Early March 2041, the day before Mardi Gras. On Monday night, Patricia warns Ainslee about something happening the following day.
"Tomorrow is the ChGK state championship. So I won't be there tomorrow night to preside over a chamber" Patricia starts by warning the chair of the Congressional debate club.
"Where is it held?" Ainslee asks her.
"Ottawa University. If you could please find someone else to preside over a chamber..." Patricia pleads with Ainslee, not wanting to have overcrowded chambers for the next session.
"I believe Catria could preside over a chamber in your stead. She's our most experienced Congressional player among the patients, but also she looks at the club as her main social activity" Ainslee tells Patricia before texting Catria about the opportunity to preside a Congressional debate chamber.
It's only once a year we take part in an in-person tournament on Tuesdays. But since the Worlds, we wasted no time taking part in more tournaments: the Slavyanka Grand Prix, as well as the ChGK-Ivy League. For the former, we played stages 5 and 6 of the previous season and stage 1 of the current season; stage 2 is next week. For the latter, 3 stages are already played, named Harvard, Yale and Princeton in chronological order, and hosted by their namesake institutions. Two weeks from now is Columbia, and a month from then will be Penn, Patricia reflects on her ChGK tournament schedule.
By now, the team knows the ChGK-Ivy League is a de facto must for any team wishing to contend at Nats, as are other major international online tournaments, such as the Slavyanka Grand Prix. Among American teams, the Kansas State Team is consistently in the top-3 at either one, edging out the Harvard Crimson in the ChGK-Ivy League, the Massachusetts state champions and considered dark horses at Nats this season.
When the team is assembled the following day, at Ottawa University, some distance southwest from Kansas City, Bohdan starts haranguing the as they make way to the Ward Science Lab. After everything I heard from Ainslee about both, I may be wondering how the University of Ottawa differs from this place, other than uOttawa being urban, Patricia's mind briefly wanders until Bohdan's voice snaps her out of it.
"Patricia! What happened? Here's the deal: we want you to play our best tonight and we don't want you to make our team agoraphobic!" Bohdan asks her teammate.
"I just... blanked out for a moment. I never went here before, I just needed to know where to go" Patricia explains to her team captain.
"Ah ok"
"But I'm tired of hearing about agoraphobia whenever you talk about the ChGK state championship! I work at a psychiatric hospital, I work with, yes, addiction outpatients, but they often suffer from more than one mental health condition" Patricia then sighs.
And agoraphobia, or fear of crowds, or open spaces, is just one of those co-occurring disorders she had outpatients for, and even a patient in the Congressional debate club.
"There's one more concept that's applicable in a context of in-person tournament that we don't deal with in online tournaments: the laschtok (swallow), who hands in answer cards to the referees for each question. Obviously, Patricia, you won't be our laschtok; laschtoki are often people who seem to be underperforming, or otherwise not pulling their weight" Bohdan explains to Patricia, before turning to the sixth player. "I apologize in advance of asking this of you, but will you be our laschtok for the tournament"
The cards Bohdan refers to are business card-sized. 36 cards are given to each team at the state championship.
"We don't want to take any chances with the MAK rating or wildcard system to enter Nats, so we don't want to squander our best shot at Nats and, from there, Worlds" Vira starts to rant.
"I feel like you two are putting too much pressure on me since I even entered!" Patricia complains about this state of affairs.
As for the championship itself: all 5 teams could fit in a single lab room at Ward, with each team comfortable seated around one lab table apiece. But this time around, the questions are asked in English.
"I am Stephanie, head of the appeals committee. On behalf of the organizing committee, welcome to the 2041 Kansas What, where, when state championship"
"Please excuse Stephanie's lack of familiarity with the game, but she was the best person we could get to ref a ChGK tournament" Vira's ex, the tournament director, announces to the 5 teams present.
The American ChGK circuit is very, very homogeneous from an ethnic standpoint, in that it's almost completely dominated by Slavic ethnicities. Probably the language barrier. It might have a decent gender balance, but I don't know what the rest of the circuit does for a living, Patricia muses upon looking at the starting lineups of the players at the state championship. I feel like I represent the entirety of the non-Slavic ethnicities here. But at the same time, I feel like I already saw Stephanie before, but in a quiz bowl context.
"First question: This city held the title of world capital of dairy farming for over thirty years before losing it to a city in another country" Vira's ex reads to the crowd.
"There are a number of claimants to the title, then and now: the leading US contender being in Wisconsin, some Indian city, where cows are sacred..." Yakiv begins giving out ideas.
