GPQB All-State Teams 2020-2021

Friends,

Another year in the PA quizbowl history books! The digital format of this year was something to marvel, and it gave the chance for all the teams to compete as one rather than regional subcircuits. This led to a lot of great competition and a lot of fun games. As is always the case, the circuit moderators got together and voted on All-State teams, to acknowledge the top players in the state. They continue the tradition of elite quizbowl in the state of Pennsylvania. Without further ado:

First Team All-State

AZ Faiz, Manheim Township High School
Eddie Fuhrer, Kiski Area High School
Anish Kodali, Great Valley High School
Danny Peelen, Cedar Crest High School
Ananya Tadigadapa, State College High School

Second Team All-State

Carsten Brodbeck, Hempfield High School
Chris Goodrich, Oxford High School
Nolan Greenways, Great Valley High School
Rishi Raman, Great Valley High School
Divik Verma, Moravian Academy

Honorable Mentions

Caden Atlas, Friends Select School
Baybars Chakras, Manheim Township High School
Anshu Nunemunthala, Great Valley High School
Jenna Yaeger, Hempfield High School

We commend all these students on their hard work this season.

-The staff

GPQB May Invitational (5/1) Wrap-Up

On Saturday, May 1, seven teams gathered for the final GPQB invitational of the season. The tournament used SATURNALIA, described as a hard (“regs+” difficulty) high school set.

Stats are here.

Great Valley’s powerful lineup of Anish, Nolan, Rishi, and Anshu finished at the top once more with 21.02 points per bonus and 56 powers over nine games, averaging 424.4 points per game and even hitting an impressive 13/3/1 statline in round 10. State College, led by Ananya with some key buzzes from Darren and Elijah, finished tied for second with Manheim Township A, which featured tournament top scorer A.Z. with support from Baybars, Deeya, and Ellie. Despite having a slightly lower 17.89 overall PPB, State College triumphed in their two matchups. However, in perhaps the most thrilling match of the day, MT A seriously threatened first place GV’s undefeated record with a prelim game that went to a tiebreaker before ending with GV up 315-300. Rounding out the top bracket was Cedar Crest, led by Danny’s 95.83 PPG in the prelims and 84.44 PPG overall. They also tied for second. Cedar Crest challenged State College in both their games, losing the first one 245-275 but claiming 11 of the 20 tossups in the rematch to win 290-215.

In the lower bracket, Eddie played solo for Kiski and put up 76.88 individual PPG overall, winning both his afternoon games. Manheim Township B managed a 325-270 victory over Kiski in the morning and showed potential with 235 PPG in a game against State College. Downingtown East braved the challenging set and started the day strong with a 205-160 win over MT B.

The fierce intrastate competition and close games bode well for PA’s top teams as we enter the 2021 (online) nationals season. We’re excited to see how our 11 teams from 9 schools stack up against the best programs from around the country at the upcoming HSNCT on May 29-30. Good luck to all, and we can’t wait to follow along!

-Jackie

3 Unique Things About Quizbowl in Pennsylvania

Thanks to the wonders of online quizbowl, I’ve had a chance to read for not only most of the GPQB events this year but also a number of tournaments in other parts of the country. Based on these experiences, there are three distinctive things that I’ve noticed while reading at PA tournaments that I think augur well for the future of quizbowl in the Keystone State.

More Focus on Newer Teams and Players

Having a novice division at almost every event seems to work well in helping newer teams and players adjust to quizbowl. It’s somewhat surprising that a number of other places still group all teams together, even when there are major disparities in experience; it’s no fun to see a nationally ranked top-25 team buzzsaw through schools making their online quizbowl debut on NAQT IS A-sets. Even better, it’s great to see the B and C teams from more established schools who might have players who benefitted from playing in middle school or as part of a well-oiled team preparation program that are willing to “play up” in the varsity or open divisions even if they’re technically eligible for novice. Similarly, it’s also good to see some of the most experienced players skip playing events on easy sets and volunteer to read instead. Major props to those players who chose to do that this year.

More Coach Involvement

PA schools seem more likely than teams from many other areas to have an involved coach who might help read, actively coach, or simply work to keep track of 4+ teams worth of players at events. This is helpful in many ways to tournament directors and to moderators since there’s a clear line of accountability in case of any issues or more prosaic concerns like “where is Team X” throughout an event. This increased amount of supervision seems to also make PA tournaments a bit more polite in terms of communication during events and less prone to online troll-ish behavior. Finally, more coach involvement also pays off in fewer issues with suspected cheating. I saw much less suspicious behavior from teams with stronger levels of coach supervision and think that this made for a better experience for everyone at online events. Kudos to the many coaches in PA who volunteered their Saturdays to help make quizbowl happen this year and every year.

