Quiz Bowl Coaching Dynasty

[larrymcg421]

In 2021, I was transferred to a teaching position at a new school called Innovation Academy, which is a public STEM school. Since this was the first year the school was opening, I had more opportunities and was picked to be the coach of the school's Academic/Quiz Bowl team.

This dynasty is meant to tell the story of how that has gone over the past couple years and catch up so I can talk about what is going on this year, which is the first year we have had Seniors (since our school opened with 9th/10th graders).

[larrymcg421]

Placeholder for Tournament Results

[larrymcg421]

How does quiz bowl work?

Quiz bowl is a buzzer based team based competition of 5 players per team (sometimes 4). A single quiz bowl match involves 20 tossups. A tossup is a paragraph long question and the first team who gets each tossup then gets to answer 3 bonus questions.

Tossups are pyramidal, meaning they start with obscure clues about the topic and eventually get to more obvious clues. There is a spot where they are powermarked. If a team buzzes in correctly before the powermark, they get 15 pts. Otherwise they get 10. Depending on the tournament format, you may lose 5 points for an incorrect buzz. Team members cannot confer on a tossup.

Here is an example tossup:

At the end of this novel, its protagonist admonishes his sons that “it is the end of a family when they begin to sell the land.” A girl in this novel, who is mentally-challenged because she was starved as an infant, is called “Poor Fool.” This novel’s protagonist pulls a (*) rickshaw after he is forced to move to the city with his wife, O-Lan. For 10 points—name this novel about the farmer Wang Lung, written by Pearl S. Buck.

Answer: The Good Earth

The team that gets the tossup then gets the chance to answer 3 bonus questions (related to each other, but not related to the tossup). Some tournaments have a bounceback format, where the opposing team can answer a bonus if the first team misses. But the team who gets the tossup will always get 1st crack at the bonus. The teams can confer on the bonuses and usually have 5 seconds to answer them.

Here is an example bonus:

The Southern Song and Northern Yuan were examples of these states that clung to power after dynastic shifts.
For 10 points each—
A. Give this term for a small remnant ruled by a state that has been diminished by conquest or other losses.
answer: rump state
B. The Seleucid [sel-YOO-sud] Empire was reduced to a rump state in Syria after the conquests of Mithridates I
[mith-ruh-DATE-eez “the 1st”] of this Asian empire, known for its horse archers’ tactic of firing while retreating.
answer: Parthian [PAR-thee-in] Empire (or Parthia or Parthians or Arsacid Empire or Arsacids; accept Parthian shot)
C. The Southern Ming became a rump state after this last dynasty of imperial China took power in 1644.
answer: (Great) Qing [cheeng] Dynasty (or Ch’ing Dynasty or Manchu Dynasty or Qing cháo)

At the end of 20 questions, the team with most points wins. There are different formats per tournament to determine ties.

Quiz Bowl is mostly done through tournaments that take place on Saturdays. Your team will often play 5 prelim matches, then depending on how they do, there are playoffs in the afternoon.

[larrymcg421]

At the beginning, we were just meeting during "club time", a period the school dedicates during the middle of the day.

The first meeting was just getting to know the kids and what subjects were their strengths and weaknesses.

Most Quiz Bowl questions come from 4 main categories - History, Literature, Science, and Fine Arts. There are some other categories sprinkled in, such as Trash (Pop Culture/Sports), Religion, Myth, Current Events, etc.

As we are a STEM school, it wasn't a surprise that almost every player identified Fine Arts and Literature as weaknesses. To deal with this, I split the kids up into three groups, one to study Literature, one to study Fine Arts (Music), one to study Fine Arts (Visual). This was a noob strategy, and I would move away from it in year 2.

[larrymcg421]

1st Tournament - CATT XVII (26 teams) - November 2021

We started our program with 13 players, so we sent two teams to this first tournament. Some were set up to be substitutes and I made sure everyone played at least one match. Teams are labelled by letter, from strongest to weakest (Team A, Team B, etc.) and they compete separately.

This was a Varsity tournament, so our 9th and 10th graders were playing against mostly 11th and 12th graders. My goal going in was to just get some experience.


Prelim Results:

Team A 230, Paideia B 180 (We win our first ever match!)
Team A 300, Milton 125 (2-0)
Southside A 335, Team A 180
Creekview 355, Team A 190
Marist 270, Team A 220 (Controversial ending as the other team got the last tossup, but they should've been prompted)

Creekview 360, Team B 140
Paideia A 625, Team B 5 (Ouch)
Westminster 375, Team B 115
Milton 240, Team B 130
Chattahoochee D 165, Team B 155 (Lost a tiebreaker on a very easy Literature tossup about John Steinbeck).

Rough start for Team B, but Team A's 2-3 record was enough to make the 16 team playoffs. Our lack of strength in Lit and FA was very noticeable, but we did very well in History.

Playoffs:

Lambert A 495, Team A 120 - We ran into a buzzsaw here. Lambert is one of the best teams in the country (and would later go on to win one of the national championship tournaments).

Overall a pretty good start for a group of young kids.

For Team A, our captain Matt led the way with 25 points per game (individual stats are only kept for tossups, not bonuses).
For Team B, Jacob led with 21.25 PPG.

Final Standings

Team A - 13th
Team B - 25th

[larrymcg421]

Commerce CLAUSE (JV/Novice tournament) - December 2021

For this tournament, We were able to send three teams. Our A team played in the JV division and the B and C teams played in the Novice division. Unlike other sports/competitions, the definition of JV in quiz bowl is pretty strict, and excludes anybody 11th grade or higher. So this is our first real test against kids with similar ages.

There were only 8 teams in the JV division, so there were no playoffs. Instead, it was a straight round robin.

Lakeside 325, Team A 215 (Matt with 60 pts in the losing effort)
Team A 290, Paideia 235 (Matt and Grady both get 2 powers)
Team A 350, Mary Person A 10 (All 5 players get a tossup for the first time)
Team A 450, Johns Creek B 145 (Grady with 60 pts)
Team A 385, Johns Creek A 280 (Grady and Matt combine for 100 pts)
Team A 325, Chattahoochee A 280 (A huge win as this is a nearby school with a strong reputation in quiz bowl. Matt carries the team with 80 pts).
Team A 370, Chattahoochee B 250 (Matt carries again with 70 pts to clinch a 2nd place finish.)

Matt finished with 7 powers and 30 tossups for 57.86 PPG, a massive performance.

Novice Division (11 Teams)

Prelims

Team B 320, Lakeside B 175 - Adhav and Suhit with 45 pts each.
Brookwood 250, Team B 210 - Adhav's 50 pts are not quite enough.
St. Pius X 270, Team B 255 - Adhav with a stunning performance, getting 3 powers and 5 tossups for a 95 point game! Still wasn't enough as we lose on the last question.
Chattahoochee C 295, Team B 270 - Another last second loss. Adhav only had 20 pts in this one, but Akash almost got us the victory with 60 pts.

Galloway 250, Team C 240 - Galloway gets last tossup and two bonuses to win by 10. Lucas had 40 pts.
Chattahoochee D 265, Team C 200
Southside Christian 305, Team C 135
Team C 320, Mary Persons 110 - Lucas and Jack combine for 110 pts
Team C 215, Commerce 120 - Lucas with 70 pts

Both teams narrowly qualified for the very generous 8 team playoff field, but they were the 7 and 8 seeds.

