Charles Hang

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Xinyun "Charles" Hang
Noted subjects History
Current college Washington University in St. Louis (2009- )
St. Charles Community College (2010)
Past colleges N/A
High school Francis Howell Central High School (2006-09)
Stats HDWhite • NAQT

Xinyun Hang (Charles Hang) is a player for Washington University in St. Louis and St. Charles Community College. He founded the St. Charles Community College team, leading it to win the 2010 Community College Championship Tournament. In high school, he captained the Francis Howell Central Scholar Quiz Bowl team. He is also an NAQT writer and a member of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance.

Playing History

Middle School

Charles was first introduced to Quiz Bowl in sixth grade by his gifted program teacher at Saeger Middle School, Mrs. Debbe Van Beers, playing on the Quiz Team sponsored by her husband Mike. Charles was the unofficial top scorer of competition between Saeger, Bryan, and Hollenbeck Middle Schools.

High School

After graduating from Saeger Middle School, Charles played for the Francis Howell Central High School team coached by Kathryn Keierleber, leading the team to a 27th place finish at the 2009 NAQT HSNCT.

2005-2006

Charles was one of five former Saeger Quiz Team members to join the Francis Howell Central Quiz Bowl team in Fall 2005. His first tournament was the 2005 Two Saints Conference, where he was Junior Varsity top scorer, leading the JV A team in scoring to a third place finish. Charles joined the Varsity team in the Spring of 2006, encountering good Quiz Bowl for the first time in late January at the WUHSAC VIII tournament. Unfortunately, he spent much of the tournament substituted out for seniors and failed to see the differences between the WUHSAC questions and those supplied by Bryce Avery for Two Saints.

After WUHSAC, Charles was a high scorer at the Washington and Warrenton tournaments, where Francis Howell Central took 3rd and 2nd, respectively. Charles was also a member of the 2006 Gateway Athletic Conference championship team, though he answered zero tossups in the final game against Fort Zumwalt West. [1] Unfortunately, Charles had to take the ACT on the day of the MSHSAA District competition and did not know to rejoin his team for the playoff rounds, in which his team placed second to Fort Zumwalt West on the last question.

Awards

2006-2007

Charles was a member of the Francis Howell Central Varsity A team in the 2006-2007 season and a high scorer at several tournaments despite spotty attendance. At his first tournament, the 2006 Two Saints Conference, he was second only to Teresa Kilmer of Fort Zumwalt West in scoring, though his team was defeated by Zumwalt West and placed in the tournament's second playoff bracket, which it won, placing 5th at the tournament. Charles was also the bracket top scorer.

Charles's Spring tournament attendance was spotty, and as a result the team failed to reach the playoffs at both WUHSAC IX and the Warrenton Tournament. Charles did attend the Washington Tournament, where he was the top scorer and Francis Howell Central took first. Charles was also a high scorer at the 2007 Gateway Athletic Conference and at MSHSAA Districts, with Francis Howell Central taking second at the former and tying for third at the latter. During these tournaments, Charles relied heavily on freshman George Yu, whose math skills complimented Charles's history knowledge, forming a tandem that would be key for the future.

Awards

Missouri Scholars Academy

Like many Missouri players such as Jason Mueller and Alex Dzurick, Charles's attendance at the Missouri Scholars Academy (MSA), a gifted camp for Missouri's top rising juniors, was important to his formation as a Quiz Bowl player. He was the top scorer in the Missouri Scholars Academy Scholar Bowl tournament, leading his team to a second place victory. More importantly, he met many players from other teams at MSA including Julia Price and Kai He of Fort Zumwalt West and Mark Schneider of Kirksville, thus helping him begin to see the wider world of Quiz Bowl.

2007-2008

Charles was a Co-Captain of the Francis Howell Central Scholar Quiz Bowl team for the 2007-2008 season, leading it to several tournament victories. He began the season by soliciting the help of Jeremy Gibbs in obtaining previous Two Saints results to gauge his opposition. This began his acquaintance with Gibbs, who later introduced Charles to the Missouri Academic Competition Message Board. It is ironic that Gibbs set Charles on the path to understanding good Quiz Bowl by introducing him to the Board, given that Gibbs is Missouri's best known promoter of bad Quiz Bowl. Charles also helped double the team in size from roughly six to twelve members through recruiting.

As usual, Charles's first tournament of the season was the Two Saints Conference. There, he was the top scorer, leading the team in scoring to a first place finish on improved questions from 2007-2008 MSHSAA State provider Shawn Pickrell. The tournament was also Charles's first time captaining the team, which he led to victories over Fort Zumwalt West's Varsity B and D teams on the tournament's second day.