More Fun for the Readers

The decision this year at GPQB events to not do bonuses in the prelim rounds was, in my opinion, a great innovation. It lead to much faster events that were far less exhausting and allowed both players and readers to maintain their energy for the playoffs in the afternoons (or, in my case being on Pacific Time, late morning). I also really liked using Zoom at PA events as it seemed to give higher quality audio and video than Discord, though it was more of a pain to move teams from one room to another. The inclusion of staff lounges during lunch and the playoffs was another fun feature as well that continued the PA tradition of congeniality among tournament staffers. Quizbowl events can’t run without staffers (more past PA players, especially those sticking around the state, should definitely read at events in the future!) and making events fun for both teams and staffers is a win all around.

Other states have great teams, TDs, and staffers as well, but I’ve had my best experiences as a staffer at PA events this year. I hope that more TDs and readers will step up to the plate in future years to continue a great Keystone State tradition, whether online or in-person.

-Chris

2021 SSNCT Wrap-Up

Last Saturday, (online) nationals season kicked off with SSNCT, the Small School National Championship Tournament. As in years past, there were two divisions of competition (one for small public schools and an open division for private or charter schools). We congratulate Westmont of Illinois for winning the former and St. Mark’s School of Texas for winning the latter. But, as always, we’re primarily here to take a look at the Pennsylvania teams, and as always, they performed well on the big stage.

Stats can be found here.

In the Open division, the charge was led by Moravian Academy A, who more than justified their top-5 ranking in the state with an 11-3 record, good for a tied 5^th-place finish (the third-highest for an open team in PA history). Divik continued his breakout season, notching 72 points per 20 tossups heard, which was eighth overall in that division. Angela and Eric also exceeded 20 points per game, and the team notched a total of three playoff victories. Friends Select also scored three playoff wins. They just barely made the playoffs with a 5-4 record on Saturday but turned it on in the playoffs and finished tied for 7^th overall. Caden stood out with 20 powers for his team. Moravian B also competed, going 3-6. The program has many high-scoring underclassmen, so Moravian should continue to contend at SSNCT for years. Germantown Friends rounded out the PA cohort. Although they went 1-8, this team comprised mostly of freshman gained great experience and will surely be sharper in the future.

The lone Pennsylvanian entrant in the traditional public division was Bermudian Springs, making their nationals debut. They finished 3-6 with a junior-heavy roster. Zach led the team with 43 points per twenty. It’s been a while since a team from the York-Adams area played any pyramidal national, and it was good to see them improve throughout the day against tough competition.

As always, it’s a treat to see PA quizbowlers excel, and I’m glad we continue to have such strong nationals performances.

-Ben

GPQB APRIL INVITATIONAL (4/10) WRAP-UP

This Saturday, 19 teams faced off on NAQT’s IS-200A set in one of the final pre-nationals events of the season. This low-difficulty set gave many of PA’s upcoming players a chance to shine, foretelling many more years of high-level competition in PA quiz bowl. Full tournament results are here.

The 13-team Varsity division was led by Moravian Academy A, whose balanced effort by Angela, Eric, Samit, and Divit culminated in an 8-0 record and an impressive 22.56 PPB. Just behind Moravian was Friends Select, paced by #2 prelim scorer Caden with strong backup from Charlie. With just five negs among them and a clean 20 PPB, this squad demonstrated a considerable command of the canon that could prove even greater with less restraint. Besides Moravian, Friends Select was dealt their only other loss of the day by Henderson, who rounded out the podium with double-digit powers each from Vivek, Abheya, Mithra, and James. Henderson also put up a tournament-best 22.81 PPB, continuing their rapid rise in the PA quiz bowl ranks. In 4th was a young Great Valley A, comprised mainly of B- and C-team players. Despite going 0-3 in the afternoon, all four players put up double-digit PPGs, with Lucca in particular contributing a 14/13/2 stat line for the day.

Carver, led by Sebastian with great support from Ellie, took down an impressive Manheim Township team 290-165 to prevail in first consolation. Even without their main lineup, Manheim showed once again how deep their bench is with a staggering performance from lead prelim scorer Kevin, who put up 84 PPG in the morning. Just below, the formidable trio of Nikhil, Vasistha, and Cory from Downingtown East snagged a win over Downingtown STEM to claim seventh, even with STEM’s Yaduraj putting up over 60 PPG.

