For the next two days, both high school teams start reading the latest in college quiz bowl packets, while the experience of being read college packets made Warren turn to "regular-plus" high school packets for middle schoolers.
But when the fundraiser begins on Thursday night, in a packed auditorium, many a VA fan attend in an attempt to see what they regularly hear about but never really saw first-hand, since VA never hosted a debate tournament, and they almost never watched quiz bowl either.
In Novi, however, the DCC fans in attendance are puzzled as to why they have rivals at the other end of the country, and why either Detroit Country Day or Cranbrook would have refused to play online exhibition LD games the way VA does tonight. With Marcia hosting online.
"Tonight's show features, first, the Lincoln-Douglas debate game. For the Venomous Agendas..." the principal names VA's LD player, and then explains the basics of LD to a crowd that's mostly clueless about it, other than VA playing it.
"I am Marcia, as the host, I will be the head judge for this game" She then states the topic for this game, which is simply the LD topic for January-February. "Heads, VA argues on the aff, tails, DCC will argue on the aff"
And... wow. DCC might have fielded its best player in the game, the one who won the LD state championship (or what passes for one), VA's player seems able to hold her own despite not being projected to represent Louisiana at Nats, while still being a decent debater nonetheless. However, the game is still close.
In both schools, people seemed to treat this game as a breath of fresh air, especially given how debates were treated in media. And drawing enough people in both towns to net them a few hundred dollars for their respective teams. However, it's clear as day to Marcia that VA draws a much bigger crowd than DCC.
When the debate game ends, Marcia announces the result...
"That was a close game. And the winner is: DCC!" Marcia announces as she readies the packet for the middle schoolers' game against DCC C, while the principal announces the middle school roster for that game.
That packet is actually from the latest Penn Bowl, one of the early regular-plus sets on the collegiate quiz bowl schedule. And man that's rough to watch for all parties involved. Even considering that Marcia's experience of moderating quiz bowl games came from past Penn Bowls.
Rough even for DCC C, whom Warren believed up to this point that the middle school team, codenamed VA C for the purposes of this card, could play against and still hold its own.
But what made it painful to play is that both teams needed to wait until the FTP clue to buzz in on a good chunk of tossups. Such as on this one:
"For ten points, name this type of force applied to objects in rotation" Marcia reads.
Josiane then buzzes in. "Torque"
"Ten" Marcia then proceeds to read the bonus VA's middle school team earned.
Not even that made the fans of either team feel like they should keep watching. There just didn't seem to be any power until late in the game but it's clear that both teams are in way over their heads playing on the 2029 Penn Bowl packet #1.
"Scholasticism!" DCC C's literature player answers.
"Fifteen"
Lilina gave me this free ticket so I can watch two teams struggling to answer paragraph-long questions? The LD game was already painful enough, but here both teams are struggling, George starts feeling like he's getting tired, as he's sitting right next to Dayton, who also doesn't seem to make heads of the questions. When the middle schoolers' game ends, the score is announced:
"And that's the game. DCC C one hundred and sixty-five, VA C one hundred twenty" Marcia announces the final score.
It really isn't our night... Josiane ruminates, while she is expected to be one of VA's best players at the MSNCT.
"It's up to us now, but I can't blame the middle schoolers for losing on a collegiate set" Nadine warns the B-team players, before the principal announces the players on both teams.
For some reason, the crowd goes wild when Lilina and Nadine both get on the stage, but Gerard seems to lack charisma. Even Pablo seems to have more charisma, but that's mostly because so many in town knew him primarily as a tight end.
"Holy Beggar!" Dayton shouts in the crowd.
"Venomous! Agendas!" Tyler starts shouting even though the band doesn't perform today.
The atmosphere is a little down in VA's auditorium, even with the B-team girls drawing lots of attention. And so many in the crowd cross their fingers to see, perhaps, the B-team able to do better than the middle schoolers, who were thrown into the deep end. And even win against DCC B.
"Are questions always this hard in quiz bowl?" Dayton asks Marcia, feeling that something is amiss.
