On Sunday morning, the Venomous Agendas resume play, and the VAs are in the thick of the race to the playoffs. By now VA A is virtually assured of finishing in the top-100, while VA B has to win at least one game. In the elevator to their next game:
“Look at this: it seems like we’re anointed the future of VA quiz bowl in ways not even our MSNCT run together would have had!” Nadine comments to Lilina, with the latest parish newspaper story released on the HSNCT.
“And FTPFTC! Pre-HSNCT, they placed both of us among the top underclassmen in the nation!” Lilina responds to her teammate.
On the football field, I am the star on offense. On the buzzer, I am just secondary scoring. I’ll never rise to stardom in quiz bowl, because Nadine and Lilina both overshadow me, but maybe it’s for the best: high school sports stardom puts you under the spotlight for one-third of the year, quiz bowl stars are under the spotlight year-round. I can tell our core players are under immense pressure, but even I know that a good special topics player can make a difference, Pablo ruminates, not knowing what FTPFTC even is.
“Focus, everyone, and then we will play this afternoon!” Pablo tells the other 3.
VA B’s eighth prelim game is also played on a high floor, as some other games were yesterday. As they get seated, with Warren being their chaperone for even-numbered games:
“This is round fifteen of the Sunday prelims of the 2030 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. This game pits the fifteen card against the forty-two card. From Louisiana we have Venomous Agendas B, from Minnesota, we have Wayzata A. Best of luck to both teams, here’s tossup one:”
Florence shall be avenged! She caused the VAs to lose against Wayzata A, and hence get eliminated from the playoffs, but Flo was still a decent quiz bowler. However, the school staff mostly remembers her for her chronic debate underachievement, Warren keeps to himself as the first clue results in no one buzzing in.
“This phenomenon, in the X-ray band, is used to look for crystalline structure” the moderator reads as Pablo buzzes in.
“Diffraction!”
“Fifteen” the moderator then reads the preamble to the bonus the VAs earned.
We won against the VAs six years ago, we can do it again here today! Wayzata’s coach watches, powerless, the VAs answering the bonus parts as they come.
“A Streetcar Named Desire mostly takes place in this Louisiana city”
“New Orleans!” Nadine answers the bonus part in earnest.
“New Orleans is famous for this style of jazz music in the early twentieth century”
“Dixieland!” Nadine keeps answering.
“Thirty for the bonus, and here’s tossup two”
The first clue proves very obscure, so obscure that none of the VA players could even dare buzz in. And the pressure is on both teams to answer on the next clue. In short, VA makes Wayzata feel like victory will require them to score as many powers as possible.
And even powering questions won’t be the end of the story here! Lilina ruminates as the reading of the tossup’s second clue looms over everyone’s heads.
“During the Trieu Dynasty, this city was the capital of the Kingdom of Nanyue” the moderator reads the second clue before Wayzata’s history player buzzes in.
“Panyu!”
“Fifteen” the moderator rules, before giving out the preamble of the bonus Wayzata earned against VA.
Ouch! That was Lilina’s kind of question to answer. Fingers crossed that we get the next tossup; it’s still early in the game, Nadine ruminates while she anxiously awaits the next tossup. However, she knows, based on her experience at the MSNCT, that opposition gets harder as one racks up wins.
And yet, in Warren’s eyes, this game gives him the feeling of déjà vu. Presumably because even the first Wayzata-VA game six years ago had good back-and-forth play, too.
As with their first game six years ago, going into the final tossup, the VAs hold a ten-point lead over Wayzata. However, the only difference is the stakes are lower. And not just because both teams go into it with 5-2 records. Here winning the game means qualifying for the playoffs, rather than eliminating the loser. However, they know it’s not the end.
“Final tossup: Baudrillard argues this process transformed Los Angeles into a hyperreality” the moderator reads the first clue to players rolling their eyes.
