1 Kings 3:16-28- first show like Jerry Springer (A Wise Ruling)
1 Kings 8:14-66- first state of the Union speech (Solomon's Prayer of Dedication)
1 Kings 11:1-13- first biblical pimp (Solomon's Wives)
1 Kings 18:16-45- first godly barbeque (Elijah on Mount Carmel)
2 Kings 2:19-22- first discovery of chlorine (Healing of the water)
2 Kings 4:38-41- First poison control and first discovery that marijuana is fatal (Death in the pot)
Friday, March 25, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Final Reflections on Quizzing 2005
In general, quizzing went great this year. I think this is my best year so far. No, seriously it is. Now I don't say that every year, like I say, "This year is my year" every year. But this year was a great year.
I completed my goal for the year....well, based on the two thirds rule. 5 things I wanted to complete: score 380 points or more, get 8 or more quiz outs, be a perfect quizzer for 3 weeks, be on the Top Fifty Quizzers List for 6 weeks and have a final finish in 77th or higher. I scored 510 points, 130 points higher than my goal. I got 12 quiz outs, 4 more quiz outs than planned. I was on the Top 50 Quizzeres List for every week but one of the seven weeks. That means 6 weeks on the Top 50 Quizzers List. Finally, I finished 34th, much higher than 77th. The only thing I didn't complete was being a perfect quizzer for 3 weeks. Heck, I wasn't perfect for even one week. I achieved 4/5. Therefore, I completed my goal, making this year a successful quizzing year.
Like I said, I scored 510 points in 19 matches, giving an average of 26.8. I'll break that down to a match-by-match stat. I had 12 quiz out matches, giving me 420 points. In 3 matches, I scored 20 points each match, giving me another 60 points. In another 3 matches, I scored 10 points each match giving 30 points. Only one match I scored zero points. 420+60+90=510 points. Here's another impressive stat. Of the 9 bonuses I got, I only missed 2. The most important thing that happened this year was finishing 34th on the Top 50 Quizzers List. This was my first year doing so. I gladly accepted my award. That was much wanted.
I was never expecting to win the ACC tournament. That was amazing. I went in their thinking, "Let's do our thing and do our best in our five matches." We never should have won. By luck we won most of our matches. Neffsville 1 should have never won against Reading One. We kept getting all the easy teams in the playoffs. Like Coach Dave said, we only won because we had God's favor. The whole tournament was a miracle. The biggest miracle- Michael studied up for this in Florida!
The Invitational wasn't as amazing as the ACC tournament, but was pretty good. We didn't make it to the final match, but we did get pretty far. It is the farthest I ever got in the invitational. Plus, the invitational was one of the few quiz meets I had fun when not quizzing. It was funny watching Michael's failures of picking up a girl. :-)
This year, the Lord appeared to me many times. I felt the Lord strongest when I remembered I was quizzing for Him. He gave me all I needed to complete my goal. He showed me many times I was his chosen quizzer, along with my team. He knew I wanted that win and quiz out against Josh Moss and Zion, and he gave it to me. The second, as I said, was winning the ACC tournament. The third was at Week 6. I was playing a River Corner. I had 2 errors, all on Situation (my favorite question). I slowed down and didn't want to buzz in. It came down to 3 review questions and I review is my least favorite question. My team needed team bonus, so they were putting on the pressure. I still didn't want to buzz in. But the Lord conforted me. He told me it was safe to buzz in. So I buzzed in. I quizzed out on the last 3 questions, all on buzzes. My heart rushed. It was the best feeling I ever had. Jesus quizzed with me every match.
We were able to come together and work as a team. We also got along as a team. I haven't seen that in a long time. We encouraged each other to do our best and get team bonus. There were some times where we would battle for individual score. This was a great team. I will never forget the Spring City boyz. Brandon and Aubrey will be missed dearly next year. I had great coaches this year too. Dave and Vicki really knew how to encourage the team. Christine will also be dearly missed next year. It was fun walking and talking with her. I'll admit, sometimes it was stressful. But other times, it was good to know we were there for each other. With every time I have quizzed with Christine, I think this was her best year with 40 points, once saving us in the ACC tournament and twice getting team bonus.
Kings and Judges 2005 was eventful and exciting. Now we can only look on to 2006....
I completed my goal for the year....well, based on the two thirds rule. 5 things I wanted to complete: score 380 points or more, get 8 or more quiz outs, be a perfect quizzer for 3 weeks, be on the Top Fifty Quizzers List for 6 weeks and have a final finish in 77th or higher. I scored 510 points, 130 points higher than my goal. I got 12 quiz outs, 4 more quiz outs than planned. I was on the Top 50 Quizzeres List for every week but one of the seven weeks. That means 6 weeks on the Top 50 Quizzers List. Finally, I finished 34th, much higher than 77th. The only thing I didn't complete was being a perfect quizzer for 3 weeks. Heck, I wasn't perfect for even one week. I achieved 4/5. Therefore, I completed my goal, making this year a successful quizzing year.
Like I said, I scored 510 points in 19 matches, giving an average of 26.8. I'll break that down to a match-by-match stat. I had 12 quiz out matches, giving me 420 points. In 3 matches, I scored 20 points each match, giving me another 60 points. In another 3 matches, I scored 10 points each match giving 30 points. Only one match I scored zero points. 420+60+90=510 points. Here's another impressive stat. Of the 9 bonuses I got, I only missed 2. The most important thing that happened this year was finishing 34th on the Top 50 Quizzers List. This was my first year doing so. I gladly accepted my award. That was much wanted.
I was never expecting to win the ACC tournament. That was amazing. I went in their thinking, "Let's do our thing and do our best in our five matches." We never should have won. By luck we won most of our matches. Neffsville 1 should have never won against Reading One. We kept getting all the easy teams in the playoffs. Like Coach Dave said, we only won because we had God's favor. The whole tournament was a miracle. The biggest miracle- Michael studied up for this in Florida!
