Andrew Hart

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Andrew Hart
Andrew.jpg
Noted subjects generalism
Current college None
Past colleges Minnesota (2006-13)
High school Chaska (2005-06)
Stats HDWhite • NAQT

Andrew Hart is a former player for University of Minnesota. Career accomplishments include winning the 2011 ICT, two runner-up ACF Nationals finishes, three ACF undergraduate titles (2008-10), two NAQT undergraduate titles (2009-10), two Chicago Open championships (2009 and 2011) and seven overall top-three Chicago Open finishes, eleven consecutive top-bracket finishes at ICT and Nationals from 2008 through the end of his career in 2013, and 32 outright tournament victories (excluding side events).

Andrew is also known for his writing and editing, spearheading such well-received sets as the 2014 Chicago Open, the 2017 ACF Regionals, and the 2018 ACF Nationals.

From 2008-2010, he was a member of a Minnesota team including Brendan Byrne, Rob Carson, and Gautam Kandlikar, considered among the best undergraduate teams of all time. Along with those three, he was a runner up at the 2010 ACF Nationals, which Andrew Yaphe's Stanford team won in a close final. In 2011, Andrew was, along with Rob Carson, Gautam Kandlikar, and Mike Cheyne, on the champion Minnesota team at ICT and the runner-up team (to Yale) at ACF Nationals. With Brendan, Rob, and Matt Weiner, he won the 2009 Chicago Open, a title he won again in 2011 with Seth Teitler, Selene Koo, and Jeff Hoppes. With Rob, he holds the dubious distinction of being a College Bowl national champion.

Andrew is a full member of ACF, a member of NAQT, a former member of PACE who served as head editor of the 2009 NSC, a founding editor of HSAPQ, the head editor of the 2014 Chicago Open, and a co-creator of two formerly annual UMN events: Minnesota Open and MUT.

In June 2015, Andrew wrote a long essay for Deadspin about his quizbowl career and the game in general.

In April 2016, Andrew won the Carper Award in recognition of his contributions to collegiate quizbowl.

High school

Andrew played for two years for Chaska High School in Minnesota. Career highlights include a 3-14-13 line at HSNCT in 2005 and a runner-up finish at Chip Beall's 2006 national tournament. Rob was one of his high school teammates.

College career

Andrew joined the University of Minnesota team during his freshman year along with Rob. Their college careers both got off to a slow start, as the Minnesota team attended few circuit events. Andrew played the Matt Cvijanovich Novice Tournament at Illinois in the spring. With teammates Ezra Lyon, Meredith Johnson, and Rita Otto, Andrew and Rob won the 2007 College Bowl National Championship. In July, Andrew and Rob played their first circuit event together at the Chicago Open.

After playing few circuit tournament during 2006-07, the Minnesota team became one of the most active in the country in 2007-08. Andrew served as the club's president during a year in which a new crop of Minnesota players won its first tournament (EFT at Chicago), played eleven circuit events, and won the ACF Undergraduate Championship. Gautam Kandlikar and Bernadette Spencer both matriculated to Minnesota and became key members of the team.

In 2008-09, Minnesota added Brendan Byrne, who had transferred from Drake. Brendan put on an impressive performance at the 2008 Chicago Open, leading the field in scoring and carrying a team also consisting of Rob, Andrew, and Gautam to third place; that lineup became Minnesota's regular A-team over the next two years. Andrew won nine regular events playing with various Minnesota teammates; regular Minnesota team member Mike Cheyne also came to Minnesota in the fall. Playing Cardinal Classic with various regulars of the Brown team, Andrew achieved a grail over a Berkeley team. The Minnesota team took fourth place at both the 2009 ICT and ACF Nationals, repeating as ACF undergraduate champions and winning the ICT undergraduate championship vacated by Harvard.

In the 2009-10 season, Andrew won the 2009 Chicago Open playing with Rob, Brendan, and Matt Weiner. After a successful regular season that included three circuit tournament victories, Minnesota placed third at the ICT and defeated Michigan in the undergraduate final, 515 to 125.

At the 2010 ACF Nationals, Minnesota was one of the two undefeated teams in the preliminary round robin, with a record of 13-0. After a loss to Maryland in the playoff round robin, Minnesota had to win its final playoff game, against defending champion Chicago, to make a one-game final. Andrew had his best game of the tournament, answering five tossups to propel Minnesota into the final against Andrew Yaphe's Stanford team. In the final, Stanford jumped out to a 195-0 lead, as Andrew Yaphe answered six of the first seven tossups. Brendan answered the final three tossups of the half to draw Minnesota closer; the halftime score was 190-70. In the second half, Minnesota mounted a furious comeback. All four team members scored during a six-tossup rally that spanned tossups fourteen through nineteen. Minnesota appeared to lead by forty going into the final question, which Stanford converted. After Stanford twentied the bonus, the final score appeared to stand at 270-260 in favor of Minnesota. But a pending protest on Rob's buzz on tossup 12 was resolved in Stanford's favor. The final score was 260-225, Stanford. By virtue of appearing in the final, Minnesota defended its ACF undergraduate championship.

In fall 2010, Andrew began law school at Minnesota. In the 2010-11 season, he played and won five regular-season events with various Minnesota lineups. The usual Minnesota A lineup of Rob, Gautam, Andrew, and Mike won the 2011 ICT, going undefeated, after the title was vacated by Harvard. That same lineup lost a one-game final to Yale at ACF Nationals. In summer 2011, Andrew won Chicago Open with Seth Teitler, Selene Koo, and Jeff Hoppes, defeating a team of Matt Weiner, John Lawrence, Matt Bollinger, and Gautam Kandlikar in the second game of an advantaged final. The tournament ended Matt Weiner's four-year reign of dominance atop the CO standings. In 2011, Andrew was a finals win at ACF Nationals away from becoming the second player after Ezequiel Berdichevsky to achieve the single-season Triple Crown; Matt Bollinger, Evan Adams, and Tommy Casalaspi later equaled Zeke's feat in 2014.

