Before the Green Wave departs for Chicago, on Friday, the group holds one last meeting regarding how they will approach the ICT. They spent the past few months primarily poring over old sets, but also reading extra books and other sources as necessary to supplement what knowledge they were unable to obtain from old quiz bowl collegiate sets. And... Imélie, too.
"Here's the plan: when playing schools that you didn't play during the season, I will be playing, otherwise, Nolan will be playing. Most teams, however, will stick to one roster during the tournament, especially those that have a letter as a suffix" Imélie goes over the team's plan for the Intercollegiate Championship Tournament.
I hope this doesn't amount to a de facto benching, Nolan sweats upon hearing about this strategy, then again it is the season finale for him. An entire year of work, of relentless scheming, boils down to this one tournament, and as a shot to avenge decades of Green Wave quiz bowl mediocrity. He then checks schools he played against the Division II field. Such as Georgia State, Georgia Tech or Texas A&M.
"Because we are playing against schools from all over the world, what this means is there aren't a whole lot of games I will be playing" Nolan comments on the field's map.
"We only have one chance at winning Division II ICT. This is, I believe, the best course of action for winning it, beyond the preparation I made you endure" Imélie explains before they fly to Chicago. "We shall return to New Orleans with helluva hullabaloo!"
They realize upon their arrival that the round-robin pools are then seeded based on their D-values. Going into the ICT, Nolan checks again against who they played against, and it turns out they played against two of the schools in the pool: Georgia Tech and Texas A&M. Which means he'll get to play only 2 games in the prelims. The first of these two games is, just, wow. This is ACF Regionals all over again... Nolan starts thinking about two tossups into the game vs the Aggies, when the Green Wave gets that tossup right. But they know better than to get too confident based on successes in early parts of preliminary games. Such as the following tossup that involves several stages of metabolic processes, with Xavier narrowly missing the power mark.
"Krebs cycle" Xavier answers.
"Ten"
Then the rest of the game, they remain focused on simply converting as many questions as they can get. But while they sometimes let tossups slip away, what does happen is that they try to hang on to their lead built on the first 3 tossups.
"And that's the game. Tulane wins three hundred and twenty to one hundred ninety"
The next game, against Michigan C, proves closer to the toughest games they played against Texas earlier in the season than to games against Texas A&M. Which also proves a nail-biting game, especially since the last tossup turns into a buzzer race not so much between a Wolverine and a Green Wave player, but two Green Wave players. Upon hearing the clues being about various buildings in Eastern Europe, such as the Jelgava Palace, St. Andrews Church in Kyiv, the latter of which was before the power mark, both Alyssa and Imélie buzz in at the same time. But the lockout buzzer system made it so that only one of them could respond to the tossup being asked.
"Bartolomeo Rastrelli" Alyssa shouts at the moderator.
"Fifteen"
What made me suddenly want to engage in buzzer races with my own teammates? At Winter and at SCT I mostly gave Alyssa a right of first refusal for fine arts questions, Imélie wonders what is making her play as if Alyssa was an opponent.
The following game in the preliminary round is played against Princeton B. Which prompts Imélie to make an additional comment before their game.
"Our first game against the Ivy League. Just because it's the strongest quiz bowl conference in the country does not mean we can't defeat them" Imélie warns her teammate.
"These Princeton students will be crushed under a green wave!" Derek adds, prior to entering the game room.
"We shall show these careerist preppies what Helluva Hullabaloo means!" Alyssa continues, before the game starts.
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If we make it to the ACF Nationals next year, we will assuredly play Ivies at least once more there. Of course, HYP will always have a steady stream of recruits to replace those who graduate on any given year, Imélie ponders while the question is not a question she feels comfortable answering. But with the competition being as stiff as it is, she knows that "every person for itself" gameplay is not going to be of any use to them at this point. She feels it's in the best interests of the team to leave it to someone else.
A few tossups later, near the end of the game, Derek seems to realize just how stiff the competition is. If playing Princeton B makes me sweat, I don't even want to imagine what a game against Princeton A would be like, Derek muses while buzzing in on a question about parliamentary procedure, notwithstanding that Princeton B was the Upper mid-Atlantic SCT Division 2 winner. Meanwhile, the Green Wave is trailing by 25 points.
