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The D.C. comparison thread seems to be rapidly degenerating into this anyway, so... what are everyone's thoughts on what next year's field will look like? Leave out no predictions no matter how illusory or insane.

I'm just going throw it out there and say that it's Wilmington's year to either win or lose nationals, since Gorman and however many other A players are returning.

so here's what I say:

The following two teams already have more or less a team in shape: Dorman and Charter. Therefore, they will be good.

The following teams are putting together teams and will probably be just as good as the two aforementioned teams as soon as they get their act together on who is on A: TJ (of course I say that, being a TJ A team member next year, but I honestly believe so), Hunter, RM, WJ

Someone is going to tell me I forgot some random teams from Michigan or Minnesota but I don't know anything about the circuit in either of these two regions to be able to make a call.

Dorman definitely should have a strong team next year, as I think two of their A Team return, and their B Team placed highly at NAQT and, I think, PACE (I'm not sure what getting 2nd in the consolation bracket means).

So a few updates to my previous post, and some clarifications on AlphaQuizBowler's post.

I believe all of Dorman A (as it appeared at NAQT, not at PACE with Freddy) were seniors, and they are graduating. That being said they have an excellent B team of juniors who will be A next year, I believe. I was informed that RM currently lacks a sponsor and money. Sponsor issues can be resolved; TJ has operated sans an official coach for a long time, though it has often been a thorn in our side as far as FCPS bureaucracy goes. Money issues are a bit trickier and I'd have to say that I hope RM can come up with funds somehow; it would be a shame to see them not compete just for lack of money.

When you have a group of all juniors that can place 4th in NAQT, you've got something great.

I'm calling Dorman to win NAQT next year.

To confirm: Dorman's regular A team was 4 seniors and they were playing Freddy on A at NSC because a somewhat-amusing (sorry guys, it is) incident barred Paolo from attending. And the regular Dorman B team was 4 juniors and they replaced Freddy with a sophomore at NSC, leaving them with a notable lack of science.

As others said, Dorman and Charter are already looking to be top contenders again next year. Hunter and WJ will be pretty much like MLK and NKC this year: one-man teams (no disrespect intended to the teammates of Guy, Daichi, Dallas, or Charlie, but seriously.) capable of beating or at least challenging the best teams.

Gov should definitely be quite strong next year. When we played Gov B at NSC they surprised me on certain things with pretty deep knowledge, but as I think someone in the other thread said, they also seemed a bit inconsistent on some easier stuff. But considering that was Gov B with some sophomores and freshmen (is that all? or were there any upperclassmen), that's pretty scary.

Yeah, as Naren said, this isn't my whole list of strong teams next year, I'm just commenting on a few I've seen.

I'm going to retract what I earlier posted on the DC thread and say that Charter is ahead of everyone by a good amount, followed by Dorman and Hunter. TJ will probably be good, especially if they can find someone who knows literature. I would say those four teams are the solid top 4, at least for the beginning of the year.
Keith is an excellent player, but he's not fiercely dedicated in the way that some quizbowl players are. RM is going to need at least one player like that to beat the top teams. I'm happy to say that I finally have teammates who are willing to write questions/study/work so WJ might do decently if they improve over the summer.
From what I remember, DCC this year was mostly juniors so they might have a good year too. In addition, I think SC, Gov, Zaga, and GDS will be more or less as competitive as us.

closesesame wrote:Minnesota

Probably the best returning team from Minnesota will be Chaska, which returns Sam Peterson. He seems dedicated to good quizbowl and improving at good quizbowl. The other teams ARE A MYSTERY

I agree with the general theme of Charter and Dorman being the teams to beat.
I'm very curious to see what the California teams can do, since they surprised and impressed me at HSNCT.
No clue about the Minnesota teams.
In Michigan, Gross Pointe North and Catholic Central have potential to be near the top, but I wouldn't expect anything amazing.

the california teams to look out for will likely be santa monica and rancho bernardo.
Edison, Arcadia, Torrey, and others may improve enough over this summer and over the year to become competitive at the national level. from the socal region, i'll look for 5 or so teams to make it to the playoffs.