The second consolation bracket was topped by Huntingdon A, whose Nick contributed a mighty 20/18/4 combined stat line to notch five great wins over the course of the day, including a nail-biter against D-East in the morning. Falling just behind Huntingdon after a 185-370 loss was a five-person Cedar Crest, who were led commandingly by #3 prelim scorer Sam. Oxford A took the next spot, with Connor’s combined PPG of over 48 allowing playoff wins against such teams as Huntingdon B, who still averaged a promising one power per game. Rounding out the bracket was DuBois, who put up impressive numbers in each match and featured scoring from all four players.

In JV, State College swept the six-team double round robin with a perfect 9-0 record. Each player on the five-member squad put up multiple powers and over 20 PPG, even with second-place JV scorer Prithvi averaging over 62 PPG over the course of the day. Moravian Academy B were the runners-up, only losing to State College. Moravian’s Yiyi was the top JV scorer with nearly 68 PPG, and the squad’s 17.73 PPB was the best in the division. Oxford B’s dynamic duo of Keegan and Eliot, the latter of whom was third overall in PPG, clinched the bronze with a 5-4 record. Next, Great Valley B and a two-player Northeastern both finished 2-7, with the former’s Yash and the latter’s Nicholas both nearing 50 PPG. Finishing out the JV division was Brenner from Waynesboro, who posted several gets in each match of his solo bout.

As we head into the postseason, we sincerely thank all players, staff, and coaches for all of their work to make this unprecedented season work. It’s been a joy to see our community come together and our players grow so much this year, and the remarkable progress our younger players demonstrated this month makes us more excited than ever to get back into the swing of things as soon as possible. We hope to see everyone once again on May 1st for our final tournament of the season!

–Danny

GPQB February Invitational Wrap-Up (2/13/20)

On February 13, 24 Pennsylvania teams competed online in GPQB’s first event of the spring semester. Final statistics for the varsity division can be found here, while those for the JV division can be found here.

Varsity:

With Chester County teams excluded due to their intermediate unit using the question set, Manheim Township A solidified their claim to the #2 spot in the GPQB rankings. MT A went 9-0 on the day and were never seriously threatened, with AZ leading the way but solid contributions from Baybars and Deeya as well. Even though it’s a small sample size of 5 rounds, breaking 23 PPB on an IS set is nothing to sneeze at either as this team continues to improve through the year.

Moravian A took home second place with a 330-220 victory over bronze medal finishers Hempfield A. As the site’s resident Lehigh Valley native, it’s been quite nice to see Moravian’s improvement over the years. Divik led this team in scoring, with Angela and Eric posting nearly identical PPGs of 28 and change as well. Hempfield also boasted some balanced scoring from their top three of Carsten, Michael, and Jenna, even if they couldn’t quite get over the hump against the top two teams. Cedar Crest A came in fourth, led by prelim top scorer Danny, while Manheim Township B put together their best performance of the season to take fifth, including a 365-325 upset of Moravian A. Kevin and Ellie served as the top scorers for MT B, as they once again demonstrated the depth of their program. Lastly, while they had a tough go of it in the playoffs, North Catholic did well to score some upset victories in the prelims to make the top bracket.

The second bracket was topped by Friends Select in their debut for the 2020-21 year. This was a breakout performance for Caden, who got several strong powers throughout the day, and Corey, Becca, and Charlie each contributed 1-2 tossups per game and seem like solid specialists. Pittsburgh Central Catholic suffered an upset loss to North Catholic in the prelims to knock them to the second bracket, but they had the highest PPB of those teams (19.09) as Joe and Jude continue to have promising seasons. Trinity A also returned to the circuit at this event and finished a respectable 5-5, with Aaron putting up some impressive scoring numbers. Young players and teams rounded out the bracket, with Moravian B, DuBois, and State College each demonstrating some good knowledge on a challenging question set.

Carver HSES A, who had the misfortune of being the odd team out in the toughest prelim bracket, ran the table in the final consolation flight. Sebastian and Ellen continued to comprise the team’s top two, with Kamal and Kimberly chipping in as well. Wallenpaupack A went 3-1 in the bracket, while Bishop Canevin, Berwick, and Waynesboro rounding out the field.

JV:

In the full round robin, Hempfield B went 6-0 and also won all their matches comfortably. Zeke and Chase both put up over 55 PPG as the two top scorers in the field, in a positive sign for Hempfield’s growth and development as a talent-nurturing program. Cedar Crest B and Berwick Middle tied at 4-2, with Berwick winning a close head-to-head matchup 175-165. Max was the top scorer for Cedar Crest, while Jack did so for Berwick. Trinity B got balanced scoring from all four players and beat Berwick Middle by a 190-125 score, and Carver B, North Catholic B, and Carver C each got some competitive matches in as well.

