History of the Arocena Cup

The Arocena Cup is a trophy given to the team in each block that scores the most points through out the semester in grueling contests of intellectual strength, mental fortitude and creative genius. Winning the Arocena Cup not only asserts the teams dominance over the competition but immortalizes the names of each team member so that future generations can aspire to hoist the cup above their heads at the end of each semester.

The idea of the Cup was proposed by Cameron Brown, at the end of the 2007/2008 second semester, after I had run a semester long series of review games with his Science 9 class. At the end of the semester both teams were tied and Cameron suggested I provide a trophy to the team that won in our final review game. Thus after some searching for the parts, the Arocena Cup was created and presented to the team that won our final review game. Fittingly, Cameron was part of the first team that won the Arocena Cup and he and his teammates have the honour of being the first to be immortalized on the trophy.

The rules have changed since that first competition and teams can now earn points in many ways. Teams also have the opportunity to lose points (only one team has had this dubious honour so far). The competition is always fierce, but at the end of the semester only one team in each block will emerge victorious.

Notable events:

Semester 2 - 2016/2017

• The end of this semester marked the 10th year anniversary of the Arocena Cup and 5 students reached the milestone of 4 time champions!
• Congratulations to Max M. Matthew E. Felicia B. Bridian S. and Kelson F. on having won the Arocena Cup 4 times over their high school careers!
• It's not an easy thing to do as they would have had to be in at least 4 of my courses and most of the courses I taught between 2015-2017 were senior math, senior chemistry or senior physics!

Semester 2 - 2015/2016

• Team Right in Block 4 breaks record for most points by scoring 52.  Most of their points were received by solving Breakout EDU puzzle with 37 minutes remaining!
• 2 students (Markas N. and Kris W.) succeed in winning the cup 3 times!  Each of them won the cup in Pre-Calculus 12, Chemistry 12 and Calculus 12 (though in Calculus 12 it was by virtue of being one of the Immortal Few to survive the entire semester)
• The two students also have another notable achievement in that they managed to win the cup 3 times in one school year!  Other multi-cup winners have had to do it over 2 or more years.
• Eshawn continues the tradition of his family by joining his 2 sisters (Tarneer and Sharon) as winners of the Arocena Cup.

Semester 1 - 2012/2013

• Team C in Block D shatters the record for most points in a semester by earning 50!  The rest of the teams in Block D earned 46 and 36.  The teams in Block D were the highest scoring teams so far in the Arocena Cup competition.

Semester 1 - 2011/2012

• Team Evens in Block A were the first team to lose points due to bad sportmanship during a review game.

Semester 1 - 2010/2011

• Team Odds in Block B have broken the record for most points earned with a whopping 25 points!

Semester 2 - 2009/2010

• Cameron B. & Kaitlin L. have the honour of being on the first team that won the cup and also being on the last team that won the cup at NVSS. 
• Although I did return to NVSS in 2012 so this isn't true anymore.

Semester 1 - 2009/2010

• Team Evens in Block 3 is the first team to give up in a review game.

Semester 2 - 2008/2009

• Rylan Schlamp becomes the second student to have their name appear on the cup twice.
• Team Jesus breaks the record for the most points in a semester with 16.
• Block 2 Team Evens records the largest win margin with a 6 point lead over Team Odds.

Semester 1 - 2008/2009

• Erica Clausen is the first student to have her name appear two times on the Cup.
• Team Frick'n Awesome sets the record for most points recorded in a semester with 14.

Semester 2 - 2007-2008

• The first year of the Arocena Cup.  Cameron B. suggests the idea for the trophy and helps his team, Team Awesome, win to have the honour of being the first team on the Arocena Cup.