The following day, the VAs, already assured of being in the winners' bracket, have one last game to play to ensure they will be getting a bye going into the playoffs, since, historically, 8-2 or better teams get byes. Here, they are playing not their historical big rivals, but... Voronezh #12? Oleg appears to be pumped to play that game, having played them back in Russia as a ninth grader. This game is nearing the end and the Unpaid Bills (the codename given to Voronezh #12 in the West in quiz bowl) hold a twenty-point lead over the VAs.
"Final tossup: This style of architecture was the style of the Saint-Jacques Tower in Paris, a church partially demolished during the French Revolution. It was also used in the infamous Butter Tower in Rouen" the moderator reads while Monika buzzes in.
"Flamboyant Gothic" Monika answers, while not showing any signs of nausea.
"Fifteen" The moderator then reads the bonus for the VAs to answer. "The design of combustion engines is constrained by several thermal factors. For ten points each, answer these questions about thermodynamics"
For some reason, Monika seemed to be different from what people call goths. She might dress like one, but that's about it, Flo, triggered by the answer, is on edge when she sees her team confer for a few seconds.
"Entropy!" Oleg answers.
"This type of thermal process takes place at constant entropy" the moderator reads the second part.
Phew! By answering this part correctly, we have a bye for the playoffs! Oleg sighs, while his teammates see the faces of the Unpaid Bills turn red as they blew a 20-point lead.
"Adiabatic process!" Cindy answers the bonus question.
The last bonus question happens with the clock ticking and ringing after the word engine. And the moderator waves his hand to count the five seconds allotted to them.
"Carnot limit!" Joaquin somehow answers even though Joaquin, as the VAs' fourth player, usually didn't answer many science bonuses in past tournaments.
"Thirty for the bonus, and that's the game. Venomous Agendas three hundred forty-five, Voronezh number twelve three hundred twenty" the moderator announces the final result of the game.
"Now that we beat one of the Big Three of Russian high school quiz bowl..." Oleg comments on the game.
"Who are the other two?" Cindy asks him, not knowing anything about the subject.
"Bryansk number three and Moscow number two hundred sixty-three. My point being that we might have a chance to go all the way" Oleg seems a little more optimistic about the VAs' prospects at the HSNCT.
But since the Sunday prelims are, in the debate world, called double-flighted, this means that teams are sorted into two groups not playing in consecutive time slots. The teams who played on Saturday morning were in the first flight, the others, in the second flight.
"Don't forget: come back to the lobby when playoff pairings are posted!" Flo instructs her players about the rest of the time they have until they play again.
Of particular interest to Oleg is the game between Bryansk #3 and Kyiv #189; both teams are going into that game with 5-4 records and therefore the winner will advance to the playoffs. The VA players fan out to watch other games, like Hathaway vs Glasgow, both 6-3, for Cindy. Or Perse vs Darien B for Monika. Clearly the players favored watching other games with playoff implications.
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Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
When, after finding out the VAs hold a bye for the first round, the VAs are nervously watching the result of a game that will determine their opponent for their first playoff game. Kherson #34, the major surprise of this tournament, somehow defeated TJHSST A! Flo looks at the bracket and the VAs rush to their designated game room, the Grand Ballroom B at Hilton.
"You might be tempted to think Kherson number thirty-four's weakness to be American history, but they won in overtime over a major quiz bowl powerhouse! At this point of the tournament, no one is to be underestimated!" Flo harangues her players before they set foot into the ballroom.
"You're the only Ukrainian team left, it's all down to you!" Kherson #34's quiz bowl coach screams at his players.
"Grain Elevators, Slava Ukraini!" the Grain Elevators, a.k.a. Kherson #34 players, shout in unison when they get seated in the ballroom, as if a battle cry.
The VAs get seated after the Grain Elevators are seated. The rather diminutive crowd present just waited on the signal for the next game to begin, hoping that game would be just as good as the previous one held in that room:
"This is round twenty-two, the second playoff round at the 2040 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. This game features the playoff five card versus the playoff twenty-six card in the winners' bracket. From Kherson Oblast in Ukraine, we have Kherson number thirty-four, from Louisiana, we have Venomous Agendas" the moderator starts the game under the cries of the crowd.
Because the crowd sees the Grain Elevators as a potential Cinderella team, the crowd is unusually hostile to the VAs, and this made the game all the harder to them. Flo is nervously watching for whatever signs of nausea she could possibly see from the sidelines in any of her players. However, even when the VAs fight tooth-and-nail against the Grain Elevators, their stress levels are insufficient to trigger urges to vomit.
And yet, despite the team's stress levels skyrocketing, they are still just thirty points behind the Grain Elevators. We're not about to let these Ukrainian blyady steal our thunder! Oleg muses, while he can feel the pressures mounting on them.
"Tossup number twenty: The logistics of this expedition left behind a road bearing its name across the Allegheny Mountains and Maryland" the question is being read.
Think, Monika, think! Time to capitalize on Kherson #34's weakness, and carry the day! Monika's mind starts working at a much higher speed than normal. Which locks her into a buzzer race against the Grain Elevators' history player. Unfortunately, the Grain Elevator beats her to it by a split-second.
"Lewis and Clark" the Grain Elevator answers in an attempt to hold on to their lead.
"Neg five" the moderator rules while resetting the system, and Monika buzzes in.
"Braddock Expedition!" Monika answers in a shout.
"Fifteen" the moderator then reads the bonus the VAs are entitled to.
The VAs answer the first part incorrectly, but makes up for it on the second part. Everyone is on the edge of their seats as third and final part of the bonus is being read. Flo feels like Monika is dangerously close to vomiting, and crosses her fingers, hoping the VAs will answer the last bonus correctly, as well as Monika doesn't puke.
"Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry!" Joaquin answers the final bonus question.
"Twenty for the bonus, and that's the game. Score?" the moderator asks the scorekeeper.
"Venomous Agendas three hundred fifty-five, Kherson number thirty-four three hundred forty-five" the scorekeeper announces.
And we were beaten by some... goth girl quiz bowler? the Grain Elevators' captain seems to be leering Monika.
The VAs continue to progress along the winners' bracket as they leave the Grand Ballroom B under the boos of the crowd, winning a total of 3 games on the winners' bracket before falling to DCC A.
"DCC three hundred ninety-five, Venomous Agendas three hundred!" the scorekeeper tells the crowd.
"This is vengeance for last year's HSNCT!" a DCC player taunts Flo.
However, the playoff bracket isn't updated yet, and whoever the VAs will play will depend on the winner of another game on the losers' bracket between Boston Latin and... Hathaway. Because the Hornets are in overtime.
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If we win, we will have improved on our finish and it will be our first top-10 at the HSNCT. Oh look, the VAs are also in the top-10, too! Marianne looks at the playoff bracket on the companion app, while the Wolfpack and the Hornets are tied going into the third overtime tossup. It could also be the first time two Louisiana teams have reached the top-10 at the HSNCT; we were fifteenth last season.
"This Greek city was, in the High Middle Ages, the capital of the Emirate of Crete. Its siege during the mid-seventeenth century..." the moderator reads while Arkady buzzes in.
"Heraklion" Arkady answers the question while holding on to the buzzer.
"Fifteen, and that's the game. Score?"
"Hathaway three hundred seventy, Boston Latin three hundred fifty-five" the scorekeeper announces to the crowd.
"Boston Latin finishes tied for thirteenth place!"