In the coming days, juniors are busy studying for the upcoming state-sponsored ACT date, and using whatever tutors they can lay their hands on, mostly other students. Of course, the juniors on all academic teams already took the test at least once, as did Bart and Malcolm, so they can approach the test with confidence.
However, with the quiz bowl team holding one last practice prior to quiz bowl-State, Warren has news for the high school roster at quiz bowl-State at the end of the practice:
“The middle school team stays together for State, but for high school, since there are as many as six players who are good enough to contribute at State, but we can only have four of them playing at any time. We have no choice but to enter all six in our roster!”
“Coach, the A-team is a given, but who, on the B-team, do you feel can contribute at State?” Pablo asks him.
“Because the ninth-graders on the B-team will have opportunities to play at State later in their careers, they won’t play at State this year!”
“Coach, I feel like I’ve been thrown into the lions’ pit by playing at State!” Cora complains, feeling like her lack of quiz bowl experience might cost VA games at State.
“Three months ago, you were, like…” Audrey then starts speaking in a falsetto tone. “Oh, I’m so not going to play at the HSNCT, I’ll get the daylights beaten out of me! Yet, here you are today, playing at State and at the HSNCT, and you managed to play better than I would ever have imagined a basketball player doing quiz bowl simply to let their body recover!”
“But you must remember that, at State, not everyone will be like ESA or Catholic… and yet, you were on a squad that beat them both, scoring the final bonus part that even made us play at the HSNCT!” Gerard harangues a Cora on the verge of panicking.
“This means that we shouldn’t have two basketball players in active play, and ideally, no one will hear every tossup either!” Warren announces to the six players playing at quiz bowl-State. “Also, Cora, I can guarantee you that some teams at State will have worse players than even you!”
The question is: what makes Cora so neurotic around quiz bowl? It’s becoming a nightmare for me! I wonder how Audrey could endure her neuroticism, other than it being confined to quiz bowl! As with Audrey, in the days after the big win, she was a little tired, Pablo counts his blessings of not being on Cora’s squad.
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On Saturday, as soon as they arrive in Dutchtown, in a minibus the parish let the quiz bowl team use for State with three designated guests in tow, the field for State’s large schools division is revealed, along with the pools.
“Since history is Lafayette’s greatest strength, Nadine is benched, and Audrey, too. Gerard and Cora will start the game. One more thing, please turn off any electronic devices, even if you don’t start the game!” Warren warns his players before they take up positions.
The designated guests, Ethan, Malcolm and George, must turn off their electronic devices as well, and study for the ACT as they did in the bus. To the extent they can do so with the moderator asking the questions, and they know they shouldn’t answer these themselves.
“This is round one of the 2031 LQBA State Championship, large schools division. From Lafayette Parish, we have Lafayette, from Jefferson Davis Parish, we have the Venomous Agendas. Best of luck to both teams and here’s tossup one: ZZZZ Best committed this type of crime to launch an initial public offering”
Why ZZZZ Best? Pablo struggles to think about what ZZZZ Best even did, and no one else had any clue about this corporation’s existence on either side.
“It has been theorized that employees most likely to commit these crimes against their employers are in the C-suite” the second clue is read to dazed and confused players.
Why the C-suite? This sounds like a financial crime! Cora’s mind leaps into action and she buzzes in after hearing the words C-suite.
“Financial crimes!” Cora shouts.
“Prompt” the moderator rules, giving her three seconds to give a more precise answer.
She starts sweating as the clock ticks on her, and her brain starts to heat because of her burst of mental speed. Theft? No...
“F... fraud?” a shaky Cora formulates the best answer she possibly can in 3 seconds.
“Fifteen!”
Phew! I wonder if this question really is representative of what the HSNCT is like, Cora ruminates while she doesn’t realize that State runs on SCT Division II questions. That is, college questions, albeit introductory ones, or maybe a step above that.
But while VA handily wins the first game despite putting Cora and Gerard to play, before the second game starts, Warren makes another substitution:
“Against South Lafourche, who are best at literature and special topics, Lilina, you’re benched. And, Cora, too” Warren announces who starts for VA in the second game. “Nadine, Audrey, you’re both playing”
“What did I do to get benched?” Cora asks, her head hunched upon hearing that she’s benched for the second game, and her tone of voice has gotten whinier. “I still played well in the last game!”
“You said it so yourself that you played well. This means you must get rest for you to keep playing at that level, especially since questions at State are noticeably harder!”
When will I be benched? What kind of opponent would be necessary for the coach to bench me? An opponent that’s relatively weak in science? Pablo starts feeling like Warren acts more like a football or basketball coach at State than in the regular season.
