country.

Nam Dang is the most nonchalant player in the community. No further elaboration is needed.

Once again, thank you for reading through all of this if you have done so. If you are attending PACE, NASAT, or both, good luck! Otherwise, congratulations on a great season! I look forward to seeing you all at PACE in a week.

[geoff]

So many people, so little time. I'm going to break up my shoutout into 3 parts: My fellow Indiana QBers, members of MSQBD, and other HSqbers that deserve it.

INQB

Another absolutely incredible season for me and my fellow hoosiers, the most tournaments in a season for us ever (I think). Shoutout to Reilly Melville for being the best TD the state could ask for, and all of the Purdue Quiz Bowl staffers who made the tournaments possible. (And also a special thanks to Sarah Benner for running stats from many miles away).

My bestie Evan Ting is arguably already the best Quiz Bowl player in Indiana history and is only getting better, along with them the rest of the Park Tudor A team Gavin, Sameer, and Insia are incredibly good and they will only lose Insia, also

MASSIVE shoutout to my goats at Herron who I almost left out of this post (absurd aura loss right there smh), The main core of the team Henry Brown, Arch Fox, and Richard Morris went absolutely crazy even beating Wayzata A to get 49th in the nation, their best in their 4 years attending HSNCT. Shoutout to Sid Overpeck, who, in their first year of QB, went insane at nats to help Herron on their journey. Also a shoutout to Thomas Kring who asked for my autograph at Buzzathon and made me feel the proudest I've been since MSNCT finals. Additional shoutout to the B team and my classical music composing goat Henry Nolan whose wild card was unfortunately rejected but I believe they're playing PACE.

Zane Vatter and Deke Kandel are two very good players who have started to become generalists and i'm here for it. Both of them are incredible players who can do a lot of damage in their senior years.

Shoutout to Carmel and their incredibly deep program that keeps spawning talent. Most of their A team will be gone after this season but they can pull from the endless pool of the 5,000+ students that attend CHS.

Shoutout to the South Bend Juggernauts St. Joseph and John Adams who each had very successful seasons in their own right. St. Joe's own Theodore Berente finished 34th at IPNCT, the best for an INQBer ever. John Adams brought the most players to IPNCT for the 3rd straight year, bringing 9.

Shoutout to all the coaches who make INQB possible, (I will not name all of them because that would take a while)

Finally, Shoutout to Coach Webster and my teammates at Pendleton Heights for a great season, second in the conference and a state finals spot for our school's first real year of competition. I am transferring schools but I hope you guys keep my short legacy alive in the QB program.

MSQBD

I love yapping to you guys daily and it brings me joy everyday so just an overarching shoutout to all of you.

Shoutout to the uncs Jeff Xie and Conor Thompson for being patient and nice to us hooligans who do mildly questionable things.

Shoutout to Robert Wisdom for being a goated mod and the rest of the Chapel Hill team that went crazy this year

Shoutout to the one, the only VIDYUT ARVIND for being an extremely good quiz bowl player and person, getting 49th at nats with minimal help from teammates.

Shoutout to Grady Noble, truly the noblest quiz bowler, it really sucks that Boise missed playoffs by one cycle but I bet you'll be back next year with even more passion and a fire to win

Shoutout to Andrew Gao for running really good online tournaments and being super chill, (also for allegedly making really good cookies).

Shoutout to Zachary Rara, while technically not an HSer, he led Meyzeek Middle to a very respectable 5-5 HSNCT performance, DuPont Manual is gonna be so scary next year.

Shoutout to Malcolm McIntyre for knowing the most wild, random things in existence, 20+ powers on TOWNS is diabolical

HS general

Shoutout to the Guatemalan legend himself Daniel Merida, this man got 4th at IPNCT in his first in person tourney, sad I couldn't meet him this year but if he goes to college in the states, he's gonna be a force in the collegiate qb scene

Priyamvada Banerjee is one of the kindest people i've met in QB, I really hope I can meet her next year at nats, in the meantime, the bollywood music recs are fire.

