Mar 03

Cal Cup #3 Results and Analysis PART ONE — VARSITY

Varsity statistics from California Cup #3 can be found here.

 

This write-up is part one of two write-ups and contains only the top six varsity teams.

 

1st place – Bellarmine A

Led for the first time this season by senior Jonchee Kao (4th scorer at 50 PPG, Bellarmine for the most part retains their characteristic balance, with strong support by seniors Jarek Jankowski (7th scorer at 40 PPG), Alejandro Buendia (10th scorer at 37.5 PPG), and Abhishek Aditham (25.5 PPG). They had the field’s highest PPB of 23.12, although they did manage to hit 26.36 in one round. In three rounds, they powered 9 tossups, while their highest scoring round saw them go 10/6/1 in 595-115 win over Amador Valley B. Their only loss of the day came in an uncharacteristic 235-415 loss to Davis A, which probably could be largely attributed to their four negs. Bellarmine A did, however, manage to beat Saratoga A in their last game of the day, going 9/1/1 to walk away with 360-305 win, also their closest game of the tournament. While the uptick in difficulty between earlier NAQT sets and this tournament’s BISB is evident in depressed PPGs all around, it’s likely a safe bet to assume that Bellarmine A will be able to take the Cal Cup championship once again, although there is always the chance that Bruce rallies Saratoga A to win the last Cal Cup and a further tie break will need to be held.

 

2nd place – Saratoga A

Senior Bruce Lou once more takes top scorer with 134 PPG, leading his team to finish with just two losses, both to Bellarmine A (first round by a decent margin 295-385, the latter in Bellarmine A’s closest game of the day, mentioned above). Saratoga A and Bellarmine A had extremely similar tallies by the end of the day, with Bellarmine going 70/55/14 and Saratoga going 73/52/12, further illustrating how close in caliber the two teams find themselves. Saratoga A’s own closest game came against Davis A in a 355-325 win that was actually initially a win for Davis A, until Davis brought a moderator error to light. Saratoga A’s PPB also saw a slight dip due to increased difficulty, although at 22.64, it was still the 4th highest of the tournament (2nd-4th place teams all had PPBs of 22.xx). Saratoga A’s highest scoring game came against Escobar A, with the insane statline of 12/5/0 (a 650-95 win). While Bellarmine A still has a chance of winning the last Cal Cup and undisputedly taking the championship, Saratoga A again shows that they are a very real contender.

 

3rd place – Davis A

Led by 9th scorer junior Teddy Knox (37.78 PPG), Davis A too finishes with two losses to take third place. One loss, as previously mentioned, was initially a win over Saratoga, but the players of Davis A brought a moderator error to our attention, giving up what would have been an extraordinary addition to their victory over Bellarmine A, and for that, we at the NCQBA would like to express our appreciation for their integrity. Davis A had a PPB of 22.77, third-highest of the tournament, hitting 25 in two separate games. They gave Saratoga A their closest game of the day (the aforementioned 325-355 loss), while their closest came in a 370-365 win over Palo Alto A. They were extremely well-balanced (all players between 37.78 and 26.67 PPG)but did, however, lose to Dougherty Valley A by a very significant margin (205-405). This, as well as that earlier close game against Palo Alto A, could definitely have been a result of their four negs in each game – this is an issue they’ll definitely have to work on, especially as set difficulty increases. However, their upset of Bellarmine A and near-upset of Saratoga A shows that Davis A will definitely be a force to contend with upon the graduation of the previous teams’ players.

 

4th place – Dougherty Valley A

Led by tournament second-scorer senior Eric Chen (53.89 PPG), Dougherty Valley takes expected losses to Bellarmine A (230-445) and Saratoga A (180-495, exacerbated by four negs) and is upset by Palo Alto A (215-415, probably partially due to their three negs), but also manages to upset Davis A by the same margin (405-205). Eric has some support, mainly from senior Cody Zeng (30.56 PPG), but the team definitely will need to do some rebuilding after this season. For now, though, they did have the second-highest PPB of the tournament at 22.83, and even managed to hit 25 in two rounds. They will, however, need to address their negging problem before they can pose more of a challenge to the teams that placed above them.

 

5th place – “Guilder” A

“Guilder” A ties with Palo Alto A with a record of 5-4, dropping games to every team that placed above them by expectedly large intervals. Senior Karthik Srivatsan once more leads the team and also secures the title of third-overall scorer with 52.78 PPG, but has the benefit of balanced support from the rest of his teammates, all between 26.11-28.33 PPG. There was a clear drop in PPB from the leaders of the field (21.580), but they did manage to score above 22 in four rounds and hit 25.7 in another. “Guilder” A will also need to work on curbing their negs, but their biggest issue will likely be finding someone to replace Karthik upon his graduation.