The Invitational wasn't as amazing as the ACC tournament, but was pretty good. We didn't make it to the final match, but we did get pretty far. It is the farthest I ever got in the invitational. Plus, the invitational was one of the few quiz meets I had fun when not quizzing. It was funny watching Michael's failures of picking up a girl. :-)
This year, the Lord appeared to me many times. I felt the Lord strongest when I remembered I was quizzing for Him. He gave me all I needed to complete my goal. He showed me many times I was his chosen quizzer, along with my team. He knew I wanted that win and quiz out against Josh Moss and Zion, and he gave it to me. The second, as I said, was winning the ACC tournament. The third was at Week 6. I was playing a River Corner. I had 2 errors, all on Situation (my favorite question). I slowed down and didn't want to buzz in. It came down to 3 review questions and I review is my least favorite question. My team needed team bonus, so they were putting on the pressure. I still didn't want to buzz in. But the Lord conforted me. He told me it was safe to buzz in. So I buzzed in. I quizzed out on the last 3 questions, all on buzzes. My heart rushed. It was the best feeling I ever had. Jesus quizzed with me every match.
We were able to come together and work as a team. We also got along as a team. I haven't seen that in a long time. We encouraged each other to do our best and get team bonus. There were some times where we would battle for individual score. This was a great team. I will never forget the Spring City boyz. Brandon and Aubrey will be missed dearly next year. I had great coaches this year too. Dave and Vicki really knew how to encourage the team. Christine will also be dearly missed next year. It was fun walking and talking with her. I'll admit, sometimes it was stressful. But other times, it was good to know we were there for each other. With every time I have quizzed with Christine, I think this was her best year with 40 points, once saving us in the ACC tournament and twice getting team bonus.
Kings and Judges 2005 was eventful and exciting. Now we can only look on to 2006....
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
It hasn't ended, it has just begun....
As you might have noticed, I didn't post about the invitational until Tuesday, despite being home since Sunday. Why? It was Transition day! What is transition day? I'll tell ya. Transition Day is the Monday after the invitational. As of 11:59 PM on Sunday, quizzing 2005 on Kings and Judges ceased to exist. As on midnight of Tuesday, quizzing 2006 on Luke began. Between then I took a break on quizzing. Yes, believe it or not, I do take a break on quizzing. If I don't take a day to transist (that is a verb, right?), I'll mix the two materials. That is nasty. On top of that, it gives me a break to rest my mind from the meltdown studying for the invitational. I think I'm the only one who does celebrate Transition Day, on top starting studying early on Tuesday for Luke 2006.
Then for Tuesday, I began. First, I read through Luke 1-15. I did this so I don't run into writing bad questions. I found out that most chapters are around 50 verses. Yikes! It will be hard to memorize a chapter. Then I reread Luke 1, just in case I don't reask questions. It looks hard. 70 verses, half of that the Zechariah's prophesizing and Mary's prayer. A lot of it has pronouns that are undefined. Then I started writing questions. I wrote questions for the first two verses already. I hope they will omit the geneology in Luke 3.
As for the blog, I will most likely continue talking about quizzing 2005 (Kings and Judges) for a while. I don't have enough 2006 material yet. When I get enough, that's when I'll start blogging on 2006 stuff. For Transition day, I'll I ask two quizzing question: one old question from Kings & Judges 2005 and one new question from Luke.
OLD Quizzing Question:
What did the bands of Aram stop invading?
NEW Quizzing Question:
To draw up what have many undertaken?
Then for Tuesday, I began. First, I read through Luke 1-15. I did this so I don't run into writing bad questions. I found out that most chapters are around 50 verses. Yikes! It will be hard to memorize a chapter. Then I reread Luke 1, just in case I don't reask questions. It looks hard. 70 verses, half of that the Zechariah's prophesizing and Mary's prayer. A lot of it has pronouns that are undefined. Then I started writing questions. I wrote questions for the first two verses already. I hope they will omit the geneology in Luke 3.
As for the blog, I will most likely continue talking about quizzing 2005 (Kings and Judges) for a while. I don't have enough 2006 material yet. When I get enough, that's when I'll start blogging on 2006 stuff. For Transition day, I'll I ask two quizzing question: one old question from Kings & Judges 2005 and one new question from Luke.
OLD Quizzing Question:
What did the bands of Aram stop invading?
NEW Quizzing Question:
To draw up what have many undertaken?
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
2005 Invitational at LBC
Friday, March 18 to Sunday, March 20 was the Invitational. It was held at Lancaster Bible College in PA (we all know it should have been held in Ohio). It is was fun and eventful. I am surprised our host family/coaches survived. I will go day by day.
FRIDAY:
The quizzers slowly arrived one at a time. Aubrey was the last because he had to work late (and forget to tell us). Josh brought a "friend". It was a paper bag named "Skinny bone Jones". It had its own theme song. Josh sung it over and over and over. Christine got sick of it and finally tore it up and threw it out. Mike showed his disproval of it by eating it up. I went down with some quizzers to the church to pick up the van and secret sponser gifts. I got my secret sponser gift of chocalate-peanut butter eggs and a six-pack of Mountain Dew. I visited the ACC Tournament trophy which I called "precious". Everybody in the church congratulated us for winning. We returned and went into three practice round. It was practical practice. Then we watched the movie The Master of Disguise. We had good laughs. Michael, Josh and Aubrey played Risk. Christine spectated. Brandon and I watched and studied and watched. Brandon couldn't stay up. We went to bed at the end of the game late at night at 2 AM (technically Saturday morning).
SATURDAY:
We were awoken at 6:30 AM. We had gotten 4.5 hours of sleep. Some of us ate breakfast. We left at 7 AM. On the ride up, some of us slept, some studied, some listened to music. I, of course, studied. We arrived around 8:15 AM. At 8:30, we listened to announcements and etc. I began to watch matches after that.
