Chris Chiego
| Chris Chiego | |
| Noted subjects | History, Geography, the US Civil War |
| Current college | Penn (2014-Present) |
| Past colleges | UCSD (2009-2013) Georgia (2005-2009) |
| High school | White Station High (Memphis, TN) |
| Stats | HDWhite • NAQT |
Chris Chiego is a notable player and former team president and treasurer at Georgia, former player/tournament director at UCSD, and former coach of Germantown High in West Tennessee. He briefly played for Penn and was a member of their 2015 ACF Nationals-winning team.
High School Experience
Chris excelled at the 3 local pyramidal tournaments he played in high school, but his school chose to concentrate on the local TV tournament, which once negged him for saying "centrifuges" instead of "devices for making nuclear material."
College Playing Experience
Georgia
While at Georgia, he helped lead a rise in Georgia's quizbowl fortunes, culminating in the highest-ever finishes for a UGA team at a nationals (9th in DII at 2005 ICT, 15th overall at the 2009 ICT) as well as the most number of teams fielded (six at the 2007 ACF Fall Southeast mirror). He will be missed by the southeast community for both his playing skills and talent for running efficient tournaments.
UCSD
At UCSD for his master's, Chris teamed with Auroni Gupta and other UCSDers to help lead UCSD's 9th-place nationals finish at the 2010 ACF Nationals and 2012 ICT.
Penn
Chris started a PhD in Political Science at Penn in 2014. He helped Eric Mukherjee, Saajid Moyen and Patrick Liao win the 2015 ACF Nationals.
Tournament Directing and Outreach
Chris has directed over 20 tournaments from Georgia to San Diego to Germantown to Philadelphia. He is the author of the Tournament Hosting Guide on SoCalQuizbowl.org.
His efforts to increase outreach to local high schools and get more teams involved from SoCal led to his 2013 Cooper Award. He has continued to push for an increased focus on outreach in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia (including the Greater Philadelphia Quiz Bowl website) and at the national level across high school quizbowl.
Writing Experience
Chris collaborated on a number of novelty tournaments with Bruce Arthur, including July Crisis and RMPFest. Solo-author of a packet for Zot Bowl as well as several editions of Geography Monstrosity. Helped with MAGNI including last-minute overnight packet assembly. Also helped write several UGA high school tournaments in mACF style in an effort to expand good quizbowl in the Southeast.
Other
- Co-Founder of SoCalQuizbowl, an organization dedicated to improving quizbowl in California and all along the West Coast.
- Liveblogged the 2009 HSNCT, which ended up getting a mention on Deadspin [1], as well as the 2010 HSNCT. See this site for links to the liveblog.
- Was famously asked in an interview, "So what is this...quizbowl thing?"
- Is the only person to have won the Cooper Award (with Dwight Wynne for his work in SoCal) before winning an ACF Nationals title (Jeff Hoppes has also won both).
- In addition to his burning passion for Quizbowl outreach, geography, and the Civil War, he's also known as a great advocate and aficionado of craft beer and spirits.