 

6th place – Palo Alto A

Palo Alto A ties with “Guilder” A at 5-4, led by tournament 8th scorer junior Trevor Filseth (40 PPG) with not insignificant support from teammates. They dropped the expected games to the teams that placed above them, with the exception of their upset over Dougherty Valley A by 200 points. They had several close games (365-370 loss to Davis A and 285-275 win over Amador Valley A), the latter of which shows how little separation there is between Palo Alto A and some of the lower teams of the field. Again, another notable PPB drop from the rest of the field can be seen (20.94), but they too managed to hit 25 PPB in one game. It will be interesting to see if Trevor and teammates can improve enough before the next season to continue distinguishing themselves from th

Feb 20

Wildcat Classic Results and Analysis

Statistics from Wildcat Classic can be found here.

 

This write-up contains only the top four varsity and junior varsity teams.

 

Please note that individual scoring ranks are not separated by division (varsity and junior varsity individual results were compiled).

 

VARSITY

1st place – Saratoga

Senior Bruce Lou solos and takes both first place team and individual at 146.25 PPG (once again nearly double that of the second-place scorer) with an expectedly impressive statline of 59/31/5. His PPB of 23.33 reaffirms the depth and breadth of his knowledge, and he even managed to hit 26.67 in his game against Amador A, his closest of the day with a 365-360 win. In no game did he power less than 6 tossups, and his first game against “Guilder” A saw him go 9/1/0. That game, however, was only determined by 50 points (365-315), and he had another close game against Bellarmine A (370-315), which goes to show that – in light of Cal Cup #2 results and given some serious improvement by the opponents – an upset might be possible, but appears more and more unlikely as Bruce continues to improve. If any more proof was needed of Bruce’s domination of the circuit, this was it. Expect similar performance through the rest of the season.

 

2nd place – Davis A

Missing usual lead scorer junior Anthony DiCarlo, the remainder of Davis A stepped up well, capturing second place under sophomore Eliot Williams (tournament 5th at 60.56 PPG, notably without negs), closely followed by senior Jayanth Sundaresan (10th scorer with 46.67 PPG). They lost by only 50 to Bellarmine A in their first game (260-310) and managed to upset them in their second round, winning 360-295. Their only loss of the day came at a 110-point margin to Saratoga, while they defeated “Guilder” A and Dougherty Valley A (usually their B team) by sound margins (415-210 and 510-5, respectively). Hitting a maximum PPB of 25.45 in that game against “Guilder” A, they averaged around a 22.78, an improvement over Cal Cup #2. Overall, their finish was a solid performance that reaffirms Davis A’s rightful place among the top teams of the circuit (interestingly, they outscored Saratoga in raw points [61/48 to 59/31] but their 19 negs to his 5 landed them in 2nd place).

 

3rd place – Bellarmine A

Three-man Bellarmine A by senior Jarek Jankowski (3rd scorer at 79.5 PPG) goes 7-3, dropping games to “Guilder” A, Davis A, and Saratoga. Their loss to “Guilder” A came in their first game, 275-430, while they managed to rally and narrowly defeat them 316-280 in their last game of the day, and the opposite happened with Davis A, Bellarmine A defeating them 310-260 first and later losing 295-360. Taking into account the absence of Bellarmine A’s normal fourth player senior Abhishek Aditham, future rounds between these teams aren’t likely to be as close. Bellarmine A would certainly benefit from having Abhishek (or even other players) present at more events, given they saw a nearly 3-point drop in PPB as a partial team, even though they did manage to hit 24 at one point (notably in their game against Dougherty Valley C that they won 725- -5). Since both teams were lacking a crucial member, it’ll be interesting to see Davis A and Bellarmine A face off when they are both at full strength (notice that Bellarmine A outscored Davis A in terms of raw points, going 69/52/11 to Davis A’s 61/48/19).

 

4th place – “Guilder” (formerly Homestead) A

Regaining their lead scorer senior Karthik Srivatsan (7th scorer at 52.22 PPG), “Guilder” A drops games to Davis A, Bellarmine A, and Saratoga twice. Their loss to Davis A came at a pretty large margin (415-210), as did one game against Saratoga (300-435), but the others were close (280-315 against Bellarmine A, who they had earlier defeated, and 315-265 against Saratoga). Karthik’s presence had a clear impact on PPB, raising it from 19.03 at Cal Cup #2 to 23.26, even managing 25+ in three rounds. Their best game of the day came against Valley Christian A, a 570-75 win in which they finished 10/6/0. They have a little bit of a negging problem, still, but only in the sense that it is not sustainable on the number of tossups they are correctly answering. With the increase in number of correct tossups or a little neg curbing, that should be taken care of.

