2024 Philly League Varsity Tournament
It's not about how you start. It's about how you finish.
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The 2024 Philly League Varsity Tournament was one of the most interesting Varsity Tournaments that we have seen, and it followed one of the most interesting Regular Seasons that we have ever seen. In the Regular Season, we had a team that started 7-0 fall and finish third, while a team that started 0-3 won six straight to win the regular season. While all of that was happening, we had two ties, which have never been seen in the Philly Varsity Math League before, many blowouts, and a few crazy upsets. And yet, the Varsity Tournament arguably produced even more chaos than that.
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Round 1:
The first round of this Varsity Tournament saw the Episcopal Academy Churchmen, The Hill School Rams, the George School Varsity Math Team Cougars, and the Westtown Moose participate in practice rounds. Meanwhile, the SCH Blue Devils took on The Haverford School Fords in a rematch from last year's regular season, the Penn Charter Quakers took on the Agnes Irwin Owls in a matchup between the top two Inter AC teams in League 2, the Friends Central Phoenix took on the Baldwin Bears in a rematch from Penn Math Contest III, and the Shipley Gators took on the number one public school in the Masterman Blue Dragons. This match had all members of the team collaborate to submit one set of answers.
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The SCH Blue Devils took an early 2-1 lead against the Fords, but The Haverford School Fords clapped back to win 6-3 and advance to the quarterfinals, where they would be facing the GSVMT Cougars.
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The EA Churchmen started the Varsity Tournament strong by blowing out the GSVMT Cougars early, reaching a perfect 6 very early, making the score 6-3. The Cougars would score two garbage time points to make the final score 6-5. This strategy would be a common theme in this Varsity Tournament.
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The Hill School Rams started up 4-0, but then the Moose clapped back in a similar way to how the Cougars clapped back against them in the 2021 Varsity Tournament. The Moose ended up winning 5T-5, with the time difference being only 47 seconds (3:12 per question vs 3:59 per question).
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The Penn Charter Quakers started up 3-1 early, but the Agnes Irwin Owls started to come back. The Quakers were able to prevent a late comeback by the Owls, and the Quakers won 5T-5 (3:51 per question vs 3:57 per question), advancing to the quarterfinals to face the EA Churchmen.
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The Bears got ahead early against the Phoenix in the highest scoring match in round 1. Both teams ended up getting perfect scores, but the Bears won the time tiebreaker by 2 seconds (3:50 per question vs 3:52 per question), advancing to the quarterfinals to face the Westtown Moose, while the Phoenix would face the SCH Blue Devils in the consolation tournament quarterfinals. This was probably the most entertaining match of round 1.
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The Shipley Gators won in a very close match against the number one public school in Pennsylvania, the Masterman Blue Dragons. The final score was 5T-5, with the time tiebreaker being 3:16 per question vs 3:59 per question. The Gators advanced to the quarterfinals to face The Hill School Rams, while the Masterman Blue Dragons would face the Agnes Irwin Owls in the consolation tournament quarterfinals.
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Round 2:
In a surprising turn of events, the 12 seed Baldwin Bears took an early 10-5 lead against the 4 seed Westtown Moose. However, in an amazing comeback, the Moose came back to tie it up at 17-17. From there, it was all Moose, as the Moose put up 28 points to win 28-19. The Moose advanced to the semifinals for the fourth year in a row (we don't know much about the 2019 Varsity Tournament), with at least three perfect scores by Jamie Lee, Max Zhang, and Bailey Tuckman. This was probably the most entertaining match of round 2.
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The Churchmen and Quakers faced off in a match between the League 1 Inter AC Champions and the League 2 Inter AC Champions. Similar to round 1, the Churchmen blew the Quakers out of the water before the Quakers were ready and got ahead early 13-5. They extended this lead to 19-7, and once the Quakers got their footing, it was already too late, and the Churchmen kept the 12 point margin to win 28-16 and advance to the semifinals, where they would be facing the Westtown Moose.
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The Rams had swept the Gators in the regular season, and they were looking to make it 3 for 3. The last time the Rams and Gators faced off in the Varsity Tournament, the Rams won 24-20/30 at Shipley, which was a heartbreaking loss for the Gators. Similar to that match, the Rams got ahead of the Gators early. The Gators tried to mount a comeback, but would fall short as the Rams would advance to the semifinals for the third year in a row. Final score, 25-21 Rams, with Fife Akinyanmi leading the way with a 6/6.
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The Owls and Blue Dragons split in the regular season (30-22 Owls and 27-17 Blue Dragons), and this match started off close. However, the Blue Dragons found themselves on top around half, and they continued this momentum to win 19-15 and advance to the consolation tournament semifinals.
