For the following week, everyone on the quiz bowl team keeps studying for their respective tests, and often in conjunction with quiz bowl. And all quiz bowlers had their share of parents wanting them to tutor their kids, at least in their areas of quiz bowl specialty. Only, this time around, for the LQBA Winter Invitational South, there are 3 parents driving players to the tournament on top of the coach.
On Saturday morning, at 7 AM, Audrey's mom comes to Pablo's home, with her own daughter and Myriam already onboard. As with last time, the tournament starts at 8:30AM, with check-in time at 8 AM; however, the tournament takes place in Eunice, which is about forty-five minutes away, as opposed to almost three hours for the previous meet. For this purpose, he loads the bags of coffee for the B-team in his backpack, along with his laptop and other materials he uses to study and do homework on the road.
"Good luck, honey!" Pablo's mom gets him to his teammate's car.
When in the car, in the back seat, he can't help but notice that Myriam is placing bets on horse races at the other end of the world.
"Myriam, how the hell can you even wager on horse races anyway? You're too young to be betting on horse races!" Pablo yells at the quiz bowl captain.
"I can't bet in my own name. To the eyes of the law, I'm betting in my mom's name" Myriam answers him.
Since I am in my fourth year of serving a six-year, state-wide ban from on-track betting, dad made me bet on horse races in my mom's name, and I inherited his bankroll in full when he got arrested, Myriam struggles to tell him the whole truth about her horse betting habits.
"I hope you're not betting on horse races in class or when on other schools' premises!" Audrey formulates her wishes to Myriam.
"Of course not. I only bet at home and in the car" Myriam answers her teammate.
But they don't even drive a full kilometer away from Pablo's home that they hear the brakes squeal every time they brake. Now I know what to buy Audrey for Christmas. I really hope the brake pads in her family's car can hold out until then, Pablo muses, while also realizing that replacing brake pads typically means replacing the brake fluid, too. However, he feels like it's not his place to tell her about the brake problems, since he feels like it will ruin his plan for the holidays.
Upon arriving at Eunice High, they see several of the same teams competing as at LQBA Fall Invitational South, namely, all the Southwest Louisiana teams, as well as all the Lafayette-area teams. It's then that Warren assembles his B-team players, but he can't formulate a plan for who plays when until he receives the preliminary schedule. Audrey and Pablo meet each other before going with their respective teams:
"Good luck, Pablo" Audrey wishes him before meeting the A-team with Myriam.
"Thank you"
"You barely broke ten PPG last time, I hope you're going to play better this time!" Caleb jeers at him upon arriving with a bunch of middle schoolers in tow.
When said schedule arrives, Nadine, Lilina, Gerard, Caleb and Pablo are then assembled for one final meeting before the start of the tournament.
"For the first game, we're going to play Hanson Memorial. They're not known to be regulars in quiz bowl so Pablo, you're going to start this game" Warren then turns to Lilina. "However, you won't be playing this game since it appears that, together, Pablo and Caleb will be able to handle history and social studies just fine"
"Fine, I hope Pablo has studied some for this tournament" Lilina sighs while she sits on the bench for that game.
Meanwhile, the A-team is in a different pool, and will be mostly left to their own devices for the preliminary rounds. As with last time, the tournament has teams split into three pools of 6 teams.
When the first preliminary game starts against Hanson Memorial, there are times where Pablo feels the urge to buzz in. The first impulse happens on this clue:
"Richard Hofstadter argues that this concept is a social class response against political elites" the moderator reads the clue in question.
That author's best-known book is called Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, Pablo's mind springs into action, while reminded of one of these hundreds of quiz bowl packets he has read over the past few months.
Pablo then buzzes in. "Anti-intellectualism!"
"Fifteen" the moderator rules, then reads the preamble to the bonus VA B then earns by this power.
Then Warren gets lucky, because Hanson Memorial proves to be a little weak in history and social studies. Yet Pablo manages to score a total of three tossups before tossup 15, which is by far his best game in his quiz bowling career up to this point.
"Tossup fifteen: During the Napoleonic Wars, this city..." the moderator starts reading the tossup, while VA B is clearly pulling away from Hanson Memorial.
Crap... Gerard signals that he doesn't know the answer. And I don't either, Pablo signals that he doesn't know the answer, leaving Nadine and Caleb to answer, with the latter having answered two tossups during this game.
However, new clues also cause Nadine to signal to Caleb that she doesn't know the answer either. Yet, with the power mark being exhausted...