Padraig Finan is absurd, we played him 4 times in middle school (Hey Padraig we're still 2-2 rematch when) and he is crazy good, 13th at nats is impressive beyond belief but do it as a sophomore solo is crazy, he might be a legit threat to win in 2 years time.

Shoutout to Andrew Peuster for winning IPNCT in what I think was only his 2nd year of actual competition

Tate Osborne deserves so much more than what he got this year, from getting beaten at IPNCT and knocked out earlier than expected at SSNCT, I think he's going to come back with a vengeance in college, alongside West Point's Brodie Henry, Auburn is going to be horrifying

Livingston A totally deserved the national title and Robert Wang is the king of Aura.

Livingston D has gotta be the craziest cinderella of all time, they were 142nd on Groger Pre-nats rankings and went all the way up to 8th, which I think is the highest of any C or below team in HSNCT history and it shows the absolute depth of livingston's program

NORTHVIEW oh my gosh my absolute kings, the legends, the goats. Sheehan Banka my music loving goat put up an all time performance for a freshman ever, I think they're winning nats next year, (you can quote me on this)

Ok, I realize if I shoutout everyone it will take way too long to write so quick shoutouts to

Stevenson- They will be terrifying next year
Lexington- Literally only sophomores, a favorite to win next year
Wade Hampton- For making it to 3rd
TJHSST- For always being at the top of HSNCT

Final shoutout to all TDs, coaches, staffers, and parents who made tournaments happen, we couldn't do this without you!

Excellent HSQB season everyone! I look forward to actually being at HSNCT next year, thanks for making quiz bowl the best community in the world!

[Vainglorious yet Victorious]

So many people, so little time. I'm going to break up my shoutout into 3 parts: My fellow Indiana QBers, members of MSQBD, and other HSqbers that deserve it.

INQB

Another absolutely incredible season for me and my fellow hoosiers, the most tournaments in a season for us ever (I think). Shoutout to Reilly Melville for being the best TD the state could ask for, and all of the Purdue Quiz Bowl staffers who made the tournaments possible. (And also a special thanks to Sarah Benner for running stats from many miles away).

My bestie Evan Ting is arguably already the best Quiz Bowl player in Indiana history and is only getting better, along with them the rest of the Park Tudor A team Gavin, Sameer, and Insia are incredibly good and they will only lose Insia, also

MASSIVE shoutout to my goats at Herron who I almost left out of this post (absurd aura loss right there smh), The main core of the team Henry Brown, Arch Fox, and Richard Morris went absolutely crazy even beating Wayzata A to get 49th in the nation which would've been the best in INQB history if not for Park. Shoutout to Sid Overpeck, who, in their first year of QB, went insane at nats to help Herron on their journey. Also a shoutout to Thomas Kring who asked for my autograph at Buzzathon and made me feel the proudest I've been since MSNCT finals. Additional shoutout to the B team and my classical music composing goat Henry Nolan whose wild card was unfortunately rejected but I believe they're playing PACE.

Zane Vatter and Deke Kandel are two very good players who have started to become generalists and i'm here for it. Both of them are incredible players who can do a lot of damage in their senior years.

Shoutout to Carmel and their incredibly deep program that keeps spawning talent. Most of their A team will be gone after this season but they can pull from the endless pool of the 5,000+ students that attend CHS.

Shoutout to the South Bend Juggernauts St. Joseph and John Adams who each had very successful seasons in their own right. St. Joe's own Theodore Berente finished 34th at IPNCT, the best for an INQBer ever. John Adams brought the most players to IPNCT for the 3rd straight year, bringing 9.

Shoutout to all the coaches who make INQB possible, (I will not name all of them because that would take a while)

Finally, Shoutout to Coach Webster and my teammates at Pendleton Heights for a great season, second in the conference and a state finals spot for our school's first real year of competition. I am transferring schools but I hope you guys keep my short legacy alive in the QB program.

