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Thoughts on UGA's tournament?

BigBrown wrote:Thoughts on UGA's tournament?

As in, results or quality?

My thoughts on results:

• GSMST was presumably stacked, so it's impressive (but not quite surprising) that Chattahoochee and Brookwood did as well as they did.
• I expect our (Chattahoochee's) early build weaknesses to be fixed by next semester.
• Westminster's score looks less impressive if builds are counted - similarly, Walton jumps to 4th.
• RIP Northview's glory years.
• Duluth - typical, exactly where I expected them. They tend to do about as well as expected at every tournament. Same goes for Johns Creek. Both will probably end up somewhere in the bottom half of the top ten at state, and in contention for 5th.
• Alpharetta did fairly well, I expect them to qualify for state again.

My thoughts on quality (the shortened version):

• Very good schedule - definitely the best in Georgia Div C, between the actual normal length of six timeslots and being full self-scheduled.
• Pre-tournament communication was generally better this year, with information being released reasonably early (rather than a week prior...).
• Signups were chaotic and confusing, as is apt to happen with SignUpGenius (hence why we use ESUS for our invitational, in addition to its superior user handling and interface)
• Test quality was typical of UGA. Only one of the 6 tests I took I would consider to be of adequate quality (namely Mat Sci). Of note was the extreme lack of organization in Herpetology (I have expanded upon that in PRES here). I can't comment on other events, but expect most of the tests were similar, and from what little I have heard the builds were not particularly well-run (e.g. Optics LSS).
• Very nice to have digital tests, though raw scores would have been even more of an improvement. Not getting physical tests either was quite annoying since it means we really have no way to compare between our teams.
• I've yet to figure out why the scoresheet doesn't just have event names at the top - the current format makes it much harder to read (which is why I reformatted it for our website news post).
• Overall significantly improved from last year - I'd say 6/10.

Several regional tournament dates have been posted (see the OP) - everything except Georgia State and Georgia Southern Div B regionals, and Div C state, is now up.

That one week regionals-state turnaround must be hellish. I suspect Vickery Creek may not go to Northeast Georgia this year to be competitive for a nationals bid (watch them go to UNG-Gainesville haha...).

Unome wrote:Several regional tournament dates have been posted (see the OP) - everything except Georgia State and Georgia Southern Div B regionals, and Div C state, is now up.

That one week regionals-state turnaround must be hellish. I suspect Vickery Creek may not go to Northeast Georgia this year to be competitive for a nationals bid (watch them go to UNG-Gainesville haha...).

Bite your tongue! Talk like that and I may not offer you Regional Strategy Advice...

rfscoach wrote:

Unome wrote:Several regional tournament dates have been posted (see the OP) - everything except Georgia State and Georgia Southern Div B regionals, and Div C state, is now up.

That one week regionals-state turnaround must be hellish. I suspect Vickery Creek may not go to Northeast Georgia this year to be competitive for a nationals bid (watch them go to UNG-Gainesville haha...).

Bite your tongue! Talk like that and I may not offer you Regional Strategy Advice...

(though we'll be at UNG-Dahlonega, it was relatively excellent last year)

Do you think/know whether e.g. Dodgen and Vickery Creek people watch this thread?

Also, Georgia Southern regional date is February 17th.

I have bitten my tongue about other things though.

Unome wrote:

rfscoach wrote:

Unome wrote:Several regional tournament dates have been posted (see the OP) - everything except Georgia State and Georgia Southern Div B regionals, and Div C state, is now up.

That one week regionals-state turnaround must be hellish. I suspect Vickery Creek may not go to Northeast Georgia this year to be competitive for a nationals bid (watch them go to UNG-Gainesville haha...).

Bite your tongue! Talk like that and I may not offer you Regional Strategy Advice...

(though we'll be at UNG-Dahlonega, it was relatively excellent last year)

Do you think/know whether e.g. Dodgen and Vickery Creek people watch this thread?

Also, Georgia Southern regional date is February 17th.

I have bitten my tongue about other things though.

If Dodgen, FSA and Vickery Creek end up at the same Regional, they will be the only schools there. I like being able to pick our regional, but there is something to be said for old way where we submitted our top choices and then the State Director assigned Regional sites. This was way before your time. Bill Wellnitz did a great job of making sure the Powerhouse Teams were spread equally among the regions.

rfscoach wrote:

Unome wrote:

rfscoach wrote: Bite your tongue! Talk like that and I may not offer you Regional Strategy Advice...

(though we'll be at UNG-Dahlonega, it was relatively excellent last year)

Do you think/know whether e.g. Dodgen and Vickery Creek people watch this thread?

Also, Georgia Southern regional date is February 17th.

I have bitten my tongue about other things though.

