At the lunch table, in some restaurant around the competition site, the VA athletes check their email inboxes for news from colleges. Like Pablo, who got an email from the special teams coach at Richmond, who’s also responsible for tight ends.
Unlike a lot of Division I-bound prospects, who choose for whom to play based mostly on football factors, you take academics seriously, so you’re a good fit for Richmond’s coaching culture. We love your game, which made you one of the key players who kept a 4-6 team afloat in a tough state. On behalf of Richmond’s football team, I hereby offer you a full ride to the University of Richmond, Pablo reads Richmond’s email, realizing that he had no luck with NWU, Duke or Vanderbilt. At least not yet.
“Woohoo! All I really need to seal the deal with Richmond is knowing the playing time I’ll get. I know that, since Richmond is in the Patriot League, the competition will be much tougher than in the Ivy League, but at Cornell, I know what playing time I will get” Pablo then forwards the email from Richmond to his dad.
“As for me, I have been issued an invitation to play, all-expenses-paid, at the inaugural Vans All-Academic Game!”
“Vans? Are you talking about the same Vans that sponsors the VMC?” Lilina asks, her eyes wide open. “Their shoes aren’t made for playing basketball on!”
“Yes, and I’m invited to play at the Vans All-Academic Game, too! They picked twenty of the best rising senior boys and girls each, with the added criteria of the academic index and the strength of academic schedule as a first step” Cora explains how both Audrey and her even got to play at the Vans All-Academic Game.
“One might be wondering what the cutoff academic index is to even play at the Vans All-Academic Game!” Pablo asks the two hoopers.
“My guess is about the medium band for Harvard, and not just because it’s played at Lavietes Pavilion at Harvard!” Audrey answers.
Jesus! The question is: how much of a drop in talent would the need for such high academic records yield, when compared to the top hoops talent? We all know top boys basketball talent just isn’t going to get to, like, 3.95/1500, or its ACT equivalent, not even close! These two will certainly get meaningful minutes but beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess, Pablo starts thinking of what the players would really be like at that game. Like Jeremy Lin’s high school self at best.
At the end of the meal, and before the playoff cards can be picked up, Pablo makes a confession with Audrey:
“Promise me that, if I sign at Richmond, you will as well!” Pablo tells her. “The past two years have been some of the happiest days of my life, quiz bowl or not!”
“By now, you know that Richmond can’t expect much out of the transfer portal in football, since a lot of the top talent tended to do what is called majoring in eligibility, and even then, will rarely meet Richmond’s standards for transfer athletes” Audrey explains to him. “So that’s a yes from me. Please be advised that, if we both sign on with Richmond, neither of us will be able to play quiz bowl in college”
“No big deal, really” He prepares to kiss her. “Quiz bowl won’t pay our bills, our sports will, especially through NIL. However, did you receive an offer from Richmond?”
“Yes, last night. As I told you a while ago, there’s nothing wrong with playing FCS football, no more than there’s anything wrong with me not playing for a Power-Six: there’s always the transfer portal if you play well”
As they kiss each other, Audrey comes to a grim realization. Playing for Richmond will mean that I will be playing against a Carrie-led Rhode Island! Assuming that she doesn’t flunk out of URI freshman year...
But then Nadine realizes that, while she hears about where her athlete teammates could be headed in college, she has yet to even think of where to attend. More than the other rising seniors on the team, my collegiate prospects are tied to how we perform at the HSNCT. Which is perhaps why I cared more about winning here than my teammates, especially when it feels like an arms race of achievement these days. And yet, I face the same dilemma as my predecessors: the allure of elite colleges is very enticing, but at the same time, maybe some non-elite college might be a better fit. Which one is going to be the better fit will depend on my level of comfort with not always being the best academically, as well as my goals after graduation.
“It’s normal to be insecure about college. Our opponents are just as insecure as you are. As much as VA might be the kind of school where we as faculty try to ensure that where you go after graduation won’t define you, and our quiz bowling successes are due to us having fewer stressors on hand, by now you know how rarefied the quiz bowling world really is” Warren tries to allay his players’ concerns.
“True, quiz bowl attracts high achievers, but I am not performing so hot in class!” Gerard whines.
“At the HSNCT, you’re an academic outlier” an opposing coach of a playoff team overhears Gerard and comments. “Often outliers of your kind are specialists”
When the card assignment is made, VA A holds the 7 card, and VA B holds the 11 card. Which means that they aren’t going to play each other for a bit.