"No. This is a lot harder, and this is the kind of questions that can come up in events used to qualify for college national championships; actual high school quiz bowl isn't that hard. The reason why I picked Penn Bowl packets was because just sticking to high school sets would limit what players get out of quiz bowl"
Everyone on the B-team is a little nervous because the spotlights are on them, especially after losing both the debate game and the first quiz bowl game.
"Tossup one" Marcia signals the start of the game played between the B-teams.
As with packet #1 earlier, here, since the B-teams play on packet #2 of the same Penn Bowl set, everyone is dumbfounded by the earliest 2 clues, first about the ecclesiastical history of the answer and then about Taposiris Magna being a ruined town on the former shore of the answer. When the power mark approaches...
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"Lake Mariut!" Lilina buzzes in.
"Fifteen" Marcia rules, dumbfounding the crowd, when the VA fans seem bewildered that they can power such tossups after all.
It's not just more obscure clues, it's also more obscure answer lines, too, Audrey reflects on this entire experience of other VAs playing on the Penn Bowl set, and what awaits her about half an hour later.
However, here, it wasn't like a MSNCT team facing off against a third-string team of a high school powerhouse. It's a tight game, despite the questions being perhaps a little on the hard side for college regular-season quiz bowl, and harder than they expect from the HSNCT.
And yet, well past half-time, VA B has an opportunity to carry the game out of reach of DCC B, as they hold a 20-point lead as of tossup nineteen.
"Tossup nineteen: Black smokers are a natural occurrence of this state of matter on Earth" Marcia reads the first clue of the tossup.
Ugh... what's a black smoker? A confused Pablo wonders as the second clue about an application of the answer is read to powerless audiences, both in Novi and at VA.
As the power mark is fast approaching, everyone starts thinking furiously about clues that, up to this point, seemed to decrease in difficulty only slightly. And, once they fail to power it:
"Baron Charles Cagniard de la Tour discovered this phase of matter through his cannon barrel experiment" Marcia reads past the power mark, when Gerard buzzes in.
"Supercritical fluid!" Gerard shouts.
"Ten"
The game is not over yet, we need to answer two of the three bonus questions correctly, and victory is assured, Pablo ruminates as Marcia reads them the bonus. It turns out that the first part is actually the hardest part and, as such, VA B doesn't convert it. The second part proves the bonus equivalent of an FTP clue and, as such, they handily convert it.
"Baroque" Nadine answers the question in earnest.
"This Spanish writer was known in Baroque times for his ability to mass-produce plays" Marcia reads the final bonus part.
Normally it's the job of either Nadine or Lilina to answer these questions, but they signaled that they don't know the answer, Pablo is thrown into a loop, while the clock is ticking on the VAs. It doesn't make any sense! Their knowledge holes seem a little... random at times.
"Lope de Vega" Pablo answers the final bonus part.
"Twenty on the bonus, tossup twenty" Marcia reads the final tossup as the VAs' lead increase to 50 points.
The Shamrocks (i.e. DCC players) start panicking when they see that both teams are unable to power the question. However, as they get well past the power mark, one of them buzzes in without intending to, causing Lilina to lose a buzzer race against DCC B's history player in that tossup.
"Peoples of the Sea" DCC B's history player buzzes in.
"Ten..." Marcia then starts reading the final bonus of this game.
Too little, too late for DCC B, Audrey keeps to herself as the Shamrocks somehow convert 2 bonus parts of their own, whereas the previous teams rarely converted more than one part per bonus. As the second game ends...
"And that's the game. DCC B two hundred thirty-five, VA B two hundred fifty-five" Marcia announces the final result.
"You might not be the best quiz bowler in the world, but you're clutch" Audrey tells Pablo after the final result of the second game is announced.
"Thank you" Pablo tells her as he leaves the stage. "Good luck for this game"
I'm still the worst player on VA B, Pablo feels bittersweet about this game because the game had clues that are too hard for most and his girlfriend is about to play the next packet in the latest Penn Bowl set. While the parish pays for transportation to Atlanta, it's only a small fraction of the total cost of HSNCT attendance the parish is really saving us.
