Nov 15

Sacramento Winter HS Tournament (January 28)

NCQBA and Rio Americano HS are pleased to announce that the Sacramento Winter HS Tournament will be held on Saturday, January 28, 2017. This tournament will have separate JV and Varsity divisions; the field cap is 18 teams. Until 1 week prior to the start of the tournament we are reserving 6 spots in the JV field for schools that played zero Quiz Bowl tournaments during the 2015-16 school year.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano HS, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:00AM and we plan to start round 1 at 9:30AM.

Questions: We will be using NAQT IS-163A for JV and NAQT IS-162 for Varsity.

Eligibility: All high schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that participants must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $65 per team

-$10 second and subsequent team(s) from the same school (for non-new schools)

-$35 for schools that played zero quiz bowl tournaments during the 2015-2016 school year (per team)

-$10 per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 per scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for volunteers who have never kept score before.)

-$15 per experienced moderator

Minimum Entry Fee: $0 per team

Payment (cash or check) will be taken at check-in on January 28. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: Please fill out this google form no later than Wednesday, January 25 indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIp … A/viewform

 

Oct 18

Cal Cup #1 and #2 Results

Congrats to Davis A for winning the Varsity division of Cal Cup #1 and congrats to Davis B for winning the JV division of Cal Cup #1. Results are here.

 

Congrats to Davis A for winning the Varsity division of Cal Cup #2 and congrats to Bellarmine C for winning the JV division of Cal Cup #2! Results are here.

 

 

Cal Cup #3 is scheduled for Saturday, February 11 and Cal Cup #4 is scheduled for Saturday, March 4.

 

More information about Cal Cup can be found here.

Aug 30

Sacramento Fall MS Tournament (Sept 18)

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and Churchill MS are pleased to announce that Churchill will host the Sacramento Fall MS tournament on Sunday, September 18. We will have a field cap of 14 teams. Until 1 week prior to the start of the tournament we are reserving 2 spots in the field for schools that played zero Quiz Bowl tournaments during the 2015-16 school year.

Location: This tournament will take place at Churchill MS, Carmichael, California. Registration will begin at 9:00AM and we plan to start round 1 at 9:30AM.

Questions: We will be using NAQT Middle School Series #19. (For practice material similar to the questions we will use at the tournament, please consider the NAQT New Middle School Package and the 2013 Collaborative Middle School Tournament.)

The top 15% of teams will qualify for the 2017 NAQT Middle School National Championship Tournament, to be held in the Dallas, Texas area on May 13-14, 2017.

Eligibility: All middle schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event. This tournament is open to any players who have not yet completed 8th grade, though the questions are targeted at 7th and 8th graders.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that players must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $60 per team

-$30 for schools that played zero quiz bowl tournaments during the 2015-2016 school year (per team)

-$10 per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$15 per staffer (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for those volunteers who have never kept score before.)

Minimum entry fee: $0

Payment will be taken at check-in on Sept 18.

How to register: please contact the tournament director, Nicholas Karas (njsking (at) hotmail (dot) com), on or before Wednesday, September 14, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Aug 30

Sacramento HS Fall: September 17, 2016

NCQBA and Rio Americano HS are pleased to announce that the Sacramento Fall HS Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 17, 2016. All teams will play in 1 division; we will not have separate JV and Varsity divisions. The field cap is 18 teams. Until 1 week prior to the start of the tournament we are reserving 6 spots in the field for schools that played zero Quiz Bowl tournaments during the 2015-16 school year.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano HS, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:00AM and we plan to start round 1 at 9:30AM.

Questions: We will be using NAQT IS 157-A.

Eligibility: All high schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that participants must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $65 per team

-$10 second and subsequent team(s) from the same school (for non-new schools)

-$35 for schools that played zero quiz bowl tournaments during the 2015-2016 school year (per team)

-$10 per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 per scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for volunteers who have never kept score before.)

-$15 per experienced moderator

Minimum Entry Fee: $0 per team

Payment (cash or check) will be taken at check-in on September 17. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: Please fill out this google form no later than Wednesday, September 14 indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring.

Feb 27

California Cup #4 @ UC Berkeley: March 5, 2016

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance and Quiz Bowl Club at UC Berkeley are pleased to announce that we will be holding the fourth annual California Cup. The California Cup consists of four quiz bowl tournaments held throughout the year, and it is widely considered the premier academic competition event in Northern California. Cal Cup #4 will take place on Saturday, March 5. For the tournaments we will have registration at 8:30AM, the event will start at about 9:00AM, we will have a lunch break around noon, and we hope to finish around 5:00PM.