 

Junior Varsity

1st – Bellarmine B

Lead scorer freshman Atul Saha (tournament 8th with 48.33) with main supports sophomores Hieu Nguyen and Kevin Chang (both 36.67) lead Bellarmine B to an undefeated finish to win the junior varsity division of the tournament. In addition to the highest PPB of their division (18.2, managing at one point to hit 25 against Davis B), they also had one of the lowest numbers of negs (tied with three others for 2nd lowest at 7), which were confined to only three of their nine games. Not once did they score lower than 265, which they did in their closest game of the day, a 25-point win over Davis B. The team has large shoes to fill next year, but with steady improvement they stand a chance at seeing similar results by most of their senior years.

 

2nd – Archbishop Mitty

Archbishop Mitty’s junior Siddharth Kulkarni once again leads his team, this time as the tournament’s 4th scorer with 70.62 PPG. Their PPB of only 15.32 highlights some weak spots in his knowledge that isn’t being adequately supported by his teammates, but they are answering tossups, so he isn’t completely on his own. They averaged about a neg per round, and managed to score more than 300 points in every round they played except for their game against Bellarmine B, a 130-390 loss. Other than that, their closest game was a 365-170 win over Davis B, demonstrating that there is a clear divide between these two top teams and the rest of the teams in the circuit. Ideally they’ll move on to varsity as their players get ready to graduate, but whether they will or not remains to be seen.

 

3rd – Davis B

Davis B finishes 5-3, dropping games to Bellarmine B (240-265), Archbishop Mitty (170-365), and Bellarmine B once more (160-295), all by significant margins. Freshman Ethan Skinner once more leads the team with 57.86 PPG (6th scorer), followed closely by 8th grader Daniel Zhu (42.86). Their PPB is two lower than Archbishop Mitty’s, averaging 13.16 with a high of 17.5. As expected from a junior varsity team, their power ratio could be improved upon, but they seem to manage their negs pretty well, usually getting two a game. Ethan and Daniel both demonstrate that they will without a doubt be names to watch over the next few years, a testament to the potential within Davis’s impressively deep bench.

 

4th – Davis C

Tournament 9th scorer sophomore Roland Li (46.88) leads Davis C to a 4-4 finish, supported mostly by sophomore Dante Yasui (28.75 PPG). They dropped two games to Archbishop Mitty and a game each to Davis B and Bellarmine B by large margins, as expected. Their PPB took another 2 point drop from the team above them, averaging just 11.11, although they did manage to get 16.67 in their round against Davis B (also Davis B’s highest PPB round). To their credit, their closest game of the day came in their first loss to Archbishop Mitty (145-330), while their best game saw them finish 225- -5 over Dougherty Valley E. Given that Roland usually plays for Davis B, the C team has a while to go before they are at the caliber of the former.

 

Thanks from all of us at the NCQBA to those who staffed and played!

Feb 20

Sacramento Winter Results and Analysis

Statistics from Sacramento Winter can be found here.

 

This write-up focuses only on the four teams that placed within the Finals and Playoffs brackets.

 

Because rosters were so anomalous, there isn’t much to be gained with future performance predictions by these specific teams, so they’ve been left out.

 

1st place – Davis B

A mix of players from Davis’s usual A and B teams, a well-balanced Davis B is led by senior Jayanth Sundaresan (4th scorer at 47.5 PPG), junior Teddy Knox (6th scorer at 40.42 PPG), and sophomore Eliot Williams (7th scorer at 38.33 PPG) to a 10-2 finish, dropping games only to “Haarlem”’s A and B teams, both by pretty large margins (210-415 and 250-375, respectively), probably due in part to their negs (6 and 4, respectively). However, they also managed to win games against both teams, beating “Haarlem” A 325-245 and “Haarlem” B 315-220. These results can be attributed to “Haarlem”’s similar decision to mix their usual A and B players. Narrowly managing the second-highest PPB of the field, they average 20.21 (compared to “Haarlem” A’s 20.45), they did top 22 PPB in five rounds over the course of the tournament. Their closest game of the day came in a 240-200 win over “Haarlem” B, and they managed to power 10 tossups and answer 3 others in their 460-70 game against Rio Americano. Their main issue of the tournament was their negs, of which they had the most of any team at 31 (compared to “Haarlem” B’s 29).

