Quiz Bowl team places second at Cal Cup 3

The school’s Quiz Bowl A team, consisting of juniors Jason Hong, Sathvik Kaliyur and Jeffrey Ma and senior Kiran Rachamallu, placed second in the competitive division at California Cup 3 on March 16 after suffering two losses to Stanford Online High School.

The team had a record of 5-1 in the preliminaries and a record of 3-1 in the playoffs.

“Overall, the results were within the general expectation given what we were working with,” Ma said. “We didn’t have our full lineup so coverage was wonky.”

Stanford Online High School is at about the same level as Saratoga, ranked two to three spots higher nationally. However, according to Ma, upsets are common at their ranking. The team’s literature and math player, junior Brandon Wang, was unable to attend, which Ma said contributed to the loss.

The lack of a literature specialist was especially detrimental since the tournament used a question distribution called CAST, which has an emphasis on literature and fine arts. Additionally, although CAST is considered regular high school difficulty, it was relatively easy for teams in the competitive division, according to Ma.

“Because of this, a lot of the gameplay devolved into buzzer racing as opposed to knowledge,” Ma said.

Ma said this fast-paced gameplay may have also hurt the team.

The B team, consisting of juniors Alvin Liu and Michael Tang and seniors Anuj Changavi and Sarah Meng, had an overall record of 5-3 in the competitive division. The C team, consisting of sophomores Rohan Kumar and Nirmik Tambe and junior Shivam Mani, had a record of 3-1 in the preliminaries and a record of 0-4 in the playoffs of the standard division. The D team, consisting of freshman Bora Alabeyi and sophomores Aarav Naveen and Tushar Shrivastav, had an overall record of 1-7 in the novice division.