Philly Varsity Math League wraps up 2022 Season with an exciting Varsity Tournament

The 2022 Season of the Philly Math League has officially concluded following the Varsity Tournament held at Shipley on December 2, 2022.

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Final Bracket

This year, eleven schools attended the Varsity Tournament, up from seven in 2021 and 2019. Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Abington Friends School, and The Hill School made their first ever appearances at the Varsity Tournament, while Baldwin School returned after missing the 2021 Varsity Tournament. The other teams in attendance were Shipley School (hosts), The Haverford School, Agnes Irwin School, William Penn Charter School, George School, Westtown School, and Episcopal Academy. Shipley submitted two teams, Shipley Green and Shipley Blue, to round it to twelve teams, similar to Haverford in 2019 and Episcopal Academy in 2021 to round it to eight teams.

Shipley Varsity Math Team

ROUND ONE:

The competition was split into five rounds plus an added tiebreaker round. In the first round, the top four teams by PL (Philly League) rankings in attendance, which were George School, The Hill School, Episcopal Academy, and Westtown received byes and played practice rounds, while the other teams faced off in the first round of the bracket. In a slight change from last year, all members (at most seven) of the team collaborated to submit one set of six answers.

In a rematch from Week Nine, Haverford's Archimedes Association defeated Baldwin 4-2 to advance to the next round, where they would face defending champions George School Varsity Math Team (GSVMT). Shipley Blue was able to beat SCHA 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals against Westtown. The Inter AC runner up, Penn Charter, beat the Inter AC third place, Agnes Irwin, 4-2 to get a rematch against the Inter AC champions, Episcopal Academy. Shipley Green, the FSL third place team, had a close match against FSL runner ups, Abington Friends, but they were able to win 5-4, advancing to face The Hill School.

Meanwhile, George School had a Week Nine rematch against Episcopal Academy, though with the actual teams this time, but GSVMT a player down for the second Varsity Tournament in a row. At the same time, The Hill School also had a Week Nine rematch, but against Westtown. All four teams got five points, which means that time was the deciding factor. GSVMT and Westtown were both faster, meaning that those two teams ended up winning the matches.

Bracket after Round One

ROUND TWO:
Round Two was similar to the matches in the regular season, though scores could only go up to 30 instead of 40 or 35.

In the consolation bracket, Baldwin faced off against Agnes Irwin while on the same side of the bracket, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy faced off against Abington Friends. Both were rematches from the regular season, but both ended up going the opposite way, with Baldwin and Abington Friends moving on to advance to the consolation tournament semifinals.

Having not faced each other in the regular season, George School and Haverford ACTUALLY faced off this time in a rivalry match, with The Archimedes Association winning the past two matches (34-31/40 in 2021, 33-24/40 in 2020) and GSVMT winning the first match (30-13/40). Both teams performed very strongly, and in the end, George School balanced the records, winning 26-19. The record between these two teams is now 2-2.

Westtown faced Shipley Blue in a Friends League match, though Shipley's main team was Shipley Green. Westtown played very strongly, and they ended up winning 22-11, getting their first FSL win of the year.

Episcopal Academy and Penn Charter had a very close match in the regular season, with EA Math Club winning 24-23/35 in a match that would end up deciding the Inter AC championship. This time, EA got off to an extremely strong start, eventually getting ahead by about 15 points. Penn Charter could not recover, and EA Math Club advanced to the semifinals with a 25-15 win.

The Hill School, the 2021 and 2022 PL (Philly League, only counts regular season) runner up, had an exciting match against Shipley, the 2021 VT (Varsity Tournament) runner up. In the regular season, The Hill School squeaked out with a four point victory, and they repeated this here, winning 24-20. This is the second Varsity Tournament in a row where the host had both teams eliminated in the quarterfinals.

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EA Math Club

ROUND THREE:

Round Three was a combined solo round and individual round. Haverford faced Penn Charter in a rematch from the regular season where The Archimedes Association suffered an Aretelabs glitch, causing then to fall 24-11. This time, the match was extremely close, and it ended up being decided by time, with Haverford moving on in the Consolation Tournament, winning 9T-9.