The first match I watched was Zion (ACC) vs. Grace Community (NW Ohio). I kept the score. Grace Community really got beaten Zion. They had about 2 quiz outs. I thought it was mean that they already won but still wanted team bonus. They got it. Zion won and advance to the double-elimination tournament. Later on, they would lose the first two matches in the double-elimination tournament and end up in the Lazurus bracket. The next match I watched was Paradise 5 (ACC) vs. West Clinton 3 (NW Ohio). I watched it because there was this girl on the team I liked :-). My team found out that I liked her, due to, let's say "a leaky faucet". So we all wildly cheered for Paradise 5. My girl quizzed out. Paradise 5 won and advanced to the double-elimination bracket. After the match, Michael wanted to take a picture of her for me. He went to her and asked, "Can I take your picuture?" She said something like, "My team?" He says, "No, just you" and pulls her away from her team. She started turning bright red. Michael did take the picture.
We had our first match at 9:40 PM. It was against NW Ohio team Lockport 2. Both Lockport teams in NW Ohio finished in the top 5, so we knew we were in for a tough match. I told my teammates and coaches that it actually could be better if we lost. If we won, it would take us 7 matches to win in a row to get to the final position in the Winners Bracket. If we lost, it would take us only 6 matches to win in a row to get to the final position in the Winners Bracket. They still wanted to win. The match was set up funky for the Pennsylvania quizzers, but not for Ohio. For starters, we got funky buzzers. They were half the size of normal buzzers and had weird buttons. Then was the staff. There was only 4 staff, not 5. Therefore, the quizmaster was not exactly in the center. On top of that, the quizmaster was sitting down! Sometimes I forgot which won was the quizmaster. Anywayz, we lost. I quizzed out, but Brandon didn't. Team was devastated, I wasn't. I knew we still had two more matches. Like I said above, it means less double elimination matches too.
I went down to Good Shepherd Chapel and saw how the tournament was going along and to find out who we were playing. We were playing Petra 5. I went to our match against them. I quizzed out once again. We won. We were heading to the double-elimination tournament.
Next match was against Grace Community. This was the team I watched play against Zion. During the match, the scorekeeper said, "There was some talking on Lockport's side. Should I foul them?" The quizmaster replied, "That's your decision." LOL. They debated and then just gave a warning. I quizzed out again. We won, but not as much as Zion did. We advanced in the Winners bracket, while Grace Community headed to the Second Chance Bracket. Grace Community would lose their consecutive match in the Second Chance Bracket, so they ended up in the Lazarus bracket as well. Now that we won in the double-eliminiation bracket, that meant there was no way to end up in the Lazarus bracket. It was win the double-elimination bracket or bust.
Next match was against Hope Community. Not one of the Hope Community from the ACC, a Hope Community from Wayne County, Ohio. They had not lost a match yet. I only scored 20 points. We lost that match. That meant we headed over to the Second Chance Bracket.
I went over to Good Shepherd Chapel to find out where we ended up and who we had to play. We were going to play Petra 4. Then we went to lunch. It consisted of sandwiches, chips and salads. I only had salad. By now I was on my second of six Mountain Dew. After lunch, my team and I went back to Good Shepherd Chapel. I continued to copy down the brackets. I learned a lesson there: never leave Michael bored and never let Michael prove himself. Since I was asking a girl out (even though I hadn't yet), I guess Michael had to prove himself. So Michael started approaching random girls and using pickup lines. One was memorable. He went up to one girl. I think it was Tina from Paradise 5 (I hoped this didn't ruin my chances). He did all these weird things to get her attention like offer a piece of gum or asking for the time. And she completely ignored Michael! The rest of the time had a good laugh.
At 1:40 PM, I went to watch Zion play Hopewell 3. Deanna wanted my stuffed monkey (a secret sponser gift from a few weeks ago) for good luck. It seemed to do the trick. Zion won. They moved on to the next match in the Lazarus bracket. I later on found out that the played Petra 5, the team we beat, and lost. Deanna blamed it on me because I took back the monkey because I wanted to good luck.
At 2 PM, I went to watch the girl I liked with the rest of team. They played Reading 1. During the match, a Reading 1 quizzer gave the answer "the King of Israel....who was Ahab" and the quizzer said it was correct! Of course, Lauren contested that the material never mentioned Ahab was a king. The rebuddal was that Ahab was a king. The quizmaster talked with the judges, including Bethany (daughter of my quiz coach). They ruled that their original decision was correct! I couldn't believe it. Paradise 5 would lose. After the match, the quizmaster went up to Lauren and admitted that nowhere it mentions Ahab as king. But because he was able to gather all Israel, they decided that made him king. I still think it was wrong. I later on got on Bethany's case for that. I wanted to impress Lauren, so I put my two cents in. I told her that it was a good contest. She said something like, "Um, yeah, thanks."
I went to my next match, the one against Petra 4. I quizzed out. We won. We advance in the bracket and knocked Petra 4 out of the tournament.
I went back to the big brackets in the Good Shepherd Chapel to find our opponent. I found out that we were playing River Cornerer 2. They were the team who we beat our last week of the regular season. I also found out if we won we would play Christian Fellowship. I quickly copied some of the bracket. With five minutes left until my match, I headed over to Sebestian Hall for my match. I head to slow down. There was a war going on between my pants and gravity. Gravity was winning. It was because of my crappy velcro belt and the numerous filled pockets. My sister met me as I entered Sebastian Hall. Apparrently everyone was there and they wanted to start my match early. I was giving my mother and coaches heart failure. I quickly got in my seat. Once again, I quizzed out. We won again. We advanced in the bracket.