Ukonvasara wrote:

closesesame wrote:Minnesota

Probably the best returning team from Minnesota will be Chaska, which returns Sam Peterson. He seems dedicated to good quizbowl and improving at good quizbowl. The other teams ARE A MYSTERY

wut about mpls south dude

metsfan001 wrote:

Ukonvasara wrote:

closesesame wrote:Minnesota

Probably the best returning team from Minnesota will be Chaska, which returns Sam Peterson. He seems dedicated to good quizbowl and improving at good quizbowl. The other teams ARE A MYSTERY

wut about mpls south dude

argh

Of course Chris Carter is also dedicated to improving at good quizbowl. Can't say I know much about his teammates though. Speaking of which, Chaska's chances of success outside of Minnesota will be greatly improved if Sam can finally get some interested, dedicated teammates.

yada yada,

as of now, Dorman and Wilmington look in good position. I am sure TJ can pull it off and with Daichi's dedication, WJ can easily make top 4 if not 3 . Gonzaga will be crazy with Puma and so will RM. Since i can't really talk about other regions, ill talk a bit about the south a bit. James Island looks to be the best team with pretty much everyone returning. Granted they didn't go to NAQT, but i think that was the coaches decision.

metsfan001 wrote:wut about mpls south dude

So far, South hasn't done anything of note. They went 2-4 at MN State (IS-76) to finish 19th with Chris Carter and another guy earning 18.33 ppg to lead their team in scoring. Not trying to belittle them, just saying they haven't shown much yet. That being said, Chris appears to be fervently working on getting better; it'll be interesting to see the results.

In the South, we should watch out for Southside from South Carolina. They won NAQT States with a talented team of sophomores, and beat Dorman's JV Team at Brookwood's JV Tournament.

aestheteboy wrote:TJ will probably be good, especially if they can find someone who knows literature.

We have for next year Josh Hahm, esteemed captain of the C team that led a blowout at DACQ Weekend of Quizbowl on the Saturday (with non-NAQT questions), as our literature go-to guy. He knows quite a bit about lit (that rhymes), and of course we will all build our lit skills over the summer more than anything else. That being said, we are hoping that Josh won't turn "over-Asian" and skip half the year to get into college...

ragnarok2012 wrote:James Island looks to be the best team with pretty much everyone returning. Granted they didn't go to NAQT, but i think that was the coaches decision.

I was fairly certain that James Island was graduating 2 seniors, namely, the two who did all the scoring.

AndyShootsAndyScores wrote:

ragnarok2012 wrote:James Island looks to be the best team with pretty much everyone returning. Granted they didn't go to NAQT, but i think that was the coaches decision.

I was fairly certain that James Island was graduating 2 seniors, namely, the two who did all the scoring.

No, im pretty sure Travis P. and Rafe are juniors, or were juniors last year.

closesesame wrote:I was informed that RM currently lacks a sponsor and money. Sponsor issues can be resolved; TJ has operated sans an official coach for a long time, though it has often been a thorn in our side as far as FCPS bureaucracy goes. Money issues are a bit trickier and I'd have to say that I hope RM can come up with funds somehow; it would be a shame to see them not compete just for lack of money.

At the moment we are sort of just running on our own exhaust, but we'll at least have a room to compete in next year and I want to have a September tournament so that we can raise some funds. Worst case scenario, we institute a Whitman-style Pay-As-You-Go plan. We will definitely not miss tournaments next year out of inability to pay. Special pauper discounts, however, will be very much appreciated.

aestheteboy wrote:Keith is an excellent player, but he's not fiercely dedicated in the way that some quizbowl players are. RM is going to need at least one player like that to beat the top teams.

Too true! And I do revel in my comparative normalcy. That said: I am probably going to have to submerge myself a lot more within the quizbowl scene next year, just out of consideration for that we will no longer have an experienced coach/resident crazy person (Feldman) to keep us informed.

