Saieesh Rao

Saieesh Rao
Noted subjects	Geography, Chemistry, Biology, Hinduism, Greek and Norse Myth, French Impressionists, POKEMON
High school	Illinois Math and Science Academy (2010-2013), Stevenson (2009-2010)
Stats	HDWhite • NAQT

Saieesh Rao is a current senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Notable for being the only person in Illinois history to have played for the IHSA State Championship school all four years of High School, he is by far the most inspirational player on the IMSA team and his toothless grin is priceless. His Quizbowl study habits are matched by none other (except for Daniel Collins). Rather than frauding knowledge, he actually knows it.

Middle School

Twin Groves

Saieesh's quizbowl career started inauspiciously in the fold of Twin Groves Middle School's scholastic bowl program. He would've made the A team in 6th grade, though he missed two tryouts during a family trip to India and was subsequently penalized. In 7th grade he made the cut, though he was only subbed in for one half of a game during infrequent conference matches in the spirit of offering all players a chance. It wasn't until a home-game against rival Woodlawn Middle School when he nabbed a whopping 3 tossups in the first 15 question half, leading the team in tossups-earned. After being pulled out at the half, his team fell behind, so he was subbed back in with eight questions to go, six of which were then converted by Saieesh. From that day on Saieesh's inner fire was awakened and led to his recognition as a force in the middle school scholastic bowl circuit, as he led his team to win the Patriot Conference both of his two years on the team and captained the only team in the region capable of upsetting Jeff Price's Barrington Station team.

Egan's Bet

At the sixth annual Barrington Station Invitational Tournament held on March 14th, 2009, Saieesh earned the right to request $10 from Tom Egan for answering a bonus part Egan believed would not be converted by Middle Schoolers. The full account on the forums can be found here and is quoted below.

In other notes; Mr. Egan owes someone on Twin Groves A a $10 bill. Egan felt pretty certain this bonus part would go dead and offered a $10 bill to the middle schooler who could answer it: Landform where valley glaciers may form in a hollowed-out portion of a mountain." Answer: Cirque

However, Saieesh's dad intervened using the account username "naren" and relinquished Saieesh's right to claim the $10; the post can be found here. Mike Wong, hearing of these events for the first time early in the fall of the 2010-2011 quizbowl season, is said to have exclaimed, "[Saieesh's] dad is so cool!" for having used the forums before any member of IMSA's soon to be A-team.

High School

Adlai E. Stevenson High School

At Stevenson, Saieesh was confined to the Frosh-Soph circuit due to the insistence of then-coach Bruce Fitzgerald to segregate members based on grade-level rather than ability. Thus, along with his sophomore teammates (whom he played with and against in middle school), Saieesh helped Stevenson dominate the Frosh-Soph Circuit of Northeastern Illinois, winning high profile tournaments such as the Carmel High School Invitational Frosh-Soph Tournament.

Encounter with IMSA

Saieesh played his future homeschool (IMSA) only at one tournament that year at the Wheaton Frosh-Soph Tournament, where he played the B-team (led by pre-scobol-dropout Yang-Yang Feng) once and the A team (then comprised of Adam Kalinich, Morenibayo Bankole II, Madhav Mohandas, and Rose Sloan) twice. Stevenson's first match against IMSA went badly, as signified by Bayo's Buzz on "gravity" which heralded the beginning of the end for that match. Stevenson then returned to meet IMSA in the finals, where Saieesh immortalized himself in IMSA memory by powering the first tossup of the devastating match in which Stevenson dealt IMSA its first loss of the season. The tossup, mentioning DNA analysis, the jungles of Guyana, and a comet like figure flying through the sky, hearkened Saieesh back to his childhood days of playing Pokemon and immediately reminded him of the opening scene to "Pokemon: The First Movie," leading Saieesh to buzz with "Mew." From that point on, Saieesh was then regarded as the "Pokemon Carry" at Stevenson. Saieesh, although having stopped playing Pokemon for a while, was still fresh with his Pokemon knowledge due to his side-hobby of programming a fully functional Pokemon Game on his calculator. As the last tossup was inevitably a mythology question (as it always is in the Frosh-Soph circuit, teammate Michael Hu clinched the match, buzzing on the stock clue "barge" and answering with Ra.

Upon hearing of Saieesh's decision to transfer to IMSA in the fall, teammate Johnathan Kersky told Saieesh on the bus coming home that day that he shouldn't leave because "Stevenson is going to win three state championships next year (see Illinois Triple Crown)." Those words, however, proved themselves to be oddly ironic in the coming months, as IMSA's rise was just fomenting.

IMSA

Saieesh first proved himself at IMSA's first practice of the year in late August when he 30'd an easy lit bonus on "Truman Capote/Breakfast at Tiffany's/In Cold Blood." Saieesh then led the team in points at the 2010 Wheaton Kickoffs Tournament with his Geography boost for NAQT. Although replaced as an A-team member by Adam Kalinich later in the year, Saieesh played an important role that year in the IHSA state series, in which he beat Kevin Malis (from his homeschool Stevenson) on a buzzer race to "Jasper Johns." IMSA placed 3rd in the state Masonic Academic Bowl Tournament that year, but did not participate in the NAQT State Tournament that year due to the suspension of teammate Eric Ordonez and Webster Guan in the bust known as "Trainagate," in which IMSA teacher Joseph Traina found a number of students operating a fake Facebook account in his name.

The coming year led to a decline in Saieesh's quizbowl activity due to his participation in a rigorous and time-consuming calculus elective at IMSA known as "BC-Fast," which precluded some of his time to go to quizbowl tournaments. Along with the meteoric rise of IMSA's Nolan Maloney,Eric Ordonez,Webster Guan, and Adam Kalinich, the A-team that year was set. Saieesh went 4-3 at the New Trier Scobol Solo that year, his first appearance.

In his senior year, Saieesh has played various roles both of IMSA's A and B teams. He got five tossups against Ladue at the Missouri Invitational Tournament in Columbia, Missouri, helping IMSA earn its only win against the #1 ranked team that year. Saieesh had significant overlap with teammates Anton Karpovich and Siva Gangavarapu when playing on A team, contributing to his low statlines. When captaining B-team, however, Saieesh would score more impressively, such as at NAQT State that year when he was a top 10 individual scorer.