Overall, it was another excellent event for Pennsylvania quizbowl in the online universe. A big thanks to all our staffers, and we hope to see you all again for our mirror of RAFT II on March 20!

-Ryan

Spring 2021 Online Pennsylvania Quizbowl Tournaments Update

There’s a solid slate of upcoming events for quizbowl teams in Pennsylvania throughout the rest of the Spring Semester (as well as potential national championships), but as we’ve seen before there’s a lot of demand for quizbowl and a relatively limited supply of readers. We need staff at basically all of these events to help expand the field, so please get in touch with the tournament director for each event (contact information is on each tournament announcement, click the link) if you’re available to volunteer and help.

March 6th: Philadelphia City-Wide Championship [Philadelphia Teams Only, still several spots available] on NAQT question set IS-194A

March 13th: Pennsylvania Middle School Tournament [Middle School teams only] on the TAILS question set

March 20th: GPQB March on the RAFT question set [relatively short waitlist]

April 10th: GPQB April on NAQT question set IS-200A [long waitlist]

May 1st: SATURNALIA (hard HS question set) mirror, details to come

May 15th: DART (regular HS question set) mirror

GPQB Mid-Season Poll, 2020-2021

Friends,

We’ve reached the mid-point of a weird, virtual-only quizbowl season. It’s been challenging, and undoubtedly the camaraderie of a normal year is missed. This doesn’t mean though that top teams and great competition are missing. As is tradition, the GPQB gang has voted and put together a poll of the top 10 teams in the state. The format of the season means we’ve been able to see the whole state compete together and have many direct comparisons to make. Without further ado, here’s the top teams for the midseason:

Great Valley A (110 points, unanimous #1, =)
Manheim Township (97 points, =)
Hempfield (87 points, +1)
State College (74 points, +4)
Moravian Academy (63 points, previously u/r)
Cedar Crest (60 points, -1)
Henderson (35 points, +2)
Great Valley B (32 points, -1)
Oxford (31 points, -6)
Pittsburgh Central Catholic (12 points, +4)

Also receiving votes were Allderdice (1) and Downingtown East (1)

We wish all competitors a safe and healthy spring.

-The Staff

The voters in this poll were: Ryan Bilger, Jamie Faeder, Ben Herman, Antonio Jimenez, Nick Luca, Andrew Nadig, Colton Sanden, Alex Sankaran, Steven Silverman, Will Yaeger, and Albert Zhang.

GPQB December Invitational Wrap-Up (12/5/20)

The final GPQB tournament of 2020 was held online on December 5 in collaboration with the Penn quizbowl team. The event featured 24 varsity teams and 14 JV teams competing on IS-198A and turned out to be one of the most memorable this year, with close games and impressive showings in both divisions.

Stats are here.

Varsity

An undefeated Great Valley A finished in first place, sweeping this fall’s GPQB online invitational series. The dominant lineup of Anish, Nolan, Rishi, and Anshu notched 172 points per game in the tossups-only prelims before adding 25.11 points per bonus to their scoring in the afternoon rounds. GV A hit 690 points in the final match against second place Hempfield, which was led by Carsten’s 70 PPG with strong support from Michael, Sebastian, and Colin. Their closest game of the day was a 315-310 win over third place Manheim Township A in round 8. Manheim Township A’s duo of AZ and Baybars was backed up with solid buzzes and bonus pulls from Scotty and Deeya, and the team combined to tie GV A’s total of 40 powers across 5 prelim rounds. Fourth place went to New Jersey’s Middlesex County Academy B, actually the stronger of their two teams in the varsity field.

Moravian Academy A and Henderson A finished tied for fifth place. Moravian’s balanced buzzing was complemented by good collaboration on bonuses, as the team was physically together (but socially distanced) in a classroom and able to confer out loud. Henderson’s five-person lineup reached 141 PPG in the prelims, with lead scorer Abheya getting 15 powers to only 2 negs. GV B tied for seventh with Cedar Crest, which was led by Danny’s 117 PPG in the prelims. Ninth went to Pittsburgh Central Catholic and Oxford A, whose lead scorer Chris finished the prelims with 94 PPG. State College (playing without Ananya) and Downingtown STEM A rounded out the parallel championship brackets.

In the lower brackets, Downingtown East B and Carver A finished with 6-4 records across the tournament. Other teams from D-East, MT, MCA, and GV were joined by PALCS A, western PA teams like Pine-Richland, Huntingdon, North Catholic, and Westmont Hilltop, and Berwick from the northeastern part of the state.