MSQBD

I love yapping to you guys daily and it brings me joy everyday so just an overarching shoutout to all of you.

Shoutout to the uncs Jeff Xie and Conor Thompson for being patient and nice to us hooligans who do mildly questionable things.

Shoutout to Robert Wisdom for being a goated mod and the rest of the Chapel Hill team that went crazy this year

Shoutout to the one, the only VIDYUT ARVIND for being an extremely good quiz bowl player and person, getting 49th at nats with minimal help from teammates.

Shoutout to Grady Noble, truly the noblest quiz bowler, it really sucks that Boise missed playoffs by one cycle but I bet you'll be back next year with even more passion and a fire to win

Shoutout to Andrew Gao for running really good online tournaments and being super chill, (also for allegedly making really good cookies).

Shoutout to Zachary Rara, while technically not an HSer, he led Meyzeek Middle to a very respectable 5-5 HSNCT performance, DuPont Manual is gonna be so scary next year.

Shoutout to Malcolm McIntyre for knowing the most wild, random things in existence, 20+ powers on TOWNS is diabolical

HS general

Shoutout to the Guatemalan legend himself Daniel Merida, this man got 4th at IPNCT in his first in person tourney, sad I couldn't meet him this year but if he goes to college in the states, he's gonna be a force in the collegiate qb scene

Priyamvada Banerjee is one of the kindest people i've met in QB, I really hope I can meet her next year at nats, in the meantime, the bollywood music recs are fire.

Padraig Finan is absurd, we played him 4 times in middle school (Hey Padraig we're still 2-2 rematch when) and he is crazy good, 13th at nats is impressive beyond belief but do it as a sophomore solo is crazy, he might be a legit threat to win in 2 years time.

Shoutout to Andrew Peuster for winning IPNCT in what I think was only his 2nd year of actual competition

Tate Osborne deserves so much more than what he got this year, from getting beaten at IPNCT and knocked out earlier than expected at SSNCT, I think he's going to come back with a vengeance in college, alongside West Point's Brodie Henry, Auburn is going to be horrifying

Livingston A totally deserved the national title and Robert Wang is the king of Aura.

Livingston D has gotta be the craziest cinderella of all time, they were 142nd on Groger Pre-nats rankings and went all the way up to 8th, which I think is the highest of any C or below team in HSNCT history and it shows the absolute depth of livingston's program

NORTHVIEW oh my gosh my absolute kings, the legends, the goats. Sheehan Banka my music loving goat put up an all time performance for a freshman ever, I think they're winning nats next year, (you can quote me on this)

Ok, I realize if I shoutout everyone it will take way too long to write so quick shoutouts to

Stevenson- They will be terrifying next year
Lexington- Literally only sophomores, a favorite to win next year
Wade Hampton- For making it to 3rd
TJHSST- For always being at the top of HSNCT

Final shoutout to all TDs, coaches, staffers, and parents who made tournaments happen, we couldn't do this without you!

Excellent HSQB season everyone! I look forward to actually being at HSNCT next year, thanks for making quiz bowl the best community in the world!

Great post. Maybe LASA C or D snuck into t8 during their mid-2010s glory days? I'd have to check. One could probably make a documentary with all the ups and downs of that particular program! (Glad to see they're at least back up and running)

[Somewhere in the Stratosphere]

So many people, so little time. I'm going to break up my shoutout into 3 parts: My fellow Indiana QBers, members of MSQBD, and other HSqbers that deserve it.

INQB

Another absolutely incredible season for me and my fellow hoosiers, the most tournaments in a season for us ever (I think). Shoutout to Reilly Melville for being the best TD the state could ask for, and all of the Purdue Quiz Bowl staffers who made the tournaments possible. (And also a special thanks to Sarah Benner for running stats from many miles away).

