JP Stevens Hawk's Nest Write Up

On Saturday, January 9th, 42 teams competed at the JP Stevens Hawk's Nest tournament on NAQT IS-199 set, the first ran by the club. Although there were several major issues in logistics stopping the tournament from soaring to ideal heights, which will be touched upon below, we would like to commend the club and its organizers for making a valiant effort nonetheless.

NJ Teams

East Brunswick

East Brunswick split their team evenly in two to double their sublime performance. The A team, led in scoring by Tanuj Chandekar with Simon Emmanuel, Chinmay Sahasrabudhe and Lilian Zhu closely behind, mirrored the B team, led by Joshua Yi, with Amitav Narayan (both of whom were among the top 10 individual scorers), Kavin Mohan and Aniket Das in total powers at 53 across the 5 prelim games. Both teams went undefeated to top their respective groups and double qualify for nationals, cementing their position as among the top teams in the region.

The C team, largely made of novices, made a good showing picking up 2 wins in their group.

Ridgewood

Ridgewood sent 2 somewhat split teams to the tournament, both of which performed admirably. The A team, captained by Aum Mundhe, finished 4-1 in their bracket with an impressive 22.66 ppb, dropping only one game to East Brunswick "B". Aiden Dartley also propelled the B team to great success with over 19 ppb and a 3-2 record. Both Aiden and Aum averaged over 100 points per game, placing them as the 3rd and 4th top scorers in the tournament respectively and demonstrating the strength of Ridgewood's top players in the wake of Lexi Terman's graduating.

MCA

MCA sent three teams to the tournament. Their A team was led in scoring by Prathit Sanjay with plenty of support from his teammates Snehil Agrawal, Aditya Pasupuleti, and Nishil Patel. They went 4-1 in their bracket with their only loss being a narrow (310-420) one to perennial national contenders Hunter A.

MCA B, C, and D all also put up commendable performances too, with 2 of the teams placing 3rd in their brackets at 3-2, demonstrating the continued depth and health of the program.

Livingston

Livingston sent one shorthanded team to the tournament, captained by Rosa Xia. Although extremely talented, especially in her specialist categories in literature and myth, the lack of Veena Nambi and Carolyn Meng meant that the team was unable to match their typical standout performances, ending 2-3 in their bracket.

High Tech

High Tech sent 2 teams to the tournament, again without any members from their typical A team. The A team was led in scoring by Kevin Liu, who placed as the 8th top individual scorer in the tournament.

Edison

Like East Brunswick and MCA, Edison sent 3 teams to the tournament, demonstrating the health of their program. The A team consisted of relatively balanced scoring between Yash Mandavia and Arnav Chinchankar with solid support from teammates Ali Ahmed and Vinay Menon. Having rapidly improved in the past year, the team put up an impressive 20.77 ppb and finished 4-1 in their bracket, dropping a game only to Phillips Academy from Massachusetts.

Mountain Lakes

I guess 3 is a popular number in New Jersey because that was also the number of teams from Mountain Lakes competing on Saturday. Although none of the teams were able to make an especially standout performance, Mountain Lakes has a strong program in numbers with tremendous room for growth. This is especially apparent when considering that their top scorer, Olin Bose, is still a freshmen.

Biotech

2 teams from Biotech competed. Although still a relatively nascent competitor in pyramidal tournaments in the region, Biotech A still managed to net a positive winrate in their bracket. With continued experience and studying the team can capitalize on its great potential.

Allied Health

Another very nascent competitor in pyramidal tournaments, Allied Health also competed at the tournament and netted a win against Hewlett C.

Ranney

Ranney finished their group positive at 3-2, led in scoring by Lily Egol. Without continued diligence the team can easily match the playoff runs of 2 years ago off the back of Jacob Egol.

Other Standouts

Hunter

Hunter A led the field in both powers and ppb. Always a perennial national contender, it's no surprise that the team managed to top their group undefeated.

TAG Magnet

Another national contender, TAG Magnet from Dallas also competed at the tournament. The team went 5-0 and texas toasted the other teams in their bracket.

Wilton

Soloing on Wilton, Lukas Koutsoukos from Connecticut led the entire tournament in ppg at 135. Even more impressively, Lukas went undefeated in his group, demonstrating his individual prowess.

Hotchkiss

Captained by Cooper Roh, who placed 5th in individual scoring with over 100 ppg, Hotchkiss went undefeated to top their group.

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy matched East Brunswick A and B with 53 powers over their 5 game undefeated run.

Logistical Issues

Having taken on organizing a 42 team tournament for the first time, the JP Stevens team and its advisors unsurprisingly encountered several issues throughout the course of the day. Issues arising in the tournament, primarily an extremely prolonged lunch delay which resulted in playoff rounds being truncated and scrapped, can be largely attributed to issues in leadership from the tournament director (who was not a team member and now no longer affiliated with JP Stevens), communication, and lack of experience among staffers especially with the tournament bots on the online format. When hosting a future tournament, organizers should be mindful of these common challenges to avoid the significant issues plaguing the tournament last Saturday. Additionally, as we all know from the age old tale of Icarus, try to hold back and not be overambitious with your goals and scope of your tournaments. The club leadership of JP Stevens have apologized and compensated competitors for all the logistical mishaps and poor tournament experience.