Playoffs:

Southside Christian 370, Team B 165 - A player on Southside Christian had 110pts.
Chattahoochee C 420, Team C 165


Overall, this was a very positive experience. We showed that our best players can perform very well against players of the same age. Our goal will be to make sure that stays true in two years when it's seniors vs. seniors.

[larrymcg421]

GATA Winter North - January 2022

Level: Varsity and JV, but we only entered the JV division.
Negs: No
Bouncebacks: Yes
Format: 4 prelim matches. Top 4 teams make playoffs.

Prelims

Chattahoochee B 340, Team A 315 - We almost pulled this one off with an amazing performance on bonuses, getting 22 of the 24 asked to us, but Chattahoochee got too many tossups for us to overcome.
Team A 320, Chattahoochee C 195 - Jeffrey with 50 pts to lead the way.
Team A 340, Paul Duke STEM 185
Team A 450, Team B 65 - New A Team member Adhav combines with Matt for 130 pts.

Team B 215, Lakeside 100 - A puzzling match given how Lakeside performs in the rest of the tournament.
Paul Duke STEM 220, Team B 185 - Another one where bonuses almost won it for us. We have to get better at tossups.
Chattahoochee B 255, Team B 150
Team A 450, Team B 65

North Gwinnett B 435, Team C 85
Lakeside 210, Team C 80
Chattahoochee C 230, Team C 120
Paul Duke STEM 275, Team C 115

Rough outing for Teams B and C. Some work to be done there.

Playoffs

Semifinals: Team A 295, Chattahoochee B 225 - We get revenge from the prelims in an exciting match that comes down to the last two questions. Chatt B got more tossups, but we had another amazing performance on bonuses.
Finals: Team A 310, Lakeside 220 - Bonuses carry the day again for our first tournament championship! Both teams get 9 tossups, but we convert 21 of 27 bonuses and they convert 11 of 27.

Still some issues to work on for all three teams, but a fantastic result here!!!

[larrymcg421]

KITTEN Tournament (February 2022)

Level: JV and Novice. We played 2 in JV and 1 in Novice
Negs: No
Bouncebacks: No
Format: Round Robin, no playoffs.

JV Division

Team A 310, Chattahoochee 160
Lambert A 255, Team A 250 - Very tough loss on the last question. We didn't power a single question, while Lambert powered 3 times.
Chamblee 360, Team A 205 - 4 different players had a power here, but not enough against a very strong Chamblee team.
Team A 265, Chattahoochee B 170
Team A 325, Johns Creek A 125 - Matt came through with 60 points.
Team A 340, Lambert B 180 - 80 pt performance from Matt!!!
Team A 330, Team B 200 - Jacob scores 60 pts for Team B as they almost pull off the upset. It was tied at halftime, but poor performance at bonuses allows Team A to pull away in the 2nd half.
Team A 365, Chattahoochee A 210 - Solid victory against our most direct rivals to clinch 3rd place. Grady leads the way with 55 points.

Started off 1-2, but the kids did a great job staying composed and pulling off a 5 game winning streak.

Chattahoochee B 425, Team B 35 - Ouch
Team B 175, Johns Creek A 165 - Jacobalmost singlehandedly pulls off the victory with 55 of the team's 85 tossup pts.
Lambert B 265, Team B 175
Chattahoochee A 230, Team B 140
Chattahoochee C 330, Team B 140 - Really struggled on bonuses, only getting 7 out of 21.
Lambert A 325, Team B 190
Team A 330, Team B 200 - As noted above, Jacob almost led Team B to a huge upset.
Chamblee 535, Team B 45

Lots of work to do here.

Novice Division

Johns Creek B 175, Team C 145 - Jack's 45 pts aren't enough.
Team C 205, Taylor Road A 165 - Taylor Road is the middle school that feeds into Chattahoochee. Jack's 55 pts lead the way.
Chattahoochee D 220, Team C 205 - Another 55 pt game from Jack, but the team falls short in the final 2 questions.
Team C 210, Lakeside 200 - Jack with 45 pts.
Team C 215, Paul Duke STEM 110 - Jack with 55 pts.
Taylor Road B 195, Team C 175 - Jack's 75 points aren't enough because we completely blow the bonus questions and lose to a middle school team. We only got 8 of 27 bonuses, while our opponent got 12 of 21.
Buford 230, Team C 175

A frustrating result. We lost 4 matches by a total of 125 pts and finished 5th, despite having the 2nd highest PPG of all teams. However, this was a very promising breakout tournament for Jack, who finished with 51.43 PPG.

[larrymcg421]

Phoenix Bowl I (February 2022)

This is a tournament we hosted, which is one of the best ways to raise money. However, when you do host a tournament, it is generally frowned upon to have your own competitive teams, since you have access to the question sets being used. So for this tournament, I played my B and C teams, while the A team players helped run the tournament.

Midtown 480, Team B 135
GACS B 245, Team B 90
Chattahoochee B 290, Team B 50
Team B 120, North Cobb 90
Creekview 585, Team B 25
Team B 135, Hebron Christian 60

Looks rough, but this was mostly Freshmen playing against full Varsity teams. Picking up two wins was nice. Jack led the team with 19.17 PPG.

Milton 275, Team C 115
Eastside 280, Team C 75
Chamblee 545, Team C 35
Team C 145, Paul Duke STEM 110 - Paul Duke gets more tossups, but we outperform them on bonuses.
Chattahoochee A 525, Team C 75
GACS A 435, Team C 5

Ridwan led the way for Team C with 16.67 PPG.

Midtown ended up winning the tournament. They have a Freshman named Charles, who will be tough for us to deal with in the future.

[larrymcg421]

JV State Championship - March 2022

For this tournament, teams are placed into various divisions based on school size. These divisions are pretty small as Quiz Bowl participation dropped off during the pandemic. As we are a new school without full enrollment yet, we were placed into the smallest division against... one team. The format is we play them 5 times and whoever wins the most games is the champion.


Results:

Team A 430, Commerce 30
Team A 460, Commerce 40
Team A 415, Commerce 70
Team A 420, Commerce 20
Team A 330, Commerce 50

This was very boring and not that satisfying, but we did get a plaque saying we are the Division IV Public JV State Championship

Other winners were:

Division I: Lambert
Division II: Chattahoochee
Division III: Chamblee
Division IV Private: GACS

[larrymcg421]

Varsity State Championship - March 2022

More teams signed up for this tournament, so we are placed in Division VI Public with 4 other teams.

Format: Round Robin for seeding, then all teams make single elimination playoffs.
Negs: No
Bouncebacks: Yes

Prelims

Team A 315, Gordon Central 40
Team A 435, Commerce 50 - Adhav (50) and Matt (80) combine for 130 pts!
Team A 370, Jasper County 90
Team A 365, Academy for Classical Education 265

Playoffs

Team A 290, Gordon Central 210 - We are actually trailing at halftime here, but Adhav and Grady get key powers in the 2nd half for the victory.
Team A 365, Academy for Classical Education 150 - Grady leads the way with 60 pts in the championship game.

While the teams we played weren't very strong, this definitely felt more satisfying because we beaty full Varsity teams and had to overcome some adversity to do it.

