by Ainsley Moore ’24
March 2024
Eleven advisors will fight to the death.
Well, not really.
The so-called “Tournament of Champions” is an annual advisory competition between the advisories of High School faculty members Tamara Berthel, Justin Fitzpatrick, Katie Greenebaum, Matthew Haber, Aaron Fullk, Mackey Luffman, Robbie McKay, Jason Shuster, Freya Sachs, George Flatau, and Cindy Crenshaw.
Each advisory tries to predict the winners of events such as the Super Bowl or the Grammy Awards. Flatau sends out a Google Dorm with 20-25 questions, and members of the advisory who get the most questions correct get to choose their advisory snack, which is bought by the members of the advisory who get the least number of points. The annual winner of the tournament receives the trophy, which is currently held by the Crenshaw advisory. At the bottom of the trophy is a post-it note, which lists the tournament winners and the year they won.
The tournament dates back at least a decade. In its founding years, McKay, Flatau, and Berthel questioned whether their advisories could beat each other in a trivia competition. They started by picking one event, like the Oscars, and then they picked other events, like March Madness. Over the years, they expanded the number of events. They add the Olympics every four years, so a fifth event is added.
Dr. Fitzpatrick underestimates many of the other advisories.
“The toughest advisors to beat are Crenshaw, Mckay, and Flatau.”
However, 2016 is a disputed victory for Berthel. She picked Russia to dominate all Olympic events, which they ultimately did. But later the news came out that the team was doping, so while Berthel might have won, people speculate if it was a true win for her advisory.
Last year, Aaron Fulk’s advisory was added to the league, which means currently about a quarter of the high school is participating in the tournament.
One consistent question with the tournament is why more advisories are not involved. Expanding the tournament could create more logistical problems for its organizers.
“I would love to have other people involved, but it would expand a lot, and it would get harder to manage,” Flatau said. “Adding more advisories is not discouraged, but if you expand it to 40 advisors, there probably will not be a clear winner because there are not a lot of questions.”