We hope to attract many teams from across the state and elsewhere. We have previously attracted teams from as far away as Southern California and Mississippi. As we have in the past, we will guarantee teams a high number of games (8 or more) per tournament and ensure that teams are able to play others of the same skill level after preliminary placement rounds. We use only the highest quality questions in our tournaments to ensure that players are rewarded not only for paying attention to what is taught in the classroom but also for their intellectual exploration outside a school setting. 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).

The top teams at each tournament will qualify for the 2016 PACE National Scholastics Championship (NSC; http://www.pace-nsc.org/2016-nsc-june-4-5-chicago/), which will be held June 4-5 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. California Cup tournaments have historically held the highest possible certification from PACE (Platinum), and should we continue to meet that threshold, the number of Varsity qualifiers will be 25% of the entire size of the field (inclusive of both varsity and JV) rounded up. For instance, if the combined Varsity and JV teams add up to 49, then the number of NSC qualifiers from Varsity will be 13 (25% of 49 is 12.25, which is then rounded up). Additionally, teams that perform well on NAQT sets during the California Cup will qualify for the 2016 High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT; details TBA), held May 28-29 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. The formula for HSNCT qualification is 15% of the entire field size rounded up. Note that only Varsity teams are eligible to qualify for either nationals directly. Teams that do well at the non-NAQT California Cup competitions can also apply for wildcards to HSNCT and PACE, and many have historically received them. JV teams may apply for nationals via wild card when wild card applications open. These wild cards are generally evaluated on statistical metrics like the average points per bonus (PPB) of a team.

Question sets:
Cal Cup 4 we are using BASK for JV and Varsity.
In order to qualify for nationals your team must play in Varsity. Only Cal Cup 2 is a direct qualifier for HSNCT but all 4 are direct qualifiers for PACE.

New for this year:
To expand on the Varsity and JV designations listed here, the NCQBA has decided that freshmen and sophomores can freely play JV at California Cup regardless of prior middle school experience, but any team with at least one junior or senior who played quiz bowl (defined as pyramidal all-subject tossup-bonus style quiz bowl, which is not inclusive of Quiz Kids, History Bowl, or Science Bowl), in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school year must play Varsity. Exceptions to this rule will be granted on a case-by-case basis and must be emailed to us at californiacupquizbowl@gmail.com. In addition, if a JV team clinches the overall JV California Cup championship in the first three tournaments of the season, as was the case with California Crosspoint last year, they will be obliged to move up to Varsity at California Cup #4 should they choose to participate.

Please bring appropriate payment with you when coming to a tournament. We will be far less lenient this year on people who do not pay prior to the start of the first tournament, and the earlier you pay, the higher priority you get for tournament registration. In particular, for the first tournament, we will enter teams into the field with the following priority: 1) paying in advance via Square for the package, 2) paying in advance via Square for the first tournament, 3) pledging to pay onsite for the package, 4) pledging to pay onsite for the first tournament. For subsequent tournaments, people who paid for the package will get priority into the field up to a week before the tournament, at which point the field entry becomes first-come-first-serve. If you purchased a package, please inform us as soon as possible if you are missing a particular tournament. We have also modified our drop policy. We offer a lot of flexibility in allowing drops from the field right up to 6 pm PST of the day before the tournament. Failing to inform us of a drop up to 6 pm the day before the tournament will merit you being liable for 50% of the cost of the upcoming tournament. If you then fail to inform us of the drop until after 8 pm the day before the tournament, you will be liable for 75% of its cost. If you do not show up at a tournament without informing us, you are liable for the full price of the tournament. Exceptions to these policies will be made only in case of emergency. This policy will also apply to package holders, though it will be scaled to account for the discount associated with the package. By signing up for the California Cup tournament series, you agree to these policies.

We will not offer buzzer and staffer discounts directly via Square. We will instead offer cash at the tournament site itself once we verify that the appropriate number of buzzers and staffers have been brought. Discounts for onsite payment will be assessed onsite.

Registration
Teams may choose to register separately for each tournament within the series, though we recommend registering for all four tournaments at once (the “package”), which ensures a significant discount. Each of the four tournaments will have its own champion and ranking. We will allow teams who wish to purchase the package up to the second tournament to decide whether to purchase it. For instance, you may attend the first tournament for only the price of the first tournament and then decide at the second tournament to purchase the entire package, at which point you will pay the discounted package price. We will split the field into junior varsity and varsity divisions and evaluate each separately. After the cup results are tallied, we will crown a California Cup (Northern California) state champion! There will be book prizes and gift cards for the highest-performing teams and individual scorers at each tournament, and other prizes are in store for the top California Cup teams. When calculating final Cup standings, we will count the top three performances by each team, allowing teams to account for extenuating circumstances at one tournament (either a lower-than-expected performance or non-attendance). Only teams that register for the entire series of tournaments will be eligible for the overall title as well as prizes at the end. With four guaranteed tournaments and plenty of gameplay, this series will offer the best prizes, greatest value, and most national qualification opportunities available anywhere in the country!

