Dallas Simons
| Dallas Simons | |
| |
| Noted subjects | Classics, Geography, Mythology, History, and Folklore |
| Current college | Penn (2012-Present) |
| Past colleges | Harvard (2009-2012) |
| High school | MLK (?-2008) |
| Stats | HDWhite • NAQT |
Dallas Simons is a quizbowl player at Penn and former player for Harvard. He formerly played for MLK Magnet High School in Nashville, TN. He won two national championships with Harvard at the 2010 ICT and the 2011 ICT.
Dallas is considered to be one of the best classics and Greco-Roman myth players of all time and one of the best active geography players. He is also known for his bitter rivalry with Jeff Hoppes for the title of Nicest Guy in Quizbowl.
High School
He was the top individual scorer at the 2007 HSNCT and led his team to a 2nd place finish at the 2007 NSC.
He also led the winning team at the 2008 ACF Regionals Southeast tournament as a high school senior, topping over 80 ppg in the process. That year he lead his team to high finishes at both nationals again and was the 2nd highest individual scorer at HSNCT.
College
Dallas' performance at EFT3 was the subject of the Mind Games article by Christian Flow, and he quickly proved himself to be an dangerous member of Harvard's starting four, along with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Bruce Arthur. As a sophomore, he won both the 2009 EFT and 2009 ACF Fall playing solo.
His notable finishes include winning the 2010 ICT and the 2010 Chicago Open, and finishing on the second place team at the 2009 Chicago Open. Dallas also was on the team that defeated Minnesota A for the undergraduate championship and placed 3rd overall at the 2009 ICT. Along with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Stephen Liu, he was part of the winning Div I 2011 ICT team that was the first undergraduate team to win the overall title.
Dallas led the team that won Geography Monstrosity 2 and his team finished second to Jeff Hoppes at the first Geography Monstrosity.
Dallas has recently joined the Penn team for one year as he finishes a post-baccalaureate in Classics. It remains to be seen how large of an impact he makes.
Misc
Dallas is also among the quizbowlers on youtube, appearing in a film he directed to promote the image of Cabot House at Harvard [1]. Simons claims his directorial work is most influenced by the desperate vitality of Herzog's films, the tension between the Orphic and the Dionysian in Cocteau's best work, and Bergman's love of computer-animated explosions.
Notable Tournaments
- 2012 QUARK Mid-Atlantic mirror - 1st place (with Eric Mukherjee, Saajid Moyen, and Patrick Liao)
- 2010 THUNDER 2nd place (with Ted Gioia and Stephen Liu)
- 2010 ICT - 1st place (with Andy Watkins, Bruce Arthur, and Dennis Sun)
- 2010 ACF Nationals - 10th place (with Andy Watkins and notably without Bruce Arthur)
- 2010 ACF Regionals - 4th place (Solo)
- 2010 Penn Bowl - 1st place (with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Bruce Arthur)
- 2009 ACF Fall - 1st place (Solo)
- 2009 EFT - 1st place (Solo)
- 2009 Chicago Open - 2nd place (with Jerry Vinokurov, Ted Gioia, and Eric Mukherjee)
- 2009 Missouri Open at Maryland - 1st place (with Eric Mukherjee, Dan Puma, and Ted Gioia)
- 2009 ACF Nationals - 6th place (with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Bruce Arthur)
- 2009 ICT - 3rd place (with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Kyle Haddad-Fonda)
- 2009 ACF Regionals - 1st place (with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Bruce Arthur)
- 2009 Penn Bowl - 3rd place (with Ted Gioia, Andy Watkins, and Bruce Arthur)
- 2008 ACF Fall - 2nd place (with Dennis Sun and Andy Watkins)