"A bossa nova song, Garota de Ipanema, is named after a neighborhood of this city" the moderator keeps reading clues, and Pablo sees signs that the opponent is about to buzz in.
Ouch. I can't let the opposition get away with this! I must buzz in! Pablo's body shakes when he sees a Tigers (i.e. Hanson Memorial) player about to buzz in.
"Sao Paulo" Pablo answers while there are two clues remaining.
"Neg five" the moderator rules, before continuing to read the question. "The Christ the Redeemer statue is on a hill overlooking this city. For ten points, name this Brazilian city best known for its carnival"
"Rio de Janeiro" the Tiger answers.
"Ten"
Unfortunately for VA B, the Tigers answer all three bonus parts correctly on this question. Which prompts Warren to call for a timeout.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Timeout!" Warren shouts in the direction of the moderator, before turning to Pablo. "Pablo, you're benched for the final five tossups. Lilina, here's your turn to play in this game!"
"Yay!" Lilina then sits on the chair that was Pablo's before the timeout was called.
I cost VA B 45 points by buzzing in too early! Fingers crossed, Lilina, that you will be able to make up for the mistake I made! Pablo mopes in silence behind Lilina's back. But even then, VA B holds a 105-point lead over Hanson Memorial when Lilina starts playing.
Yet, Lilina scores a power to make up for Pablo's earlier failure two tossups later, after hearing a clue about the circumstances surrounding the treaty:
"The ratification of this treaty by Japan led to the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai in the May Fifteenth Incident" the moderator read the second clue.
Lilina then buzzes in. "Naval Treaty of London"
"Fifteen" The moderator then reads the bonus to VA B.
I guess, Pablo did improve somewhat, gotta grant him that, Lilina sighs upon being unable to contribute on the resulting bonus, which is a science bonus. Nevertheless, the bonus is answered correctly and in full.
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Meanwhile, VA A is locked into a final-tossup showdown between them and Bâton-Rouge Magnet, and Bâton-Rouge Magnet is in the lead by 30 points. Stay focused, Audrey; I got this, but this is nothing new to me, Audrey ruminates as she hears the clues being disgorged.
"Final tossup: the Fejér Theorem states this series converges uniformly towards the function it represents" the first clue is given out to both teams.
Normally, this kind of questions is Myriam's to answer, but you never know who can answer it, Audrey signals that she's unsure of her answer to her teammates.
"The Fourier transform is the equivalent of this series for non-periodic functions" the moderator working that game reads the next-to-last clue of this question.
Which makes both girls on VA A as well as a Bâton-Rouge Magnet player locked in a buzzer race, all of whom feel that it's just a question of who presses the button faster. Myriam groans as she clenches her fist on the buzzer, presses it and she blushes as well.
"Fourier series!" Myriam responds, and then releases the pressure on the buzzer.
"Ten"
While, by the time VA B faces the final tossup, they hold a 150-point lead over Hanson Memorial, and therefore wins no matter what, VA A, on the other hand, needs to score all 3 bonus parts to win their game. It feels like VA A faces their strongest opponent first.
By this point, VA A scores the first two bonus parts, and all 4 players are trembling when the final bonus part is read, knowing the entire game can be decided here and now:
"Pantalone wore the titular clothing of that series of books revolving around four teenage girls wearing the same pair of it" that moderator reads the final bonus part.
"The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants!" Audrey answers this bonus part.
"Thirty for the bonus, and Venomous Agendas A wins, three hundred thirty to three hundred twenty" the moderator announces the final score.
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Outside the game room where VA B played their first game, won by a 180-point margin, VA B is about to play the host institution. What Warren knew about that institution in quiz bowl forces his hand for the second game.
"Now, it's your turn, Nadine, to be benched. Their greatest weakness is arts and literature" Warren announces to the B-team.
By rotating players in and out across all 5 games in the prelims, Warren ensures that everyone on the B-team remains relatively fresh because he knows that playing optimally needs a certain amount of energy.
For game #2, Nadine is benched for about seventy percent of the game, Gerard is benched for game #3, and Caleb for game #4 as a result of him underperforming in game #3, causing VA B to narrowly lose to Catholic (Bâton-Rouge).
When prelim game #5 rolls around for VA B, Warren has some bad news for Pablo, despite the clear improvement he displayed since the LQBA Fall Invitational:
"If we win this game, we might be able to send both squads to the HSNCT. So, unfortunately, even though you have improved as a quiz bowler since last time, this means that, to get the best chance at winning this final game, you will be benched, Pablo"
"Oof..." Pablo sighs, and remains outside the game room for the fifth VA B prelim game.