Entry Fees:
Base fee per team for package of all four tournaments (paying by cash or check): $270
Base fee per team for package of all four tournaments (paying via Square): $260 (details of payment via Square will be released later)
If your school played zero Cal Cup events last year and nobody on any of your school’s teams has played Cal Cup in the past (i.e. new team discount): -$70 off the price of the package
Buzzer discount: -$10 per tournament (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.)
Referral discount: An established team can pay the new team price if they refer a previously non quiz bowl-playing school to the California Cup and that school ends up purchasing the package. This will be -$25 if that new school only ends up purchasing a single tournament.

Staff discount: -$10 per tournament for experienced, competent moderator (if needed)
-$5 per tournament for scorekeeper
Travel discount: -$20 per 75 miles one-way (determined by Google Maps)
Registering for a single tournament: $90
New school registering for a single tournament: $65
Minimum entry fee: $20 per tournament

*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. Payment will be taken either online via Square or at registration; please make checks payable to “Quiz Bowl Club”. Note that discounts for future tournaments will NOT be given at any particular tournament. What this means is that if, for example, at the first tournament you claim a buzzer discount for all four tournaments, you must still pay as if you only claimed it for one tournament. Then, for each subsequent tournament in which you actually bring the buzzer, we will refund you $10 in cash. The same goes for the staffer discount. The entire distance discount may be claimed at the first tournament, though (that is, teams more than 75 miles away from UC Berkeley will pay $80 less as long as they are purchasing the entire package).

We are setting a field cap of 48 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 can fill fast, so sign up soon to reserve your slot!

To register for March 5, please fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1j08yudwMR4M0aMkarY3_TN3ZR_P7oqiTuN4nvqxOlM4/viewform

The registration deadline for Cal Cup #4 is Wednesday, March 2. Please bring the cash or check for full payment of the series of tournaments to the first tournament unless you are paying via Square. You can still pay the base fee for three tournaments if you register by the second tournament.

Scoring and Gameplay

The California Cup assigns points to schools based on their performance at the tournaments that take place throughout the year. We have decided to adopt the following scoring system: 10 points for 1st place, 8 points for 2nd place, 6 points for 3rd place, 4 points for 4th place, 3 points for 5th place, 2 points for 6th place, and 1 point for 7th place. Since the scoring automatically drops the lowest result of a team, only three of the tournaments will end up counting in the final evaluation of a team’s standing. Of course, attending all four tournaments will ensure that your team’s worst performance is disregarded. This means, for example, if a team wins the first three California Cup tournaments, they will be declared the California Cup champion for that division. If a team that does not purchase the full package ends up placing high enough on the scoring system, then we will simply skip them in the California Cup overall ranking (but they will still retain their ranking for that individual tournament). At the end of the year, we will break ties by evaluating (1) the performance in the 4th tournament and (2) statistics from each team’s performances throughout the year. We will maintain separate standings for JV and Varsity teams.

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 remember them, 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. Teams that owe the Berkeley club money from last year must reimburse us before paying for this tournament.

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 debate, AcaDeca, or Science Bowl. We look forward to another exciting year of academic competition!

Contact Information

Please contact us at californiacupquizbowl@gmail.com with any questions that you have. There will be a section on the NCQBA website (https://www.norcalquizbowl.org/) specifically devoted to the California Cup as well.

Feb 27

Mid-Season Analysis

The Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance Presents…
Midseason Attempt at a NorCal Statistical Analysis
Made by Unofficial Student Association
(aka MANSA MUSA)

Article I: A Brief Overview of the Circuit, circa January 2016

One factor that makes a mid­season analysis difficult is the lack of head­to­head games
between full A teams. Only twice this season have a full Davis A and Homestead A faced off,
both at Cal Cup 1. Aside from Davis, none of the top five teams attended ACF Fall, while Cal
Cup 2 saw a final between two depleted Davis and Homestead teams. Escobar’s Dhruv Muley
only attended CC1, which Harker’s Edgar Lin didn’t go to. Besides Davis and Homestead (who
split their A team in the interest of qualifying two teams), Sac Winter wasn’t attended by any of
the teams ranked here.