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The GSVMT Cougars got ahead of The Haverford School Fords early and didn't look back, and the Cougars won by a score of 26-15, advancing to the semifinals, where they would be facing The Hill School Rams, setting up the number one rivalry in the PVML for the most important match in the rivalry since "The Psuedofinals" in 2021.
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Phoenix and Blue Devils slow start compared to the regular season matchup, which ended up breaking the record for most points in a PVML match (40-38). This time, the Phoenix got ahead 12-6, and kept the lead to win 16-11. The Phoenix therefore advanced to the consolation tournament semifinals, where they would be taking on the Masterman Blue Dragons.
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The Golden Bottle: Every individual champion will get a picture with this legendary object.
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Round 3:
Next, we had the Solo Round, which would determine the Varsity Tournament individual champion.
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The Hill School Rams took on the SCH Blue Devils, one of the three teams that beat them in the regular season before they went on a 6 game winning streak. At this point, the Rams had changed their profile pictures to the George School logo, but they looked a lot more like Episcopal Academy in this match in terms of strategy. The Rams wasted no time and got an early a 7-1 lead, then traded some points to get ahead 10-3. The Rams then decided to run up the score, getting up to 19-3 with Yvonne Bao, Lola Ge, Ethan Ryu, and Ethan Luo all with 4/6. The Blue Devils got a point back to make the final score 19-4.
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The Cougars went into this match looking for revenge from the Kickoff Match, where the Phoenix won 35-34/40, while the Phoenix were looking to show that they were the best team in the FSL, as these two teams were both named FSL Co-Champions. The Cougars took an early 7-4 lead, but the Phoenix get some points to make it 7-6. The Cougars then scored 11 unanswered to go ahead 18-6. The Phoenix were unable to get a comeback going, so the Cougars won 20-9, and Jackson Yang of the Cougars, who scored a perfect 6/6, won the 2024 Varsity Tournament Individual Championship.
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The Churchmen continued their strategy of blowing their competition out of the water before they could even get ready. The Churchmen got ahead 2-1 in a relatively slow start, then broke the scoring open and went ahead 8-2 against the number one public school in Pennsylvania. They then went ahead 16-4 with strong performances by Rohan Dalal and David Ding. The Blue Dragons get a few points back at the end, but it was not enough as the Churchmen won 18-7, with Rohan Dalal and David Ding scoring 5/6.
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The Westtown Moose got ahead 4-0 early against the Agnes Irwin Owls. The two teams then traded points to make it 10-6. The Moose then finished strong to win 15-7, with Max Zhang scoring a 4/6, while Jamie Lee, Angela Wang, and Jayden Qin scored 3/6.
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Gators ahead 5-1, but then the Quakers tie it up 5-5. The Gators then go ahead 6-5, but the Quakers clapped back, tying the match at 7-7. The Quakers won the time tiebreaker by 5 seconds (19:52 to 19:57), meaning that they would be advancing to the consolation tournament semifinals.
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The Fords and Bears split in the regular season, and this match started off pretty close, but the Bears got ahead after half and stayed ahead 9-4 for the beginning of the match. After trading points at the end, the Bears won 10-5 and advanced to the consolation tournament semifinals, where they would be playing the Penn Charter Quakers.
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Individual Champion: Jackson Yang
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Round 4: Semifinals
Before this round, GSVMT Cougars fan Forest Ho-Chen, who was representing MATES in Philly, decided to P for the D, something that football fans try to use to help their defense. However, defense is usually not a thing that exists in Varsity Math. Except that the Cougars tend to have a bad defense, so maybe it could be slightly better?
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The Shipley Gators took a 2-0 lead against the Blue Devils, then traded points to go up 4-2. The Blue Devils then scored to make it 4-3, but the Gators scored three straight to make it 6-3. The Blue Devils scored two garbage time points to make the score 6-5, but the Gators advanced to the 9th place match after an impressive performance, getting all six questions in 8:58.
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In the 2021 Varsity Tournament hosted at Episcopal Academy, the Westtown Moose eliminated the EA Churchmen at EA, and there was no doubt that the Churchmen wanted revenge, as now the Varsity Tournament was held at Westtown. The Churchmen also wanted revenge from their 27-26/40 loss to the Moose in the regular season. And this match, like the other Churchmen matches so far in the Varsity Tournament, followed the same script as before. The Churchmen got up 2-0 early, then extended their lead to 5-0, and scored the final point to make it 6-0 before the Moose could score a single point. The Shipley Gators had finished their match and came to watch this match, only to be confused about what was happening and how the Churchmen had gotten a perfect score before the Moose got any points. Eventually, the Moose submitted their answers and got all of the questions right, but it wasn't enough as the Churchmen advanced to the finals with a 6T-6 win (time tiebreaker was 12:45 to 18:15).
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The Friends Central Phoenix were playing a tough opponent in the number one public school in Pennsylvania, the Masterman Blue Dragons, but somehow found themselves up 4-3. They extended their lead to 5-3, but the Blue Dragons pulled off a comeback to win 6-5 and advanced to the consolation tournament finals.