"The question has its own set of issues. We're missing on one of the following: when the city in the answer either obtained or lost it, or the country of the successor city" Vira speaks, tempted to lodge a protest over the question, not knowing the evolution of the title, much less on a year-to-year basis.
"Moscow. Let's not forget about how Russian dairy farming was steadily growing for about that long. India consistently had large cow herds for much longer and an Indian city could have been a successor to Moscow as world capital of dairy farming..." Bohdan discusses another possible line of thought.
"Protest! The title of world capital of dairy farming doesn't actually exist!" Sergei shouts, hoping the appeals committee would hear the protest even though the 60-second period hasn't elapsed yet.
A factually incorrect question. It's the first time factually incorrect questions happen to be played at the state championship, Vira's ex muses before calling in the appeals committee to review the question.
"Please stop until the appeals committee has reviewed the protest coming in from the Kansas State Team on question one" Vira's ex orders the teams in attendance while they finally respond to the protest.
"Kansas State Team, please explain yourselves" Stephanie orders the team to the appeals committee table.
"The question asks for a city holding a title that doesn't actually exist. There is no such thing as the world capital of dairy farming" Sergei explains to Stephanie and the other two members of the appeals committee.
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It's not like quiz bowl where that sort of protests is not adjudicated unless it affects who wins. Here in what, where, when, or ChGK as the TD and the players call it, a protest's outcome affects everyone, Stephanie muses while listening to the protest and the other two members of the appeals committee frantically look for whether there actually is a world capital of dairy farming. They briefly confer, and their verdict is unanimous:
"This appeals committee considers question number one null and void because of factual errors in the question" Stephanie announces to all five teams in the room.
Let's see if my ex actually has good questions remaining, and, if necessary, use up a shootout question to finish the regulation 36 questions, Vira ruminates, concerned the rest of the set is made of poor-quality questions.
"Question two: I spend, therefore I am. This saying is attributed to the consumption of what kind of good?" Vira's ex asks next.
"I spend, therefore I am, as worded, seems to imply buying expensive items for its own sake is desirable. So probably some kind of luxury item" Yakiv starts giving an idea.
"Maybe it's more like necessities. Like, you know, food, or some other items people need regardless of their income level" Bohdan retorts, a different interpretation in hand.
This time around, Patricia seems a little lost because her knowledge of consumer behavior makes her see both possibilities. Whatever "I am" means here, our answer depends on it. Is it about social status signaling or just life itself? They'll probably accept both answers and then if either of those two answers is given, everyone giving those gets a point, she reflects on what I spend, therefore I am, really means to the TD.
"Vira: do you feel it's about social status signaling or it's about one's existence itself to your ex?" Patricia then asks Vira, believing the answer to this question will decide which one will be correct.
"My ex wanted cutting edge electronics, he believed luxury clothes and accessories were good things for me to have, he spent, over the years, thousands for that purpose. So I'd say luxury good" Vira answers Patricia's question.
The sixth player then runs to the TD with the card saying luxury good. And, as they keep playing, answering a variety of questions, mostly following the subject distribution of the most recent ChGK Worlds, they chug along towards a much better performance than in previous years, Patricia "towing" them. Two hours later...
"Patricia, with you, we're no longer looking at just winning the state championship by a one or two-point margin" Bohdan points at the scoreboard after 2 games.
"Since at least this sleepless night we spent mirroring Worlds, you often harbored concerns about me turning this team into agorafoby (agoraphobics). You should be glad that these concerns are not warranted. After all, we got a six-point lead over the second-place team" Patricia retorts to him.
In both ChGK and quiz bowl worlds, a mirror is simply playing a set of questions elsewhere. But several players start to resent the lack of consistency in question quality of the set. That being said, most teams at this tournament play ChGK with no real ambitions of playing at Worlds, and Nats are just a cherry on top to them. Then again, Stephanie starts voicing some concerns to the TD about the questions:
"It appears that players are complaining about the poor quality of the questions, sir" Stephanie tells the tournament director about the issues the players appear to be voicing among themselves.
"For an entry-level tournament, I'd rather have had locally sourced questions, even though I had to write them myself. On that count, I believe I was able to write questions based on me having played at Nats seven years in a row" Vira's ex, clearly on the defensive, tries to rebut the complaints.
"Personally, I feel like you shouldn't be running the tournament next year! Even the Russian military can write better questions, and they aren't exactly erudites" Stephanie then shouts at the TD, holding back from punching him for some reason.
"What do you know about the Russian military's questions?" Vira's ex lashes out at her.