One thing that can be noted, however, is the apparent lack of science specialists among
the best teams in the field. Both Davis and Homestead lack a committed science player, and the
two strongest science players in the circuit­­Dhruv from Escobar and Bibhav Poudel from
Dougherty Valley­­attend few tournaments. Harker’s Swapnil Garg is probably the closest thing
to a science specialist among the top five teams. If any teams want to pull off upsets against the
top teams in the field, locking down the science canon is a good way to go.

As the second half of the season kicks off, there are exciting matchups ahead. The battle
for the Cal Cup trophy will probably contested by Homestead and Davis, each with one win to
their name. Harker and Escobar (if Dhruv shows up) both have good chances to take a surprise
win. Palo Alto, Saratoga, Dougherty Valley, Valley Christian, Bellarmine, and Amador all have
the potential to take games off of the top teams. Homestead, Bellarmine, Valley Christian, and
Harker seem to be well situated going into next year, while Davis, Palo Alto, and Dougherty
Valley will probably be looking to rebuild.

As for JV, Pi­oneers is the team to watch out for. Impressively, they are led by the
sixth­grade Shiva Oswal while Josh Rollin (8?) provides most of the support. Interestingly, they
got the 4th highest ppb at both CC1 and the 3rd highest at CC2. Other JV teams to watch out for
include Davis B, Escobar B, Challenger Ardenwood, and Leland.

Article II: Statistical Breakdown by Team

Team Rank aPPB Powers

1 Davis 24 23.57, 23.46, 21.33 CC1: 56, CC2: 49, Sac Winter: 82
Eliot Williams (11): Some history, some CM, in contention for strongest literature player with
Jessica.
Anthony DiCarlo (12): Decent in lit and history, with deep knowledge of visual fine arts and
extraordinary depth in myth and religion, He performed impressively at CC2.
Teddy Knox (12): US History, generalism
Ethan Skinner (10): A good low­level generalist with strengths in literature and history, but
will play JV for Cal Cups.
Very strong PPB, due to good teamwork and discussion on bonuses, with a lot of depth. Davis
can be very neg­heavy, especially Anthony and Teddy. They put up impressive performances
at ACF Fall and Sac Winter (against a relatively weak field both times). Excellent knowledge
of the meta, thought, and the smaller categories (fine arts, myth, etc.)

2 Homestead 52 22.30, 21.94 CC1: 41, CC2: 35
Jessica Chen (12): One of the strongest literature players in NorCal, some music
William Scott (11): One of the best generalists in the region (as shown by his leading
Homestead to the finals of CC2 without Brandon or Jessica)
Brandon Herren (11): History, esp. U.S. History, trash
Tom Gabrielson (11): Geography
Excellent fundamentals, especially on literature and history. Science is sketchy.

3 Harker 75 21.46, 20.21 CC1: 40, CC2: 44
Nikhil Manglik (11): Generalist with focus in History
Swapnil Garg (10): Generalist with focus in Math/Science. Working to improve on Lit/Art
Edgar Lin (10): Generalist. Able to cover a lot of ground. Especially strong in history, myth,
math.
Strengths in history and science, with weaknesses in literature and arts. The team revolves
around Nikhil, Edgar, and Swapnil

4 Escobar 77 21.72 CC1: 52, CC2: 30
Dhruv (12): One of the best science players in Norcal. Made a very impressive showing at
CC1, but has not shown up since.
Support is provided primarily by Anup Hiremath (11) and Karthik Bharathala (12)

5 Amador Valley 126 19.89, 19.21 CC1: 31, CC2: 31
Jason Chen (12): Generalist, lead scorer
Manan Khattar (11): science support
Weilun Wang (12), Joseph Mo (12), Yash Prakash (12): Additional support

6 Valley Christian 157 19.47, 18.34 CC1: 23, CC2: 31
Omeed Askary (11): Generalist with focuses in history and religion.
Andrew Rao (11): solid science support
Dhilip Raman (11): solid lit support.
A strong lead scorer with a team that sometimes shows up. When the whole team is present
they are a force to be reckoned with (see CC2), but when it’s just a few of them the team is
much easier to take down. Another young team that looks well situated going into the next
season.

7 Dougherty Valley 173 19.09 CC1: 15, CC2: 45
Bibhav Poudel (12): Science
Yashasvi Sharma (12): Very strong on NAQT
Gautham (12): Mythology
After losing most of their scoring from Eric Chen (UC Berkeley) and Cody Zheng (also
Berkeley), this looks to be a rebuilding year for Dougherty Valley. However, they showed
their mettle at Cal Cup 2, where they had the highest number of powers per game.

8 Saratoga 189 18.74, 18.18 CC1: 23, CC2: 36
Mason Tian (11): History, leads the team.
Nate Ney (12): Science, Math, Sports
Bryant Chang (11): History
Unsurprisingly, very strong on history. Have bounced back impressively from graduation of
Bruce “Bruce Cannon” Lou and most of their other regular A-­teamers.