My bestie Evan Ting is arguably already the best Quiz Bowl player in Indiana history and is only getting better, along with them the rest of the Park Tudor A team Gavin, Sameer, and Insia are incredibly good and they will only lose Insia, also

MASSIVE shoutout to my goats at Herron who I almost left out of this post (absurd aura loss right there smh), The main core of the team Henry Brown, Arch Fox, and Richard Morris went absolutely crazy even beating Wayzata A to get 49th in the nation which would've been the best in INQB history if not for Park. Shoutout to Sid Overpeck, who, in their first year of QB, went insane at nats to help Herron on their journey. Also a shoutout to Thomas Kring who asked for my autograph at Buzzathon and made me feel the proudest I've been since MSNCT finals. Additional shoutout to the B team and my classical music composing goat Henry Nolan whose wild card was unfortunately rejected but I believe they're playing PACE.

Zane Vatter and Deke Kandel are two very good players who have started to become generalists and i'm here for it. Both of them are incredible players who can do a lot of damage in their senior years.

Shoutout to Carmel and their incredibly deep program that keeps spawning talent. Most of their A team will be gone after this season but they can pull from the endless pool of the 5,000+ students that attend CHS.

Shoutout to the South Bend Juggernauts St. Joseph and John Adams who each had very successful seasons in their own right. St. Joe's own Theodore Berente finished 34th at IPNCT, the best for an INQBer ever. John Adams brought the most players to IPNCT for the 3rd straight year, bringing 9.

Shoutout to all the coaches who make INQB possible, (I will not name all of them because that would take a while)

Finally, Shoutout to Coach Webster and my teammates at Pendleton Heights for a great season, second in the conference and a state finals spot for our school's first real year of competition. I am transferring schools but I hope you guys keep my short legacy alive in the QB program.

MSQBD

I love yapping to you guys daily and it brings me joy everyday so just an overarching shoutout to all of you.

Shoutout to the uncs Jeff Xie and Conor Thompson for being patient and nice to us hooligans who do mildly questionable things.

Shoutout to Robert Wisdom for being a goated mod and the rest of the Chapel Hill team that went crazy this year

Shoutout to the one, the only VIDYUT ARVIND for being an extremely good quiz bowl player and person, getting 49th at nats with minimal help from teammates.

Shoutout to Grady Noble, truly the noblest quiz bowler, it really sucks that Boise missed playoffs by one cycle but I bet you'll be back next year with even more passion and a fire to win

Shoutout to Andrew Gao for running really good online tournaments and being super chill, (also for allegedly making really good cookies).

Shoutout to Zachary Rara, while technically not an HSer, he led Meyzeek Middle to a very respectable 5-5 HSNCT performance, DuPont Manual is gonna be so scary next year.

Shoutout to Malcolm McIntyre for knowing the most wild, random things in existence, 20+ powers on TOWNS is diabolical

HS general

Shoutout to the Guatemalan legend himself Daniel Merida, this man got 4th at IPNCT in his first in person tourney, sad I couldn't meet him this year but if he goes to college in the states, he's gonna be a force in the collegiate qb scene

Priyamvada Banerjee is one of the kindest people i've met in QB, I really hope I can meet her next year at nats, in the meantime, the bollywood music recs are fire.

Padraig Finan is absurd, we played him 4 times in middle school (Hey Padraig we're still 2-2 rematch when) and he is crazy good, 13th at nats is impressive beyond belief but do it as a sophomore solo is crazy, he might be a legit threat to win in 2 years time.

Shoutout to Andrew Peuster for winning IPNCT in what I think was only his 2nd year of actual competition

Tate Osborne deserves so much more than what he got this year, from getting beaten at IPNCT and knocked out earlier than expected at SSNCT, I think he's going to come back with a vengeance in college, alongside West Point's Brodie Henry, Auburn is going to be horrifying

Livingston A totally deserved the national title and Robert Wang is the king of Aura.

