East Masterminds Going to Finals

By Ananya Nrusimha

The Williamsville East MasterMinds team competed in the first round of playoffs on Thursday, April 23rd.  They won all three of their matches and will be able to advance to the finals in May along with the MasterMinds teams from the other two Williamsville Schools.  MasterMinds is an academic competition that is similar to Quiz Bowl.

Playoffs and finals for MasterMinds use a double elimination system. In this system, a team must lose twice before they are out of the competition.  At this point, only the teams from Williamsville East and Williamsville South have no losses.  The teams from City Honors School, Williamsville North, and Grand Island each have one loss.  It is important to note that any of these teams could be the regional champion in spite of the discrepancies in losses between the teams.

The last team standing will be the Buffalo Region MasterMinds champion.  That team will be able to advance to the state competition in June, where they will be able to face off against the champions from the Rochester, Albany, and Syracuse regions for the state title.  Last year, East’s MasterMinds team was the Buffalo Region champion and took third at the state championship.  They hope to win the regional championship again this year.