9 Bellarmine 191 18.81, 17.90, 17.34 CC1: 18, CC2: 27
Hieu Nguyen (10 or 11?): Quite good at high school canon literature
Atul Saha (10):
Kevin Chang (11): Good science fundamentals
Pravin Ravishanker (?):
Moved up from the top of JV last year. Quite young, very promising for next 1­2 years.

10 Palo Alto 194 18.76 CC1: 25, CC2: 37
Trevor Filseth (12): Deep knowledge of history, especially US
Trevor is one of the strongest individual players in the region. However, with an inability to
cover a significant portion of the distribution (and thus convert enough tossups) he won’t be
able to place highly unless he branches out or finds some support.

Article III: Descriptive Breakdown by Team

1. Davis (24)
The team placed 24th in Morlan’s PPB rankings, and their extraordinary breadth and depth of
knowledge makes them formidable contenders. Although they will have to replace their two
departing seniors, Anthony DiCarlo and Teddy Knox, this team retains Eliot Williams and Ethan
Skinner ­ enough talent to continuously challenge for local and national titles. Quick buzzers,
but can sometimes have a negging problem.

2. Homestead (52)
Although seemingly powered by Jessica Chen’s literature, this is still a balanced and dangerous
team with more than enough firepower to hurt any team. More than capable of replicating their
top 8 finish at HSNCT if everything goes right. They will have a hard time replacing Jessica next
year, but the real danger lies the year after that when the other 3 members of their team graduate.

3. Harker (75)
Relative newcomers to the top of the Quiz Bowl field, Harker’s strengths are in science and
history. Although attempting the same model as Homestead, they are far more prone to bad
buzzes and negs, indicating a need for more knowledge, especially in the lit and art categories.
The team is in good hands for the next two years, as none of their top 3 scorers (Nikhil Manglik
(11), Edgar Lin (10), and Swapnil Garg (10)) will graduate. The team will seek to make a
positive impression on the national scene this year. The team can lose big to teams when falling
behind early and can be affected by overconfidence against lower-­ranked teams.

4. Escobar (77)
Largely a one man show powered by Dhruv Muley (12), one of the best Science players in
NorCal QB. However, he shows up infrequently, meaning this Escobar team is talented, but
needs to develop more players in order to take the next step into contention. Ranked 77th in
Morlan’s rankings, but without Dhruv, the number of powers they get drops significantly.

5. Amador Valley (126)
A solid team that finished 8th at CC1 and t5 at CC2. Jason Chen is the heavy hitter on this team,
while Manan Khattar provides support on science and Weilun Wang plugs the gaps. They
haven’t yet threatened to break into a finals match, but they have the ability to take down any
team in the field. They’ll almost certainly continue to place in the top 8 or so for the remainder of
the year, but I would be surprised if they finished anywhere higher than 4th unless they put in
some serious study­time.

6. Valley Christian (157)
Led by Omeed Askary (11), with main support from Andrew Rao (11) and Dhilip Raman (11).
Omeed’s generalism, combined with Andrew’s science and Dhilip’s literature specialties, create
a balanced team with few holes. The full team presents a formidable opponent, but they will need
more depth to defeat the top teams. Looks to be in a good position for next year, since none of
VC’s main players will be graduating.

7. Dougherty Valley (173)
After losing their top two scorers (Eric Chen and Cody Zheng) last year, Dougherty Valley faces
major challenges covering the high school canon. Gautham Pavar (12), Bibhav Poudel (12), and
Yashasvi Sharma (12), returning members of last year’s Nationals team, provide some depth in
science, geography/CE, and myth, but they will need to find additional dedicated players to bulk
up their knowledge and challenge the teams above. Next year figures to be another rebuilding
year for DV as all three of their remaining players graduate out.

8. Saratoga (189)
Traditionally a History Bowl­dominant team (with the notable exception of Bruce “One­Man
Army” Lou), Saratoga is led by Mason Tian (11), a history specialist. However, Saratoga has
proven that it can branch out to Quiz Bowl subjects, even after the graduation of superstar Bruce
Lou. Nate Ney (12) and and Bryant Chang (11) provide supporting knowledge of science, other
history, and sports. Saratoga’s strong performance at Cal Cup 2 shows that they can upset other
teams, especially if they can gain depth in non­history categories.
9. Bellarmine (191)
Bellarmine loses last year’s entire A­team, with a completely new team that won the JV division
of Cal Cup last year. The team has a strong grasp of fundamentals and can definitely steal
tossups from teams placed higher, as shown by their 2nd place at ACF Fall. Sophomore Hieu
Nguyen is a strong literature player, and junior Kevin Chang is an up­and­coming science player.
Bellarmine has no graduating players next year, so with continued studying, they will most likely
place quite well.