I headed back to Good Shepherd Chapel for my next match and more bracket info. Deanna from Zion met me at Good Shepherd Chapel. They said they lost to Petra 5 in the Lazarus bracket and were out of the tournament. With nothing better to do, she decided to follow me around for a while. I went to play Christian Fellowship. I remember getting knocked out of the Winners Bracket last year due to them. 3/4 of the fans were rooting for Christian Fellowship, the other 1/4 for Spring City. We once again had funky buzzers. It didn't bother me that Christian Fellowship got all the congratulation cheers. What bothered me is we got the pity cheer. I know they were trying to be fair and nice, but it was very annoying. They would cheer something like, "Awww, nice try, nice try." After question 4, it was 40-0. I had this feeling we'd lose, but I didn't want to lose scoreless. But on question 5, Brandon got one right. I got one right right too. I also blew a Situation question. I answered "Solomon to Hiram" when I should have answered "Hiram to Solomon." I said I had a dyslexic moment. My instinct was right, we lost. At least it wasn't a shutout. We were out of the tournament.
Next match I watched was River Corner 1 vs. Reading 1. Reading 1 lost. They also got knocked out of the tournament. It seemed like there we didn't know anybody left to cheer for.
The next match I watched was for the championship of the Lazarus bracket. It was between Paradise 2 and Petra 5 (we beat the the second placement round). In my opinion, it was a blow out. I've seen bigger blow outs, but the two scores were very far apart. The final score was 120 to 45. Paradise 2 won. They were the champions of the Lazarus bracket. Petra 5 came in second place. I knew that Hinkletown, who won last year's Lazarus bracket, was claiming that they would defend their championship. I found out that they did make it to the lazarus tournament (wonder if they did that on purpose). They won their first, but lost their second. Such a shame. But don't take it too hard. I still think their is more honor fifth place of the double-elimination bracket than first in the Lazarus bracket. Anywayz, a bracket winner is a bracket winner. Congratulations to Paradise 2.
We had a break between last match and 6 PM. That's when we had dinner. There was chicken, ham with pineapple, mashe potatoes, corn, leftovers from lunch and cookies. I ate only side dishes. I finished my second Mountain Dew and started on my third. I went to Good Shepherd Chapel to update my handheld bracket. After that I mostly followed Christine around. She was looking for some guy. I got Michael to talk to the girl I like for me. He gave me terrible information.
At 6:40 PM, I watched the fun match. It was all-star quizzers (from both PA and OH), All-star coaches from PA and OH (including our coach, who later on said he was picked because he brought his team to the ACC Tournament finals), and the quizzing conference cordinators. Dennis Stauffer, Hope Community (Wayne County) quizzer who was the No. 1 quizzer in Wayne County quizzed out first and fast. He almost put Lisa Weaver, our No. 1 quizzer, to shame. It was fun watching Coach Dave. We used all his coaching tactics on the bench. We used hand motions and said, "Next question is yours." He got two right. On question 15, he buzzed in just to quiz out. We all knew the answer, but he didn't. Another coach quizzed out though. Our Fred Hertzler got 10 points. In the end, the quizzers won with 80 points, the coaches came in second with 55 and in last came the cordinators with 20 points.
I watched the last two matches. The first of the two wat Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC team) vs. Hope Community (#1 Wayne County team). Hope Community won. Maple Grove 1 suffered from their first lost. They moved to the Second Chance bracket. Their next match would be on Sunday. Next match was the last match of the day. It Longnecker (Wayne County) vs. Christian Fellowship (West Liberty). Longnecker won. With this loss, Christian Fellowship was out of the tournament. That means they would finish fourth in the double-elimination bracket. Last year, they finished third in the double-elimation They dropped back a spot. Once again, they didn't make it to the final double-elimination match. Always a bride's maid, never the bride. One year they will make it as Invitational Champions. The day would end with 3 teams left: Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC team), Hope Community (#1 Wayne County team) and Longnecker (#2 Wayne County team).
We headed back to the Deitricks. When we got back, we watched the movie Dodgeball. Then we played a long game of Monopoly Looney Tunes. It was me, Aubrey, Christine, Josh, Brandon and Michael. I went bankrupt fourth, making me third place. Aubrey won with $5,000+. The game ended 3:45 AM at night (technically Sunday morning). Then we went to bed.
SUNDAY:
I got half the amount of sleep than the previous night. We left the Deitricks at 7:50 AM. Most people slept, some listened to music. Michael studied, just in case Maple Grove 1 needed a substitute :-). We were almost late, but we arrived just in time. Hope Community (#1 Wayne County team) was already in the finals. The first match would decide who would play them. It was Longnecker (#2 Wayne County team) vs. Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC team). It started out a close match, but then Longnecker took off and won. The final match came down to the two top teams in the Wayne County. It was the first time in history that two Wayne County teams ended up in the finals. It would also be the first time a Wayne County team would win the invitational. Dennis Stauffer quizzed out on question 4. Hope Community took a giant lead and held it. By question 12, you know Hope Community had won. They did win 140-35. This is the double-elimination tournament finished:
1st place- Hope Community (#1 Wayne County)
2nd place- Longnecker (#2 Wayne County)
3rd place- Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC)
4th place- Christian Fellowship
Next was praise and worship singing. Then we had the message. It was listening for God's call. Then it was time to leave. Quizzing had officially come to an end :-( . Michael once again tried to my girl for me. She said something like not be able to date or use the phone until she's 17. (Micahel was a meanie and called her amish.) Then they pressured me into talking to her and I fell into peer pressure. I went up to her and talked to her. I congratulated her for doing so well in the season and finishing a top 50 quizzer. I said it was a disappointment that she wasn't a perfect quizzer. She thanked me. Then I asked if she was quizzing again next year and she said yes. I said I'd hoped to see her next year. End conversation. By the end, my legs felt numb and like I was going to collapse. Talk about being nervous. Of course, Michael had to prove his was as man as I was, so he got some random girl's information. Then I did a lot of signing. First, I signed Josh Moss's quiz book. Then I signed Morgen's paper mini-me. I felt like a celebrity. Next I took pictures of everybody for me and Christine. Then we finally left. I got back to the Deitricks and picked up at half past noon.