General predictions for most of the top teams: Whitman is losing practically everybody and will be a lot weaker. TJ is always good and apparently some of its A and most of its always-awesome B team will be showing back up. Wilmington Charter came in second this year and is bringing back most of its heat, they should excel. WJ and RM will have a titanic battle for the title of Supreme North of D.C./South of Philly Badassery.

The only team I'm really knowledgeable about for next year (we didn't go to a lot of tournaments this year, mainly because of money; I know it must seem like RM fell off the face of the earth) is my own. I think RM can recover the magic next year, but it is going to take a couple of months of reorganization. Expect to see us come back seriously around November or December.

As far as Ohio is concerned, I think that the only team that has the potential to make any noise is Stow. (Also known as LOT Academy). They're a one man team, but they made the playoffs at NAQT, and Nathan has been writing a ton of questions and studying really hard.

Garfield will drop off the face of the earth after this year, as Bob is retiring and the new coach doesn't really know what she's doing.

Travis and Rafe (the "two who did all the scoring") were juniors last year. James Island will be solid again next year, but we didn't see too terribly much of them this past season. Off the top of my head, I think they got to the quarters at Vandy (strong field) and won Chatt's tournament (over Brookwood, Dorman not there), but had a relatively poor showing at the first day of WoQ. If I'm not mistaken, they performed significantly better on the NAQT set at WoQ. It'd be easier to tell how strong they'd be next year if we had some more results from this past year, but they just didn't attend as many tournaments as certain other teams did.

I can't speak too much for TN, KY, or AL teams, but as for GA and SC teams, aside from Dorman and the aforementioned JI, it's pretty tough to say definitively who'll be strong next year. Brookwood'll probably be good with Vamsi and Arvind returning, and Central Gwinnett's probably worth a mention considering they were decent this year with all non-seniors. I'm pretty sure Walton and Norcross both lost the vast majority of their scoring, but I don't know about any possible replacements. Alpharetta might also be solid if only for the efforts of AlphaQuizBowler who was really good for a freshman, but if he lacks teammates, I doubt he'd beat the Brookwoods and such. Southside I'm not sure about, because I watched them play our JV C team at Brookwood JV and they were good, but not amazing (I thought), and I was definitely surprised to hear they beat Dorman. And also, I'm not sure if they're prepared yet to step up to that next level, because (without trying to sound like I'm bragging about beating up on a JV team) at the UGA tourney in the spring CHS A beat them ("Southside B" at a varsity tourney) like 500-something to 0, and they just looked kinda lost during the match.

As for Chattahoochee, I hope they'll be good. At the beginning of this past year, I would've described our team as being very much senior-heavy (scoring-wise), but throughout the year at least a few of the juniors and sophomores stepped up their studying and finally learned to actually buzz in. I know they're planning on working hard over the summer and I'm planning to help, so I'm pretty hopeful they'll be a top contender at State again next year.

Sorry if I forgot to mention anyone.

Once again, no one from Indiana will compete for top spots at NAQT. However, Penn should do quite well, and I'd imagine that with Arnav back for his senior year, St. Joe's will also do quite well.

segregold wrote:We will definitely not miss tournaments next year out of inability to pay. Special pauper discounts, however, will be very much appreciated.

As a team that indeed holds tournaments, you could try offering free entry exchange if you're short on funds. For example, I wouldn't have a problem with allowing two free RM entries to my tourney (if I actually have another) if I received two free entries into RM tournies in return.

College teams do this regularly for a variety of reasons, such as being able to attend unapproved tournaments or stupid bureaucratic rules for being able to obtain student activities funds.

AdamL wrote: Brookwood'll probably be good with Vamsi and Arvind returning, and Central Gwinnett's probably worth a mention considering they were decent this year with all non-seniors. I'm pretty sure Walton and Norcross both lost the vast majority of their scoring, but I don't know about any possible replacements.

Um...based off NAQT Nats results...Walton loses less than half of its scoring...which is not the "vast majority."

Brookwood retains most of their scoring, as three of their top four were Juniors. They should be a strong team.