Also, this win qualifies us for a spot in the High School National Championship Tournament.

Other divisions:

Division I - Lambert (averaged 625 ppg)
Division II - Johns Creek
Division III - Chattahoochee
Division IV - Midtown (averaged 608 ppg)
Division V - Lumpkin County
Division VI Private - Westminster

[larrymcg421]

Groger Rankings

This is a group that publishes a ranking of all quiz bowl teams in the country. It isn't based on wins and losses, but how many powers per game and points per bonus teams get, adjusted for the difficulty of the question sets.

For the first time we show up in the rankings, at #254. This puts us as the #12 team in Georgia. Not bad considering our 9th/10th graders are being compared to upperclassmen.

Other notable teams in the rankings:

2. Lambert
24. Chattahoochee
28. Midtown
38. Chattahoochee B
68. Westminster
69. Johns Creek A
92. Paideia A

[larrymcg421]

GATA Nationals Prep Tournament - April 2022 (16 Teams)

Since we qualified for Nationals, we were also invited to this prep tournament. One problem is that several of our players could only make it for part of the day and some couldn't make it at all. For example, Matt was only available in the morning, Adhav in the afternoon, and Grady not at all.

Format: Prelims and then a rebracket. This is the best format, that most tournaments should use. Rebracket rewards you for doing well in the prelims, but everyone gets to play competitive matches in the afternoon, and one unlucky loss in the playoffs doesn't eliminate you.
Negs: Yes
Bouncebacks: No
Note: These are also timed rounds, to simulate nationals.


Prelims

Buford 215, Team A 95
Mountain View 175, Team A 150
Chamblee A 165, Team A 100
Johns Creek A 245, Team A 140
Chattahoochee B 160, Team A 80

Chattahoochee D 210, Team B 55
Chattahoochee A 500, Team B -5
GACS 250, Team B 40
Johns Creek B 290, Team B 70
Team B 90, Bainbridge A 35 - Rough game where the two teams only converted 11 of the 24 tossups, but a win is a win.

Rebracket - Both teams were put into the lowest bracket to play for 13th-16th place.

Team A 155, Bainbridge B 60 - Adhav shows up and immediately puts up 45 pts.
Team B 85, Bainbridge B 40
Team A 140, Bainbridge B 25 - 40 pts from Adhav
Team B 85, Bainbridge A 45
Team A 135, Team B 60

Resilient final round from our teams, so we finished 13th and 14th. Promising individual results from Matt (31.43 PPG) and Adhav (32.14 PPG).

[larrymcg421]

HSNCT (High School National Championship Tournament) - May 2022
Teams: 272
Format: This tournament uses a power matching card system. For round 1, teams are randomly assigned a card from 1-272. Then the winner of the match gets the lower card number, while the loser gets the lower one.
Negs: Yes
Bouncebacks: No


All teams are guaranteed 10 matches. To make playoffs, you need 6 wins. If you get 7 wins, then you get double elimination in playoffs.

Before nationals, I got bad news that Jeff will not be available. By this point, he had become our best Fine Arts/Lit player, so this was a major hole for us.

Rosters

Team A: Matt, Adhav, Grady, Varun
Team B: Jack, Jacob, Lalit, Suhit

For nationals, we have the full scoresheets still available, so I'll be able to go through the matches in more detail.

[larrymcg421]

Team A

Round 1 - vs. Beaconsfield Scholars

Tossup 1 - Beaconsfield gets it for 10 and 1 bonus. 0-20
Tossup 2 - Adhav gets it and we get 2 bonuses. 30-20
Tossup 3 - Adhav converts again on another Geography question. We get no bonuses. 40-20
Tossup 4 - Grady gets a literature question! We add 1 bonus. 60-20
Tossup 5 - Beaconsfield negs and Matt gets it at the end. We add 1 bonus. 80-15
Tossups 6-9 - Beaconsfield gets 4 straight questions, adding 6 bonuses among them. 80-115
Tossup 10 - Matt picks up a current events question and we get 1 bonus. 110-115

Halftime - Not a bad start here.

Tossup 11-13 - Beaconsfield gets three straight tossups (including a Lit and FA) and 7 bonuses to take a big lead. 110-215.
Tossup 14 - Matt (who grew up in South Africa) powers a Rhodesia question. We miss all three Science bonuses. 125-215
Tossup 15 - Matt gets a Trash (term for pop culture/sports) question about Van Morrison. We miss all three lit bonuses. 135-215
Tossup 16-20 - We get none of the remaining tossups and Beaconsfield converts 4 of them.

Final Score: Beaconsfield 320, Innovation Academy A 130

Team B

Round 1 - vs. Ridgewood

Tossup 1 - Ridgewood gets it and 2 bonuses. 0-30
Tossup 2 - Ridgewood negs and Jacks picks it up. We add 2 bonuses. 30-25
Tossup 3-21 - And that's it for us. We get no more tossups the rest of the game as Ridgewood completely outclasses us. They have a player named Aiden Dartley who got 170 pts on his own.

Final Score: Ridgewood 530, Innovation Academy B 30

[larrymcg421]

Round 2

Team A (0-1) vs. Jasper B (0-1)

Tossup 1 - Jasper beats us to a History question and gets 1 bonus. 0-20
Tossup 2 - Grady powers an astronomy question (his favorite subject) and we get 2 bonuses. 35-20
Tossup 3 - Jasper gets a myth question and 2 bonuses. 35-50
Tossup 4 - Matt picks up a current events question and we add 1 bonus. 55-50
Tossup 5 - Matt negs a Fine Arts question and Jasper gets it, plus 1 bonus. 50-70
Tossup 6 - 9 - 4 tossups in a row that neither team gets. We neg on two of them. 40-70
Tossup 10 - Adhav gets a geography question and we convert 2 bonuses. 70-70
Tossup 11 - Adhav negs and Jasper converts, but they miss all three bonuses. 65-80
Tossup 12 - Matt is able to get a Literature tossup at the end, but we miss all three Lit bonuses. 75-80

Halftime - Neither team playing great, but we are in it.

Tossup 13 - Neither team gets the Fine Arts question.
Tossup 14 - Jasper gets the tossup and 1 bonus. 75-100
Tossup 15 - Jasper powers a literature question and adds 1 bonus. 75-125
Tossup 16 - Grady gets us back in it with power on science. We add 1 bonus. 100-125
Tossup 17 - Adhav gets another geography question and we are lucky to get Geography bonuses, converting 2 of them. 130-125
Tossup 18 - Neither team gets the history question and I cringe.
Tossup 19 - Jasper gets it and converts 1 of the trash bonuses. 130-145
Tossup 20 - Grady gets a fine arts question. We add 1 bonus. 150-145
Tossup 21 - Matt gets a science question and we convert 2 bonuses. 180-145
Tossup 22 - Jasper negs. We could put it away, but cannot find the answer on a literature question. 180-140
Tossup 23 - Last question as time runs out. Adhav is aggressive on the buzzer and negs. Jasper gets it right. They need all three bonuses to win, but can only get 1 of them and we pick up our first win at Nationals.