In the 2011-12 season, Minnesota overcame the graduations of perennially top-ranked players Rob and Gautam to win four regular-difficulty tournaments. The continued emergence of Mike Cheyne as an elite player and the team's youth movement spurred by team president Eliza Grames kept Minnesota in the running at national tournaments as well. At ICT, Minnesota (Mike, Andrew, Gaurav Kandlikar, and Robin Heinonen) was one of three teams to emerge unscathed through the prelims and wound up sixth; at ACF Nationals, the team placed eighth. Andrew won scoring prizes at both nationals and, with teammates Mike Sorice, Jeff Hoppes, and Gautam Kandlikar, finished second at Chicago Open.

In 2012-13, Andrew led Minnesota teams to two regular-season victories. In postseason play, Minnesota placed fifth at ICT, and Andrew played ACF Nationals solo and finished 12th after reaching the top playoff bracket; he is one of a handful of players, alongside perhaps only Matt Weiner and Matt Lafer, to qualify for a top bracket at a national championship playing solo. Andrew ended his career having made the top playoff bracket at eleven straight national championship tournaments, beginning with ACF Nationals in 2008.

Post-college playing career

After graduating, Andrew has continued to play scattered events. In spring 2014, he was permitted to play a final tournament under the aegis of Minnesota, College History Bowl, because of the tournament's cancellation the previous year; the Minnesota team finished fourth. Also in spring 2014, he won his 30th career tournament, Cane Ridge Revival at the University of Chicago, playing with Jerry Vinokurov, Charlie Dees, and Richard Yu. He missed his first Chicago Open in seven years to edit the tournament, but won the Chicago Open History Tournament riding the immense coattails of Jeff Hoppes.

In 2015, soon after Andrew's Deadspin essay was published, he tied for third at Chicago Open with Rob, Shan Kothari, and Adam Silverman. He won his second history subject tournament, SHEIKH, at the Michigan mirror of VCU Open, playing with Mike Cheyne, Carsten Gehring, and Will Nediger. He won the Minnesota mirror of Missouri Open with Rob, Carsten, and Will Ladner; for the 5.25 games before he had to leave, he and Rob broke the Hoppes-Mikanowski limit.

In 2016, Andrew teamed up with Rob Carson, Jerry Vinokurov, and Jay Bhasin to win the Stanford mirror of "stanford housewrite." In April 2016, Andrew won the Carper Award, and Andrew and Rob were named as among the 25 best players in the first 25 years of ACF, with former Minnesota players Gautam Kandlikar and Brendan Byrne earning honorable mentions. With Rob, Tejas Raje, and Billy Busse, Andrew finished tied for second at Chicago Open.

In 2017, Andrew placed fourth at Chicago Open with Rob, Tejas Raje, and Adam Silverman.

Editing and writing

Andrew has been (or is currently serving as) a central editor for 48 collegiate events since 2007, and has also been a major contributor or editor for many high school and middle school tournaments in that time.

  • He is a full member of ACF and has edited (or is slated to edit) six ACF events: Fall 2007 (visual fine arts, social sciences), Fall 2008 (head editor), Winter 2010 (head editor), Fall 2013 (geography and social science), Regionals 2017, and Nationals 2018. He served as ACF's Meeting Chair from 2012-14 and has held an informal advisory role in many iterations of ACF Fall since editing in 2008.
  • He is a member of NAQT. He has served as a set editor of SCT from 2012-18, a set editor of ICT from 2014-18, and the head editor of the Collegiate Novice series (comprising two packet sets in its first two years and one beginning in 2017) from 2015-17.
  • During his time at the University of Minnesota, he has been a central editor and/or writer for 14 Minnesota events: four iterations of Minnesota Open in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012; nine versions of MUT from 2008-16; and 2007 Deep Bench.
  • He was the head editor of the Early Autumn Collegiate Novice tournament, which ran from 2010-13 before becoming NAQT's Collegiate Novice series in 2015.
  • He was the head editor of 2014 Chicago Open; other editors included Ike Jose, Gautam Kandlikar, Gaurav Kandlikar, Austin Brownlow, and Jacob Reed.
  • Along with Rob Carson and Carsten Gehring, he wrote and edited the 2016 iteration of the Chicago Open Trash Tournament; they will write and edit the 2018 iteration of the event as well.
  • He has produced four collegiate side tournaments: the Illinois Open Literature Tournament 2007, the Impossible Speed Check tournament played at the 2008 Illinois Open, the 2008 Minnesota Open Literature Tournament, and the Bob Loblaw Law Bowl for summer events in 2011.
  • At the high school level, he has served as the editor in chief of the 2009 PACE NSC, a founding editor of HSAPQ, and an editor and writer for several independent high school events. Since 2011, he has edited various sets and categories of high school and middle school questions for NAQT.

Miscellany

  • Served as chief administrator of the HSQB forums from 2013-14.
  • Observed a trend in NAQT packets that led to the creation of the BEEEES! meme.
  • Designed the QB Wiki logo.
  • Came up with the idea for the BEeS stats program.
  • Brother of Matt Hart.
Carper Award
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Jerry Vinokurov
2016
Jonathan Magin