Its time for this argument again, Who are/were the best players. I'm going to list the best active players, the best ones I've seen, and the best science, literature, and history players. These lists are just my impression based on an individual's ability to affect the outcome his team's play not just in one match but throughout the entire tournament. Also these do not factor in CBI and Trash ability. Trash certainly tests a different subset of knowledge and CBI tests a different set of skills. I'm not knocking those formats, this is just the nonarbitrary outline I've established to make my rankings Best Current: 1. Matt Weiner - His numbers speak for themselves, albeit in the weak MidAtlantic region 2. Kelly McKenzie - Seemingly wins every singles tournament he enters, and looks like a very good literature player. 3. Subash Maddipotii - Haven't seen him much this year, but his numbers also speak for themselves. He's a solid generalist but doesn't seem to know any category that well - a slightly weaker version of Matt 4. Jeff Hoppes - Very reliable player, who seems to not neg at all, and is always good for plenty of History and geography 5. Joon Pak - One of those players who can buzz on both science and humanities 6. Eqequiel Berdichevsky - The humanities king, ranking goes way up in ACF, drops out of top 10 in NAQT, although he put up good numbers in this year's nationals 7. Vik Vaz - Seems to know a lot and is basically his whole team 8. Robert Beard - Don't know much about him, but impresses me when I see him play 9. Adam Kemezis - This guy is Roy Hobbs, except he doesn't work at it. Would be higher except it seems he can disappear in some games 10. Raj Duwalia - Solid player, who seems to benefit from playing in Southeast. Put up great numbers at NAQT, but ACF nationals numbers were sketchy. 11. Seth Teitler - Seems to have come on this year, but leading his team to ACF title warrants mention. Could very well jump way up this list in the coming year(s) There seem to a lot of players at the next tier down from this. Best Ever: (These are only those I've seen) 1. Andrew Yaphe - What can I say. The best ever. Seemed like he coult turn it on whenever he wanted to; and also possessed an intimidation (yes I used the word intimidate in quizbowl) factor. Knowledge of literature was encyclopedic. 2. Tom Waters - Only saw him play three or four times but that's enough to warrant this placement. Excellent generalist - probably best generalist ever. However, I think he would have been unable to match Andrew at Andrew's peak. 3. Jeff Johnson - Only sawy him play twice. Scarily intuitive player, sort of like Andrew. I don't think he worked at quizbowl like Tom and Andrew, but I'm not sure. I'm told his knowledge of literature was up there with Andrew's, but have not seen him enough to place him higher. 4. John Sheahan - Once saw him go 7-7-0 in an NAQT match; was always the best player on oftentimes the best team in the country. He took second in a summer singles to Andrew a couple of years ago, after not having played for two or three years. 5. David Hamilton - Same mold as John; best player on best teams. He carried his team to a Terrapin title over Andrew (although he was playing with Julie Singer who I'm told was quite a good player). Possibly ranked too high cause he was never able to come through at the nationals level. 6. Robert Hentzel - Seen him play more after his college time, but is always formidable. Also seems capable of buzzing on science and humanities. Won a singles tournament in which both Andrew and Tom played. 7. Matt Weiner - Already quite a spectacular resume as a junior/sophmore whatever. Always puts up stellar numbers and winning tournaments by yourself is no easy task. Beating up on Adam Fine can only get you so high though. Hasn't been able to take it to national stage yet, but I have full faith. 8. Kelly McKenzie - Has brought his Kentucky program to the national level; and seems to constantly improve. Perhaps should be lower cause he doesn't seem to play NAQT; has a second place ACF title but that seems like his ceiling. 9. Subash Maddipotti - Again, solid generalist. Don't know enough about him, but two NAQT titles speak for themselves. Also believe he led an Illinois team to a second place finish against Andrew's Chicago team at an ACF nationals. Perhaps should be higher because of titles. After this come many excellent players, who, despite their excellence, in my opinion do not come up to the level of the above. I'm also going to do the three major categories. Science: (this is hard because domination of this category, with chem, physics, bio, CS, math, astronomy, WesleyMatthews science, etc. is much harder) 1. R. Hentzel - seems to have a knowledge of almost all of these, with a weakness in bio 2. Joon Pak - seems to be solid in Physics, Math, and competent in the other categories as well. 3. Matthew Reece/Peter Onisi - I'm combining this Chicago duo into one because apparently they buzz on the same things and either one would dominate if the other one wasn't there. Seem to be have holes in bio as well I can't really tell beyond these guys. I'm sure there are many good science players out there as well, but the nature of this category in quizbowl makes it harder to differentiate than literature and history. Literature: 1. Andrew Yaphe - Yaphe = lit encyclopedia; nuff said. 2. Jeff Johnson - Johnson = lit encyclopedia; nuff said (But I'm going to say a little more - he might be at or better than Andrew; just haven't seen him play enough) 3. Ezequiel Berdichevsky - Is apparently head and shoulders above everyone else currrently active. Can buzz on all periods and genres. 4. Kelly McKenzie - Excellent player, seems to have more list knowledge, i.e. titles, than actual. 5. Subash Maddipotti - Seems to have more actual lit knowledge than Kelly, but his list knowledge is poor. Although the numbers seem to contradict me. History: 1. Tom Waters - Seemed like an excellent history player with particular specialty in American history 2. Andrew Yaphe - Apparently made himself into a great history player 3. Jeff Hoppes - Can't figure out his strength in this area, but seems to have a good general knowledge as well. 4. Adam Kemezis - Has major holes but his dominance of classics is so great as to make up for other shortcomings. 5. Edward Cohn - I'm told he's the best American history player bar none, but inconsistent on world history. 6. Vik Vaz - The most hot/cold of all the players above, but has his moments of greatness, and those almost always come in history. Best Science Teams (current): 1. Chicago - Their NAQT A team seemed to have no holes in science whatsoever. I'm not sure if such a dominant science team has ever been assembled. Apparently they have more on the bench as well - Selene Koo was always a reliable science player on the west coast. 2. Berkeley - Between David and Seth they cover a lot. Their strongest teams unfortunately don't feature all their strongest science players. Best Literature (current): 1. Michigan - Between Ezequiel B. and Adam and Paul Litvak their literature breadth and depth was unmatched. 2. Chicago - Tossup between Kentucky and Chicago, but Kelly does not have any help, whereas I believe Subash has plenty in this category; but I could be wrong. So give Kentucky 2b Best History: 1. Chicago - Narrowly over Michigan. Ezequiel Berdichevsky has apparently improved here, but Ed Cohn and Subash together are more than a match for Ezequiel and Adam. Ed should be better on American history than both Ezequiel or Adam, and Subash is good enough a generalist to put them above. I'm told Michigan will gain the services of Ben Helller once again, which would put them back on top here. 2. Michigan - For reasons already given. 3. Berkeley - I don't know who else contributes significantly on this category other than Jeff, but they seem to have a solid base here. That's about it. Discuss away. Speaking only for my majority.
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