 

2nd place – “Haarlem” B

Likewise composed of mixed A and B team members, “Haarlem” B is led to a 9-3 finish under 65.42 PPG senior Cody Zeng (tournament 2nd scorer), with most of his support coming from Bibhav Poudel (24.58 PPG). They had a PPB of 18.71 but topped 20 in five rounds, one of which saw them answer 15 tossups (465-85 win over Davis D). In rounds with a similar result, they went 8/7/2 against Rio Americano and 5/8/3 against Folsom. They finished with the second-highest number of negs of the field with 29, but my guess is that this – as well as the other abnormally high neg rates – can be attributed to the unorthodoxy of the tournament thanks to the abnormal rosters.

 

PLAYOFFS 1st – “Haarlem” A

“Haarlem” A went 7-3 under tournament top scorer Eric Chen (108 PPG), who played largely without support barring some from grade Gautham Pavar, dropping games to “Haarlem” B and Davis B by relatively large margins, but only losing closely to “Haarlem” B in their second round (205-265). Notable games saw statlines like 7/6/4 (win over Davis A), 8/6/0 (win over Davis C), 7/6/4 (win over Folsom), and 10/5/1 (win over Rio Americano). They had the highest PPB of the tournament at 20.45 and managed 23+ a few times, which serves as a testament to Eric’s knowledge.

 

PLAYOFFS 2nd – Davis A

Going 4-6 for the day, Davis A finishes second in the Playoffs bracket led by usual A team lead scorer junior Anthony DiCarlo (56.5 PPG, tournament 3rd scorer). They had a reasonable PPB of 18.04 and while they topped 21 in a two rounds, the overall result from this experiment probably supports the idea of maintaining stacked A and B teams. As expected from the lead scorer, Anthony had the majority of the team’s negs, which at 27 were something that could probably have been curbed. They got 6 negs in one round, which was likely the result of that being a loss to Davis B (170-375). Their closest game was a 230-245 loss to “Haarlem” B, which also wasn’t helped by their 4 negs that round, while they were able to win by 20 points over Davis C (270-250) because they only had 2 negs.

Thanks on behalf of all of us at the NCQBA to those who staffed and played in Sacramento Winter.

Feb 18

California Cup #4 flyer

High School Quiz Bowl tournament @ UC Berkeley (Mar 7, 2015)

 

What: Quiz Bowl is a team buzzer competition (similar to science bowl and history bowl) that features questions in all academic subjects (such as science, history, literature, etc). Each team is composed of 4 students from the same school. There will be teams competing from the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Monterey. This tournament will be the 4th tournament in our series of 4 HS tournaments held during the 2014-2015 school year. Called the California Cup, it is the most prestigious series of quiz bowl events in California. We have a Varsity division for experienced teams and a JV division for newer teams. Our tournament in late November featured 49 teams! More information about how Quiz Bowl works can be found at our website, https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/.

 

Where: Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley

 

When: Saturday, March 7. Registration will begin at 8:15AM. The competition will begin at 9AM and run until (about) 5:00PM. We will have a lunch break in the early afternoon (there are many places to get food close to campus on Telegraph Avenue).

 Eligibility: All current high school students are eligible to compete.

 

Fees:

$65 entry fee per team for new schools. Schools are welcome to enter multiple teams.

$10 discount per buzzer

$5 discount per scorekeeper (coach, parent, teacher, friend, etc)

$20 discount per 75 miles traveled one-way (according to Google maps)

Minimum entry fee per team: $20

Payment (cash or check) will be taken on-site at registration.

How to register: Please email us at californiacupquizbowl (at) gmail (dot) com if you are interested in playing or having any questions.

Thank you and we hope you will be able to join us at the tournament!

 

Nicholas Karas and Aseem Keyal

Co-Presidents, UC Berkeley Quiz Bowl

 

The UC Berkeley Quiz Bowl Club is a student group acting independently of the University of California. The student organization is the host of the quiz bowl tournament and takes full responsibility for the guests.

Jan 28

Bellarmine Novice Results and Analysis

Statistics from Bellarmine Novice can be found here.

 

This write-up only focuses on the top six teams.

 

1st place – Menlo-Atherton

Menlo-Atherton takes first place for the first time this season, led by tournament 7th scorer junior Mason Seymour (60 PPG), who made the jump from B team at Palo Alto Novice, surpassing A’s former lead scorer junior Griffin Kardos. They hugely improved their PPB from last time (15.36 to 22.48) and have good control of their negs (usually around two a game). However, they did drop games to Bellarmine C (senior Gavin Pereira stepping in to fill the spot of a no-show team) by an understandably large margin and Valley Christian A by a significantly smaller margin (270-345). However, they did go on to defeat Valley Christian A in a blowout final (535-155), in which they went 5/10/1. Mason will definitely be a name to look out for as he leads the team through the remainder of this season and the next.