If Dodgen, FSA and Vickery Creek end up at the same Regional, they will be the only schools there. I like being able to pick our regional, but there is something to be said for old way where we submitted our top choices and then the State Director assigned Regional sites. This was way before your time. Bill Wellnitz did a great job of making sure the Powerhouse Teams were spread equally among the regions.

When did it change over? (when he left, or earlier?)

I'd definitely prefer Dahlonega, short of it being on like March 10th or something, so I know I wouldn't have liked that. I don't know how Gainesville compares to the other B regionals, but Dahlonega is quite a cut above even GPC and MGSU, especially on the schedule. I think Dahlonega is a bit less competitive than it used to be with Northview and Parkview having left, so there's at least a fair chance for a new team to break into 4th (and they can always head to UGA or SPSU if they're on the edge and really want to qualify... whereas someone in SE PA is pretty much screwed).

rfscoach wrote:

Unome wrote:

rfscoach wrote: Bite your tongue! Talk like that and I may not offer you Regional Strategy Advice...

(though we'll be at UNG-Dahlonega, it was relatively excellent last year)

Do you think/know whether e.g. Dodgen and Vickery Creek people watch this thread?

Also, Georgia Southern regional date is February 17th.

I have bitten my tongue about other things though.

If Dodgen, FSA and Vickery Creek end up at the same Regional, they will be the only schools there. I like being able to pick our regional, but there is something to be said for old way where we submitted our top choices and then the State Director assigned Regional sites. This was way before your time. Bill Wellnitz did a great job of making sure the Powerhouse Teams were spread equally among the regions.

When did it change over? (when he left, or earlier?)

I'd definitely prefer Dahlonega, short of it being on like March 10th or something, so I know I wouldn't have liked that. I don't know how Gainesville compares to the other B regionals, but Dahlonega is quite a cut above even GPC and MGSU, especially on the schedule. I think Dahlonega is a bit less competitive than it used to be with Northview and Parkview having left, so there's at least a fair chance for a new team to break into 4th (and they can always head to UGA or SPSU if they're on the edge and really want to qualify... whereas someone in SE PA is pretty much screwed).

Regional Signups today. News as of now:

Columbus State, Coweta County, East Georgia State College, South Georgia State College: Nothing momentous as of this post.

GPC (Georgia State - Clarkston, but it's GPC in my heart ): After the thrashing of last year, everyone has basically fled GPC. McIntosh and Eagles are the only major teams here.

Georgia State: The usual - South Forsyth, plus a few other decent teams.

Forsyth County: With Fulton Science Academy having moved here, this is a rather tough regional - not to mention the other strong teams like River Trail, Hightower Trail, Taylor Road, McCleskey, and Autrey Mill. Dodgen has not yet signed up for a regional - I'm not sure whether they'll go to UNG-Gainesville again, especially considering how early state is this year.

Georgia Tech: Georgia Tech has capped at 16 teams, so they'll probably get 3 state bids. This is momentous because Walton, GSMST, Milton, and Johns Creek are all at this regional, so if they remain where they are one of them won't be at state.

Middle Georgia State University: Quite a few moderately strong teams here, including Parkview, North Springs, and Thomas County Central - not to mention past regulars like Paideia and Columbus.

Northeast Georgia: This regional is now just a week before state. The only major team here is Oconee County - I doubt Vickery Creek will return.

Kennesaw State-SPSU: Westminster is the big fish here for sure. All the other teams signed up for this regional so far are at least not no-names, which makes things a little more competitive than in the past. Notably, River Ridge has moved here (presumably to avoid the difficulty of securing a bid at UNG-Dahlonega).

UNG-Dahlonega: As of now, this tournament will basically come down to Brookwood, Chattahoochee, <insert huge gap>, and everyone else (looks like we scared away Walton ). Mill Creek looks like they have a good shot at qualifying again (after several years missing), seeing as Walton, River Ridge, and Wheeler have all moved elsewhere.

UNG-Gainesville: With FSA gone, this place becomes a lot more competitive. Crews will probably take the top spot, with Riverwatch and Eagles being other likely qualifiers.

UGA: Duluth looks like the probable top dog here (get it? ). Not much else to say - North Oconee has a good shot at 2nd, not to mention South Forsyth (another escapee of UNG-Dahlonega).

Hype for Forsyth Central this weekend, with nearly 50 teams competing!



UPDATE Nov 9th 9:30 AM: Vickery Creek is now signed up for Forsyth County, making that tournament even more competitive. Johns Creek has left Georgia TEch for the easier turf of SPSU. Dodgen has yet to pick a site (would be hype if they went to Forsyth though ).

UPDATE Nov 9th noon: Vickery Creek and Dodgen have both switched to UNG-Gainesville.

Follow Forsyth Central awards here at 2:30 PM this Saturday!

Full Forsyth Central results now available.