Hyperreality? What makes Los Angeles a hyperreality? Nadine scratches her head, not suspecting that it may not even be a literature tossup at all.
“Charges of this process were levied against Venice when Venice started imposing entry fees in 2024” the moderator starts reading the second clue as the power mark draws near on this tossup.
What kind of process could Venice be charged with by imposing entry fees to enter its city limits? Venice is, yes, one of the most important tourist destinations of Italy, but still… Pablo starts ruminating about the implications of charging an entry fee to enter the city. Yet everyone is frantically trying to find an answer to this tossup. Wayzata’s players feel like they must power or not buzz in at all. As they buzz in:
“Gentrification!”
“Neg five. Historical centers of cities began to gain characteristics of theme parks under this process” the moderator keeps reading past the power mark.
But then it locks Lilina and the opposing special topics player into a buzzer race, especially when that clue sheds light on the previous one. Here’s our chance to carry the day and go into the playoffs! Lilina then slams the buzzer, ready to answer.
“Disneyfication!” Lilina answers.
“Ten. Pencil and paper ready” the last four words send dread towards the VA players who, because of Gerard’s mathletic background, give him a right of first refusal over PPRs.
We almost never heard a pencil and paper ready bonus, maybe once every five or six packets, Pablo realizes that there will at least one question requiring calculations. As the second bonus part begins:
“In a lake, algae bloom double in size every day, and it takes forty-five days to cover the entire lake. How long did it take to cover half the lake? You have ten seconds”
“Forty-four days!” Gerard answers.
“Algae blooms often cause die-offs of water fauna because of the depletion of this element”
“Oxygen” Pablo answers.
“Thirty for the bonus, and that’s the game. Score?” the moderator asks the scorekeeper.
“Venomous Agendas B three hundred eighty, Wayzata A three hundred twenty-five”
“Woohoo! We made it into the playoffs! We have one prelim game left to win!” Warren exclaims in front of the B-team. “And Florence has been avenged!”
“What happens if we win another prelim game?” Pablo asks the coach, not knowing the inner workings of the HSNCT.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Then the playoffs become a double-elimination tournament. We’ll be in a separate bracket until we lose one game”
“But why did you mention Florence being avenged in this game? What did she do, what history did she have against Wayzata?” a puzzled Nadine asks the coach.
“Flo only took part in two quiz bowl tournaments, but, as a quiz bowler, she is mostly remembered for causing a spectacularly Pyrrhic loss in the HSNCT playoffs, six years ago, against Wayzata, causing the VAs to finish twenty-fourth”
And costing Louisiana its first top-20 at the HSNCT in 20 years at the time, too. However, VA clearly dominated the post-pandemic Louisiana quiz bowling world, 4 state titles, three top-15s at the HSNCT, potentially a fourth top-15 if VA A makes it this deep this year, Warren keeps quiet about VA's place in Louisiana's quiz bowl history.
VA B has a half-hour break, during which VA A is playing its eighth game. Having won against Barrington A, VA A feels the pressure ratcheting up on them to keep winning, now that they are in the winners’ bracket. Especially when teams going 8-2 or better into the playoffs have first-round byes. And yet, their respective ninth prelim rounds are played simultaneously. On the fourth floor of the Marriott Marquis.
“Focus everyone. Now that we made it into the playoffs, we don’t need to pressure ourselves as much” Pablo tells his teammates going into round 9.
“Winning even one of the next two games would mean a lot to us!” Nadine adds.
In middle school, I could do my thing and I could fly under the radar. However, with the amount of attention lavished on the high school by the town’s residents, not sure I can handle being in the spotlight year-round, especially if we go deep in the playoffs. Obviously, for college, the deeper, the better, but with Trillian poised to become the Caitlin Clark of mathletics, I can fly under the mathletic radar next season. Was I playing anywhere else, I would keep flying under the radar, Gerard ruminates while he keeps hearing about his teammates pushing as hard as they can.