 

2nd place – Valley Christian A

6th scorer sophomore Omeed Askary (70 PPG) leads Valley Christian A once again, dropping only two games to Davis D (215-330) and Menlo-Atherton in the final (after narrowly beating them earlier). That loss wasn’t helped by their four negs, although they usually kept that under control in other rounds. They still need to work on expanding their knowledge to help with bonus conversion (18.95) and Omeed could use some more support, especially from Dhilip Raman (28 PPG). Impressively, they managed to answer 15 tossups in three different rounds, but there are clear gaps in their knowledge that will need filling in before they can progress much farther.

 

3rd place – Davis A

Regularly Davis B, A is led by tournament 9th scorer freshman Ethan Skinner (57 PPG) and senior Alex Chen (50.5 PPG) to a 9-1 finish, the tournament’s best. Their only loss of the day came to Valley Christian A (210-325), but notably had a PPB of 26.67 in that round, compared to their overall 17.43, which could definitely use some improvement. Their closest win of the day was over their own B team (235-210), but for all but one game of preliminaries, they managed to keep their opponents below 100 points. With some concentration on bonus conversion, this team could be ready to step in to fill out the varsity Davis team upon graduation of the current members., especially Ethan.

 

4th place – Monta Vista

Finishing significantly better than in their last tournament (4-4 at Cal Cup #2), Monta Vista is led by freshman Anjini Venugopal (3rd scorer at 79.05 PPG) to a 7-3 finish, with close losses to Davis B (180-200) and Davis A in their final game (240-285). Their only other losses came from games against Menlo-Atherton, with predictably large margins. Their performance has some consistency issues to address, illustrated by a clear win over Bellarmine C (280-150) but a very narrow one over Challenger-Berryessa (165-155). Once Anjini’s main supports (two players in the teens of PPG) improve and help boost their overall PPB (16.83), they could find themselves doing considerably well in the JV circuit and perhaps even the varsity one, depending on Anjini’s performance through the rest of her career.

 

5th place – Bellarmine C

Regularly on Bellarmine’s A or B teams, senior Gavin Pereira stepped in to take the place of a no-show team, predictably securing overall top scorer at 98.75 PPG, as experience solo players are apt to do. He won a close game over California Crosspoint (240-210) but dropped games to Cupertino A (160-275, in which he notably negged 7 times) and Monta Vista (150-280, in which he negged 6 times).

 

5th place – California Crosspoint (formerly Chinese Christian)

California Crosspoint ties for 5th with Bellarmine C, going 6-3 under lead scorer senior Calvin Chiu (4th scorer at 75 PPG). He more than doubled his PPG from Cal Cup #2, but he also didn’t have the intense competition that was present then. They narrowly lost a game to Bellarmine C (210-240), but lost games to Davis A and Valley Christian A by margins of 105 and 200 points, respectively. They started off the day negging 2-3 times per round, but composed themselves towards the end and pulled it down to about 1 a game. They had the second-highest PPB of the field (19.47 to Menlo-Atherton’s 22.48), but that could always use some improvement. The rest of the team is going to have to do some serious developing over the remainder of this season to fill the space that Calvin is going to leave upon graduation.

 Thank you to those who staffed and played!

Jan 19

Results: Bellarmine Novice, January 17, 2015

Congratulations to Menlo-Atherton, who defeated Valley Christian A 535-155 in a one-game final to win the 2015 Bellarmine Novice Tournament! Davis defeated Monta Vista 285-240 in the third-place game. Thanks to our hosts, Chris Fleitas and Steve Flowers of Bellarmine, tournament director Jonchee Kao, and all of our volunteer moderators and scorekeepers! Complete team and individual statistics are here.

Jan 16

Wildcats Classic Tournament: February 7, 2015

The Quiz Bowl Club at Dougherty Valley High School are pleased to announce that we will be holding the first annual Wildcats Classic Tournament at our campus. We plan to host the tournament on Saturday February 7, 2015. For the tournament, registration will start at 8:30AM, the event will start at about 9:00AM, lunch break will start around noon, and we hope to finish around 5:00PM.

We hope to attract many teams from across the state and elsewhere. We will guarantee teams a high number of games (9 or more) at the tournament and ensure that teams are able to play others of the same skill level after preliminary placement rounds.