"Prorogation" Derek answers.
"Fifteen"
It's do-or-die time. We MUST convert 2 or more bonus parts to win. We convert only one bonus part, we'll have to endure 3 more tossups of this nail-biting gameplay! Alyssa continues to think, while she is a little confused about the bonus parts. Ultimately only one is converted, which caused the game to be tied, and both teams feel the tension going up at the end of regulation play.
"Overtime tossup number one..."
Everyone is shaking upon hearing every word of these tossups. Going into the third tossup, Tulane is trailing again, but by only five points since Princeton B powered the second overtime tossup. So why is it that we can't hold on to a lead against these guys? I might have bitten my nails so many times in this tournament that I may as well have a manicure upon returning home to New Orleans! Alyssa continues to think while she feels the pressure crushing her with every word she hears from the moderator. References to research papers. But when Imélie hears the words degeneracy pressure, given the previous clues that seemed to be astronomy-based to her, she feels an irresistible pressure to buzz in that threatens to compress her, narrowly missing the power mark.
"Chandrasekhar Limit" Imélie answers while seemingly hyperventilating, and holding a tight grip on to the buzzer.
"Ten. And that's the game"
Tulane wins 385 to 380. But it turns out later that the Wolverines and the Tigers were the toughest two opponents of the Green Wave in the preliminary round. Especially when Washington C, their following opponent, was victim of what is known as an Andrew Hart grail, so that, even though the Green Wave didn't answer every tossup correctly, what bonuses they did hear (11 sets) during that game were all answered correctly in that game. Needless to say, Washington C was 0-4 going into the fifth game, and their morale has been crushed, the opposite of Tulane who, more than ever, feel like they can actually go all the way.
And some curious hotel guests have been watching these games from the stands, with 32 game rooms to choose from. Understandably Northwestern and the University of Chicago have the most supporters on hand in the hotel that aren't hotel guests. But even then, it doesn't amount to a whole lot of spectators; there may be the odd fan of other teams, however, only during the Georgia Tech B game, that is, the Green Wave's fifth preliminary game, was there any Green Wave fan in the audience. Hopefully will that fan in question keep quiet during that rematch of the Southeast Sectional, which he did.
At the end of the preliminary round, the players can't help but overhear what people in other brackets had to say.
"Sometimes I feel like this year abroad in Moscow has hurt my playing skills; I couldn't even get the team of the host university, Moscow International, to enter ACF Fall because back then I feel like the people playing were looking for shortcuts left and right" a Georgetown player comments about what caused his poor performance.
The coach went berserk on that day she even talked about the Red Army as a quiz bowl team, however, Moscow International hardly feels like a Red Army-caliber program, even the way I implied it to be, let alone some sort of national team, Derek struggles to keep his mouth shut.
"We were undefeated in the preliminary round; however, our opponents, going forward, will be more like Princeton B than Washington C or even Georgia Tech B. And this means, Nolan, given our initial strategy, you're going to play in the playoffs only if a situation arises that could justify a substitution" Imélie then explains the gameplan for the playoffs.
"I'll stick through this tournament but after this roller coaster of a season, I'm done playing for the Green Wave's quiz bowl program!" Nolan announces to the group. "Looks like the world of collegiate quiz bowl does not fit me anymore. The big problem is that you gave very little feedback even though you explained to us clearly what the point of each drill was"
"Nolan, I think you fell prey to what Imélie perceived as the requirements of a successful run to the ICT. Now that we are in the top bracket, we already improved on our best ICT result. You were able to answer some key questions in tight spots in games" Xavier comments on Nolan's contributions this season.
"Imélie and I are both key components of what made all of our successes happen. Not that I'm discounting what Nolan did, and he never appeared obsessed over his performance level, he's more important to our successes than you think!" Alyssa directs her comments to Imélie.
We worked so hard to get to where we are today, and when it's our moment of triumph, Imélie saw fit to cut my play time entirely, Nolan bursts into tears as the team goes out to eat inside the O'H American Grill. I wonder why I am more inconsistent than my teammates. But I guess there's nothing more I can do but to sit around and wait until something is to happen to someone else.