For the second year in a row, the two host teams faced each other in the consolation tournament. Shipley Green won to advance to face Haverford in the next round, and Chengyi Tang of Shipley Green advanced to the tiebreaker round.

George School faced SCHA in round three, and GSVMT was able to bring their record against SCHA to 2-1 after a 35-32/35 shutout loss in the 2019 PL. GSVMT had beaten SCHA 29-12/35 in the revenge match in the regular season and proceeded to take the winning record after a 17-8 victory. Wilson Chen and MC Gu, the FSL MVPs and top two PL individuals, advanced to the tiebreaker round.

Westtown faced Abington Friends in an FSL rematch, where AFS won narrowly to claim second in the Friends League. This time, Westtown performed extremely well, taking the victory and advancing Eric Ochis to the tiebreaker round.

Episcopal Academy got an Inter AC rematch against Agnes Irwin. EA Math Club won, but was unable to advance anyone to the tiebreaker round.

The Hill School faced Baldwin, and proceeded to win, but was unable to advance anyone to the tiebreaker round.

MC Gu (left) was one of the four students who qualified for the tiebreaker round

ROUND FOUR:

Round four had the same format as round one. George School faced Westtown for the eighth time, which is likely the most times that any two Philly League teams have faced off against each other. This semifinals match was very close, with both teams getting points, but a few early misses by Westtown meant that GSVMT would advance to the finals for the second year in a row with a 5-3/6 victory.

In the other semifinals match, The Hill School and Episcopal Academy faced off, having not faced each other in the regular season. The Hill School got ahead early on and brought the score to 4-2 with about a minute left. However, EA Math Club pulled a major comeback to win 5-4/6, advancing to the finals for the second time. (I was requested to include this) This means that the finals would be between the two teams that have won championships, GSVMT and EA Math Club. Westtown would face The Hill School in the third place matchup. Do these matches sound familiar at all?

Meanwhile, in the consolation tournament, Abington Friends faced Baldwin in a rematch of one of AFS's two shutouts in the regular season. This time, the match was much closer, and AFS squeezed by with a one point margin.

Haverford faced Shipley Green in a rematch of last year's semifinals match that put Shipley in the finals against GSVMT. In a very close and entertaining match, Shipley Green won 5-4/6 to move on to the consolation tournament finals against Abington Friends. Haverford would face Baldwin again in round five, and you see where this is going, right?

Agnes Irwin took on Shipley Blue, and were able to squeak by with a one point lead. Their round five opponent would be revealed to be Penn Charter, who came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 4-2. This means that Shipley Blue would face Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in round five, meaning that every round five matchup was also a round one matchup.

GSVMT (15-3) takes on EA Math Club (10-3) in the finals

ROUND FIVE:

Round five had the same matches as round one, but the same format as round two.

Shipley Blue faced Springside Chestnut Hill Academy again. SCHA got revenge in a 3-1 win. This result means that every team won at least one matchup at the Varsity Tournament, something that did not happen in the 2021 edition.

Agnes Irwin faced Penn Charter again. Penn Charter had an extremely strong start, getting a 5-0 lead, eventually winning 8-1. Penn Charter ends their season 9-4, one match still unknown. They end the season 6-3 in the Inter AC, and a 3-1 record against non Inter AC teams.

Baldwin faced Haverford again. This was a relatively close match, but Haverford won again, this time winning 4-3. Haverford ends the season with a 5-3 Inter AC record.

In the third place matchup, The Hill School ended up against Westtown again. Westtown won 6-3 to claim third place, as they did back in 2019 PL. Westtown, having gone 4-1 VT, ends their season with a 7-7 record. The Hill School ends their season with a 9-4 record, one match still unknown.

In the consolation tournament finals, Abington Friends faced Shipley Green again. Shipley Green won 5-1 to claim the consolation tournament championship, making this the second Varsity Tournament where the host has gotten fifth place. Shipley Green, having also gone 4-1 VT, ends their season with a 9-5 record, 4-2 in the Friends League.