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The Penn Charter Quakers were taking on the Baldwin Bears, and they started off going up 3-0. The Bears got a point back to make it 3-1, then started to come back to make it 5-5. The Bears then took the last point to win 6-5, advancing to the consolation tournament finals against the number one public school in Pennsylvania, the Masterman Blue Dragons.
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The Haverford School Fords and the Agnes Irwin Owls faced off for the third time this year, with the Owls winning the first match 20-19 and the Fords winning the second match 8-7. The two teams started off trading points to get it to 2-2. The Fords then took the lead, and made the score 6-5. The Owls would score the last point, but it wouldn't be enough, as the Fords won 6T-6 (14:05 to 16:37).
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The GSVMT Cougars scored first against The Hill School Rams, but Hill retaliated and the teams traded points to make the score 2-1. Both offenses took off and while we were going around to check how the other matches were going, both teams had already scored a perfect 6 points, and it wasn't even halftime yet. The Cougars ended up winning on time by 30 seconds (7:36 to 8:06), advancing to the finals for the fourth year in a row. Maybe that football dark magic worked.
Would this finally be the Churchmen's year?
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Round 5:
Final Round
Owls vs Blue Devils (11th place match):
The Agnes Irwin Owls took an early 5-2 lead, then traded points to make it 6-3. The Blue Devils tried to start a comeback and got the match within one point at 7-6, but the Owls clapped back with two points to make the score 9-6. The Blue Devils got some points back to make it 10-8, but it wasn't enough to win. Final score: 11-9 Owls.​
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Fords vs Gators (9th place match): The Fords and Gators traded points at the beginning to make the score tied at 5-5. The Gators then scored three straight to make it 8-5. The Fords then started a comeback to make the score 9-7, then tied the match up at 10-10. The two teams traded points to make it 11-11, before the Fords took the lead 13-12. However, the Gators had a strong finish, and the score was tied 15-15 at the end. Final score: 15T-15 Gators. Gators win the tiebreaker by 8 seconds (19:37 to 19:45).
Phoenix vs Quakers (7th place match): The last time these two teams faced off, Penn Charter won 20-14 while both teams were in League 2. This time, the two teams started off even, tied up at 6-6 before the Quakers took a lead that was too much for the Phoenix to come back from. And so for the second consecutive Varsity Tournament, the Penn Charter Quakers claimed 7th place.
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Score progression: Quakers tied with Phoenix 6-6. PC up 7-6. 8-7. 9-8. 13-8. 15-9. 15-11. Final score: 16-11 Quakers. Henry Greenberg lead the way with a 4/6.​
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Blue Dragons vs Bears (Consolation finals): The Baldwin Bears looked like the Bears team that performed extremely well at Penn Math Contest III back in March as they took an early 6-4 lead. The teams traded points to make it 12-10, but then the Bears got ahead by 4 points to get a 14-10 lead. The Blue Dragons tried to pull a comeback, but it wasn't enough, as the Bears won the consolation tournament (fifth place) by a score of 18-15.
Score progression: Bears up 6-4. 8-7. 12-10. 14-10. 14-12. 16-13. Final score: 18-15 Bears.
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The Consolation Bracket for fifth place.
Congratulations to the Baldwin Bears!
Third Place Match: Moose vs Rams
For the third consecutive Varsity Tournament, the Westtown Moose and The Hill School Rams faced each other in the third place match. The Moose won 6-3 in 2022, while the Rams won 23-19 in 2023. For this match, the Rams changed their George School logo profile pictures to Westtown logos.
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The Rams took an early 6-3 lead, but the Moose got two points to narrow the lead to 6-5. The Rams then scored 3 straight to go up 9-5, then traded some points to go up 11-6. The Moose tried to come back and got it to 12-10, but the Rams scored three straight to make it 15-10. The Moose tried to come back and got the score to 16-14, but the Rams responded with three points to claim third place for the second Varsity Tournament in a row by a score of 19-14.
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Score proggression: Rams up 6-3. 6-5. 9-5. 11-6. 12-9. 12-10. 14-10. 15-10. 16-13. 16-14. Final score: 19-14 Rams, with Rex Geng leading the way with a 5/6.
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Your third place team, The Hill School Rams
Churchmen vs Cougars (Finals):
So how do you stop the strategy of blowing out the competition before they can get ready? Well, the GSVMT Cougars actually used this strategy in the 2021 Varsity Tournament finals against the Shipley Varsity Math Team Gators, where they got ahead 7-1, prevented the Gators attempts at coming back, and won 18-13/30. So the Cougars are familiar with this strategy, and have even had matches where they had to come back from big deficits, including a 30-15 (out of 40) deficit to the Ladue Horton Watkins Rams (won 39-37/40), a 5-0 (out of 6) deficit to the Westtown Moose twice at the 2021 Varsity Tournament (won 6T-6/6 and 6-5/6), and most relevantly, a 2-0 (out of 30) deficit to the Churchmen in the 2022 Varsity Tournament (won 13-9/30), and a 16-13 (out of 30) deficit to the Churchmen in the 2023 Varsity Tournament (won 27-20/30).
