Prison Bowl XIII Writeup

After two months of intense competition, the Prison Bowl mainsite league has concluded. Prison Bowl is a set written and edited yearly by Hunter College High School players. 22 teams competed in an online “league” format, wherein one or two rounds were played each week. Thank you to Hunter College High School players for writing, organizing, and staffing this event, and congratulations Ridgewood A for winning the tournament!

New Jersey Teams

Ridgewood

Despite being without Aum Mundhe for nearly half of their prelim rounds, Ridgewood A finished prelims a strong 6–1, and won most of their playoff games at a relative cant on their way to winning the tournament. Senior Aum Mundhe and junior Aiden Dartley combined for over 120 points per game and slightly under four powers per game, despite Aum’s missing their more comfortable prelims wins and their covering roughly the same categories. Ridgewood’s team continued its evolution from a history-focused History Bowl crossover team to a regional contender with broad knowledge across the distribution.

East Brunswick

East Brunswick B (actually closer to East Brunswick A) finished the tournament in second place, with their only losses coming to eventual champions Ridgewood A in playoffs and in a final. They finished their prelim rounds undefeated, defeating strong teams in State College, Darien, and High Tech A along the way. Their all-senior attack was led by Joshua Yi (67.00 PPG), and he was supported by Aniket Das (21.25 PPG), Chinmay Sahasrabudhe (15.28 PPG), and Kavin Mohan (7.08 PPG). They edged out High Tech A for the second-highest points per bonus in the field, and showed strong coverage of science, literature, and history en route to a runner-up finish. Their neg count leaves much to be desired, but their steady improvement and impressive finishes leave them a force to be reckoned with.

East Brunswick A finished 8th in the field with an 8–3 record. This team, led by the trio of Amitav Narayan (73.89 PPG), Tanuj Chandekar (55.71 PPG), and Simon Emanuel (40.23 PPG), put up the highest power numbers in the field — 61 — despite playing short-handed for much of the tournament. Although their PPB, 17.81, was low compared to their tossup conversion, this team has very strong history knowledge and enough knowledge in other categories to be competitive with any team.

Livingston

Playing their full A team for the first time all year, Livingston A proved how potent they were with a third-place finish. Their balanced attack was led by seniors Rosa Xia (47.73 PPG) and Carolyn Meng (46.88 PPG) and sophomore Jeffrey Xu (45.00 PPG). Their wide range of coverage enabled them to get 20.75 PPB. Though they were ranked 52nd in the latest Groger Ranks, Rosa’s literature coverage and the generalism of Carolyn and Jeffrey helped them beat higher-ranked teams like High Tech A (28th) and Great Valley A (40th).

High Tech (Democritus)

High Tech A finished fourth with a 8–3 record, losing only to the three teams above them. Literature/arts player Max Brodsky (63.00 PPG) and history/science player Deepak Gopalakrishnan (48.18 PPG) combined for 50 powers. Largely thanks to those two players, High Tech A led all playoff teams in powers and had 21.84 PPB. They came into the tournament as the highest-ranked team according to Groger Ranks, and their high power numbers, even in tough playoff games, demonstrated why they are not to be taken lightly.

High Tech B ended up 6th with a 6–5 record. Although their stats were lower than the other playoff teams, this team, led by Kevin Liu (39.73 PPG), Sidharth Srivastava (31.45 PPG), and Alexander Wu (25.50 PPG) showed some promise in history but struggled with literature and fine arts. Kevin is an up-and-coming player, showing promise with 10 powers over the course of the tournament.

J. P. Stevens

Led by seniors Allen Wang (50 PPG) and Joseph George (39.38 PPG), J. P. Stevens put in their strongest performance in years, and likely would’ve put in an even stronger one were it not for two unfortunate forfeits. Though many had assumed that J. P. Stevens’ program would be moribund after the departure of Karan Menon (class of 2020), Allen and Joseph, rounded out by Nilay Patel, Kushal Aluru, and Rajeev Atla, proved them wrong. They produced an upset win in prelims against T-4 Great Valley, and lost to Ridgewood A by only five points. Their strongest category was science, and they struggled on literature and fine arts.

Teterboro

Teterboro rounded out the top consolation bracket, going 3–3 in prelims before losing all of their consolation rounds. Teterboro was largely dependent on the whims of captain Nicholas Zhang, who scored 64.50 PPG but also had over 4 negs per game, leading the field in that statistic. His support was limited, as his three teammates combined for 15 PPG. Teterboro had 17.16 PPB, owing largely to Nicholas’ good-but-not-great coverage of every category.

Millburn

Playing severely shorthanded, Millburn stumbled to a 1-6 record in the preliminary rounds in a difficult bracket before recovering in playoffs. Leading scorer Ben Hu had a remarkable 17 powers in just six games, and finished with 65.00 PPG, while Sachin Sahay proved to be a solid supporting player with 27.50 PPG. This team is very strong at science and has some solid coverage on history and religion, but they are lacking in their literature coverage.

On the whole, New Jersey did well at this tournament. Besides the teams mentioned above, St. Joseph Metuchen won their consolation bracket handily. Biotech had 15 powers, impressive for a team that lost many of its best players to graduation last year. Ridgewood B and J. P. Stevens B both performed well for young teams on a difficult set, showing the bright futures that both of those programs have once their current A teams graduate.

Though many New Jersey teams performed well at Prison Bowl League, other talented teams from across the northeastern United States (and Canada) also participated. Great Valley (PA) finished tied for fourth and led the field with 22.27 PPB. Hotchkiss (CT) just missed out on playoffs, finishing in seventh place. They finished the tournament with 60 powers, led by top scorer Cooper Roh, whose 39 powers were the highest of any individual. Darien (CT) and State College (PA) also performed well, finishing in a competitive top consolation bracket.

Enjoy the rest of 2020!😘 We'll see you in 2021 with lots more content 😉