John Lawrence

John Lawrence
Noted subjects	Music, Literature, Philosophy, Visual Art
Past colleges	Yale (2008-2012), King's College London (2012-2013), University of Chicago (2013-2020)
HSQB profile	ThisIsMyUsername
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

John Lawrence was the team captain of the University of Chicago from 2013–2020, and the former team captain of Yale University. He is known for his deep music knowledge (he, Kevin Koai, and Jacob Reed are widely regarded as the three strongest specialists ever in that subject), and he is generally considered one of the strongest literature players in the game. John's non-quizbowl interests include bow ties and fancy cooking.

The Yale Years

John Lawrence was the President of Yale Student Academic Competitions from 2010-2012, during which time he was captain of the winning team at 2011 ACF Nationals and co-captain (with Matt Jackson) of the winning team at 2012 ACF Nationals. He had the second-highest number of powers in the field at 2011 Chicago Open while playing on the 2nd-place team with Matt Weiner, Matt Bollinger, and Gautam Kandlikar. He won the main event of the 2012 Chicago Open playing with Matt Bollinger, Eric Mukherjee, and Chris Ray, and the literature side event (WELD) playing with former Yale teammate Kevin Koai.

The British Year

During the 2012-2013 season, John played for King's College London, whose quizbowl team he started. He tied for second playing IFT solo. He led the teams that won the VCU Closed scrimmage and the WIT mirror, putting up over 130 PPG in both cases. He tied for 14th at 2013 ACF Nationals while playing solo, and was the high scorer for the tournament with 91.25 PPG. He also led the team that came in second at the 2013 BSQC. He finished as the fifth-leading scorer en route to winning the 2013 Chicago Open with Jeff Hoppes, Seth Teitler and Selene Koo.

The Chicago Years

During the 2013-2014 season, John led the Chicago team to 4th-place finishes at the 2014 ICT and 2014 ACF Nationals. At Chicago Open 2014, he joined Matt Jackson, Matt Weiner, and Billy Busse on the 2nd-place team, tying for fifth-leading scorer with Seth Teitler. That weekend, he also won the Gorilla Literature Singles.

In 2014-15, John led a triumvirate of himself, Max Schindler, and long-time Maryland stalwart CHRIS RAY, supported alternately by James Lasker and Michael Coates. They won every regular-season tournament in the Midwest region that they played together, then finished 3rd at the 2015 ICT and 2nd at 2015 ACF Nationals (exactly one place above Maryland and one below Penn at each event).

In 2015-2016, John, Max, and Chris Ray--with Jason Zhou replacing Lasker/Coates as their fourth--won Stanford Housewrite and 2016 ICT, before placing 2nd at 2016 ACF Nationals. The three of them also edited almost all of ACF Regionals 2016 together. John's ICT win made him the 12th player in quizbowl history to achieve a career Triple Crown. After a disappointing 2016-2017 season, he led his team to victory at the 2018 ACF Nationals.

Writing/Editing

John's writing/editing credentials include:

• 2009 THUNDER (wrote/edited Music)
• several incarnations of BHSAT (Lit and Visual Arts writer/editor)
• 2010 ACF Fall (Fine Arts)
• Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (Writer)
• MAGNI (Co-Head Editor; Lit, Fine Arts, and British History)
• 2012 ACF Regionals (Fine Arts)
• 2013 ACF Regionals (Lit and Auditory Arts)
• 2013 NSC (Auditory Arts)
• Subject editor for NAQT IS sets: Music (2013-present), Visual Art (2013-2015), Food (2017-present), Musicals (2017-present)
• 2013 ACF Fall (Philosophy)
• Cane Ridge Revival (Head Editor; Lit, Fine Arts, and Philosophy)
• PADAWAN (Co-Head Editor; Lit, Auditory Arts, Philosophy, and Theoretical Social Sciences)
• DEES (Auditory Arts)
• 2015 SCT (guest-editor with Matt Bollinger)
• RILKE (Head Editor/Writer)
• 2016 ACF Regionals (Head Editor; Lit, Fine Arts, and Philosophy)
• 2016 Chicago Open (Co-Head Editor; Lit, Auditory Arts, and Philosophy)
• There Will Be Stock Clues (Editor/Writer)
• Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (Editor/Writer)
• The Unanswered Question (Auditory Arts Editor/Writer)
• MARCATo (Editor/Writer)
• 2021 ACF Qualifier (Head Editor; Lit, Fine Arts, Thought)
• 2021 ICT (Set Editor)
• 2022 ACF Nationals (Head Editor; Lit, Auditory Arts, Philosophy, and Theoretical Social Sciences)
• 2023 IQBT Undergraduate Championship (Head Editor; Lit, Auditory Arts, and Philosophy)
• 2024 IQBT Undergraduate Championship (Auditory Arts and Philosophy)

Things He Claims to Have Invented (in chronological order)

• The quizbowl-specific meaning of "evocative"/"evocativeness"
• The "Thought" category
• Standardly using the phrases "alphabetically prior/latter" when cluing co-namesakes of doubly-eponymous things
• Prompts that underline the word you need to say to get prompted
• The variable-scoring ladder format
• The remote-cooperation audio tournament
• The all-bonus qualifier format

John additionally wrote a sizeable guide [1] on writing and editing quizbowl music which unintentionally contains one of the better quizbowl science writing guides within its second post.

ACF Nationals Leading Scorer
Preceded by	Year	Succeeded by
Ike Jose	2013	Matt Bollinger

Carper Award
Preceded by	Year	Succeeded by
Edmund Dickinson and Joe Su	2024 (alongside Dave Hamilton and Raj Bhan)	tbd