REFLECTIONS:
I thought we did pretty good. In my four years of invitational, this is the farthest my team ever brought me in the invitational. I also think this was one of the few times I enjoyed quizzing outside of the actual quizzing. It was fun watching Michael try to talk to random girls. Luckily we stopped him before he tried this line: "I heard your dependant on drinking water to live. What a coincidence! So am I!" And he did this all because he couldn't follow around Jojo because she wasn't there. Next time, we've got to make sure Jojo is there. I hope the Deitricks survived after hosting us. With staying up late to play board games, watching movies with weird humor, and eating non-stop, sometimes I bet they were ready to break down. Year refections coming up in later posts. For my last quesetion of the post (for a while), I will use the last quizzing question of the season, which was used in the final match.
(LAST) QUIZZING QUESTION OF THE POST:
What were the ravens ordered to do?
FRIDAY:
The quizzers slowly arrived one at a time. Aubrey was the last because he had to work late (and forget to tell us). Josh brought a "friend". It was a paper bag named "Skinny bone Jones". It had its own theme song. Josh sung it over and over and over. Christine got sick of it and finally tore it up and threw it out. Mike showed his disproval of it by eating it up. I went down with some quizzers to the church to pick up the van and secret sponser gifts. I got my secret sponser gift of chocalate-peanut butter eggs and a six-pack of Mountain Dew. I visited the ACC Tournament trophy which I called "precious". Everybody in the church congratulated us for winning. We returned and went into three practice round. It was practical practice. Then we watched the movie The Master of Disguise. We had good laughs. Michael, Josh and Aubrey played Risk. Christine spectated. Brandon and I watched and studied and watched. Brandon couldn't stay up. We went to bed at the end of the game late at night at 2 AM (technically Saturday morning).
SATURDAY:
We were awoken at 6:30 AM. We had gotten 4.5 hours of sleep. Some of us ate breakfast. We left at 7 AM. On the ride up, some of us slept, some studied, some listened to music. I, of course, studied. We arrived around 8:15 AM. At 8:30, we listened to announcements and etc. I began to watch matches after that.
The first match I watched was Zion (ACC) vs. Grace Community (NW Ohio). I kept the score. Grace Community really got beaten Zion. They had about 2 quiz outs. I thought it was mean that they already won but still wanted team bonus. They got it. Zion won and advance to the double-elimination tournament. Later on, they would lose the first two matches in the double-elimination tournament and end up in the Lazurus bracket. The next match I watched was Paradise 5 (ACC) vs. West Clinton 3 (NW Ohio). I watched it because there was this girl on the team I liked :-). My team found out that I liked her, due to, let's say "a leaky faucet". So we all wildly cheered for Paradise 5. My girl quizzed out. Paradise 5 won and advanced to the double-elimination bracket. After the match, Michael wanted to take a picture of her for me. He went to her and asked, "Can I take your picuture?" She said something like, "My team?" He says, "No, just you" and pulls her away from her team. She started turning bright red. Michael did take the picture.
We had our first match at 9:40 PM. It was against NW Ohio team Lockport 2. Both Lockport teams in NW Ohio finished in the top 5, so we knew we were in for a tough match. I told my teammates and coaches that it actually could be better if we lost. If we won, it would take us 7 matches to win in a row to get to the final position in the Winners Bracket. If we lost, it would take us only 6 matches to win in a row to get to the final position in the Winners Bracket. They still wanted to win. The match was set up funky for the Pennsylvania quizzers, but not for Ohio. For starters, we got funky buzzers. They were half the size of normal buzzers and had weird buttons. Then was the staff. There was only 4 staff, not 5. Therefore, the quizmaster was not exactly in the center. On top of that, the quizmaster was sitting down! Sometimes I forgot which won was the quizmaster. Anywayz, we lost. I quizzed out, but Brandon didn't. Team was devastated, I wasn't. I knew we still had two more matches. Like I said above, it means less double elimination matches too.
I went down to Good Shepherd Chapel and saw how the tournament was going along and to find out who we were playing. We were playing Petra 5. I went to our match against them. I quizzed out once again. We won. We were heading to the double-elimination tournament.
Next match was against Grace Community. This was the team I watched play against Zion. During the match, the scorekeeper said, "There was some talking on Lockport's side. Should I foul them?" The quizmaster replied, "That's your decision." LOL. They debated and then just gave a warning. I quizzed out again. We won, but not as much as Zion did. We advanced in the Winners bracket, while Grace Community headed to the Second Chance Bracket. Grace Community would lose their consecutive match in the Second Chance Bracket, so they ended up in the Lazarus bracket as well. Now that we won in the double-eliminiation bracket, that meant there was no way to end up in the Lazarus bracket. It was win the double-elimination bracket or bust.
Next match was against Hope Community. Not one of the Hope Community from the ACC, a Hope Community from Wayne County, Ohio. They had not lost a match yet. I only scored 20 points. We lost that match. That meant we headed over to the Second Chance Bracket.
I went over to Good Shepherd Chapel to find out where we ended up and who we had to play. We were going to play Petra 4. Then we went to lunch. It consisted of sandwiches, chips and salads. I only had salad. By now I was on my second of six Mountain Dew. After lunch, my team and I went back to Good Shepherd Chapel. I continued to copy down the brackets. I learned a lesson there: never leave Michael bored and never let Michael prove himself. Since I was asking a girl out (even though I hadn't yet), I guess Michael had to prove himself. So Michael started approaching random girls and using pickup lines. One was memorable. He went up to one girl. I think it was Tina from Paradise 5 (I hoped this didn't ruin my chances). He did all these weird things to get her attention like offer a piece of gum or asking for the time. And she completely ignored Michael! The rest of the time had a good laugh.