Alright, my mistake. I didn't actually know how many of the "usual" A team (the one that competed on High Q) were seniors, and I was thinking that they all were (except for Gazi which I already knew). And I'm guessing you're Kayhan?

Xerxes wrote: Brookwood retains most of their scoring, as three of their top four were Juniors. They should be a strong team.

I agree with the others that Brookwood, James Island, and Dorman are the cream of the crop for the south, as of now at least. Alpharetta has a good chance to win JV. THe South is losing a lot of its powers, like Danville, Dunbar ( although i think their team will still be good next year) , the Brindlees. MLK becomes much weaker. I don't know about Ezell Harding, but i think they are pretty good.

Hey guys, please indicate your identity in your signatures per our member identification policy. At least three posters in this thread over the last couple of days are in violation of the policy, and I'm fairly certain someone might drop by and tempban you if this keeps going much longer.

Adam,
I do have some dedicated teammates and a very supportive coach, so hopefully we can work hard enough to "beat the Brookwoods and stuff" eventually. And the poster Xerxes is Kayhan, who will be an excellent player for Walton next year.

kCobain,
I hope we can do well at JV, as we return 3 of 5 members from last year's team. However, I heard that Central Gwinnett had a good freshman team last year. They beat Brookwood at JV States. I'm also interested in seeing how the change to edited NAQT questions will affect the set (I think it will be a positive change).

JV next year will probably be dominated by Alpharetta, who will keep their captain (alphaquizbowler), but will lose a few supporting players. Other suspects include Brookwood and Chattahoochee. I have no idea how Walton will be next year (in terms of JV). I do know that the varsity team has some potential, but a few problems still stand in our way. In any case, I think we should split this conversation off into a Georgia 2008-2009 or Southeast 2008-2009 thread...

William, thanks. Are you going to ACE this year?

First, I shall pimp my state. Pennsylvania won't be all that good. State College should be somewhat competitive nationally, as Ruilong and Ben are both quite good. Moravian probably won't be all that good, because Ben is graduating. Shady Side won't do too much nationally, because we/i will be a one man team, and, as good as I may be, I can't do science, and I can't think of anyone who is any good at it either. Ahh, the virtues of a terrible science department....

Nationally, I think it will come down to Dorman and Charter. We played Dorman B at Nationals, and they are really, really good. Charter also impressed me a lot. Individually, I think that Henry, Guy, Dan, Ian, and Ike (I've never seen Daichi play, but the stats speak for themselves) are all really good. Guy will take his rightful place as the best linguistics player in the country next year...

Kayhan,
I looked at the NAQT results and am impressed that you put up the highest individual score for your team. Wish I could have gone. Family vacations and other plans mean I can't make it to ACE this year, unfortunately. I'm studying hard to make up for not attending, though. Have fun! (I'm pretty sure you're going)

Also, it would probably be a good idea to split this.

My predictions for top 10 teams in the country next year:

The same as this year except all the teams will move up a spot because Whitman isn't going to be 1st. Something to the effect of

1. TJ
2. Charter
3. Dorman
4. DC Team
5. DC Team
6. DC Team
7. West Coast/Central Team
8. VA Team
9. DC Team
10. DC Team

AdamL wrote:.
Gov should definitely be quite strong next year. When we played Gov B at NSC they surprised me on certain things with pretty deep knowledge, but as I think someone in the other thread said, they also seemed a bit inconsistent on some easier stuff. But considering that was Gov B with some sophomores and freshmen (is that all? or were there any upperclassmen), that's pretty scary.

There was one upperclassman on the B Teams we fielded at HSNCT and NSC: Junior Matt Kluge. He had an excellent game at HSNCT and then started negging (a lot) to end up our low scorer; I don't know how well he did at NSC as I was busy covering for Anant and Palmer on A.

wowitsquinthaha wrote:My predictions for top 10 teams in the country next year:

The same as this year except all the teams will move up a spot because Whitman isn't going to be 1st. Something to the effect of

1. TJ
2. Charter
3. Dorman
4. DC Team
5. DC Team
6. DC Team
7. West Coast/Central Team
8. VA Team
9. DC Team
10. DC Team

Hmm...so five of the top ten will be DC teams huh? And Dorman will be the only southern team, I see. Kind of like your comment that Maggie Walker should just be handed their trophies for 2010 nationals now...

