by trbenedict » Tue May 09, 2017 8:03 pm
Seventeen players have signed up to try out for Team Ohio. I may get a couple more names trickling in, and if that happens that's okay with me, but right now the field is:
Nitish Dashora (Olentangy Liberty), Enoch Fu (Dublin Scioto), John John Groger (Miami Valley), William Groger (Miami Valley), Jacob Myers (Pettisville), Arvind Nair (Olentangy Hyatts), Ruarai O'Tighearnaigh (Olentangy Liberty), Pranav Padmanabhan (Boardman), Hari Parameswaran (Beavercreek), Nayan Patel (Olentangy Liberty), Clark Smith (Dublin Scioto), Josh Smith (Clermont Northeastern), Tommy Varley (Copley), Hunter Wotruba (Fisher Catholic), Jason Wright (Black River), Andrew Zhang (Dublin Jerome), Celia Zhang (Olentangy Liberty), Frank Zhu (Brecksville-Broadview Heights).
To organize tryouts, I first seeded all players based on a combination that included power percentage on IS sets played this year, power percentage on housewrites played this year, points per tossup heard, and (least important) scouting reports/the "eye test." I privileged power percentage as a stat because at NASAT, deep knowledge in one or two subjects is advantageous compared to a generalist who might score a lot of points for their school team, but not ring in until the last line of a question. I realize that the power percentage stat gives an advantage to people who are already specialists on their own team, since they aren't called on to answer as many questions, but I tried to adjust for that bias in the final seeding.
The seeding went out the window a little bit, though, when it came to player availability, so I ended up going with the most reasonable groups available. Here is the format for the tryouts:
The top four individual seeds, who are Clark, Hari, Hunter, and John John, were given a pass to the second/final stage of tryouts. This is both in recognition of their demonstrated performance during this season and also to improve the tryout experience for the entire field. This is similar to how Greg was going to let any players who had qualified for NASAT before go directly to the final Columbus tryout. The remaining players will try out in the following groups on the following dates:
Saturday, May 13, 8:00 PM
Nitish Dashora
Arvind Nair
Ruarai O'Tighearnaigh
Jason Wright
Andrew Zhang
Monday, May 15, 7:00 PM
Enoch Fu
Arvind Nair
Pranav Padmanabhan
Nayan Patel
Jason Wright
Sunday, May 21, 7:00 PM
William Groger
Jacob Myers
Pranav Padmanabhan
Josh Smith
Celia Zhang
Frank Zhu
Some people will play twice, but I felt this was preferable to having a room of fewer than five people trying out at a time. I will track statistics in each round: powers, 10s, total points, points per tossup heard, and buzzpoint (that is, I will mark on my copy of the questions where a player buzzed in correctly. This will help differentiate between a power after five words and a power right before the asterisk). I will also be keeping track of what category each question is in, and who is doing better in each category. The factors that matter most in the preliminary rounds will be powers, points per tossup heard (important since tossups heard will vary!), and subject-area strength. After observing the results of these preliminary tryout rounds, 4 of the 11 candidates will be chosen to advance to the next and final rounds of tryouts against 3 of the top 4 seeds. The schedule for those rounds is listed below:
Tuesday, May 23, 8:00 PM (tentative)
John John Groger
Hari Parameswaran
Clark Smith
Tommy Varley
Qualifier 1 (TBD)
Qualifier 2 (TBD)
Qualifier 3 (TBD)
Qualifier 4 (TBD)
Wednesday, May 24, 8:00 PM (tentative)
John John Groger
Hari Parameswaran
Clark Smith
Tommy Varley
Qualifier 1 (TBD)
Qualifier 2 (TBD)
Qualifier 3 (TBD)
Qualifier 4 (TBD)
Stats from these rounds will be studied and decisions will be made, with the following mitigating factor: Hunter W. is not listed in these tryout rounds because his availability did not line up with any convenient times for the rest of the group (end of the year is busy for a senior!). This does not mean he will not be given a tryout, nor does it mean he automatically makes the team...I'm holding out hope that after the two final tryout rounds are concluded, we can work Hunter in with the remaining group, see how it goes, and decide on final roster composition. Andrew Z. was also a tough schedule, so the May 13 tryout round was constructed to make sure he got a time. I don't say this to call those two out or to imply that they got some kind of special treatment, but to give some insight into why the schedule is how it is and to point out that I didn't forget about Hunter. Another factor that drove the schedule for tryouts was my own obligations...I'll be taking Miami Valley's middle school team to MSNCT in Dallas this weekend, so I had to work around that. The May 13 tryout round will start after we're done with Saturday rounds at MSNCT, and I'll either run it from the hotel or enlist help.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I wanted to be as transparent as possible. Emails are being sent to individual players and coaches with the above format, as well as instructions for how to actually connect online when the tryout comes around. Let me know if you have any feedback!
Edit 1, 5/10, 10:07 AM - added Tommy to schedule for two final rounds.
Edit 2, 5/11, 3:36 PM - added Josh to schedule for May 21 and updated total field size.
Edit 3, 5/12, 10:54 PM - added Frank to schedule for May 21, removed Nitish from May 21 group, and updated total field size.
Last edited by
trbenedict on Fri May 12, 2017 9:54 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Tyler Benedict
Coach, Miami Valley School Quiz Bowl
OAC Committee Middle School Representative
OQBA NASAT and Matt's Buzzers Liaison
Miami Valley School '09