“This is round seventeen of the Sunday prelims of the 2030 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. This game pits the ten card against the fifteen card. From California, we have Mira Loma A and from Louisiana, we have Venomous Agendas B. Best of luck to both teams, and here’s tossup one”
The first tossup begins and... wow. Everyone is on edge since it seems like the obscurity of the clues has markedly increased. This no longer feels like the HSNCT anymore! This is even harder than Penn Bowl or ICT D2 packets! Pablo ruminates, while a clue that feels straight out of ACF Nationals, with obscurity to match, is thrown to, well, every team playing this round, across both hotels.
Already complaints about lack of difficulty consistency are being made to NAQT regarding this edition of the HSNCT, and the plaintiffs cover a wide cross-section of the field. Plaintiffs include DCC, Hunter, TJHSST at the top end, and even bottom-feeders like Sheboygan South, who, despite going into this round with a 2-6 record, still hangs on. However, the second clue seems to be a little more palatable to the players:
“Thoreau bemoans the lack of sophistication in the literature popular in Concord in this book” the moderator reads the second clue, which seems to decrease pretty starkly in difficulty.
Nadine buzzes in. “Walden!”
“Fifteen” the moderator rules.
Shoot! Here I am, at the HSNCT, clearly playing second fiddle to Lilina and Nadine! They are the ones poised to become VA’s stars on the buzzer for the next three and two seasons respectively! Pablo ruminates while he seems to be more useful on bonuses than on tossups. Like this one:
“This variety of activism seeks to use social or political justice causes for personal financial or political gain” the moderator reads the bonus part.
So while some activists are deeply passionate about the causes they advocate for, their supporters, on the other hand, might have ulterior motives. This bonus part is about this kind of activists, Pablo starts thinking about it, believing that it’s his chance not to be overshadowed by the two girls on his squad.
“Performative activism!” Pablo answers.
“Performative activism has been criticized by Lorde in the context of this movement, which took place after the death of George Floyd”
“Black Lives Matter” the whole team answers after feeling this bonus part is the easiest.
And yet, VA B lacked consistency late in games in this tournament. The few people in the room watching, as well as the players, all cross their fingers, and Mira Loma senses its path to victory still being open with one tossup to go, but VA B has a 35-point lead. So much for load management, the bus driver ruminates while the final tossup is being read.
“Tossup twenty…” the moderator starts reading the tossup, with a clue about baseball history that makes people roll their eyes. “This baseball position was historically considered hard to fill because of its emphasis on defense”
What’s the meaning of this? Baseball almost never appeared on quiz bowl packets! Well, sports in general don’t either, but… Pablo seems to be shaking in his seat, as this is deemed a “special topic” question as he has grown to understand quiz bowl. Over which he has a right of first refusal. But Gerard buzzes in.
“Catcher” Gerard answers.
“Neg five” the moderator rules. “A player at this position had the Mendoza Line named after him” the second clue is read while the Matadors’ (i.e. Mira Loma’s) special topics player buzzes in.
“Shortstop!”
“Fifteen”
Fingers crossed that the Matadors only score one bonus part. The Mendoza Line was, for many years, a mark of unacceptable batting by non-pitchers at the MLB level. However, Tanith was alright as shortstop in softball this season, both at bat and off the bat, the Matadors powering the tossup seems to send Pablo into a tailspin as he starts praying for Mira Loma to fail at this bonus.
Mira Loma answered one bonus part correctly, but the second one was incorrect. Going into the dying seconds of the game, it’s all down to one final bonus part as the buzzer rings.
“Metadata!” the Matadors’ science player answers.
“Twenty for the bonus, and that’s the game. Score?” the moderator asks the scorekeeper.
“Mira Loma A three hundred eighty-five, Venomous Agendas B three hundred eighty”
Shoot! We need to win one more game to get on the winners’ bracket! Nadine tells herself while awaiting the result of VA A’s ninth game. Audrey then comes to them with VA A in tow:
“We lost, four hundred sixty to two hundred eighty-five against Centennial A!” Audrey announces in tears, in front of VA B and hence Pablo.