The top teams in the varsity division at the tournament will qualify for the 2015 PACE National Scholastics Championship (NSC; http://www.pace-nsc.org/nsc-2015/), which will be held June 6-7 at the Reston Hyatt in Reston, Virginia. Our tournament is certified Platinum by PACE and the top 25% of the varsity field will qualify for the PACE NSC. The top 15% of the combined field will qualify for the 2015 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT;https://www.naqt.com/hsnct/2015/details.html), held May 29-31 at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare hotel in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago). Teams that do well in the JV division are encouraged to apply for wildcards to HSNCT, as many teams in the past have qualified in this way. We will use NAQT IS-144 for Varsity and for JV.

Registration

We will split the field into junior varsity and varsity divisions and evaluate each separately. There will be book prizes and gift cards for the highest-performing teams and individual scorers at each division. Additionally, we will award the best varsity team with a trophy, and the best JV team with a certificate. This will be one of the few national qualification opportunities available in Northern California this year!

Entry Fees

Base fee per team (paying by cash or check): $80
Second and subsequent teams from a school: $70

If your school participated at zero pyramidal Quiz Bowl tournaments this year and last year (i.e. new team discount): -$20

Buzzer discount: -$10 (We will test buzzers and NOT accept them if they do not have four fully functioning units on each “side,” so do not try to claim discounts on buzzers that are not in full working order. Also, PLEASE LABEL your buzzers with your school/team name so that you can promptly pick them up at the tournament’s conclusion. Lastly, we will no longer accept buzzers that require a laptop to operate unless we really need them.)

Staff discount: -$30 for experienced ADULT (21 and older) , competent moderator
-$20 per for ADULT (21 and older) scorekeeper
(please let them fill in some paperwork located below)

Travel discount: -$20 per 75 miles one-way (determined by Google Maps)

Minimum entry fee: $20 per team

*Buzzers and staff discounts apply on an as-needed, first-come, first-serve basis. When registering, please detail how many staff and/or buzzers you may be able to bring. As the tournament approaches, we will let you know whether they are needed or not.
Please take time to have your staffers fill the form on this page: https://www.beamentor.org/linkpages/men … efault.asp (Level 1 clearance is enough). Note that the process might take up to 3 weeks to complete.
If we do not have the approval of your staffer before January 31st, we will not be able to offer you a staffer discount.

We are setting a field cap of 34 teams (overall, not per division). Schools may register multiple teams–there is no limit. We might be able to expand if there is enough interest, but until that point, we will accept teams on a first-come, first-serve basis. Fields fill fast, so sign up soon to reserve your slot!

To register for Wildcats Classic, please fill out this Google Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yjV0t5 … 0/viewform

The registration deadline for Wildcats Classic is Sunday, February 1. Please bring the cash or check payable to Dougherty Valley High School Quiz Bowl.

Gameplay

We will enforce all the gameplay rules as they are written in Sections D-H of the official rules of the Academic Competition Federation (http://acf-quizbowl.com/documents/official-acf-rules/), so all players must fully familiarize themselves with these rules before playing these tournaments. If you are having trouble remembering the rules, we recommend you print out a copy and refresh your memory immediately prior to the tournament. Pay special attention to timing, pronunciation, and protest guidelines, as players often lose out on points by not knowing these. You can find out more about what Quiz Bowl is here: (https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/?page_id=18) and you can find more Quiz Bowl-pertinent resources here (https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/?page_id=51).

Thank you for your interest, and please spread the word to other high schools that are interested in Quiz Bowl or are heavily involved in other academic events like Speech and Debate, DECA, or Science Bowl.

Lunches
There will be a wrestling tournament the same day of our tournament. The tournament will have a snack bar. Those attending the tournament can buy food there.

Parking
There will be free parking spaces for the participants and their families.

Contact Information

Please contact us at dvhsquizbowl@gmail.com with any questions that you have.

Dec 29

Cal Cup #2 Results and Analysis PART TWO – Junior Varsity

Junior varsity statistics from California Cup #2 can be found here.

 

This write-up is part two of two write-ups on California Cup #2 and contains only the top nine JV teams.

 

1st place – Albany

Albany takes first place in their first tournament of the year with one close loss to Chinese Christian A (265-295). Sophomore Andrew Liu leads the team with 61PPG (10th scorer), supported by junior Madeline Zhang (35.5PPG) and sophomore John Friedman (23PPG). They averaged just over a neg a game, finishing with just over half as many as second-place Harker (14 to 25), and notably went 9/5/2 in their game against Lynbrook A (470-95). Even with a bonus conversion that could use some improvement (20.67), they managed to keep their competitors below 225 (and usually closer to 100) in every game except for their two closest of the day: a victory over Harker (310-290) and a loss to Chinese Christian A (265-295). Albany then went on to defeat Chinese Christian A 180-95 in a half-packet round before finals against Harker. While a contributing factor to Albany’s win in this tournament was likely the lack of usual top players on other teams, they show potential to continue to do well through this season and following ones.