"The Russian military runs a question-writing company for intellectual games. They started with quiz bowl questions, and I played quiz bowl on Red Army questions twice. They then branched out into other intellectual games. The Red Army even sells ChGK questions in English!" Stephanie intensifies her shouting.
"The Red Army? The Red Army historically had no success in ChGK, as far back as the Soviet Union, and in post-Soviet Russia either! It's the first time I ever heard the Red Army writing questions for intellectual games!" Vira's ex's anger turns to surprise on his face, not believing Stephanie would even have any idea about who writes ChGK questions. "There was a special TV show for Russian troops stationed in Syria back in 2016, but I don't remember anything about the military's involvement in ChGK other than their lack of success in the competitive version"
I was there for the debut of Krasnaya Armiya (KA; the Red Army's) quiz bowl questions in the West, I kept negging like crazy. Right now, in the heat of a tournament, I somehow had a fight with the TD over KA as a question vendor. I'll probably be a better TD than he has been. This I vow; if I'm awarded the direction and organization of the ChGK state championship next year, I shall use KA questions and save myself the trouble, Stephanie muses, while looking for other users of KA's entry-level ChGK questions. Or at least those who read and write in English. She then asks them about the suitability of KA questions for an entry-level tournament.
When the fight between Stephanie and Vira's ex ends, the final game starts, and the Kansas State Team approaches it in complete confidence, knowing they only need to answer 6 of the 11 remaining questions correctly to win. Removing question 1 in the first game had the effect of making the first game 13 questions long, and the regulation questions called for 36.
Last year, going into the third game, we only had a one-point lead. Now it's clear that Patricia will accomplish what the two players we lost last season couldn't. And she isn't an agorafob (agoraphobic) to boot! Bohdan muses, while the other questions are being asked.
But even their confidence transforms into pressure to perform for everyone, and not simply because they are the reigning state champions. Surprisingly, into the third and final game, Patricia doesn't seem to feel any more pressure than her teammates do.
After the third game ends, Vira starts running a scenario in her mind about the team's projected performance at Nats based on not only how their performance at State differs from the previous season, but also their performance at both the Slavyanka Grand Prix and the ChGK-Ivy League. I believe the state championship is not an accurate indication of how Nats will be like, more like the ChGk-Ivy League and the Slavyanka Grand Prix. Assuming Quantum Computers, Saturday 13 and the Harvard Crimson all perform at the same level as they did at Yale, we might have a chance to qualify for Worlds, but I'm not sold on it. We will have to play our best to do so.
With the 10 PM mark fast approaching, all 30 players feel tired from playing during a Mardi Gras night. The TD makes an announcement:
"Final results are now released! The awards ceremony soon begins"
The appeals committee then prepares the medals for the top 3 teams, as well as a special trophy. The bronze medalists are 1 point behind the silver medalists.
"And our reigning champions, the Kansas State Team, winning the gold medal for an eighth time in a row!"
The players assembled applaud the 2 new players over the 4 returning ones on that team. Stephanie, holding a drum on a strap, rolls said drum when Vira's ex goes out to collect the trophy.
"And the award for the MVP award at this tournament goes to..." Vira's ex grandstands, realizing too late that, after he left the team, he came back to Kansas only to fulfill an obligation to his old state's ChGK circuit. Under Stephanie's drum roll, he continues: "Patricia Halpern, from the Kansas State Team!"
"Bravo Patricia! You're fully deserving of this award!" Stephanie then congratulates her, before briefly hugging her at the front of the classroom.
"Now, good luck at Nationals and may you represent Kansas well at Nats this year!" Vira's ex continues after Stephanie returns to her seat.
When they meet again in the parking lot, the team makes a decision that might seem innocuous now, but because the KST wins by a whopping 10 points over the silver medalists, Bohdan sees fit to see in Patricia the team's future. And, with it, Kansas' future in ChGK.
"Patricia, in recognition of your exemplary performance and devotion to this team, I hereby hand over captaincy of the Kansas State Team to you" Bohdan announces in front of her.
"Thank you. I... didn't expect to be given captaincy of this team this early in my life as a ChGK player. I understand also it's a big responsibility, and..." Patricia starts crying. Something is not right. "We've been performing at these major international tournaments in a way that makes us fit right into the field at Worlds, or at the very least we have a fighting chance to earn a berth at Worlds. And it's only after winning a much lower-key tournament you saw fit to do so, state championship though it might be?"
"Now we can definitely confirm you are the Savior of Kansas ChGK, the one who will bring Kansas out of ChGK mediocrity on the national stage!" Yakiv exclaims, looking right into her eyes.
"All hail the Savior of Kansas ChGK!" Vira adds to this chorus.