“Remember, Cora, two losses and you’re out!” Nadine warns her teammate.
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The people left behind at home, such as George and Malcolm, look at the liveblog to follow both teams at the HSNCT. And cross their fingers that either team gets filmed by NAQT. Otherwise, they use the HSNCT Companion App to follow the results of the tournament.
“Woohoo! VA A wins against Norcross!” George exclaims, while VA B hasn’t finished its first playoff game.
“VA B lost against Chattahoochee A!” Malcolm, a little ashamed, tells his football teammate. “I really hope my girlfriend isn’t a liability as a quiz bowler!”
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But their second playoff game comes and both VA squads, even though it’s now do-or-die for the B-team, keep winning games. Chattahoochee A and IMSA for the A-team, Archbishop Mitty A, and DCC B for the B-team.
In round 25, it’s VA A’s turn to lose, against Maggie Walker A, but VA B finds a way to win against TJHSST B in a nail-biting game, much like their game against Archbishop Mitty A.
Back in Atlanta, the players look at each other’s cards and they realize that something isn’t right.
“Don’t tell me that I am dreaming! We are playing each other in the same game!” Cora gasps, realizing that VA B is going to play VA A.
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“We must get to the control room immediately!” Pablo asks both squads.
Upon arriving at the control room, believing there are irregularities in the card system and hence feel it’s too early to be playing each other in the elimination bracket, they ask to clear up the confusion. The response from NAQT’s management is clear:
“It’s just bad luck that you got there long before the possibility of a game pitting two teams from the same school became a possibility. However, because of the matchup, the game is scheduled to be played in the grand ballroom, in front of the camera!” the HSNCT’s director rules to both teams.
Is that it? Bad luck? Warren ruminates as both teams are herded into the Marquis Ballroom, under the eyes of hundreds of people, eliminated contestants and other hotel guests who just attend games at the HSNCT. And, of course, no one expected VA B to go on a tear and climb to the top-20.
“Before the game begins, know that it will be rough, but it was due to happen sooner or later. That one of the squads will be eliminated. Regardless of what happens next, this is shaping up to be one of the best seasons of VA quiz bowling: the good news is that one squad will climb to the top ten” Warren explains to both squads before they get seated.
With the camera going live momentarily, both teams get seated, and they went through these intra-team clashes in the regular season several times. The main difference is the presence of actual spectators in the game, since most regular season games are played to no crowds at all.
“This is round twenty-six, the sixth playoff round of the 2031 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. This is an elimination bracket game between the six card and the eighteen card. From Louisiana, we have Venomous Agendas A and B. The winner of this game will continue the tournament, and the loser finishes tied for thirteenth place. Best of luck to both teams, and here’s tossup one: This German city was the seat of the Reichsgericht during the Second and Third Reichs” the moderator reads the first tossup.
No one on either team had any clue what the Reichsgericht’s actual significance was to the Second and Third Reichs, and hence appeared unwilling to buzz in.
“It was the major target of the first day of the Big Week in World War II”
Eek… what the hell are these questions? Lilina starts getting restless, as is the male freshman on the B-team, who normally answers history questions. With the power mark being exhausted, the next clue is given.
“During the Napoleonic Wars, a massive battle known as the Battle of Nations…” the moderator gets interrupted by a player.
Lilina buzzes in. “Leipzig!”
“Ten” the moderator then reads the preamble to the bonus VA A earned with this answer.
But rapidly, the next tossup makes players nervous, since VA B wants to show on what feels, to everyone involved, like playing on national TV, that they can actually play on national TV:
“Tossup two: This novel’s protagonist served four years for manslaughter and hitches a ride on a truck with farm hands”
The female freshman buzzes in. “The Grapes of Wrath”
“Fifteen”
Ouch. I can’t know everything, and neither can the B-teamers. Other A-teamers from major quiz bowl powers I understand being beaten to a tossup against, but a B-team freshman? Why is it that it’s only now that it fazes me? Is it the stakes getting much higher now than they did during the regular season? Nadine seems more humbled about this experience than any other experience of being beaten to a literature tossup by someone younger than herself. Not that it didn’t happen before, though.
Oh boy. Because both sides know that the other can punish any mistake made, they try to avoid negging and, as such, this quiz bowl game plays out like a chess game with buzzers. Unscripted, but not necessarily the most entertaining show in the world.