The two previous Varsity Tournament champions, Episcopal Academy (2019 VT) and George School (2021 VT) played off in the finals, a rematch from round 1 and a Week Nine rematch. Unlike Week Nine, neither team had a participation crisis, though GSVMT was a player down this time, similar to last Varsity Tournament. Both teams remained undefeated in their respective leagues, with GSVMT being the top FSL team and EA Math Club being the top Inter AC team.

The match remained scoreless in the first two minutes before EA Math Club's David Ding opened the scoring, giving EA Math Club a 2-0 lead after five minutes. However, George School Varsity Math Team clapped back to lead 3-2 at half with Wilson Chen and MC Gu both scoring one point. The second half saw George School continue this lead, eventually stretching it to a four point lead, where it fluctuated around. In the end, George School held on for the lead, winning 13-9 to claim their second Varsity Tournament Championship and their sixth overall championship in the Philly League. George School Varsity Math Team ends their season with a 16-3 record, which consists of 13-1 against Philly League Schools, 3-2 in non-league/Math Madness, 8-1 PL, 5-0 VT, and 4-0 against FSL teams throughout the season. EA Math Club ends their season with a 10-4 record, which consists of 7-2 PL, 3-2 VT, and 7-0 against Inter AC teams throughout the season.

Score distribution:

George School (George School Varsity Math Team/GSVMT):

Wilson Chen, MC Gu, and Yuki Wang: 3

Ted Xia and Luke Zhang: 2

Jackson Yang: 1

Episcopal Academy (EA Math Club):

Eric Cui and Rohan Dalal: 3

David Ding: 2

Jaden You: 1

JD Krasnick, Michelle Jiang, and Joseph Xu: 0

GSVMT (16-3) beats EA Math Club (10-4) in the finals by a score of 13-9/30. GSVMT wins its sixth team championship.

TIEBREAKER ROUND:

Four students qualified for the tiebreaker round. These were Wilson Chen (George School), MC Gu (George School), Eric Ochis (Westtown), and Chengyi Tang (Shipley). In the end, Chengyi Tang won the individual championship, having gotten second place at the Varsity Tournament last year. MC Gu got second place, as he did in the regular season, and Wilson Chen settled for third.

Shipley's Bambi Tang wins the individual championship

CAREER PANEL:

Following the tiebreaker round, MATES in Philly founder, MATES OG founder, 2020 Individual Champion, 2021 PL Third Place, and former GSVMT captain Forest Ho-Chen '22 joined Shipley's Zach Cahoone '19 to do a career panel, where they answered questions about math in college and at work.

AWARDS CEREMONY:

Wilson Chen, MC Gu, and Chengyi Tang received medals for their individual performances. George School received the trophy for winning the tournament. (Shown above)

Some of the people who helped out with MATES in Philly. Left to right: Richard Liu (Shipley), Forest Ho-Chen (founder, George School -> UPenn), Colin Kelly (Haverford), and Nathan Bridge (Abington Friends)

Other student helpers include Jonathan Hong (Episcopal Academy -> UPenn), Austin Zhuang (Haverford -> UPenn), Yolande Yan (Westtown -> UPenn), Wilson Chen (George School), Eric Cui (Episcopal Academy), Sam Gorby (George School), and Taehyung Kim (Westtown)

Current and former winners list:

2019:

PL Winner: George School

PL Runner Up: Springside Chestnut Hill Academy

PL Individual Champion: Bom Jindanuwat, George School
PL Individual 2nd Place: Ellen Zhang, George School

PL Individual Third Place: Top Sornwanee, Westtown

VT Winner: Episcopal Academy

VT Runner Up: Haverford
VT Individual Champion: Gary Gao, Haverford

2020:

PL Winner: George School

PL Runner Up: Haverford or The Hill School

PL Individual Champion: Forest Ho-Chen, George School
PL Individual 2nd Place: Gary Gao, Haverford