“You still are seven-two, we are six-three” Pablo points out to his love interest before they let the implications of their final prelim games sink in.
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Meanwhile, in Lake Charles, Cora meets with her friends on the basketball court, with her phone on the HSNCT Companion App. She briefly checks it before getting another drill in with Carrie and Heather at a hoops camp.
“Cora, what are you looking at?” Carrie asks Cora.
“Our own teammate’s progress through the HSNCT! Audrey plays on the A-team”
“Tell me about the B-team, too…” Heather asks Cora at point-blank.
Damn it! While I knew Audrey played at the HSNCT, she’s forced to miss the LGR Takeover, and half the season of Bayou City Hoops Elite, our travel team, for it, Cora seems to be a little puzzled by the implications of Audrey missing half the AAU season because of quiz bowl.
“Damn! VA A is seven-two, VA B is six-three, hopefully VA A can go all the way!” Cora exclaims while she tunes in on the parish radio on mobile before the drill begins.
“I would have expected nothing less of Audrey; she has mega-geniuses for teammates. However, if I may, Cora, their opponents field mega-geniuses of their own” Carrie adds, before Cora picks up the ball and dribbles it.
“Yes, I know…” Cora sighs before shooting.
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Back in Atlanta, what Richard calls “mega-geniuses” are anxiously awaiting the results of the following round because their opponents aren’t immediately known. They are then mingling with other players from other teams for half an hour, while Nadine has an eye on the HSNCT Companion App.
When the time comes, VA A learns they are playing Mira Loma A, while VA B is playing Paideia. A few minutes before their scheduled games start:
“Oh god, you fell on Mira Loma A! Please, Audrey, avenge us!” Pablo implores Audrey. “We lost against Mira Loma A in our last game, and good luck then!”
Both teams dash towards their respective game rooms, VA A on the fourth floor of the Hilton Atlanta, while VA B plays in a conference room of the same hotel.
But here it seems like VA B feels the pressure ratcheting up on them, with every question. Well, Paideia, too, since both teams come into the game with 6-3 records, and both teams go in with a winners’ bracket spot at stake.
With one tossup to go in that game, the score is tied, 340-340. Both teams faced some of the fastest moderators of the tournament.
“Tossup number twenty-four: Isiah thirty-twenty-eight states that this biblical location’s radiance is fifty times that of Earth”
Fifty times the radiance of Earth? When I was begging money at church, one of the churchgoers told fellow parishioners that heaven was hotter than hell! There would be no other reason why heaven would be hotter than hell! Pablo is reminded of the masses he attended and begged money just so he could be competing here at the HSNCT.
However, by doing so, somehow, Paideia’s science player is locked into a buzzer race with Pablo and Lilina. The opportunity for a first-clue power is right there, tantalizingly within reach, and it seems like Pablo has been fastest on the buzzer.
“Heaven!” Pablo shouts.
“Fifteen. For ten points each, answer these questions about romantic poetry…”
Yes! Pablo scored a power when we needed it most! Nadine muses while the bonus is being read to the VAs. However, they fail to answer the first two bonus parts about poetry and it’s on them to score a part:
“Iambic pentameter!” Nadine answers.
“Ten for the bonus, and that’s the game. Score?” the moderator asks the scorekeeper.
“Paideia three hundred forty, Venomous Agendas B three hundred sixty-five!”
“We did it, we’re in the winners’ bracket, even though I just played my worst lit bonus all tournament!” Nadine exclaims.
At the same time, in the room where VA A was playing Mira Loma A, the final score is announced:
“Mira Loma A three hundred thirty-five, Venomous Agendas A three hundred seventy!”
“Woohoo! VA A has a playoff bye!” Myriam exclaims at the end of the game.