Will Alston

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Will Alston (right)
Will alston.png
Noted subjects History, Barbarians, Asia, RMP, Modern World
Current college Dartmouth (2012-6)
Past colleges None
High school Bethesda-Chevy Chase (2008-2012)
Stats HDWhite • NAQT

Will Alston was the president of Dartmouth quizbowl until 2016. He formerly played for Bethesda-Chevy Chase with Spencer Weinreich and noted cheater Dmitri Halikias during the 2010-2011 season.

After taking some time off college due to treatment for leukemia, Will has continued to write and play, placing consistently well at open tournaments. Particularly knowledgeable in history, with a focus on world history and obscure non-Greek, non-Roman ancient peoples (which may be credited to his long hours of playing Europa Barbarorum in middle and high school), he was the third scorer on the team that won the 2017 Chicago Open.

Will has become known for his prolific question writing, often being a major contributor to two regular-difficulty sets, writing a side event, and writing numerous questions for NAQT in one season. After working on the 2014 and 2016 iterations of Penn Bowl and 2014's PADAWAN and DEES, Will led the revival of EFT in 2016, repeating in his capacity as head editor in 2017. In 2017, Will spearheaded a namesake open set, and in 2018, he edited history for ACF Regionals and head-edited the Sun God Invitational.

Will has had a somewhat more checkered history writing side events. A leading force behind the disastrous Modern World tournament in 2014, he led the writing of 2016's controversial ARTSEE and produced the vanity set Naveed Bork in 2017. His 2018 side event Historature was somewhat better-received, with its proceeds going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Will also collaborated with Jordan Brownstein on the acclaimed 2015 history set SHEIKH.

He is not to be confused with Alston Boyd.