Chris Ray

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Chris Ray
JellybeanSmall.png
Noted subjects General, History, candy, Asia, Science theft
Current college Ohio State (2016-Present)
Past colleges Arizona State (2007); Maryland (2007-2014); Chicago (2014-2016)
High school Richard Montgomery (2004-2006)
Stats HDWhite • NAQT

Chris Ray plays for Ohio State. Chris is a graduate of Richard Montgomery High School and a former member of the quizbowl teams at Maryland Academic Quiz Team and Chicago. Chris is one of the best active generalists in the game and finished third in the 2012 Player Poll. He was the president of the now-defunct Dynasty Academic Competition Questions and was chief editor of the acclaimed 2010 NSC.

High School

Chris's career at Richard Montgomery was marked by a truly disastrous 1-4 record as a member of Richard Montgomery's first ever D team, as well as numerous other humiliating defeats in 2004 and 2005. However, in 2006, he led the Richard Montgomery team to an HSNCT championship.

College

Chris's misguided attempt to start a team at Arizona State University resulted in a disastrous trip to attend WIT at Berkeley, in which he convinced three 30somethings to accompany him to Los Angeles, despite the fact that the tournament was in Berkeley (about 7 hours north of Los Angeles), and also on a different weekend. Also while at Arizona State he suffered a rather heartbreaking (and scholarship-denying) loss to the esteemed Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering in a game of Intramural CBI. The game was inexplicably filmed and can be seen here under Round 1.

He would soon leave Arizona State for the University of Maryland, where his results would be much less tragic. Chris was part of a strong 2008 Maryland A team that won 2008 ICT and 3rd place at 2008 ACF Nationals, and subsequently emerged as a leader in his own right, leading Maryland A to a 4th place finish at 2010 ACF Nationals and 4th at 2012 ICT.

Playing Style

Chris possessed a notoriously aggravating playing style, particularly for his teammates (Eric Mukherjee once compared it to drunken boxing). In high school, he gained infamy for priming the buzzer beyond reasonable limits, a practice he continues to this day even on ACF Nationals questions. This inadvisable technique notably led to an accidental buzz prior to the question during the 2006 PAC Finals, which Chris successfully blamed on teammate Zach "Klitz" Klitzman's elbow movements and was able to avoid suffering a penalty.

Chris was also known for being a frivolous negger, registering four, five, and six neg games with some regularity. However, this also made him incredibly streaky, with the result that he can beat top-level teams in one round and almost lose to bottom bracket teams in others. Recently, he's succeeded in controlling his negging (achieving a 3:1 ratio at 2012 ACF Nationals), though his ability to upset statistically better teams remains.

The Muse

Perhaps the most surprising part of Chris Ray's career is his unlikely role as a muse figure inspiring many of quizbowl's greatest creative achievements. Most notably, Charles Meigs wrote the immortal Diary of Chris Ray [1] based on his experiences playing the 2008 ACF Nationals with him. Ted Gioia has heralded the work as the "only indisputable masterpiece in the Meigsian oeuvre" and Daichi Ueda has called for it to be "immortalized."

Chris was famously captured "barging" into the room in Lily Vonderheide's photo of the 2008 Cardinal Classic. When asked about the photo, Harvard Professor Elaine Scarry opined that the "man in red" was "peculiar."

Even in high school his unique playing style served as fertile ground for the artistic imagination. While reading at a Gonzaga High School tournament, poet Dana Gioia was particularly by struck by Ray's style after an argument over the specificity of "vivid brush strokes" in a Degas tossup. Gioia was inspired to write a no longer extant limerick about "Christopher Ray, that king of the buffet," while Ray suggested further readingof US Poet Laureate Donald Hall.

Editing

In recent times, Chris has been universally acknowledged as an excellent editor who produces very enjoyable, controlled, and well-written tournaments across all categories (tendency towards offhand commentary aside).

Tournament Results


ICT DI Leading Scorer
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Evan Adams
2011
Trevor Davis
NSC Leading Scorer
Preceded by
Year
Succeeded by
Noah Rahman
2006
Kurtis Droge
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