Final Score - Innovation Academy A 175, Jasper B 160


Team B (0-1) vs. West Point (0-1)

Tossup 1 - Jacob gets the first tossup and we convert 1 bonus. 20-0
Tossup 2-9 - We neg three times and get none of these tossups. West Point converts 6 of them to take a huge lead. 5-120
Tossup 10-11 - We show some life by getting 2 in a row. 45-120
Tossup 12-15 - 2 of these go dead, but West Point convers the other two to extend their lead. 45-170
Tossup 16-17 - Jack gives us a fighting chance by getting two in a row, one of them a power. 90-165
Tossup 18-19 - West Point gets the next two and stall out the clock for the victory.

Final Score: West Point 195, Innovation Academy B 90

[larrymcg421]

Round 2

Team A (0-1) vs. Jasper B (0-1)

Tossup 1 - Jasper beats us to a History question and gets 1 bonus. 0-20
Tossup 2 - Grady powers an astronomy question (his favorite subject) and we get 2 bonuses. 35-20
Tossup 3 - Jasper gets a myth question and 2 bonuses. 35-50
Tossup 4 - Matt picks up a current events question and we add 1 bonus. 55-50
Tossup 5 - Matt negs a Fine Arts question and Jasper gets it, plus 1 bonus. 50-70
Tossup 6 - 9 - 4 tossups in a row that neither team gets. We neg on two of them. 40-70
Tossup 10 - Adhav gets a geography question and we convert 2 bonuses. 70-70
Tossup 11 - Adhav negs and Jasper converts, but they miss all three bonuses. 65-80
Tossup 12 - Matt is able to get a Literature tossup at the end, but we miss all three Lit bonuses. 75-80

Halftime - Neither team playing great, but we are in it.

Tossup 13 - Neither team gets the Fine Arts question.
Tossup 14 - Jasper gets the tossup and 1 bonus. 75-100
Tossup 15 - Jasper powers a literature question and adds 1 bonus. 75-125
Tossup 16 - Grady gets us back in it with power on science. We add 1 bonus. 100-125
Tossup 17 - Adhav gets another geography question and we are lucky to get Geography bonuses, converting 2 of them. 130-125
Tossup 18 - Neither team gets the history question and I cringe.
Tossup 19 - Jasper gets it and converts 1 of the trash bonuses. 130-145
Tossup 20 - Grady gets a fine arts question. We add 1 bonus. 150-145
Tossup 21 - Matt gets a science question and we convert 2 bonuses. 180-145
Tossup 22 - Jasper negs. We could put it away, but cannot find the answer on a literature question. 180-140
Tossup 23 - Last question as time runs out. Adhav is aggressive on the buzzer and negs. Jasper gets it right. They need all three bonuses to win, but can only get 1 of them and we pick up our first win at Nationals.

Final Score - Innovation Academy A 175, Jasper B 160


Team B (0-1) vs. West Point (0-1)

Tossup 1 - Jacob gets the first tossup and we convert 1 bonus. 20-0
Tossup 2-9 - We neg three times and get none of these tossups. West Point converts 6 of them to take a huge lead. 5-120
Tossup 10-11 - We show some life by getting 2 in a row. 45-120
Tossup 12-15 - 2 of these go dead, but West Point convers the other two to extend their lead. 45-170
Tossup 16-17 - Jack gives us a fighting chance by getting two in a row, one of them a power. 90-165
Tossup 18-19 - West Point gets the next two and stall out the clock for the victory.

Final Score: West Point 195, Innovation Academy B 90

[larrymcg421]

Round 3

Team A (1-1) vs. Alabama Cyber Tech (1-1)

Tossup 1-3 - Alabama Cyber Tech gets the first three tossups and we neg one. -5-90
Tossup 4 - Varun powers a current events question. We get one bonus. 20-90
Tossup 5 - They get it and two bonuses. 20-120
Tossup 6 - Adhav gets on the board, but we only convert one bonus. 40-120
Tossup 7-16 - Alabama Cyber Tech gets 10 tossups in a row, four of them powers, to open a huge lead. 35-370
Tossup 17-20 - We manage to get 3 of the final 4 tossups to at least make the score somewhat respectable.

Final Score: Alabama Cyber Tech 390, Innovation Academy A 120

Rough game. Alabama Cyber Tech has a freshman who scored 130 pts.


Team B (0-2) vs. Detroit Catholic Central E (0-2)

Tossup 1-3 - Jacob and Lalit combine to get the first three tossups and we convert one bonus on each. 60-(-10)
Tossup 4 - DCC powers it and converts two bonuses. 60-25
Tossup 5 - Suhit converts a science question and we finally convert two bonuses. 90-20
Tossup 6-7 - DCC gets two in a row, but only manage one of the six bonuses. 90-50
Tossup 8 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 9-11 - We get three in a row! DCC is still in it due to our poor performance on bonuses. 150-50
Tossup 12 - Jack negs on a history question and DCC gets it at the end. They convert two bonuses. 150-80
Tossup 13 - DCC trying to build on their momentum, but they are too aggressive and neg. Lalit gets the tossup and we get one bonus. 165-75
Tossup 14-16 - DCC still has a chance, but needed to sweep these and they only get one.

Final Score: Innovation Academy B 185, Detroit Catholic Central E 105

[larrymcg421]

Round 4

Team A (1-2) vs. Detroit Catholic Central C (1-2)

Tossup 1 - DCC gets the opening history question and 1 bonus. 0-20
Tossup 2-3 - Back to back tossups from Adhav and Grady give us the lead. 40-20
Tossup 4 - DCC negs, but we fail to convert the lit question. 40-15
Tossup 5 - Matt gets a philosophy question and for the first time this tournament, we get all three bonuses! 80-15
Tossup 6 - DCC breaks a slump with a tossup and two bonuses. 80-45
Tossup 7-10 - DCC fails to get the next 4 tossups. We only manage two of them, but it helps build a good lead at halftime. 110-40
Tossup 11 - Once again, we get beat on a lit question. DCC converts one bonus. 105-60
Tossup 12 - Adhav gets a history question and we convert one bonus. 125-60
Tossup 13 - DCC gets a history question and one bonus. 125-80
Tossup 14 - Matt comes through with a power on a science question, but we get none of the literature bonuses. 140-80
Tossup 15 - Neither team gets it. DCC running out of time.
Tossup 16 - Adhav comes through with a history tossup. We get one bonus. 160-80
Tossup 17 - DCC gets a science question and one bonus to stay in it. 160-100
Tossup 18 - Grady picks up a current events question, but we fail to pick up any of the fine arts bonuses. This is not over yet. 170-100
Tossup 19 - DCC gets a myth question and two tossups. Our failure on bonuses has kept this an uncomfortably close game. 170-130
Tossup 20 - DCC picks up their 3rd out of the last 4 tossups and it is now anybody's game with one question left.
Tossup 21 - DCC can win it by getting the tossup and two bonuses. They buzz and.... it is wrong! We don't know the answer either but the game is over.

Final Score: Innovation Academy A 170, Detroit Catholic Central C 145

Team B (1-2) vs. St. John's (1-2)

We get the 3rd and 8th tossups and... nothing else. Not much to write about here.