Livingston D has gotta be the craziest cinderella of all time, they were 142nd on Groger Pre-nats rankings and went all the way up to 8th, which I think is the highest of any C or below team in HSNCT history and it shows the absolute depth of livingston's program

NORTHVIEW oh my gosh my absolute kings, the legends, the goats. Sheehan Banka my music loving goat put up an all time performance for a freshman ever, I think they're winning nats next year, (you can quote me on this)

Ok, I realize if I shoutout everyone it will take way too long to write so quick shoutouts to

Stevenson- They will be terrifying next year
Lexington- Literally only sophomores, a favorite to win next year
Wade Hampton- For making it to 3rd
TJHSST- For always being at the top of HSNCT

Final shoutout to all TDs, coaches, staffers, and parents who made tournaments happen, we couldn't do this without you!

Excellent HSQB season everyone! I look forward to actually being at HSNCT next year, thanks for making quiz bowl the best community in the world!

Great post. Maybe LASA C or D snuck into t8 during their mid-2010s glory days? I'd have to check. One could probably make a documentary with all the ups and downs of that particular program! (Glad to see they're at least back up and running)

LASA C finished t13 in 2013, but Livingston D definitely is the best D team ever. They're all freshmen too; Livingston is going to be incredible for the next three years at minimum. We were all freaking out about t33 Lexington A as all freshmen...well Livingston D was t8.

[Vainglorious yet Victorious]

So many people, so little time. I'm going to break up my shoutout into 3 parts: My fellow Indiana QBers, members of MSQBD, and other HSqbers that deserve it.

INQB

Another absolutely incredible season for me and my fellow hoosiers, the most tournaments in a season for us ever (I think). Shoutout to Reilly Melville for being the best TD the state could ask for, and all of the Purdue Quiz Bowl staffers who made the tournaments possible. (And also a special thanks to Sarah Benner for running stats from many miles away).

My bestie Evan Ting is arguably already the best Quiz Bowl player in Indiana history and is only getting better, along with them the rest of the Park Tudor A team Gavin, Sameer, and Insia are incredibly good and they will only lose Insia, also

MASSIVE shoutout to my goats at Herron who I almost left out of this post (absurd aura loss right there smh), The main core of the team Henry Brown, Arch Fox, and Richard Morris went absolutely crazy even beating Wayzata A to get 49th in the nation which would've been the best in INQB history if not for Park. Shoutout to Sid Overpeck, who, in their first year of QB, went insane at nats to help Herron on their journey. Also a shoutout to Thomas Kring who asked for my autograph at Buzzathon and made me feel the proudest I've been since MSNCT finals. Additional shoutout to the B team and my classical music composing goat Henry Nolan whose wild card was unfortunately rejected but I believe they're playing PACE.

Zane Vatter and Deke Kandel are two very good players who have started to become generalists and i'm here for it. Both of them are incredible players who can do a lot of damage in their senior years.

Shoutout to Carmel and their incredibly deep program that keeps spawning talent. Most of their A team will be gone after this season but they can pull from the endless pool of the 5,000+ students that attend CHS.

Shoutout to the South Bend Juggernauts St. Joseph and John Adams who each had very successful seasons in their own right. St. Joe's own Theodore Berente finished 34th at IPNCT, the best for an INQBer ever. John Adams brought the most players to IPNCT for the 3rd straight year, bringing 9.

Shoutout to all the coaches who make INQB possible, (I will not name all of them because that would take a while)

Finally, Shoutout to Coach Webster and my teammates at Pendleton Heights for a great season, second in the conference and a state finals spot for our school's first real year of competition. I am transferring schools but I hope you guys keep my short legacy alive in the QB program.

MSQBD

I love yapping to you guys daily and it brings me joy everyday so just an overarching shoutout to all of you.

Shoutout to the uncs Jeff Xie and Conor Thompson for being patient and nice to us hooligans who do mildly questionable things.