At 1:40 PM, I went to watch Zion play Hopewell 3. Deanna wanted my stuffed monkey (a secret sponser gift from a few weeks ago) for good luck. It seemed to do the trick. Zion won. They moved on to the next match in the Lazarus bracket. I later on found out that the played Petra 5, the team we beat, and lost. Deanna blamed it on me because I took back the monkey because I wanted to good luck.
At 2 PM, I went to watch the girl I liked with the rest of team. They played Reading 1. During the match, a Reading 1 quizzer gave the answer "the King of Israel....who was Ahab" and the quizzer said it was correct! Of course, Lauren contested that the material never mentioned Ahab was a king. The rebuddal was that Ahab was a king. The quizmaster talked with the judges, including Bethany (daughter of my quiz coach). They ruled that their original decision was correct! I couldn't believe it. Paradise 5 would lose. After the match, the quizmaster went up to Lauren and admitted that nowhere it mentions Ahab as king. But because he was able to gather all Israel, they decided that made him king. I still think it was wrong. I later on got on Bethany's case for that. I wanted to impress Lauren, so I put my two cents in. I told her that it was a good contest. She said something like, "Um, yeah, thanks."
I went to my next match, the one against Petra 4. I quizzed out. We won. We advance in the bracket and knocked Petra 4 out of the tournament.
I went back to the big brackets in the Good Shepherd Chapel to find our opponent. I found out that we were playing River Cornerer 2. They were the team who we beat our last week of the regular season. I also found out if we won we would play Christian Fellowship. I quickly copied some of the bracket. With five minutes left until my match, I headed over to Sebestian Hall for my match. I head to slow down. There was a war going on between my pants and gravity. Gravity was winning. It was because of my crappy velcro belt and the numerous filled pockets. My sister met me as I entered Sebastian Hall. Apparrently everyone was there and they wanted to start my match early. I was giving my mother and coaches heart failure. I quickly got in my seat. Once again, I quizzed out. We won again. We advanced in the bracket.
I headed back to Good Shepherd Chapel for my next match and more bracket info. Deanna from Zion met me at Good Shepherd Chapel. They said they lost to Petra 5 in the Lazarus bracket and were out of the tournament. With nothing better to do, she decided to follow me around for a while. I went to play Christian Fellowship. I remember getting knocked out of the Winners Bracket last year due to them. 3/4 of the fans were rooting for Christian Fellowship, the other 1/4 for Spring City. We once again had funky buzzers. It didn't bother me that Christian Fellowship got all the congratulation cheers. What bothered me is we got the pity cheer. I know they were trying to be fair and nice, but it was very annoying. They would cheer something like, "Awww, nice try, nice try." After question 4, it was 40-0. I had this feeling we'd lose, but I didn't want to lose scoreless. But on question 5, Brandon got one right. I got one right right too. I also blew a Situation question. I answered "Solomon to Hiram" when I should have answered "Hiram to Solomon." I said I had a dyslexic moment. My instinct was right, we lost. At least it wasn't a shutout. We were out of the tournament.
Next match I watched was River Corner 1 vs. Reading 1. Reading 1 lost. They also got knocked out of the tournament. It seemed like there we didn't know anybody left to cheer for.
The next match I watched was for the championship of the Lazarus bracket. It was between Paradise 2 and Petra 5 (we beat the the second placement round). In my opinion, it was a blow out. I've seen bigger blow outs, but the two scores were very far apart. The final score was 120 to 45. Paradise 2 won. They were the champions of the Lazarus bracket. Petra 5 came in second place. I knew that Hinkletown, who won last year's Lazarus bracket, was claiming that they would defend their championship. I found out that they did make it to the lazarus tournament (wonder if they did that on purpose). They won their first, but lost their second. Such a shame. But don't take it too hard. I still think their is more honor fifth place of the double-elimination bracket than first in the Lazarus bracket. Anywayz, a bracket winner is a bracket winner. Congratulations to Paradise 2.
We had a break between last match and 6 PM. That's when we had dinner. There was chicken, ham with pineapple, mashe potatoes, corn, leftovers from lunch and cookies. I ate only side dishes. I finished my second Mountain Dew and started on my third. I went to Good Shepherd Chapel to update my handheld bracket. After that I mostly followed Christine around. She was looking for some guy. I got Michael to talk to the girl I like for me. He gave me terrible information.
At 6:40 PM, I watched the fun match. It was all-star quizzers (from both PA and OH), All-star coaches from PA and OH (including our coach, who later on said he was picked because he brought his team to the ACC Tournament finals), and the quizzing conference cordinators. Dennis Stauffer, Hope Community (Wayne County) quizzer who was the No. 1 quizzer in Wayne County quizzed out first and fast. He almost put Lisa Weaver, our No. 1 quizzer, to shame. It was fun watching Coach Dave. We used all his coaching tactics on the bench. We used hand motions and said, "Next question is yours." He got two right. On question 15, he buzzed in just to quiz out. We all knew the answer, but he didn't. Another coach quizzed out though. Our Fred Hertzler got 10 points. In the end, the quizzers won with 80 points, the coaches came in second with 55 and in last came the cordinators with 20 points.
I watched the last two matches. The first of the two wat Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC team) vs. Hope Community (#1 Wayne County team). Hope Community won. Maple Grove 1 suffered from their first lost. They moved to the Second Chance bracket. Their next match would be on Sunday. Next match was the last match of the day. It Longnecker (Wayne County) vs. Christian Fellowship (West Liberty). Longnecker won. With this loss, Christian Fellowship was out of the tournament. That means they would finish fourth in the double-elimination bracket. Last year, they finished third in the double-elimation They dropped back a spot. Once again, they didn't make it to the final double-elimination match. Always a bride's maid, never the bride. One year they will make it as Invitational Champions. The day would end with 3 teams left: Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC team), Hope Community (#1 Wayne County team) and Longnecker (#2 Wayne County team).