Final Score: St. John's 405, Innovation Academy B 25

[larrymcg421]

Round 5

Team A (2-2) vs. Grissom A (2-2)

Tossup 1-9 - We neg three of the first four questions and only get 1 tossup out of the first 9. Grissom only gets 4, but it's enough to build a huge lead. 0-110
Tossup 10 - Grady wakes up with a power on a math question. 25-110
Tossup 11-14 - Grissom gets none of these, but we fail to take advantage by missing all of them as well. 25-110
Tossup 15-23 - We only get two of the tossups for the rest of the game, while Grissom gets four and does much better on bonuses.

Final: Grissom 205, Innovation Academy A 55


Team B (1-3) vs. North Oconee (1-3)

Tossup 1 - Jacks converts a geography question, and we get one bonus. 20-0
Tossup 2 - Oconee does the same to tie it. 20-20
Tossup 3 - Jacob with a great power on another geography question. 45-20
Tossup 4-8 - We fail to get any of these and Oconee to convert two to take a narrow lead. 45-50
Tossup 9-10 - Lalit and Jack convert back to back tossups, but we only get one out of six bonuses. 75-75
Tossup 11-14 - Not a great display of quiz bowl as neither team gets any of these and Oconee negs on one of them. 75-70
Tossup 15-18 - We get 4 tossups in a row, punctuated by a power from Suhit on 18. We only get 3 of the 12 bonuses, which keeps the game in reach. 150-65
Tossup 19 - Oconee gets it and one bonus, still time for a comeback. 150-85
Tossup 20-22 - Oconee misses all three of these and we get the last one to clinch the victory.

Final Score: Innovation Academy B 165, North Oconee 85

[larrymcg421]

Round 6

Team A (2-3) vs. Westview (2-3)

Tossup 1 - Adhav opens with a power on geography and we manage two bonuses. 35-0
Tossup 2 - We lose a buzzer race on a religion question and Westview gets two bonuses. 35-30
Tossup 3-5 - Grady, Matt, and Adhav convert three tossups in a row and we get 4 bonuses. 105-25
Tossup 6 - Adhav negs a business question, and Westview picks it up, but misses all bonuses. 100-35
Tossup 7 - Grady converts another math question and we get one bonus. 120-35
Tossup 8-10 - Westview gets three in a row, with one bonus on each to make it close again. 115-95
Tossup 11 - Grady gets his 3rd tossup of the game and we get one bonus. 135-95
Tossup 12 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 13 - After Westview negs, Varun converts a government question and we get one bonus. 155-90
Tossup 14 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 15-17 - Our lead evaporates quickly as Westview gets three in a row, two of them powers. 155-170
Tossup 18 - Grady gets a history tossup to put us back in front. 175-170
Tossup 19-20 - Neither team gets these, but we neg on one, making it a tie again. 170-170
Tossup 21 - We actually get an art question, but only one of the three literature bonuses. One question left. 190-170
Tossup 22 - Westview gets the history question. They need two bonuses to win. They get the first bonus. They miss the second bonus. And the third bonus is..... correct. Time runs out and Westview wins. Heartbreaking.

Final Score: Westview 200, Innovation Academy A 190

Team B (2-3) vs. Burnsville A (2-3)

Tossup 1 - Jack gets it and we manage two bonuses. 30-(-5)
Tossup 2 - Jack powers the religion question and we get one bonus. Great start from Jack! 55-(-5)
Tossup 3-4 - Jacob gets two in a row and we are on a roll! 95-(-5)
Tossup 5 - Jack gets a Harry Potter question. 115-(-5)
Tossup 6 - Burnsville finally gets on the board and converts two bonuses. 115-25
Tossup 7-11 - Domination continues as we get 5 in a row, three of them from Jacob. 205-20
Tossup 12-16 - We miss the next 5 questions, one of them a neg, but Burnsville only manages 50 pts total during this stretch, keeping us comfortably ahead. 200-70
Tossup 17 - Jack gets a fantastic power on a mythology question, officially killing Burnsville's comeback chances. 235-70
Tossup 18 - Jack closes out a great game by getting the history question. We finish in style, getting two bonuses.

Final Score: Innovation Academy B 265, Burnsville A 70

Great result for Team B, thanks mostly to Jack (60 pts) and Jacob (50 pts). They now have a better record than Team A.

[larrymcg421]

Round 7

Team A (2-4) vs. Saint Agnes (2-4)

Tossup 1 - Matt gets the science question and we get two bonuses. 30-0
Tossup 2 - Neither team gets the art question.
Tossup 3 - St. Agnes gets the literature and one bonus. 30-20
Tossup 4 - Neither team gets the religion question.
Tossup 5 - Grady gets a video game question and we get 1 math bonus. 50-20
Tossup 6 - Neither team gets the literature. We really need to work on this next year.
Tossup 7-8 - St. Agnes gets two in a row and one bonus each time. 50-60
Tossup 9 - Adhav powers a geography question and we get one bonus. 75-60
Tossup 10 - Matt picks up a world history question and we convert two bonuses. 105-60
Tossup 11 - Grady makes it three in a row by picking up a science. 125-60
Tossup 12-15 - St Agnes gets three of the next four to tie it up. 125-125
Tossup 16 - We get a rare perfect cycle when Varun powers the current events question and we get all three geography bonuses. 170-125
Tossup 17 - Matt negs, but they can't convert. 165-125
Tossup 18 - Matt makes up for the neg by converting a history question. Unfortunately, we miss all three mythology questions. 175-125
Tossup 19 - Adhav has a rare neg on a geography question, but St. Agnes can't take advantage. 170-125
Tossup 20 - St. Agnes wins the buzzer race on a math question, but they miss all three bonuses. 170-135
Tossup 21-22 - Adhav clinches the victory by getting the last two tossups.

Final Score: Innovation Academy A 210, Saint Agnes 130

Team B (3-3) vs. Caddo Magnet (3-3)

Tossup 1-4 - Caddo gets the 1st 4 tossups and several bonuses to take a big early lead. 0-90
Tossup 5 - Jacob powers the video game question and we get one bonus. 25-90
Tossup 6-7 - Caddo gets two in a row and one bonus on each. 25-130
Tossup 8 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 9 - Jacob powers the geography question and we get one bonus. 50-130
Tossup 10 - Caddo negs the history question. but we fail to convert. 50-125
Tossup 11 - Jacob strikes again with a science tossup, but we fail to get any bonuses. 60-125
Tossup 12-13 - Caddo gets two in a row, one of them a power, and get 5 of 6 bonuses. 60-200
Tossup 14 - Caddo negs a fine arts question and Lalit is able to pick it up. We convert two bonuses. 90-195
Tossup 15 - Caddo pulls off a perfect cycle with a power and three bonuses. 90-240
Tossup 16 - Lalit gets the current events question and we convert one bonus.
Tossup 17-22 - Caddo gets five of the six remaining tossups.

Final Score: Caddo Magnet 365, Innovation Academy 105

[larrymcg421]

Round 8

Team A (3-4) vs. Lake Braddock (3-4)

We need a win here to keep our slim playoff hopes alive.