Henderson B went undefeated over the six tossup-only prelim rounds and three playoff rounds, led by Elan’s 75 PPG. Moravian B finished second with 16.67 PPB in the afternoon, and High Tech A and B (NJ) took third and fourth.

It was great to see Northeastern at the top of the second bracket as well as B teams from Oxford, PALCS, and D-STEM. The third bracket featured Waynesboro as well as B, C, and D teams from previously mentioned schools.

Overall, this semester’s largest online GPQB tournament went smoothly and drew talented teams from all over the state. Though we would usually do a midseason poll before winter break, we will be waiting until after Morgantown’s tournament on January 9 (register here). We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to seeing everyone in the new year!

–Jackie

GPQB NOVEMBER INVITATIONAL WRAP-UP (11/14/20)

This past Saturday, 31 teams went head-to-head on NAQT’s IS-197 set in GPQB’s third event of the year. This first regular difficulty tournament of the PA season gave local teams—alongside some out-of-state friends—a great opportunity to prove their might at higher levels of play. Full results from the tournament can be found here.

In the mighty 20-team varsity division, Great Valley A once again went undefeated to notch their second GPQB Invitational victory of the season. After sweeping through their tossup-only prelim bracket with a commanding 210 points per game, Great Valley easily kept all other top teams at bay in the tossup-bonus-style playoffs. Though Anish led the team as the third-highest individual prelim scorer, Great Valley’s deep specialization was still on full display, with teammates Anshu, Nolan, and Rishi each racking up double-digit powers and at least 28 points per game over the course of the day.

The Great Valley squad was met in the finals by runners-up State College, led by Ananya and Darren and with sizable contributions from Prithvi and Elijah. The four went undefeated before their 460-220 loss in the championship, proving that this perennial PA powerhouse is here to stay. Rounding out the podium were Manheim Township A, who lost a nail-biting 335-350 semifinal match to State College despite the incredible showing of AZ, whose staggering 51/23/11 statline was complemented by great work from teammates Baybars, Deeya, and Ellie. Manheim took the bronze in a win against Cedar Crest, led by the tournament’s top scorer, Danny, who has quickly minted himself a rising star in the PA quizbowl scene.

Just below, fifth place was shared by a well-balanced Great Valley B, a formidable Carver A led forcefully by Sebastian, and New Jersey’s Middlesex County Academy A. Downingtown East A came right behind thanks to balanced scoring and an exceptional points per bonus (nearly 20– the third-highest in the field), which proved to be enough to conquer Pittsburgh Central Catholic despite a runaway individual effort from Joe. Henderson A overtook Oxford, which featured second-place prelim scorer Chris, to hand both teams 1-4 records and produce a three-way tie for ninth with PCC, with a solid DuBois team taking twelfth.

In consolation, Downingtown STEM A and Ohio’s Olentangy Berlin A both picked up 3-0 records to tie for thirteenth. They were trailed by Manheim Township B and Great Valley C, both of whom resolutely bounced back from 0-4 prelim records to go 2-1 in the afternoon. Manheim demonstrated some deep pockets of knowledge through a well-rounded scoring effort and a bonus conversion of over 17, and a stellar individual performance by Great Valley’s Yash further signifies the both programs’ bottomless pools of talent. Huntingdon A and Downingtown East B relied on very even scoring to secure T-17 finishes, and great leadership from Westmont Hilltop’s Anthony and North Catholic’s Lily allowed their respective teams to maintain impressive stats despite the tough competition.

In the eleven-team JV tournament, Middlesex County Academy B, fronted by top individual scorer Aditya, prevailed with a perfect 9-0 record and an outstanding 16 points per bonus in the afternoon. They were closely followed by fellow out-of-staters Morgantown, led decisively by Celina, as well as PA’s Henderson B and a very balanced Northeastern squad, who put up an outstanding performance in their pyramidal debut. Finishing out the bracket were Downingtown STEM B and Carver C, both showing great promise with a handful of powers and at least eleven points per bonus.

Carver B came out on top in the JV consolation bracket with three straight playoff wins, overcoming the challenge posed by Huntingdon B’s powerful duo of Nick and Brandon, who put up over thirteen points per bonus. To fill out the bracket, Downingtown East C’s three-person crew bested Carver D. Such strong results from these younger squads is a testament to just how deep the bench runs in PA.

In these difficult times, we are very thankful to still be able to engage with our amazing community through this game, and we sincerely appreciate the efforts of all of the staff, coaches, and players who make this possible. We look forward to seeing everyone again at our final tournament of the year on December 5th!

–Danny