The principal starts introducing VA's A-team players in alphabetical order of last names as they prepare their buzzer apps. "Myriam Gency, Audrey Halista..."
And then, as with the game between the B-teams, the game proves tight. However, not even the A-teams feel like this set is appropriate for them. Nevertheless, they keep trucking along, enduring tossups whose clue obscurity far exceeds what they were used to.
"Third-wave feminism takes this concept into account, noting the lack of attention paid to it by earlier feminists" Marcia reads the first tossup of packet #3 past the power mark.
Earlier feminists were mostly white and cisgender. These clues scream intersectionality to me, since it feels like you need to add race, gender identity and socioeconomic status at a minimum, Audrey thinks before buzzing in.
"Intersectionality!" Audrey shouts.
"Ten" Marcia rules before reading the bonus VA A has earned.
And yet, this game feels as close to a clash between the two teams would feel like at the HSNCT as is feasible with a collegiate regular-plus set. By half-time, DCC scores a power against the VAs, one word shy of the power mark:
"Its construction revealed serious issues about French cultural policy in the..." Marcia reads the tenth tossup before being interrupted by DCC A buzzing in.
"Pompidou Center!" DCC A's arts and lit player buzzes in.
"Fifteen"
It's only half-time, we might be trailing now, but we must not panic, Audrey muses, while DCC answers this bonus. By the end of the bonus, and, with it, half-time, VA A is trailing.
Nine tossups later, VA A is still trailing by the same margin it began the second half. We won't let DCC get away with the game! Myriam starts burning with rage going into the tossup, feeling that victory is within the VAs' grasp.
"Final tossup" Marcia signals both teams as she starts reading it.
All we have to do is to power the tossup, or answer it correctly plus one bonus part, Audrey seems to be crushed by the scoring implications of this tossup. However, since the first clue seems to reference a research paper, no one on either team appears willing to hazard a guess.
The words appear to be ticking on both teams as clues progress and get easier. Still the third clue makes both teams a little uneasy, but not as much as the first two. Yet, the power mark passes them by, before the following clue is read:
"When a cell can no longer perform this function, it may enter either senescence, apoptosis or uncontrolled cell division" Marcia reads the first clue past the power mark, before the FTP on it.
Apoptosis? Isn't that some cell suicide triggered on some signal? What kind of signal, probably under the form of an enzyme, would then be sent? Audrey starts thinking of AP Bio material, while Myriam signals that she isn't ready to buzz in. The other two VAs playing give up. Uncontrolled cell division might happen with genetic defects, Audrey is then locked in a buzzer race with DCC A's science player.
"DNA repair!" Audrey scores her only science tossup for the game.
"Ten" Marcia rules.
As of right now, the VAs are tied. All they need is to answer one part correctly in this bonus and they can win the game in front of their own fans. In the meantime, Shamrock fans start praying that the VAs donut (i.e. fail to answer any bonus part correctly) the game's final bonus.
As for the bonus itself, it feels as if the VAs are stumped on the first two parts, and they are making prayers of their own. That the final bonus part turns out to be the easiest part on this bonus. And certainly Pablo, too. And the more religious VA fans as well.
And they all know that, as much as topics can be distributed in any order, bonus part difficulty can also be distributed in any order. As the clock ticks on them to answer, Myriam feels forced to answer the final bonus part.
"Death of a Salesman!" Myriam screams in the nick of time, and as if she was venting her anger towards Marcia.
"Ten for the bonus, and that's the game. VA A wins, three hundred to two hundred ninety" Marcia announces the result.
What players on DCC C, the middle school team, and Pablo as well, only start realizing is that playing quiz bowl to crowds that size would happen only in the later rounds of the HSNCT (and maybe the MSNCT for the middle schoolers). It dawned on them that nearly every quiz bowl tournament was played to crowds the players could count on their hands.
The principal receives a text message from the secretary, who's in charge of the financial aspects of the show, about the amount of money raised from it.
"Now that we have received confirmation that our revised fundraising target is met for the HSNCT, thank you and have a good night" the principal closes the show.