Tossup 1 - Grady picks up a rare literature tossup and we get one bonus. 20-0
Tossup 2 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 3-5 - Lake Braddock gets all three of these and 4 bonuses to open up a lead. 20-65
Tossup 6 - Adhav powers the geography question and we get one bonus. 45-65
Tossup 7-8 - Lake Braddock powers back to back questions, but only get one bonus, keeping the game in reach. 45-105
Tossup 9 - Adhav picks up a philosophy question and we get 2 of the 3 history bonuses. 75-105
Tossup 10-14 - Lake Braddock gets 4 of the next 5 tossups and the game is falling out of reach. 75-190
Tossup 15 - Adhav keeps us in it with yet another geography power. And we convert two of the movie bonuses. 110-190
Tossup 16-17 - Lake Braddock beats us to literature and mythology. 110-240
Tossup 18 - Adhav continues his great game by picking up a science question. We get one bonus. 130-240
Tossup 19-21 - Lake Braddock closes the door with a power. We get one more tossup.

Final Score: Lake Braddock 265, Innovation Academy A 160

Rough way to get eliminated, but hopefully we can fight back for a strong finish in the next two matches.


Team B (3-4) vs. Mandarin (3-4)

Tossup 1 - Mandarin gets the first tossup and a bonus. 0-20
Tossup 2 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 3 - Jack comes through with a current events tossup. We get one bonus. 20-20
Tossup 4-7 - Mandarin gets 3 of the next 4 tossups, but only 1 of the 9 bonuses. 15-60
Tossup 8 - Jacob gets a pop culture question, but we miss all three science bonuses. 25-60
Tossup 9-13 - Mandarin gets 5 tossups in a row and we neg on one. 20-160
Tossup 14 - Jack powers a question about Mongolia and we manage a perfect cycle with all three bonuses. 65-160
Tossup 15-20 - We fail to capitalize as we only get one more tossup the rest of the match and Mandarin pulls away.

Final Score: Mandarin 205, Innovation Academy B 65

Both teams are out of the playoffs, but still two matches left and every win gives us a higher finish.

[larrymcg421]

Round 9

Team A (3-5) vs. Wayzata D (3-5)

Tossup 1-8 - We only get 1 of the first 8 tossups. Luckily, Wayzata only gets 2 of them so the game is still in reach. 25-55
Tossup 9 - Grady gets a science question and we convert 1 tossup. 45-55
Tossup 10 - Adhav negs on a current events question, and Wayzata picks it up and takes 2 bonuses. 40-85
Tossup 11 - Wayzata negs on the history question. Matt picks it up and we get all three bonuses. 80-80
Tossup 12 - Wayzata retakes the lead on a math question and 1 bonus. 80-100
Tossup 13 - Adhav powers yet another geography question and we get one bonus. 105-100
Tossup 14 - Adhav gets his 2nd in a row when there are rare back to back geo questions. We get two pop culture bonuses. 135-100
Tossup 15 - Grady gets a comp sci question and we get 1 bonus. 155-100
Tossup 16 - Matt makes it 5 in a row with a history tossup and we add another bonus. 175-100
Tossup 17-18 - Wayzata gets both tossups, but they don't get enough bonuses to close the gap and the clock runs out on them.

Final Score: Innovation Academy A 175, Wayzata D 140


Team B (3-5) vs. Mounds Park (3-5)

Tossup 1-3 - Mounds Park takes a quick lead with 3 straight tossups. 0-70
Tossup 4-5 - Jacob and Suhit get back to back tossups and we do decently on the bonuses. 50-70
Tossup 6-18 - Our worst stretch of the tournament. We get no tossups, neg once, and buzz incorrectly at the end 5 times. Mounds Park gets 7 of these, with 2 powers. 45-250
Tossup 19-22 - Jack and Lalit get 2 of the last 4, but it's not enough.

Final Score: Mounds Park 275, Innovation Academy B 85

[larrymcg421]

Round 10

Team A (4-5) vs. Friends Select A (4-5)

Tossup 1 - Matt gets the tech question, but we miss all three bonuses. 10-0
Tossup 2 - Matt powers a current events question and we add one bonus. 35-0
Tossup 3 - Friends Select gets on the board with a religion question. 35-20
Tossup 4 - Adhav gets another geography question. We convert 2 of the bonuses. 65-20
Tossup 5 - We get beat on a fine arts question as usual. They get 2 bonuses. 65-50
Tossup 6 - Varun gets a politics question and we get two more bonuses. 95-50
Tossup 7 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 8-9 - Matt and Varun get back to back tossups and we are really on fire. 145-50
Tossup 10 - Friends Select gets another literature question and one bonus. 145-70
Tossup 11-18 - We finish the tournament in style, getting 7 of the last 8 questions, including powers from Adhav and Varun.

Final Score: Innovation Academy A 325, Friends Select A 65

Team B (3-6) vs. Dutch Fork B (3-6)

Tossup 1 - Jacob negs the question and Dutch Fork picks it up with a bonus. (-5)-20
Tossup 2 - Jacob makes up for it by getting the current events question and we get 1 bonus. 15-20
Tossup 3 - Lalit converts the religion question, but we miss all three fine arts bonuses. 25-20
Tossup 4 - Jack powers a sports question and we get 1 bonus. 50-20
Tossup 5 - Suhit gets a rare fine arts tossup and we get another bonus. 70-20
Tossup 6 - Jack makes it 5 tossups in a row by getting the politics tossup. 90-20
Tossup 7 - Lalit negs and Dutch Fork converts, but miss all three bonuses. 85-30
Tossup 8 - Jack gets his 3rd tossup of the game on a history question. We convert 1 bonus. 105-30
Tossup 9 - Suhit negs on a pop culture question. Dutch Fork converts, but again miss all three bonuses. 100-40
Tossup 10 - Dutch Fork gets the lit question and 2 bonuses to make it a game. 100-70
Tossup 11-12 - Jack and Lalit get back to back tossups and we convert 3 bonuses to open up the gap some more. 150-70
Tossup 13 - Neither team gets it.
Tossup 14 - Jack negs on a history question and Dutch Fork gets it. It's not over yet. 145-90
Tossup 15 - Jacob gets the science question and we get 1 of the bonuses. 165-90
Tossup 16 - Dutch Fork keeps it close by getting a politics question and 1 bonus. 165-110
Tossup 17 - And Lalit closes the door with a power on a sports tossup.

Final Score: Innovation Academy B 200, Dutch Fork B 110

Both teams closed out on a positive note with nice victories. Something to build on.

Team A finished 161st
Team B finished 217th.

[larrymcg421]

Other results...

Detroit Catholic Central A won by beating Hunter 380-295 in the championship game.

Georgia teams that made playoffs:

Lambert - Went 8-2 in prelims, but had two shocking playoff losses and finished a disappointing (for them) 15th.
Chattahoochee A - Went 6-4 in prelims, won their first two playoff games before being eliminated in 24th.
Midtown - Went 7-3 in prelims, but only managed one playoff win and finished 39th. Charles had 41.79 ppg as a Freshman.
Chattahoochee B - Went 6-4 in prelims and lost in 1st round of playoffs. 60th place.
Westminster A - Went 6-4 in prelims and lost in 1st round of playoffs. 82nd place.
Decatur - Went 6-4 in prelims and lost in 1st round of playoffs. 82nd place.
Johns Creek - Went 6-4 in prelims and lost in 1st round of playoffs. 82nd place.

[larrymcg421]

Offseason

One of the difficulties we have is there is no specific feeder program for our school. It's a pure lottery school. So we don't really know who we're going to have coming in each new freshman class. We had a festival for our rising 9th graders and I did an outreach program to talk about our club.