Shoutout to Robert Wisdom for being a goated mod and the rest of the Chapel Hill team that went crazy this year

Shoutout to the one, the only VIDYUT ARVIND for being an extremely good quiz bowl player and person, getting 49th at nats with minimal help from teammates.

Shoutout to Grady Noble, truly the noblest quiz bowler, it really sucks that Boise missed playoffs by one cycle but I bet you'll be back next year with even more passion and a fire to win

Shoutout to Andrew Gao for running really good online tournaments and being super chill, (also for allegedly making really good cookies).

Shoutout to Zachary Rara, while technically not an HSer, he led Meyzeek Middle to a very respectable 5-5 HSNCT performance, DuPont Manual is gonna be so scary next year.

Shoutout to Malcolm McIntyre for knowing the most wild, random things in existence, 20+ powers on TOWNS is diabolical

HS general

Shoutout to the Guatemalan legend himself Daniel Merida, this man got 4th at IPNCT in his first in person tourney, sad I couldn't meet him this year but if he goes to college in the states, he's gonna be a force in the collegiate qb scene

Priyamvada Banerjee is one of the kindest people i've met in QB, I really hope I can meet her next year at nats, in the meantime, the bollywood music recs are fire.

Padraig Finan is absurd, we played him 4 times in middle school (Hey Padraig we're still 2-2 rematch when) and he is crazy good, 13th at nats is impressive beyond belief but do it as a sophomore solo is crazy, he might be a legit threat to win in 2 years time.

Shoutout to Andrew Peuster for winning IPNCT in what I think was only his 2nd year of actual competition

Tate Osborne deserves so much more than what he got this year, from getting beaten at IPNCT and knocked out earlier than expected at SSNCT, I think he's going to come back with a vengeance in college, alongside West Point's Brodie Henry, Auburn is going to be horrifying

Livingston A totally deserved the national title and Robert Wang is the king of Aura.

Livingston D has gotta be the craziest cinderella of all time, they were 142nd on Groger Pre-nats rankings and went all the way up to 8th, which I think is the highest of any C or below team in HSNCT history and it shows the absolute depth of livingston's program

NORTHVIEW oh my gosh my absolute kings, the legends, the goats. Sheehan Banka my music loving goat put up an all time performance for a freshman ever, I think they're winning nats next year, (you can quote me on this)

Ok, I realize if I shoutout everyone it will take way too long to write so quick shoutouts to

Stevenson- They will be terrifying next year
Lexington- Literally only sophomores, a favorite to win next year
Wade Hampton- For making it to 3rd
TJHSST- For always being at the top of HSNCT

Final shoutout to all TDs, coaches, staffers, and parents who made tournaments happen, we couldn't do this without you!

Excellent HSQB season everyone! I look forward to actually being at HSNCT next year, thanks for making quiz bowl the best community in the world!

Great post. Maybe LASA C or D snuck into t8 during their mid-2010s glory days? I'd have to check. One could probably make a documentary with all the ups and downs of that particular program! (Glad to see they're at least back up and running)

LASA C finished t13 in 2013, but Livingston D definitely is the best D team ever. They're all freshmen too; Livingston is going to be incredible for the next three years at minimum. We were all freaking out about t33 Livingston A as all freshmen...well Livingston D was t8.

Especially given that the QB scene seems to get more competitive every year! Livingston might have a Barrington-esque dynasty on their hands before we know it...