After studying these matchups, the Cougars decided that they needed a fast start against the Churchmen, as pulling off what could have possibly been a 10 point comeback in the Varsity Tournament seemed very unlikely. But would they be able to do it against the EA Churchmen, who were 4-0 at the Varsity Tournament so far, and had looked basically unstoppable?
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The Cougars took an early 8-4 lead, but the Churchmen scored some points to get within two points at 9-7. The two teams traded points to make the score 12-10, and the Cougars then got ahead 15-12. At this point, it was looking like the reverse of the 2023 Varsity Tournament Finals, and a lot of the Varsity Tournament had been looking like that. But the Cougars kept their offense going, while the Churchmen could not pull off the infamous 10 point unanswered run that the Cougars had pulled off against them the year before. The Cougars kept narrowly ahead 17-15, 19-17, and 21-19. The Churchmen then scored two points to tie it up at 21-21. In the final moments of the match, the Cougars scored one last point (apparently scored by Simone Lu) to go ahead 22-21/30, which gave the Cougars their fourth consecutive Varsity Tournament championship.
Score pregression: Cougars up 8-4. 9-7. 12-10. 15-12. 17-15. 19-17. 21-19. 21-21. Final score: 22-21 Cougars.
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Concluding remarks:
The GSVMT Cougars lost to three teams in the regular season: The Friends Central Phoenix, the EA Churchmen, and The Hill School Rams. They beat all three of these teams in the Varsity Tournament. If there's a secondary theme to this season, it's that the teams that are the most successful are often the ones who can win when it matters.
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Teams:
1) EA Math Club Churchmen
Rohan Dalal
Daniel Adibi
Minsi Cui
Connor Myers
David Ding
Ben Klick
Lilian Wang
JD Krasnick
2) The Hill School Rams
Fife Akinyanmi
Yvonne Bao
Ambrose Cole
Lola Ge
Rex Geng
Ethan Luo
Ethan Ryu
Yiyi Wan
3) George School Varsity Math Team Cougars
Jackson Yang
Kevin Gong
Bill Li
Simone Lu
Tammy Nguyen
Anne Huang
Lucas Zhang
Grant Stoltzfus-Dueck
4) Westtown Moose
Isabella Jin
Jamie Lee
Max Zhang
Anqi Wang
Tiantong Hu
Bailey Tuckman
Jerry Rao
Jayden Qin
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5) Friends Central Phoenix
Gemma Chiang
Ari Barak
Abi Greenberg
Arda Erus
Lawrence Wu
Bowen Xu
Charlie Niu
Peter Hu
6) SCHA Blue Devils
Nick Donato
Ariya Goswami
Aaron Jia
Conor Lauerman
Damian Melzer-Surkan
Judah Meyer
Josh Miller
Lauren Wilson
7) Shipley Varsity Math Team Gators
(Did not collect names)
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8) Penn Charter Quakers
Brady Cross
Luke Fiss
Henry Greenberg
Jak Kraemer
Rainer Malholtra
Ansh Lodhavia
Alice Ingram
Alice Allsopp
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9) Agnes Irwin Owls
Margo Abboud
Serena Dong
Laura Kelly
Caitlyn Liang
Grace Meyerle
Kelsey Meyerle
Chloe Spears
Ysabel Staton
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10) Masterman Blue Dragons
Tova Albert
Rainer Arendt
Zoe Chien
Tomás Falleti-Moore
Micheal Huang
Jessica Jesteen
Bill Lin
Drake Wu​
11) The Haverford School Archimedes Association Fords
Devin Carpenter
Pat Cohen
Alex Dardarian
Connor Haney
Joseph Kahana
Ryan Shams
Nicholas Zafiriou
Michael Ballinga
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12) Baldwin Bears
(Did not collect names)
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Final standings: (Varsity Tournament Record)
1. Cougars (4-1)
2. Churchmen (4-1)
3. Rams (3-2)
4. Moose (3-2)
5. Bears (4-1)
6. Blue Dragons (2-3)
7. Quakers (3-2)
8. Phoenix (1-4)
9. Gators (3-2)
10. Fords (2-3)
11. Owls (1-4)
12. Blue Devils (0-5)
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Three Individual Champions (left to right): Bill Li (2024 Philly League), Forest Ho-Chen (2020 Philly League), and Jackson Yang (2024 Varsity Tournament)
MATES in Philly