Charles continued his leadership efforts in the Spring Semester despite conflicts with Youth Orchestra rehearsals. He captained the team to a first place finish at the 2008 Warrenton Tournament and a fourth place finish at the 2008 Helias Tournament with the help of George Yu and his math skills. Notably, the team attended Helias after Charles convinced his coach of the need to attend more and varied tournaments. Unfortunately, because he could only attend two regular season tournaments that semester, Charles chose to miss WUHSAC, showing his continued ignorance of good Quiz Bowl. Similarly, Charles allowed his coach's lukewarm response to the idea prevent the team from attending the 2008 NAQT Missouri Qualifier after failing to understand the Qualifier's importance.

In post-season play, Charles led Francis Howell Central's team to the 2008 Gateway Athletic Conference championship. Unfortunately, he had to take the ACT on the day of MSHSAA Districts again, allowing Francis Howell Central's elimination during preliminaries by Kirksville and Fort Zumwalt West, the latter of which defeated Howell Central by only five points.

By season's end, Charles had resolved to focus the team on good tournaments and to make the team more representative of the school through recruiting. To demonstrate the team's skills, he arranged the first ever Francis Howell Central Faculty vs. Team match, which the team lost 220-270 because he and George were regularly substituted out. [5] In recognition of his efforts, Charles was recognized as a Co-Captain of the team for the season.

Awards

2008-2009

Charles was Varsity Captain of the 2009 Francis Howell Central Quiz Bowl team. He led the team to the most successful season in school history, including a tie for 27th at the 2009 NAQT HSNCT, where he was a tournament All-Star. These successes came from his work to impart an understanding of good Quiz Bowl to his team.

Charles's first tournament of the 2008-2009 season was the Truman State mirror of Zot Bowl, which he attended with his MSA friends. There, he was the top high schooler and third highest scorer overall, with 70 PPG. [9] At this time, Charles began participating on the HSQB forum and came into conflict with the wider community, especially Matt Weiner, after describing some of the criticism of MSHSAA there as excessive. [10] Despite this, under the influence of Charlie Dees, Charles began learning the canon and using pyramidal questions in practice. Finally, he helped bring the team to an all time high of 15 players through recruiting.

Unfortunately, Charles had to spend much of the 2008-2009 season playing MSHSAA state provider Questions Galore. In the fall, he was the 2009 Two Saints Conference top scorer, leading the FHC team to a second championship. Charles also convinced his coach to attend the team's first Fall invitational in many years, the Hancock Tournament in November, where he was the third highest scorer and led the team to a first place finish. [11] In early January, he helped the team take first at the DeSmet Invitational after arriving at the second half of the last preliminary game to help earn enough points to advance as a wild card. [12]

After DeSmet, Charles convinced the Francis Howell Central team to focus on good tournaments. The first of these was WUHSAC XI in late January. Charles was a tournament high scorer, placing second only to Siva Sundaram of Rockford Auburn, though the team suffered a disappointing quarterfinal loss to Parkway Central. [13]

Charles's next good Quiz Bowl tournament was the 2009 NAQT Missouri Qualifier, where he was "power champ, 10 champ, and neg champ," leading the team to a third place finish. [14][15] Two weeks later, he led the team to its first good Quiz Bowl championship, at the 2009 Missouri S&T Spring Tournament, after convincing Ms. Jessica Rowe to chaperone. Charles was again the top scorer. [16] Finally, around this time, Charles secured school funding for the to attend the 2009 NAQT HSNCT.

After such successes, Charles had to play bad Quiz Bowl again while leading the Francis Howell Central team to a first place finish in the 2009 Gateway Athletic Conference. [17] Unfortunately, though Charles was the top scorer at the team's MSHSAA District competition, the team lost the final to Zumwalt West after his correct response of "Mary I, Queen of Scots" for the "Catholic cousin of Queen Elizabeth I" was inappropriately rejected. [18] Charles found the questions and the nature of the defeat appalling. Finally, Charles became a member of the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance at this time and was recognized in the Missouri Academic Competition Message Board player ranking poll as the top Generalist and top male Quiz Bowl player in Missouri, as well as tying for top history and top literature player. [19] [20]

Charles ended his high school career by leading the 2009 Francis Howell Central team to a tie for 27th at the 2009 NAQT HSNCT. [21] He was the 23rd HSNCT All-Star, coming in 25th overall despite much negging. [22]

Awards

College

Charles is currently a member of the Academic Team at Washington University in St. Louis and the founder of the Quiz Bowl team at St. Charles Community College.