We headed back to the Deitricks. When we got back, we watched the movie Dodgeball. Then we played a long game of Monopoly Looney Tunes. It was me, Aubrey, Christine, Josh, Brandon and Michael. I went bankrupt fourth, making me third place. Aubrey won with $5,000+. The game ended 3:45 AM at night (technically Sunday morning). Then we went to bed.
SUNDAY:
I got half the amount of sleep than the previous night. We left the Deitricks at 7:50 AM. Most people slept, some listened to music. Michael studied, just in case Maple Grove 1 needed a substitute :-). We were almost late, but we arrived just in time. Hope Community (#1 Wayne County team) was already in the finals. The first match would decide who would play them. It was Longnecker (#2 Wayne County team) vs. Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC team). It started out a close match, but then Longnecker took off and won. The final match came down to the two top teams in the Wayne County. It was the first time in history that two Wayne County teams ended up in the finals. It would also be the first time a Wayne County team would win the invitational. Dennis Stauffer quizzed out on question 4. Hope Community took a giant lead and held it. By question 12, you know Hope Community had won. They did win 140-35. This is the double-elimination tournament finished:
1st place- Hope Community (#1 Wayne County)
2nd place- Longnecker (#2 Wayne County)
3rd place- Maple Grove 1 (#1 ACC)
4th place- Christian Fellowship
Next was praise and worship singing. Then we had the message. It was listening for God's call. Then it was time to leave. Quizzing had officially come to an end :-( . Michael once again tried to my girl for me. She said something like not be able to date or use the phone until she's 17. (Micahel was a meanie and called her amish.) Then they pressured me into talking to her and I fell into peer pressure. I went up to her and talked to her. I congratulated her for doing so well in the season and finishing a top 50 quizzer. I said it was a disappointment that she wasn't a perfect quizzer. She thanked me. Then I asked if she was quizzing again next year and she said yes. I said I'd hoped to see her next year. End conversation. By the end, my legs felt numb and like I was going to collapse. Talk about being nervous. Of course, Michael had to prove his was as man as I was, so he got some random girl's information. Then I did a lot of signing. First, I signed Josh Moss's quiz book. Then I signed Morgen's paper mini-me. I felt like a celebrity. Next I took pictures of everybody for me and Christine. Then we finally left. I got back to the Deitricks and picked up at half past noon.
REFLECTIONS:
I thought we did pretty good. In my four years of invitational, this is the farthest my team ever brought me in the invitational. I also think this was one of the few times I enjoyed quizzing outside of the actual quizzing. It was fun watching Michael try to talk to random girls. Luckily we stopped him before he tried this line: "I heard your dependant on drinking water to live. What a coincidence! So am I!" And he did this all because he couldn't follow around Jojo because she wasn't there. Next time, we've got to make sure Jojo is there. I hope the Deitricks survived after hosting us. With staying up late to play board games, watching movies with weird humor, and eating non-stop, sometimes I bet they were ready to break down. Year refections coming up in later posts. For my last quesetion of the post (for a while), I will use the last quizzing question of the season, which was used in the final match.
(LAST) QUIZZING QUESTION OF THE POST:
What were the ravens ordered to do?
Monday, March 14, 2005
Tales of a 6th place nobody
I needed a ride to Spring City, so I arrived at the Deitricks at 8:20 AM. I wasn't the only one. It was me, Michael, Aubrey & Christine. Michael had arrived from Florida at 7 AM. He also got a haircut (no, not the beautiful hair!) Julie had left for the airport. Her flight should have left at 10 AM. Josh was in New York. He'll be back on Thursday. We arrived at Spring City around 8:55 AM. We were a little late because we had to turn around and get Michael's cell phone. We 2 1/2 practice matches. We stayed for half the service. The sermon was partially of 2 Kings 2. Almost every quizzer had their quizbook open, reading along. We left for LBC at 11 AM.
We arrived at half past noon. Coach Dave gave questions to those who wanted them. Brandon was pacing while reading. At 1 PM, I watched Maple Grove 2 vs. Hopewell 4. Hopewell 4 won with 2 quiz outs, 1 error out, and one pathetic answer (Since when did Samson have an army?). We were up next.
Our first match was against Neffsville 1. We got team bouns and 2 quiz outs. We won with a socre that was something like 125-40. We were 1-0 and Neffsvile 1 fell to 0-1.
Next match was against Reading 1. It was a close match. We started losing points because of errors. Reading One got 4 errors. In the end, we lost 65-60. Ugh! It was only by 5 points. Anybody could have gotten in on our team for the win. If Reading One would have buzzed in and errored, they would have lost 5 points so we could at least tied and gone into extra questions. Nonethess, whether you lost by 5 or 55, a loss is a loss. This is why I am glad the regular season does not go by win-loss. Now we were 1-1.
Next match was E-Town 1. I had watched some of their previous matches and scouted out the competition with Christine. We they had been 1-2. We won. They fell back to 1-3 and we advanced to 2-1.
Next match was against Paradise 2. They did well in the regular season, but not as well during the tournament. That was still true for our game. We won again. Our new record was 3-1.
We had two empty sets before our last match. Our team went to watch Reading One vs. Petra 2. Both teams were 3-0. Someone had to lose. We were rooting for Reading One, hoping to get in second place. Reading One lost, mostly due to errors. After that, I went to practice. We really needed to win against Petra 2. It was necessiary. Right now, standings were as followed- Petra 2: 4-0; Reading 1: 3-1; Spring City: 3-1; Neffsvile 1: 0-4. E-Town 1: 1-4. Paradise 2: 2-3. Two way ties win by head-on-head winner. 3 way ties goes by errors. We needed to win if we wanted a chance to stay in. Even if Reading One lost along with us, we would come in third due to the head-on-head lost. On top of that, we needed Neffsville 1 to beat Reading One. Even if both of us one, there would be a three-way tie. It would go by errors and we already had 19 errors. That would have never worked. We needed to win, along with Neffsville 1.