 

2nd place – Harker

Returning no players from their last tournament of the previous season (BELLOCO), Harker is led by sophomore Nikhil Manglik (51.11PPG) to second in their first tournament of the season with strong assistance from freshman Edgar Lin (37.22PPG) and sophomore Soham Khan (27.5PPG). For their degree of inactivity, their PPB of 22.48 was extremely commendable. In addition to having a superior bonus conversion, they powered one more tossup than Albany (46 to 45), but had ten less gets and also double the negs (2nd highest of the tournament with 25 to “Escobar” B’s 27). They dropped games to both Valley Christian A (210-280) and “Escobar” B (215-405), as well as their closest game of the day, a 30-point loss to Albany in finals. All in all, their performance was a strong indicator of Harker’s potential to be a top five JV team if they continue to compete. Update: Upon the knowledge of the grades of Harker’s best players, this team will definitely be one to watch if they continue to compete and improve their current ability. Harker has traditionally competed in very few tournaments, but it would be great if the circuit saw more of them this year.

 

3rd place – Chinese Christian A

Chinese Christian A and “Escobar” B tie for third, with Chinese Christian A finishing 9-2 in their first sub-2nd-place tournament with sophomore Benson Yi, who lead with 67.27PPG (little over half his last Cal Cup PPG of 106.67, but tying with Escobar B’s Dhurv Muley for most powers at 33) and surprisingly only took 9th scorer overall. Senior Calvin Chiu’s PPG was likewise cut in half from his normal (31.82), but they were able to secure the tournament’s second-highest PPB (23.22 to “Escobar” B’s 23.7) and were notably the only team to have more powers than gets (57/50). Their closest game of the day was a 295-265 win over Albany, but only got half of Albany’s points in their half-packet round to get into finals. Other than that, however, Chinese Christian A’s only loss was to Valley Christian A (260-315), but again the outcome was reversed the second time the two faced off, also in a half-packet round (190-130). Benson and Calvin’s unusually low individual performance could be an indicator of new talent that has been unearthed from new and previously inactive teams, but this should also let them know that there is always more to learn.

 

3rd place – “Escobar” B

Despite tying with Chinese Christian A for third place, “Escobar” B finished with a record of 7-3, but did manage to secure the tournament’s highest PPB of 23.7 led by tournament 4th scorer junior Dhruv Muley (77.5PPG, tied for most powers and would’ve been top scorer without so many negs). Dhruv did, however, have the most negs of the tournament (18), contributing to their team’s likewise finish (27). They dropped games to Northgate (295-355), Harker (180-405), and Chinese Christian A (320-375), and their closest game was a 330-290 win of Archbishop Mitty. Given their PPB, if some of Dhruv’s teammates improve (particularly the two who scored by under 20PPG), they have a strong chance at being a formidable JV team in future tournaments.

 

Valley Christian A

Sophomore Omeed Askary once more leads Valley Christian A to a 7-2 finish, but sees the same overall drop in PPG that the tournament’s other established players faced (finishing with 50). He had less support this time around, notably lacking both sophomores Andrew Rao and Dhilip Raman, which likely caused the slight dip observed in PPB (20.6, still the highes tin their bracket). Valley Christian A was able to defeat both Harker (280-210) and Chinese Christian A (315-260), but dropped a full game to Albany (225-330) and a half game to Chinese Christian A (130-190). Their closest game of the day came in a 295-250 win over Lynbrook A. It would’ve been interesting to see how a full-strength Valley Christian A fared against the new teams and players present at this tournament, but even as is, the results confirm that Omeed and his teammates will need to continue their rate of improvement to hold their own in future JV tournaments.

 

Archbishop Mitty

In their second tournament of the season, tournament top scorer Siddharth Kulkarni (83.57 in Cal Cup #2, top scorer with 118.12 at Cal Cup #1) leads the team to a 6-2 finish, with support from Abishek Padwal (32.86). They averaged about a neg a game, with no players displaying an obvious problem. Their third player, Noah Kane Manuel, notably powered every time he buzzed, even though he only buzzed four times. Archbishop Mitty managed to only drop games to “Escobar” B (290-330) and Harker (270-340) and their closest game of the day was a 30-point win over Northgate (305-285). I wasn’t able to get ahold of anyone to establish Siddharth’s grade, but he will definitely be a name to look out for if he has more time in the circuit.