2009-2010

Washington University in St. Louis

Charles's first tournament of the 2009-2010 season was the mirror of Early Fall Tournament 4 held at Illinois on October 3rd, 2009. He captained Washington University's B team to a 4-8 finish, with the team coming in 16th overall of 24 teams, while he himself was 6th highest scorer with 64.58 PPG. [31] At the Missouri mirror of ACF Fall 2009 on the 31st of October, 2009, Charles led a WUSTL team of three freshmen to take 2nd place, winning the Division II and Undergraduate championships, while he was the tournament's top scorer. [32] [33] He followed up this accomplishment a week later on the 7th of November by leading the WUSTL house team to take first place at the fourteenth iteration of the Gateway Invitational Tournament, where he was the second highest scorer. [34][35]

St. Charles Community College

Having attended St. Charles Community College in his home town for several years and continuing to do so during his first year of college, Charles chose to found a Quiz Bowl team there in the 2009-2010 season in the hopes of creating a Missouri Community College circuit. As a result, Charles chose to play for St. Charles CC for the 2009 NAQT CCSCT, joining two other players from SCC at the nearest sectional, located at Cloud County Community College in Kansas. Because of his prior Quiz Bowl experience, Charles played solo as St. Charles CC B at the tournament, taking first by going 12-0. [36]

This action was heavily criticized because Charles was a dual enrolled student also taking classes at WUSTL. [37] Notably, WUSTL team adviser Sean Phillips described his resentment of various aspects of the situation. [38] Interestingly, the only mostly ambivalent response to the action came from Chris Borglum, the coach of CCCT contender Valencia Community College and thus one of those who had the most to lose by the existence of another high level team at CCCT. Borglum found nothing wrong with Charles playing at the Community College level, though he did consider his dual affiliation unfortunate. [39] In his own defense, Charles argued that the situation was no different than a high school student taking the majority of his/her credits on a college campus still playing at HSNCT or NSC.

In any case, the final conclusion by NAQT, in the person of Jeff Hoppes, was that Charles's actions were permitted under NAQT's rules and that a player pursuing both four and two year degrees should have the opportunity to choose to play either CCSCT/CCCT or SCT/ICT. [40]

As a result, Charles proceeded to lead the St. Charles Community College team to a first place finish at the 2010 Community College Championship Tournament, with the team going 11-1. Charles was also the tournament top scorer, with 123.42 PP20TH. [41]

The week after the 2010 CCCT, Charles played solo at the 2010 Matt Cvijanovich Memorial Novice Tournament at Illinois. He came in 6th of 14 teams and was the top scorer. [42] Notably, the high school open team attending the tournament styled itself the "Charles Hang School for College Players Who Club Baby Seals," with team members Dan Donohue, Nolan Winkler, and Ben Carbery playing as Valencia, Chipola, and Northeast Alabama, respectively. [43] Sadly, the "Charles Hang School for College Players Who Club Baby Seals" never had the opportunity to face Charles Hang because of Charles's failure to make the top playoff bracket, though the high school open team would probably have won easily.

Finally, Charles led the St. Charles Community College team to win the Top Community College award at the 2010 Division II Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, with the team going 7-6. He was the third place scorer in Division II with 81.94 PP20TH. [44][45]

Charles directed his first tournament on July 17th, 2010, the inaugural St. Charles Open. He was also a member of "Academicus Anaemicus," the last place team at Chicago Open, scoring 1.79 PPG. [46]

Awards

Question Writing

NAQT

Charles has been a writer for National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC since May of 2009.

HSAPQ

Charles was a writer for High School Academic Pyramidal Questions from November 2009 to June 2010.

Independent Writing

Charles independently writes questions for tournaments in Missouri and beyond. Along with Julia Price, he wrote the 2009 Missouri Scholars Academy Scholar Bowl Tournament playoff questions, which were well received. [56] Charles also produced a pyramidal tournament for the fall Varsity tournament at Richland High School as an introduction to pyramidal questions in the MSHSAA format for Missouri teams. [57] In doing so, he had the help of Dan Donohue and a number of other players.

Mythology

As shown by the fact that all articles on QBWiki are written by Charles Hang, all things related to quiz bowl were made by Charles Hang's hands. As a result, his mythological system is the largest and most notable within the world of quiz bowl, with many notable adherents. The will of Hang allowed for such championships as Harvard's 2010 Division 1 ICT win and Chicago's 1997 ACF Nationals second place finish.

External References

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