10. Palo Alto (194)
Led by history specialist Trevor Filseth (12), who has low­level knowledge of the high school
canon as well. Although very capable in the history department, Palo Alto is held back by a lack
of knowledge in the rest of the quiz bowl canon. Until this team gains other players to
complement Trevor, this team will not be able to progress much farther than their current
placing. In addition, they will have to find a replacement for Trevor next year.

Article IV: Individual Tournament Analysis

Cal Cup 1
Cal Cup 1 saw the only matches this season between a full Homestead A and Davis A. Their
games against each other were both extremely close, and decided on the last tossup (375­310 and
345­340, both in Homestead’s favor.) Escobar with Dhruv took third, while Harker (without
Edgar), Valley Christian (without Andrew Rao) and Palo Alto rounded out the top 6. Although
Davis led the field in powers (with 56 to Escobar’s 52 and Homestead’s 41) Homestead
converted more tossups (128 to Davis’s 124 and Escobar’s 111). Notably, there was quite a gap
between the top 4 ppbs (Davis, 22.1; Homestead, 20.94; Escobar, 20.36; Harker, 20.1) and the
rest of the field. Homestead and Davis had 21 negs each, Escobar had 22, and Harker had a
field­high 32, indicating a bit too much aggression. This tournament showed the parity at the top.

ACF Fall
Although ACF Fall was the next tournament open to all high schools, it was sparsely attended,
with only Davis and Bellarmine attending out of the top 10 teams. Davis eased through the field,
with a ppb 5.67 higher than the next highest and an average margin of victory of 337 points, even
without high­scorer Anthony DiCarlo. However, Bellarmine showed their ability and potential
by taking second, only losing to Davis throughout the day.

Cal Cup 2
A weakened field all around, with Davis’s Teddy Knox, Homestead’s Jessica Chen and Brandon
Herren, and Escobar’s Dhruv not showing up. Harker was the exception: with Nikhil, Swapnil,
and Edgar all in attendance, they effectively placed t3rd, and achieved the 3rd highest ppb.
Homestead brought on Brij Desai to fill the gap left by Brandon and Jessica, and he helped
William reach the finals through a half­packet playoff against Harker. Similarly, Davis reached
the final by defeating a strong Saratoga team in another half­packet. Saratoga showed their
ability to branch out from history at this tournament, jumping up 8 places and increasing their
PPB by nearly two points. Valley Christian, too, with the addition of Andrew Rao from CC1,
increased their PPB by about 2.5 points. Davis again led the field in powers (49 to Homestead’s
35, Saratoga’s 36, and Harker’s 44). Both Davis, Homestead, and Saratoga had very few negs
(10, 15, and 11, respectively), while Harker also reigned in their negs a bit (dropping to 21 from
CC1’s 32), although they were still tied for the highest in that category with Dougherty Valley.
In Davis’s case, this can be at least partially explained by the absence of Teddy. Homestead
achieved the highest ppb in the field (21.94 to Davis’s 21.16, Saratoga’s 18.74, and Harker’s
20.21). This tournament saw substantial improvement from Saratoga and Dougherty Valley (who
hadn’t sent their A team to CC1).

Sacramento Winter
Another sparsely attended tournament, with only Davis and Homestead going out of the top ten
teams. Homestead split their A team in an attempt to qualify two teams, but with a JV team
dropping the morning of the tournament, they were unable to do so. Davis moved their JV
standout Ethan Skinner to the A team, and with Teddy’s reappearance, brought their stats up
significantly from CC2 (also played on an IS set), pulling 23.01 ppb (up almost 2 points from
CC2) and 82 powers to Homestead A’s 32 and Homestead B’s 31. Interestingly, Homestead B,
which was CC2’s Homestead A, scored almost exactly the same ppb (21.94 and 21.91). Davis
led the Varsity division in negs, with almost twice the negs of Homestead A (27 to HA’s 14 and
HB’s 11).

Dec 12

Bellarmine Novice: January 16, 2016

Bellarmine’s quiz bowl team will be running our annual novice tournament on Saturday, January 16, 2016 at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California. We will be using NAQT’s Introductory Invitational Set #153A. 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.

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: $70 per team
–$5 for second or subsequent team from the same school
–$10 for teams composed entirely of students that have not competed at a pyramidal quiz bowl tournament prior to the 2015–16 school year
–$10 per working buzzer (please do not bring buzzers that are not in good working condition)
–$10 per staffer
–$10 travel discount per 75 miles driving one way, as determined by Google Maps from your school to Bellarmine
We will also give a discount of $5 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 receive lunch.
The minimum fee after all discounts have been added is $20 per team.