And, while the players might feel like they are playing on national TV, the cold, hard truth is that the audience’s nationwide character of NAQT’s livestream is only reflected in the locations of the viewers. There are only a few hundred people watching the game at most, and they seem to power quite a bit of tossups, often scored during buzzer races, while negging very little.
Yet, as Gerard goes into the last tossup until halftime, his hand shakes, making him a loose cannon for the B-team. Making everyone on the B-team cross their fingers that he doesn’t accidentally buzz in.
“Here’s tossup twelve: Microwave thermal treatment transforms this mineral into porcelain and ceramic”
Eww... What kind of question is this? Gerard appears, more than ever, willing to throw up. However, his willingness to throw up doesn’t translate to willingness to buzz in.
“This material was used in car brakes...” the moderator reads, interrupted by Pablo mid-clue.
Car brakes? I gave my teammate Audrey car brakes after being driven to a quiz bowl tournament! Pablo tries to think of what material was previously used in car brakes but the question wording implies it can no longer be used for that application.
“Asbestos!” Pablo answers at the end of the 3 seconds allotted.
“Fifteen”
Once the halftime signal is given, it’s then that Gerard leaves the stage in search of a toilet to vomit in. And yet, the lead the A-team holds is only fifty points at this stage.
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Even though the viewers come from all over the country, or at least the regions where pyramidal quiz bowl is played, by far the largest cluster of viewers for that game is in Jefferson Davis Parish. Pablo’s parents watch NAQT’s livestream with other parents of quiz bowlers:
“Finally, a chance to watch our son playing quiz bowl!” Pablo’s mom tells the other parents.
“If you told me last year that our daughter would get this deep at the HSNCT, I wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, here we are, and VA is one question away from a second top-ten in a row!” Cora’s mom is awed by her own daughter being the best player in that game.
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But by some trick of fate, VA A is somehow tied against VA B with one tossup to go. The entire game, an entire season, boiling down to one question.
“Tossup twenty-four: This Mesopotamian myth involves the titular character casting a spell to unify the languages of the world”
Oof. Even I don’t remember much about Mesopotamian mythology, which is not often asked about in quiz bowl. Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythology are asked about much more often, Nadine ruminates, when they seem to have hit a blind spot.
“Both the titular character and the Lord of Aratta engage in battle using magic-using champions”
It’s then that the tension of the game appears to be heating up. The two basketball players appear locked into a buzzer race, as if they were bigs fighting over the ball in the initial tip-off of a basketball game. However, neither was willing to buzz in.
“The titular character invents writing in response to his messenger’s complaints”
Nadine beats the basketball players locked into a stalemate. “Enmerkar!”
“Ten. For ten points each, answer these questions about NCAA penalties. A school can be penalized for simply hiring a coach for whom this penalty is in effect”
Because Lilina and Nadine both signal they don’t know the answer, it falls on the couple to answer the bonus part, and maybe even the whole bonus.
“Show-cause penalty!” Pablo answers near the end of the 5 seconds allotted.
“Violations leading to coaches committing them getting show-cause penalties can prevent their teams from playing in this type of event”
“Postseason ban!” Audrey shouts.
“This penalty can be assessed to programs for even more severe violations than those warranting postseason bans only” the moderator reads the final bonus part.
This must be used only for exceptional kinds of violations, Pablo thinks of what such a penalty could be used for. Postseason bans are used for pretty big team-wide violations, and only shutting down the whole program…
“Death penalty!” Pablo shouts in turn.
“Thirty on the bonus, and that’s the game. Score?” the moderator turns to the scorekeeper.
“VA A three hundred eighty-five, VA B three hundred forty-five”
“VA B finishes tied for thirteenth place!” VA B’s players walk out from the stage, their heads hunched after incurring a close loss.
But VA A’s next opponent, Amador Valley, drives home the heavy morale cost of their previous win. Spent of relentlessly playing through multiple opponents of ever-increasing strength, VA A’s run through the tournament ends without VA A ever leading at any point in the game.
The result hits VA A like a truck, half an hour after this harrowing game against VA B:
“And that’s the game. Score?”
“Amador Valley four hundred ten, VA two hundred forty”
“VA finishes tied for eighth place!”
Ouch. VA was in a “win-now mode” in quiz bowl, and our only improvement came under the form of VA B finishing thirteenth rather than twenty-first! Warren ruminates after seeing VA A lose against Amador Valley.
“Already a top-ten finish at the HSNCT is a good result for all of us. We would never have done it without our love!” Pablo prepares to kiss Audrey once again, as he did multiple times this weekend.