But then came this tossup near the half-way mark of the game. Believing that geography is a special topic, the way he understood quiz bowl special topics, he feels like he needs to win a buzzer race against the Tarpons to ensure he won’t be benched.
“Tossup ten: The American exclave of Point Roberts borders this Canadian province”
Believing he knows the answer, Pablo buzzes in. “Ontario”
“Neg five”
Drat! I could have gotten the answer if it wasn’t of Pablo buzzing in too fast! Audrey ruminates as the moderator keeps reading clues. However, South Lafourche feels they can’t answer until well after the power mark.
“For ten points, name this province whose largest city shares a name with an island on which this city isn’t”
“BC”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Ten”
South Lafourche ends up scoring all 3 bonus parts, making VA lead by only 10 points at half-time. A score check is made at half-time and the score is announced then:
“And that’s the half. South Lafourche one hundred seventy, Venomous Agendas one hundred eighty”
Warren then turns to Pablo. “Pablo, you’re benched for the second half of the game!”
“One bad neg can happen to anyone, in any given game. What makes this neg any different?” Pablo asks, before the coach designates Cora to play.
“Cora, you’re back into play”
This isn’t a case of me having played too much, unlike football! Looks like negging at bad moments can bench someone, Pablo mopes about what led him to inexplicably buzz in so early in the tossup as Cora gets seated next to Audrey. In quiz bowl, as in football, taking risks might be part of the game, but sometimes risks don’t pan out.
But at the same time, the Tarpons make their substitutions at half-time. So while Lafayette didn’t make substitutions in the previous game, South Lafourche did.
When that game ends, Pablo briefly comes together with Audrey:
“Cora might be a neurotic player who can somewhat contribute, but how do you feel about playing with her?” Pablo asks Audrey.
“As you said, she can contribute, but it doesn’t feel the same as playing with you. You bring out the best of me on the buzzer, the way Gerard or Nadine can’t”
“It seems like this game of substitutions is throwing us off our game!” Nadine whines about how these substitutions impact her.
“Now, because you guys were used, in the regular season, to play on the same squads for entire tournaments, this game of substitutions might feel a little unnatural to you” Warren harangues his high school players. “Don’t worry, there won’t be any of these substitutions at the HSNCT, since, once again, we have both squads. However, this year, we have good depth, and we want to make the most out of it at State!”
But why is it that the coach saw fit to put in Cora and especially Gerard at State? Gerard is getting outplayed by Cora; I wonder what made him perform so poorly. Does he have some issues he’s trying to hide? Pablo is a little puzzled by why the coach put in at State. I can kind of feel like he wants Gerard winning State for reasons unrelated to the actual quiz bowl. Same with Cora.
“Gerard, it’s clear you underperformed during the last game, so you’re not starting the third game. As for you, Cora, you don’t match up too well against our next opponents. Lilina, Pablo, you’re back into play!”
Yet, here it seems like, at this tournament, VA always faces the best possible squads their opponents can field. Which, in the regular season, mostly amounted to playing their A-teams if schools fielded more than one squad. When the preliminary results are finalized, no one is surprised that, even with Warren shuffling players around between high school games, VA is undefeated.
“Woohoo! VA is at the top of the preliminary pool! It was an effort of all six players that made it possible!” Warren tells his players, while Thomas, the bus driver and chaperone of the middle school team, tells him of where the middle schoolers stand.
“And, because there are ten middle school teams entered at State, the tournament has nine games, but we are undefeated going into game number six” Thomas reports.
As expected, we have Jesuit, Catholic, Caddo Magnet and Benjamin-Franklin in the top pool. However, we know Benjamin-Franklin and Archbishop Rummel both being hungry for a HSNCT berth, Warren muses while the VAs make their way to the game room where they are going to play Archbishop Rummel. A team whom they beat at LQBA Fall and Winter.
And yet, after eating lunch, VA cruises through Archbishop Rummel and Benjamin-Franklin. As they did Catholic, too. However, Gerard’s playtime has dropped sharply into the playoffs, only getting some playtime against Archbishop Rummel and Catholic.
But then comes Caddo Magnet, who, at half-time, comes within 20 points of VA. For some reason, Pablo didn’t start that game.
“Time to rest, Lilina!” Warren then designates Pablo to take her place, and get seated next to Audrey. “Pablo! You’re in”
Why is it that the coach started playing this endless game of substitutions now? Never was I substituted in or out of games like this! I get that Audrey, Cora and Pablo are more used to being substituted in and out of games because of their respective sports, Lilina ruminates while she is taken out of play. In mathletics, you play a tournament in full or not at all.