To register: please fill out this form by Wednesday, January 13:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ebVOrKzp7C4sUTPv9RmkG8fmiTKUVcGn_X5p5-XsAf0/viewform

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.kao@berkeley.edu) 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 12

Sacramento Winter: January 9, 2016

NCQBA and Rio Americano HS are pleased to announce that the Sacramento Winter HS Tournament will be held on Saturday, January 9, 2016. We will have separate JV and Varsity divisions for this tournament.

Location: This tournament will take place at Rio Americano HS, Sacramento, California. Registration will begin at 9:00AM and we hope to start round 1 at 9:30AM.

Questions: We will be using NAQT IS-152 for Varsity and NAQT IS-151A for JV.

Eligibility: All high schools (public, private, charter, religious, homeschool, etc.) are eligible to play in this event.

Schools are encouraged to enter multiple teams, but please note that participants must play for the same team throughout the tournament.

Fees:

Base fee: $65 per team

-$10 second and subsequent team(s) from the same school

-$35 for schools that played zero quiz bowl tournaments during the 2014-2015 school year (per school)

-$10 per working buzzer system (must accommodate at least eight players)

-$10 per scorekeeper (We will hold a brief training session during check-in for volunteers who have never kept score before.)

-$15 per experienced moderator

Minimum Entry Fee: $10 per team

Payment (cash or check) will be taken at check-in on January 9. Please make checks out to Rio Americano HS.

How to register: Please fill out this google form, on or before Wednesday, January 6, 2016, indicating how many teams, buzzers, and staff your school plans to bring:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1zfJkOCGIvZAfXEyJwa_J7sm6en0fKpIT-amTBpCowbc/viewform

Sep 27

Results: Bay Area Elementary School Tournament

Congratulations to Challenger-Ardenwood, who defeated the Pi-oneers 345-215 in the first game of an advantaged final to win the first Bay Area Elementary School Tournament!

Complete team and individual statistics are now available.

My thanks to:

-our hosts from the Embassy Suites Santa Clara
-Alex Dzurick of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance for providing the questions
-Sean Lin of San Jose State

I hope all five teams will be able to join us this winter for our series of NAQT middle school events.

Sep 16

2015-2016 Season Preview

Note: Varsity [V] or junior varsity [JV] denotations next to player names show what level they will compete at for the 2015-2016 season (ie teams with [V] players on the roster may not compete in JV divisions, but [JV] players may compete in either division). This is preliminarily based off of a two years’ experience cutoff. If you feel like any of these are incorrectly classified, please get ahold of me through Facebook or email and let me know.

 

Albany – graduates Sean Lin (San Jose State) but retains top scorers junior Andrew Liu [V] and senior Madeline Zhang [V]. The team has a little bit of a negging problem (possibly decreased with Sean’s graduation) and needs to raise their PPB, but they were able to close out last season with a 7th place finish at (an admittedly emaciated) NorCal State. The A team can probably expect lower-top 10 finishes.

 

Amador Valley – relatively inactive team that retains top scorers senior Jason Chen [V] and junior Manan Khattar [JV], who both show potential but need teammates’ support and to clean up their negging.

 

Archbishop Mitty – retains top scorer senior Siddharth Kulkarni [V] but didn’t manage to develop past a one-man team over the last season and will likely remain the same unless there was major expansion this summer.

 

Bellarmine – graduates the entirety of their HSNCT t-13 and PACE 11th A team (Jonchee Kao [UC Berkeley], Abhishek Aditham [UC Berkeley], Alejandro Buendia [Columbia], Jarek Jankowski [Notre Dame]) + more (Gavin Pereira [University of Arizona], Namit Mishra [UC San Diego]) and sees growing rates of inactivity among its best remaining players. Retains sophomore standout Atul Saha [JV] and a relatively balanced group of lowerclassmen but will definitely not field a team of 2014-2015 calibre for at least this season.

 

Chinese Christian – retains junior Benson Yi [V] but graduates main support Calvin Chiu (UC Santa Barbara). Benson took the JV circuit by storm in the beginning of the last season but saw a huge increase in competition towards the end of the year, as well as a drop in activity. If Benson has been studying and found a replacement for Calvin, they could do decently in their new division.

 

College Preparatory School – graduates top scorer Andrew Vaughn (Cornell) from an extremely inactive program. Retains senior Nikhil Pandit [JV] who showed potential but definitely needs to rebuild anything resembling a team.

 

Crystal Springs Uplands – retains top scorer senior Shasta Ramachandran [JV] from an extremely inactive program.