Xerxes wrote:Hmm...so five of the top ten will be DC teams huh? And Dorman will be the only southern team, I see. Kind of like your comment that Maggie Walker should just be handed their trophies for 2010 nationals now...

Lighten up a bit dude. That was a hyperbole where I am trying to stress that next year will probably be much like this year, with most of the top teams in the country coming from the East Coast area, specifically from DC (which is widely considered to have the best perennial programs anyway).

wowitsquinthaha wrote:My predictions for top 10 teams in the country next year:

The same as this year except all the teams will move up a spot because Whitman isn't going to be 1st. Something to the effect of

1. TJ
2. Charter
3. Dorman
4. DC Team
5. DC Team
6. DC Team
7. West Coast/Central Team
8. VA Team
9. DC Team
10. DC Team

What the hell, Quint. You've seen us multiple times this year, and you can't even put us in your gosh darn top 10?

No naughty words in the high school section! —Mgmt.

1. Dorman
2. Charter
3. TJ
4. Hunter
5. DCC
6. Gonzaga
7. Random DC
8. Random Cali
9. Random MN
10. Gross(e) Point(e) North(e)
11. Maggie Walker

Guy, FAIL

Guy, I remade that post multiple times, you were in there in the other one. Don't worry. I love you.

wowitsquinthaha wrote:Guy, I remade that post multiple times, you were in there in the other one. Don't worry. I love you.

<33333333333

1. Dorman
2. TJ
3. Wilmington
4. WJ
5. DCC
6. Hunter

as far as i know

Some predictions from the NYC area.
Kellenberg has the potential to be very good. They finished tied for 11th at HSNCT and are returning their entiring A team. It will be interesting to see if they can become competitive on a national level. Hunter will obviously be good, but a lot depends on Guy's teammates (from what I can tell, they're pretty good, just completely overshadowed by Guy's talent). I have no clue what's going to happen with Stuy.....

Oh and NJ will suck. I have nothing further to add to that.

grashid wrote: 5. DCC

I agree with this. DCC really impressed me at PACE (which, at least by my standards, is considered to have a more competitive field). They beat Dorman B pretty easily, and ended up winning the consolation bracket. I don't exactly know how the play in games for the championship group worked out, but Bryan basically said they were "going in cold" against Brookwood, and they ended up losing. Brett is a monster, and Bryan's fine arts knowledge really impressed me in the one game I saw him play. I know Joe is graduating, and I have no idea about their 4th player, but it seems like they are returning their 2 best, and will yet again be nationally competitive (definitely at PACE, NAQT is kinda weird).

aarcoh wrote:Oh and NJ will suck.

I should feel insulted, but I know it is true.

Maggie Walker will win NAC

I have a feeling already knows who's going to win the next five NAC's.....

wowitsquinthaha wrote:

grashid wrote: 5. DCC

I agree with this. DCC really impressed me at PACE (which, at least by my standards, is considered to have a more competitive field). They beat Dorman B pretty easily, and ended up winning the consolation bracket.

To be fair, Dorman B was missing Freddy (probably 1/3 of their scoring and almost all science scoring), leaving them with a sophmore who lacks experience and the knowledge needed to compete at a high level (such as NSC).

So RM finally has gotten a new coach- specifically two new coaches who will be splitting up the job next year. All ya'll best look out.

Congrats. I hope your funding issues are also being resolved. It's a shame when a top caliber team can't attend tournaments that they could do extremely well in. Best of luck to you and hopefully we'll see you in a tournament in the fall.

segregold wrote:So RM finally has gotten a new coach- specifically two new coaches who will be splitting up the job next year. All ya'll best look out.

Could we borrow one?