 

Bellarmine B

Returning only one member from their second-place team at Cal Cup #1, all-sophomore Bellarmine B finishes 5-3, once more demonstrating the classic Bellarmine balance the circuit has come to expect (Pravin Ravishanker, Hieu Nguyen, and Sejal Midha at 34.38, 29.38, and 22.5PPG, respectively). They dropped games to Harker, Archbishop Mitty, and “Escobar” B by at least 65 points and saw their closest game against Amador Valley C (245-230 victory). They held the second-highest PPB in their bracket (20.34) even missing three of their usual players, which says good things about the knowledge Bellarmine is developing in each of their teams.

 

Lynbrook A

Junior Oliver Dong (51.88PPG) and senior Avinash Thangali (42.5PPG) lead Lynbrook A in their first tournament of the season, finishing 4-4. Their PPB of 18.89 shows a marked improvement from their last of the previous season (13.43 at NAPOLEON). In one remarkable game against Foothill, they pulled off a 7/10/0 stat line, winning 515-20. Their 45-point loss to Valley Christian A (250-295) and low negs could give some indication of potential higher finishes with development of the team and more activity.

 

Amador Valley B

Returning all of their players from Cal Cup #1, Amador Valley B ties with Lynbrook A at 4-4 and manages a slightly lower PPB (18.31). Sophomore Manan Khattar once more leads his team with 70.62PPG, but has very little support from his teammates, none of whom broke 10PPG. None of their losses were particularly close, but they were all to higher-placing teams (with the exception of their 150-240 loss to Leland), as expected. Their close win over Lynbrook A (265-240) might imply a chance of shuffling around with Lynbrook A and other similar-level teams at future tournaments, and Manan will likely be a name to be aware of over the next few years.

 

Once more, thanks from NCQBA to those who played in and staffed Cal Cup #2!

Dec 16

Bellarmine Novice tournament: January 17, 2015

Cross-posting on behalf of Jonchee Kao of Bellarmine College Prep:

Bellarmine’s Quiz Bowl team is pleased to announce that our annual novice tournament will be held on January 17, 2015 at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California. We will be using NAQT’s Introductory Invitational Set #143A. This particular set of questions is intentionally geared towards newer teams.

The initial field cap will be 36 teams, with possible expansion, dependent on the number of staffers and buzzers we have available. Teams are restricted to six players each; please break up any larger teams into two or more teams. There is no limit to the number of teams that can come from any single school. We heavily urge all teams attending to bring buzzers and staffers.

All teams of high schoolers from the same school are eligible to play in this event, although players who have competed at the NAQT High School National Championship Tournament, the PACE National Scholastic Championship or the HSAPQ National All-Star Academic Tournament in the past two years must receive special permission from the tournament director to play.

The tentative tournament structure will be 6-team preliminary brackets for 5 games of round robin preliminary play followed by a rebracketing into playoff rounds, the structure of which will be determined by the number of teams who register for this event. We anticipate that rounds will go from 9:00 until approximately 4:30, followed by an awards ceremony. The exact round timings and other logistical information will be emailed to teams in the week before the tournament. Please do not plan to leave early without telling us beforehand.

Fees

  • base fee: $80 per team
  • –$5 for second or subsequent team from the same school
  • –$10 per working buzzer (please do not bring buzzers that are not in good working condition)
  • –$20 per staffer
    We will have a brief meeting for all staffers before the start of the tournament. We will also give a discount of $10 for half-day staffers (those who can staff from Round 1 until lunch or from lunch until the conclusion of the day). All staffers, including half-day staffers, will also receive lunch.
  • The minimum fee after all discounts have been added is $20.


To register: please fill out this form by Wednesday, January 14.

Registered teams will be provided with more detailed information before the tournament. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me (Jonchee Kao, jonchee.kao15@bcp.org) or Chris Fleitas (cfleitas@bcp.org). Any volunteer staffers not affiliated with a registered team are warmly welcome and should contact us as well. We hope to see your team there!

 

Dec 15

Results: Stratford Santa Clara Invitational, December 13, 2014

Congratulations to Holmes Junior High A, who defeated Stratford San Jose 380-290 in a one-game final to win the 2014 Stratford Santa Clara Invitational! Challenger-Sunnyvale A defeated Challenger-Strawberry Park A 410-300 in the third-place game.

Complete team and individual stats are available here.

Thanks to our host, Bryan Martin of Stratford Santa Clara, and all of the staffers who made this tournament possible: Ankit Aggarwal, Matt Bruce, Terry Drinkwater, Eric Guo, Larissa Kelly, Teddy Knox, Arbong Lei, Roland Li, Hieu Nguyen, Atul Saha, Andrew Shibata, James Wang, Eliot Williams, and Peter Zhu. Special thanks to Chris Fleitas of Bellarmine for loaning us two buzzer systems (and thus ensuring that this tournament included zero cases of slap bowl).