Then this question causes Caddo Magnet to start panicking:
“Tossup fourteen: This Spanish figure was sent by Sancho II to bring Alfonso VI to the negotiating table”
Sensing, as Pablo did earlier, the need to beat their opponents to a buzzer race, even against a Lilina-less VA, the Mustangs’ history player buzzes in prematurely.
“Magellan!” the Mustangs’ history player answers, his hands shaking.
“Neg five. He was brought back to the Leon fold after a crushing Christian defeat…” the second is read with the power mark fast approaching.
Pablo then buzzes in. “El Cid!”
“Fifteen”
After the resulting bonus, which crushed the spirits of the Mustangs, their coach calls a timeout.
“Timeout!” the Mustangs’ coach calls before Caddo Magnet turns to its bench. “Because you caused us to lose the lead, you’re benched for the rest of the game!”
Their history player is then replaced by their substitute player, in hopes that it will motivate the Mustangs, who suffered losses to VA at Tal Atkins, to regain the lead.
Speaking of lead, the Mustangs regained it, but even that substitution didn’t seem to be enough to definitely square the game away for them. However, since the VAs feel they can realistically win the final game, they focus solely on the bonus, since they can win the game and possibly a consecutive state title on this bonus. Especially since there are only 15 points separating Caddo Magnet from VA.
“For ten points each, answer these questions about greed in literature. This Steinbeck novella is about a diver who finds a gigantic specimen of its namesake object”
Nadine buzzes in. “The Pearl”
“A character in this Zola novel pushes small neighborhood stores out of business”
To that, however, no one had any clue of what to answer, with the clock ticking in on them, only that the survival of small businesses is an older theme than they originally thought.
“Time, The Ladies’ Delight. This Molière play’s titular character offers to lend money to his son on usurious terms”
I knew Molière often made fun of sins, but… damn it, it has to do with greed somehow! Pablo sweats, also feeling the clock ticking in on him, while even Nadine would somehow be confused enough not to buzz in. Which he does nonetheless.
“The Miser!”
“Twenty for the bonus, and that’s the game. Caddo Magnet three hundred fifty, Venomous Agendas three hundred fifty-five!”
And, of course, with VA winning their last playoff game, the awards ceremony comes, with the middle schoolers coming in first:
“And the 2031 LQBA middle school state champions, the Venomous Agendas!” the LQBA president announces.
That was… predictable, Marissa thinks, while on stage to pose with the rest of the team, realizing that VA won middle school quiz bowl-State once again. Especially since VA won all the middle school state titles since LQBA even introduced a middle school division at State.
Then comes the small schools division, won by ESA, and, of course, the large high schools division.
“And the 2031 LQBA large high school state champions, the Venomous Agendas!”
Then the group photo has six players, of which 3 are wearing the purple-and-green jerseys of their respective sports teams, and Warren, too.
After the individual awards are handed out, top scorer and power prizes, Susan approaches Audrey and Cora.
“Hey, Audrey, congrats on you guys winning both basketball and quiz bowl state titles!” Susan comments on VA winning.
“How did Lacassine even get to play at quiz bowl-State?”
“We had to go in shorthanded, with three players, and then apply for the wildcards of the small schools division, which virtually no one wants. They let us use the buzzer, but we had to pay for all other expenses out of pocket” Susan then turns to Cora. “Cora, I never expected you to play quiz bowl!”
“I only did it to give my poor body a break, but then my brain couldn’t catch one” Cora explains herself.
Oh boy. Lacassine was demolished in science, finishing the tournament 3-6, even if I had to ramp up my studies in that field. However, how the hell did quiz bowl become fashionable to play in the basketball circuit? Susan then returns to her team’s car, as the VAs return to the minibus with their designated guests that did nothing but schoolwork and quiet support.
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On Monday morning, it seems that, for some reason, the debate team has its turn before the quiz bowl one:
“It appears that the debate team had a disappointing end to its season: while our outgoing senior finished last in the POI final at the state qualifier, I, on the other hand, finished fourth in the Senate division of Congressional debate” Tanith then hands off to other debate players.
Now I understand why Tanith couldn’t make the trip! The debate state championship was held at the same time! Pablo has a flash in his mind, while Josiane and Nadine jointly deliver the quiz bowl announcement.
“VA has won the middle school state title in quiz bowl for the fourth year in a row!” Josiane hands off to Nadine.
“And VA also successfully defended the large high school quiz bowl state title!” Nadine then returns to her classroom.