[justin.han24]

To all quiz bowl players, "What procellous awesomeness does not in you abound?" - Peter Bradley, qtd. in Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

[Jacksondahammerbidney]

Thanks for everything! can't wait to run it back next year! God Bless y'all, and God Bless our HSNCT fridge

[KingPengy]

Alright, I do suppose it’s my time to give player shout-outs, though we’ll limit it to Minnesota players this time, as I haven’t played many online tournaments (yet), though I would like to shout out Sheehan for friending me on discord and giving me some good advice all because I like to post cute dog photos.
Wayzata
Ananth Ramsankar: Listen, if you know anything about the adoptive father jokes, they are legitimately funny. But I would also like to think I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Ananth better this year, and he’s definitely become one of my favorite people to talk to in MNQB. While his eyes may be burning with some random affliction at any given time, Ananth is a legitimately great player and deserves as much credit as anyone for that absurd Lexington upset.
I would also like to shout-out Sriram for always owing me on history and motivating me to get better (even if I was never better than him), Kevin for being very nice, funny, and good at QB, Richard for actually being a pretty cool dude (congrats on Stanford as I’m sure has been said), Yuv for the generational lock in and a good senior year, and Priyamvada for always being the nice and kind person she is.
Edina
Beckett Pursey: Not to repeat on what Amory said here, but the accomplishment it was to have Edina attend as many tournaments as they did despite the school’s questionable athletic department that almost blocked them from HSNCT is an accomplishment within itself. Not to mention that he also became a really, really good science player and is somehow an even better person. Beckett has definitely been one of my favorite non-Minnetonka people to talk to all year, and I wish him the best of luck at Purdue.
Shoutout to Jack as well for giving Rian a challenge all year, probably helped Minnetonka long term. Hopefully Aidan can grind because he’s been really good and Edina is just a very cool team (even if they are cake-eaters).
Eden Prairie
Arjun Vivekraj: I feel like I’m repeating Amory’s notes here, but yeah, despite a rather unfortunate HSNCT, Arjun is probably one of the best MN players dare I say ever at this point (at least in high school)? I think the work Arjun has put in has set a great model for players such as Beckett and myself to work ourselves to the bone as well, and the amoun Arjun does has really set an example and helped improve the Minnesota circuit.
I’m not a natural yapper, but I do want to shout out Anish for being goated, Aarav for being cool and an early season anki demon, Atharva for the luscious locks (and great mythology), and Arnav for being one of my favorite people to talk to (if only because he’s a history player).
Providence
Amory Kauffman: Just want to give a quick shout out here to put Amory on the same level as the others I listed, he totally deserves it for how good he’s been, how active he’s been, and how nice he’s been. That Alex-Amory game at state will probably go down in history, and I’m lucky to have come out on top.
Sam also deserves a shout out for his previously mentioned deep history knowledge, and I just wanna give quick shout outs to Anthony and Matthew for being very funny and cool as mentioned.
Minnetonka
Alright, now for the big guns. I’m going to try to write something for most everyone on my favorite team.
Rian Mathew: Dude is the actual goat. I know to this he’d say “20 powers doesn’t make super seven” but something tells me by next year he will have more than 20. What a grinder and amazing teammate who I’m glad to have sitting second chair. Can’t wait to see what he does next year.
Mihir Khurana: In a year of great upheaval for Tonka’s top team, Mihir was the stable and calm presence the entire time. He started the year a great player and ended the year even better. Now only if nationals science wasn’t insane, I think Mihir could drop crazy numbers (considering regs science seems harder than it already should be and look what he does on that). Either way, he’s been a beacon of consistency the entire year.
Gus Sullivan: He could get a bit overshadowed by the the two lit giants that were Arjun and Ananth, but seeing the numbers Gus put up on SHOW-M3, I have full confidence he’ll be the best lit player in the state next year and he could put up great numbers at nationals (hopefully I can convince him to come). Though it’s a little scary to like literature as a category, no offense.
Tyler Dodge: Finally. I wanted to shout out Tyler for stepping up big at nationals. Even just getting that one Tossup a game was exactly what we needed and helped push us to compete with teams that were probably out of our range if we were just playing the three of us. Massive clutch.
Also shout outs to Ani and Liam for being our captains (along with Tyler) and to Cooper for being the A team history player for most of the year and giving me a lot to compete against.

Thanks to everyone (even non-Minnesotans) for a great season and great HSNCT. And congrats to Livingston.