When the school year started, we saw a massive surge of interest in our team, with 30 players showing up for tryouts. Some notable decided not to return - Lalit, Jeff, Akash, which still meant we'd be a very young team.

I decided not to cut and let everyone have a chance to participate if they were willing to pay dues. This meant we were left with an odd balance of 4 juniors, 20 sophomores, and 6 freshmen.

I still ran tryouts just to get a sense of where my team was at. Day 1 was a written test of common quiz bowl material and Day 2 they were placed in teams for a typical buzzer competition.

Of the new players, I noticed two strong freshmen and a sophomore named Krish, who scored higher than everyone on the written test. It was also clear which players had spent the summer studying and which hadn't.

I think there is a chance we could find less success in some ways this season, since our top players can no longer play JV and will now have to play as Juniors against Seniors.

[larrymcg421]

GATA Fall - September 2022

Varsity Format: 22 teams. Top 8 make playoffs.
JV Format: 14 teams. Top 6 make playoffs.
Powers: Yes
Bouncebacks: Yes

Varsity Prelims

Team A 460, North Gwinnett A 290 - Massive score to start the season.
Team A 510, Paul Duke STEM A 165 - 4 players score 40+ points.
Chattahoochee A 450, Team A 310 - Adhav gets 3 powers, but not enough against a great team.
Team A 505, Centennial A 170 - Grady gets 70 points.
Team A 355, Gwinnett Math and Science A 310 - We were down 230-70, but Matt leads a massive comeback, coming away with 4 powers!

Varsity Playoffs

Lambert A 420, Team A 340 - Against the defending PACE national champions, we start off a bit too eager and neg the first three questions. Lambert takes an early lead. We come back and manage to keep it close the rest of the way, but they get the last tossup to shut the door. Tough loss, but great performance to open the season, with 4 players averaging over 30 ppg.

JV Prelims

Chattahoochee C 380, Team B 145 - This was a shocker. I had higher hopes for Team B, but they came out flat.
Team B 345, Lambert B 280 - Jacob's 55 pts help us rebound from a rough start.
Northview C 405, Team B 255 - Another surprisingly big loss against a C team.
Team B 350, Creekview A 150 - A balanced win with everyone contributing.
Team B 260, Johns Creek C 255 - A win on the last question of the game!

Despite that win, Team B finished 7th and did not qualify for playoffs.

Team C 285, Creekview A 250 - We won this narrow match due to strong performance on bounceback bonuses.
Chattahoochee D 320, Team C 275 - Freshman Ian's 55 points aren't enough.
Team C 290, Chamblee B 170 - New Sophomore Luke's 55 points leads the way.
Northview C 395, Team C 165

Finished 2-3 and in 9th.

Gwinnett Science B 250, Team D 240 - Tough loss to open the tournament.
Team D 285, Chamblee B 265 - Nice bounceback. New Sophomore Winnie leads with 35 pts.
Lambert C 505, Team D 115 - Ouch.
Chattahoochee D 265, Team D 170 - 40 pts from Winnie and 25 from Freshman AJ.
Team D 240, Hebron Christian 155 - Another 30 from Winnie.

Multiple wins from Team D is a nice start. They finished 11th.

Overall, some good things to see here. Team A is definitely much stronger than last year and Teams C and D showed some promise, but Team B really underperformed and I'll have to figure that out.

[larrymcg421]

Fulton County Championships

Format: 8 team round robin. No playoffs unless there is a tie.
Powers: Yes
Negs: Yes
Bouncebacks: No

Innovation Academy A 430, Banneker 0 - New A Team member Lucas puts up 70 pts.
Innovation Academy A 495, Roswell 60 - Matt leads the team with 65 points.
Innovation Academy A 355, Northview 160 - A nice victory over a solid team. Adhav's 55 points key the victory.
Innovation Academy A 505, Centennial 100 - Another 50 pt game from Adhav.
Chattahoochee 510, Innovation Academy A 125 - And here we see we're not up there with the best just yet.
Johns Creek 545, Innovation Academy A 120 - Another throttling from a superior team.
Innovation Academy A 440, Milton 55 - Matt and Grady both put up 55 to clinch 3rd place.

A solid 3rd place finish that shows we have risen above the pack, but still have some way to go before we get to the top.

[larrymcg421]

CATT XVIII (October 2022) - Varsity

Format: 28 Teams, Top 16 make playoffs
Powers: Yes
Negs: Yes
Bouncebacks: No

Team A

Prelims

Innovation Academy A 285, Chamblee B 85 - Matt and Lucas combine for 85 pts.
Innovation Academy A 235, Dorman A 130 - Grady negs 3 times, but makes up for it by getting 1 power and 4 tossups.
Innovation Academy A 260, Blessed Trinity 25
Innovation Academy A 325, Taylor Road 20 - 4 players with 30+ pts.
Innovation Academy A 300, Chattahoochee F 35

Playoffs

Innovation Academy A 335, Milton A 40 - Adhav and Lucas combine for 100 pts.
Chamblee A 380, Innovation Academy A 90 - And this Fine Arts heavy question set finally catches up to us as we have no hope against Chamblee, who is really good in that category.

Disappointing result in the quarterfinals for sure, but still showing improvements from last year.


Team B

Prelims

Johns Creek A 285, Innovation Academy B 130 - Krish puts up 35 pts in the loss.
Chattahoochee C 260, Innovation Academy B 150 - Our B team still behind their C team shows we have some work to do.
GACS 315, Innovation Academy B 130
Innovation Academy B 230, Northview A 120 - Krish puts up 85 pts for a very solid win against a good team.
Lambert B 175, Innovation Academy B 165 - With a playoff spot on the line, Krish's 45 pts aren't enough as we lose on the last question.

One of the stories here is how difficult this bracket was. With 161 PPG, we had more pts than 5 teams who made the playoffs, but had to play a much tougher schedule.

Team C

Prelims

Innovation Academy C 120, Chattahoochee F 115 - Always nice to win these close ones that come down to the wire.
Marist 160, Innovation Academy C 100
Northview A 230, Innovation Academy C 115
Lambert B 185, Innovation Academy C 40 - Samanyu has 45 pts, but we only end up with 40 total pts.
Midtown 455, Innovation Academy C 130

Team C struggles here. You might notice how low scoring many of these games are. This question set was a harder difficulty than I had expected.

Team D

Prelims

Chattahoochee D 140, Innovation Academy D 130
Hebron Christian 135, Innovation Academy D 25
Johns Creek B 390, Innovation Academy D 45
Paideia A 340, Innovation Academy D 30
Lambert A 270, Innovation Academy D 45

This was a team of completely brand new players. Not just 9th graders, but completely new to quiz bowl. They almost pulled off one victory.

Final Standings

Team A - 5th
Team B - 21st
Team C - 24th
Team D - 28th

[larrymcg421]

PHANTOM (October 2022)

Format: 8 Team Round-Robin
Powers: Yes
Negs: Yes
Bouncebacks: No

This was an online tournament that initially had Varsity and JV divisions. My intent was to play 4 JV teams to give them experience. Due to lack of registrations, they ended up merging the divisions, so we have 4 JV teams playing against mostly JV, but a few Varsity players mixed in. Instead of giving full scores for this one, which was mostly a practice tourney, I did an overall writeup for each team.