But if both VA A and B finish in the top three, we will need to raise money for the rest of the year for both squads to attend, Warren keeps quiet about the implications of having 2 squads attend the HSNCT. While VA A finishing in the top 3 is certainly doable, VA B doing the same is a lot more complicated, even more so if we want both squads to finish in the top 3.
So while Pablo isn't playing, he refrains from trying to assist his teammates, and instead looks at his stat line for the tournament.
He then just shops around for brake pads and fluid for the car Audrey's father drove to Eunice on his phone, while his teammates are fighting tooth-and-nail to clinch second place in their preliminary pool, since Catholic is virtually assured to finish first unless they collapse.
And yet, after, in Warren's mind, Nadine has outlived her usefulness for the game since the final literature tossup and bonus were heard, he calls for a timeout.
"Timeout!" Warren then opens the game room's door, looking for Pablo. "Pablo, you're going to play; Nadine is taken out of the game"
"What?" a surprised Pablo asks Warren before putting his phone away.
"There are four tossups left, and we need to protect a lead at every step; Nadine is of no use anymore!"
Pablo reluctantly gets seated where Nadine used to sit and finishes the game. Fingers crossed that I can actually answer any of the 4 remaining tossups, Pablo feels like he must prove that the substitution was worthwhile. However, even when he fails to contribute on the last 4 cycles, VA B wins nonetheless.
"I feel like the coach is doing substitutions like crazy, and doesn't know why he's substituting players sometimes!" Nadine vents her frustrations at being substituted out of the last preliminary game.
"The good news is, both squads are in the top bracket for the playoffs. The bad news is, every substitution counts from now on" Warren warns the B-team.
It's then that Pablo takes out the bags of coffee from his backpack to give to the other players on the B-team, feeling he'd have no other opportunity to do so before Christmas, since everyone on the team, except for Audrey, will mostly study in the coming week.
And yet, none of his teammates on the B-squad have opened their gift bags just yet. They just put these gift bags in their backpacks.
"You're in the same pool as I for the playoffs; good luck in the top pool" Audrey makes her wishes known to Pablo.
"Thank you"
While, as expected, VA A is either first or second, VA B, on the other hand, intensifies the substitution game and takes the most underperforming player out of the game at half-time. By the three-quarters mark of each game, another substitution is made. I know substitutions carry some risks, but in quiz bowl tournaments, substitutions allow for better management of player energy, Warren muses as VA B goes into their final playoff game with a 2-2 record.
"This is round ten of the LQBA Winter Invitational South. From Jefferson Davis Parish, we have Venomous Agendas B, from Orleans Parish, we have Benjamin-Franklin. Best of luck to both teams, here's tossup one..." the moderator starts the game with Pablo benched.
It appears that game is fought tooth-and-nail and, with one lass tossup to go, VA B is trailing by 20 points and Caleb is showing signs of fatigue.
"Timeout" Warren calls for one last substitution that he made a little too late.
For one tossup, the coach wants to take me out of play? Caleb's face turns red when he's getting substituted for Pablo.
"Tossup twenty: In Egyptian mythology, entering this mythical location requires crossing as many as twenty-one gates" the moderator starts reading the question, upon which their HSNCT hopes depend.
Gerard signals that he doesn't know the answer, which means either Lilina or Nadine would be likely to be left to answer it. Or Pablo if he was lucky.
"Eligibility to this location was determined by weighing the heart against an ostrich feather" the moderator keeps reading, locking Pablo into a buzzer race against an opposing player.
"Field of Reeds" the opponent answers after Pablo proved too slow to buzz in.
"Ten"
After this loss, Caleb screams at his coach, blaming him for a poor substitution.
"You shouldn't have taken me out of play! We could be at the HSNCT by now!" an angry Caleb turns red.
"That was pure bad luck!" Warren defends himself.
"Bad luck? Easy for you to say that it was pure bad luck!" Caleb is about to pick a fight with the coach over this substitution during the last game.
"You couldn't predict what the next question would be about!" Warren responds to him, seeing his angry player. "What's unlucky is that it had to happen under the worst circumstances possible"
"You know what? I leave this team!" Caleb makes his decision, angry that his coach made a mistake in a key game.
Upon hearing of Caleb's departure, the other B-team members, however, wonder how the rest of the season will play out without Caleb, and without substitutions.