 

Cupertino – retains top scorer junior Mihir Khambete [V] and essentially all other players of note. Should see decent to good finishes in their new division.

 

Davis – graduates Jayanth Sundaresan (UC Berkeley), Alex Chen (MIT), and Zach Hertz (Tufts) but retains all of their other best players from last year (seniors Anthony DiCarlo [V], Teddy Knox [V], Henry Zhang [V]; junior Eliot Williams [V], sophomore Ethan Skinner [JV]), which includes the majority of their PACE 22nd team. Each team in their incredibly deep bench periodically has its problems with negging and bonus conversion, but the A team will almost definitely dominate the circuit for this season and the program as a whole will remain strong for several years to come.

 

Dougherty Valley – graduates lead scorer Eric Chen (UC Berkeley) and teammates Cody Zeng (UC Berkeley), Samuel Zhang (UC Berkeley), Sui Feng Xiu (UC Irvine), but retains seniors Larry Liang [JV], Bibhav Poudel [V], Effie Jia [JV], Yash Sharma [V], and sophomore Simon Han [JV]. While they won’t reach the same level the 2014-2015 team was able to compete at, they should still hold their own in varsity.

 

“Escobar” – graduates top scorer Kelvin Lu (MIT) but retains seniors Karthik Bharathala [V], Dhruv Muley[V]; juniors Anup Hiremath [V], Trevor Wu [JV]; and sophomore Prasana Gutti [JV]. Faces a challenge with Kelvin’s graduation but with Dhruv’s 46ppg at HSNCT, they could perform quite well at a varsity level.

 

Evergreen Valley – graduates top scorer Charlie Tian (UC Berkeley) and retains senior Ashwinee Panda [JV]. Will likely be decent in junior varsity.

 

Folsom – played their first tournament last year, unfortunately a pretty inactive and lower-level JV team and will probably remain as such.

 

Harker – retains top scorers junior Nikhil Manglik [V] and sophomore Edgar Lin [JV]. Has historically had pretty strong players but are unfortunately usually inactive.

 

Homestead – graduates lead scorer Karthik Srivatsan (Michigan), Alex Lei (UC Davis), and Richard Chen (UC Berkeley), but retains three-quarters of their HSNCT dark horse t-8 team and more, including senior Jessica Chen [V] and juniors William Scott [V], Brandon Herren [V], and Tom Gabrielson [V]. If they’ve been studying hard this summer and found someone to fill Karthik’s spot, they stand a good chance at giving Davis a run for their money and will probably sit at a safe second in the circuit if not.

 

Leland – new team that retains top scorers seniors Sathvik Nair [JV], Kyle Cui [JV] and junior Hari Krishna [JV]. They made the trip to PACE and seem to have a healthy club, but will likely remain at a JV level unless they’ve put in lots of work this summer.

 

Lynbrook – graduates top scorer Oliver Dong (UC Berkeley), but will hopefully develop and perhaps be decent in the JV circuit.

 

Menlo-Atherton – low-activity team that typically only attends novice tournaments, although they did win Bellarmine Novice and retain their top scorers seniors Mason Seymour [JV] and Griffin Kardos [JV]. Likely will stay the same this season.

 

Monta Vista – new team that retains top scorer sophomore Anjini Venugopal [JV], will likely be decent in JV if they’re more active, especially if Anjini gets support.

 

Moreau Catholic – graduates Omkar Salpekar (UC Berkeley), otherwise retains some decent JV players.

 

Northgate – new team that retains juniors (?) David Leynov [JV] and Josh Quiambao [JV] that could be decent in their division with development, but are unfortunately pretty inactive.

 

Palo Alto – retains one lead scorer senior Trevor Filseth [V], graduates other lead scorer Max Krawcyzk (Columbia) and fixes most of their neg problem with that. Unclear for now if Trevor will have enough support, but will likely maintain top 5 finishes this season.

 

Rio Americano – loses lead scorer senior Jonathan Gutmann (studying abroad) and will probably remain a relatively inactive JV-level team this season.

 

Saratoga – graduates solo PACE 27th lead scorer Bruce Lou (UC Berkeley) and other occasional A team members Ethan Ngai (Washington University) and Nitya Sampath (University of Washington). Senior Nate Ney [JV] and juniors Bryant Chang [JV] and Mason Tian [JV] could help Saratoga reach decent JV finishes.

 

Valley Christian – retains their core A team of juniors Omeed Askary [V], Andrew Rao [V], Dhilip Raman [V]. If they’ve been studying and refining their playing strategy (especially in terms of aggression), they could probably finish in the top 5 at the varsity level.

 

Looking forward to another great season!