Team A - Won their first six games, but lost their final one to West Windsor-Plainsboro North to finish 2nd. Jack, Krish, Lucas, and Suhit all had 25ppg+ for a nice balanced squad.

Team B - Only managed to beat Classen, Team C, and Team D. Ridwan, Luke, and Samanyu all came up huge with 30+ ppg.

Team C - Only beat Team D after losing to Classen by 5 pts. Veer led the team with 34.38 ppg.

Team D - Beat Classen by 100 in the opener, but lost every other game. Winnie had 25 ppg.

Rough outing for all but Team A (reminder this is essentially the real Team B), but still getting good experience.

Team A - 2nd
Team B - 5th
Team C - 7th
Team D - 8th

[larrymcg421]

Greg Trandel Memorial Bulldog Brawl (November 2022)

Format: 26 Teams, 8 Team Single Elimination Playoff
Powers: Yes
Negs: No
Bouncebacks: Yes

Team A - Matt, our captain, was out for this event. We moved up Jack and Krish (who had a fantastic previous two tournaments).

Prelims

Team A

Johns Creek A 375, Innovation Academy A 265 - Not a bad result against one of the best teams in the country.
Innovation Academy A 385, Dorman 120 - Krish leads with 40 pts.
Innovation Academy 365, Chattahoochee C 205 - Adhav and Grady combine for 90 pts.
Innovation Academy A 455, Prince Avenue Christian 80 - Adhav with a huge 80 pt game.
GACS A 320, Innovation Academy A 240 - Without Matt, the team falls apart when facing adversity. Unlike the GSMST where we had a huge comeback, infighting amongst the team about how bad we were playing doomed our chances. Worst loss of the season and cost us a shot at the playoffs.

Team B

Wesleyan 205, Innovation Academy B 195 - Lucas takes control of Team B and puts up 55 pts, but gets little help.
Midtown A 535, Innovation Academy B 85 - Midtown's Charles (now a Sophomore) continues to own us.
Aiken 250, Innovation Academy B 185 - Lucas continues to show up big with 45 pts.
Johns Creek B 380, Innovation Academy B 165 - Never in this one.
Innovation Academy B 375, Mary Person A 70 - Lucas finishes a solid tournament with 60 pts.

Team C

Innovation Academy C 240, GACS B 115 - Jack S and Winnie combine for 80 pts.
Innovation Academy C 285, Lakeside A 245 - Fantastic victory for our C team and it's our freshman Ian who comes through in the clutch.
Chattahoochee B 435, Innovation Academy C 65
Northview A 330, Innovation Academy C 185 - Valiant performance against an A team.

Final Standings (26 teams)

Team A - 10th
Team B - 21st
Team C - 15th

Obviously a disappointing performance overall, but there were some bright spots. Krish showed he deserves his Team A spot and Ian is going to be a very promising player for the future.

[larrymcg421]

Phoenix Jr. (December 2022)

Format: JV Division (10 team round robin) and Novice Division (8 team round robin)
Powers: Yes
Negs: No
Bouncebacks: No

This is the 2nd event we hosted. I put three of our own teams in to get some experience for our younger players. The thing is, my teams were a bit too strong, as you'll see.

Team D - JV division

Chattahoochee A 430, Innovation Academy D 345
Innovation Academy D 325, Paul Duke STEM 270
Innovation Academy D 430, Innovation Academy E 180
Innovation Academy D 340, GACS 325
Innovation Academy D 405, Midtown 220
Innovation Academy D 315, Creekview 265
Innovation Academy D 355, Chattahoochee B 265
Innovation Academy D 500, Northview 95
Innovation Academy D 375, Johns Creek A 310

Well, what happened here? It is generally considered poor form to win your own tournament (since you have the questions and it may look like you let your team peek). I knew that, but didn't expect a couple of my players to play so well. AJ, a freshman, has struggled in the Varsity tournaments, but in this easier question set, he showed off his buzzer skills, putting up 48.89 ppg. Nathan, who eally struggled last year, showed off how much his Fine Arts knowledge had improved, puting up 31.67 ppg.

We ended tied with Chattahoochee B (because Chattahoochee A blew it in two close matches) and decided to share the title (we gave them the trophy).

Team E - JV Division

Midtown 325, Innovation Academy E 295
Johns Creek A 370, Innovation Academy E 275
Innovation Academy D 430, Innovation Academy E 180
Chattahoochee A 485, Innovation Academy E 195
Northview 400, Innovation Academy E 210
Chattahoochee B 460, Innovation Academy E 195
Paul Duke STEM 285, Innovation Academy E 245
Creekview 315, Innovation Academy E 270
GACS 395, Innovation Academy E 290

They didn't win a single game, but there were lots of close games and one very promising individual performance. 9th grader Pratyusha put up 5 ppg and 11 ppg in her only tournaments so far. She has been studying literature heavily and put up 30.56 ppg in this one. We are always short on lit players, so this is a very good development.

Team F - Novice

Howard A 550, Innovation Academy F 85
Milton 235, Innovation Academy F 210
Howard B 505, Innovation Academy F 90
Chattahoochee C 300, Innovation Academy F 250
River Trail B 320, Innovation Academy F 105
Innovation Academy F 240, Johns Creek B 140
River Trail A 575, Innovation Academy F 70

The novice division had some middle school teams sign up, and they were incredibly strong middle school teams. In fact, River Trail would finish 2nd in the nation at the Middle School National Championships.

Final Standings

Team A - 1st
Team B - 10th
Team C - 7th

[larrymcg421]

Reinstein Varsity Tournament (December 2022)

Format: 16 Teams, 4 prelim matches. Rebracket based on standing. (This is the format all tournaments should use).
Powers: Yes
Negs: Yes
Bouncebacks: No

This was a tournament some players from Chattahoochee told my kids about. It is in the Chicago suburbs and they actually had 80 teams show up. 16 of those teams (including us) played in the Uber-Competitive division. We thought it'd be a good idea to test our strength against some really tough competition.

This is a 4 player per team tournament (the standard everywhere but GA), so we are without our best Lit player Krish.

This is also a very difficult question set, written to be played by college teams.

Prelims

Hinsdale Central A 285, Innovation Academy A 75 - Grady showed up big with 45 pts, but the rest of the team struggled. Adhav had 3 negs.
Southwestern 180, Innovation Academy A 150 - Tough, narrow loss that came down to the end.
William Fremd A 295, Innovation Academy A 105
Barrington B 200, Innovation Academy A 70

Definitely a rough result after making such a long trip. Adhav, who now constantly laughs about this, finished the prelims with 0.00 ppg. The team seems a bit dejected, but I tell them to get ready for the rebracket. Since we will be rebracketed with teams who have performed similarly, we should have a chance.

Rebracket (to determine 13th-16th place)

Innovation Academy A 175, Carl Sandburg A 95
Innovation Academy A 160, William Fremd B 110
Innovation Academy A 190, Carbondale 60 - 70 pts from Grady!

Great final round and at least we can leave Chicago on a good note. Grady (34.29) and Matt (22.86) had pretty solid tournaments overall.

Final Standings (Out of 16 teams)

Team A - 13th