Then the last and most important match came. Whatever we did, Petra 2 seemed to match it. I quizzed on questions 2, 3 & 4, three in a row. Brandon errored out. After question number 14, we were down by 10. Someone on Petra 2 errored. The bonus went to Christine. She got it right! She saved the match! We went into extra questions. In extra questions it came down to the wire again. We got team bonus on question 18. We won. Our final record was 4-1. Now it all came down to Neffsvile 1 vs. Reading One.
We waited ever so patiently for the results. The match went on during ours. Then the tally came. I was the first to see. I yelled...."NEFFSVILLE WON!!" The boyz (including me) went wild. We screamed, we yelled, we jumped up and down, we yelled, "WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!" We did finish first place with a record of 4-1. Petra 2 finished second also with 4-1. The two of us were going to the playoffs. Third place was Reading One with 3-2. Fourth place was 2-3 Paradise 2. Fifth place was given to E-Town 1 with 1-4 record. Last was 1-4 Neffsville 1. They were my biggest heroes. We hunted them down to thank and hug them. Although, some people say Neffsvile 1 didn't beat Reading One, Reading One beat itself. They lost points to errors.
Then we had dinner in the cafeteria. It was hoagie, but all I had was a pickle and Mountain Dew. When Reading One came in, you can tell the lost devastated them. I also found out Reading 2 just lost entering the tournament. Maple Grove 1 was devastated by the tournament. They finished 1-4.
After dinner, was the quizzing video and the announcemnt of the Top 50 Quizzers List. The quizzing video was OK. I think they did better in the past. I was in it though, so that made things better. Then came the announcement of the Top 50 Quizzers List. Quizmaster Jamie Detweiler announced it. I liked it better last year when they announced it on the movie. Oh well. I finished 34th place with 510 points. I was exhuberant (sp?) when I got up. I finished ahead of Kairsie and Josh, both from Zion. I finished below Tim Moss from Reading 2, Krystal Willman from Hopewell 4 and Brandon Tedor from our team. There was one perfect quizzer. Her name was Lisa Weaver from Akron 2. Congratulations for maintaing quizzing out every match!
Our first playoff match began. We played Rivercorner 1. They barely got into the playoffs. They were 3-2. We played them before. This was the team I quizzed out before in the last 3 questions with two errors. They finished the season in 19th place. We got 5 errors, but did get team bonus. We started out well, but then River Corner 1 caught up. We won. We would advance.
We got done early. Our second playoff match would be against Petra 1 or Conestoga 3. The easier team would be Conestoga 3. We prayed to play them. Our prayer was granted. We played Conestoga 3. Once again, a lot of errors. We won though. We advanced. We now realized we have a trophy, no matter what. I was satisfied at this point. But it wouldn't stop there.
Again, we looked at the possible outcomes. Either Hope Comm 1 or Slate Hill 1. We did not want to play Hope Comm 1 we lost by 50 against them. Luckily, we didn't have to. Our match was against Slate Hill 1. I reminded my team we already won a trophy, but we could still win a bigger trophy. The match started. We got team bonus. We took a lead. We got team bonus. We won. We were going on to the final match of the tournament!
First, Hope Community 4 and Slate Hill 1 got tropies for 3rd place. Then the final match started. It was Spring City vs. Goods 1. Not an easy team. In the regular season, they finished first in their league, third of all quiz teams. The lost in the semifinals to Petra 2, who they beat revengefully in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. Supposedly, in the regular season, they beat a team 195-0, with 5 quiz outs and team bonus. Now it came down to us and them. The match started. Brandon quizzed out. A timeout was called after question 6. We were winning 65-0. Let's not get cocky now, they still could have team bonus. The match continued. I quizzed out just like Brandon. Mike and Aubrey buzzed in to get us team bonus. After question 13, I knew we won. I tried hard to surpress my happiness, but I couldn't. In the end, we won 120-50. When the match was over, there was much jumping up and down, cheering, yelling, hugging, etc. We received our trophy. I held it a lot and didn't want to let go. We were also allowed to take back the the big brackets and our Group D poster.
Reflection on the ACC tournament: I am so happy. The happiest day of my left is when I accepted Jesus as Christ and my savior. The second happiest day would have been Sunday. I was #34 quizzer and #1 ACC Tournament team. I was proud of myself and my team. I would like to take this time to thank some people. First and most important is our God, El Shaddai. He has given us his blessing and allowed us to win. We are his chosen team. There are tons of times we should have never won, but we did. He gave us all our wins. He gave Neffsville 1 a win so we would enter the playoffs. And he also gave us all the "easier" teams during the playoffs. Thank you Lord. Second I want to thank is Christine. She saved us from the losing the tournament. She tied up the final match which we needed to win. Third is a bunch of people. It's Neffsville 1! Without them, we would have never made it either. They weren't going to make it anyway, but they still won. The adreneline rush is still with me. I have so many pictures I will never forget. I will keep asking myself, "How did we do this again?" It is beyond belief. One of my great accomplishments is complete. As Queen would say, "We are the champions, my friend...."
Quizzing Question of the post:
What could be proper kind of?
Countdown to Invitational:
4 days, 4 hours, 4 minutes
We arrived at half past noon. Coach Dave gave questions to those who wanted them. Brandon was pacing while reading. At 1 PM, I watched Maple Grove 2 vs. Hopewell 4. Hopewell 4 won with 2 quiz outs, 1 error out, and one pathetic answer (Since when did Samson have an army?). We were up next.
Our first match was against Neffsville 1. We got team bouns and 2 quiz outs. We won with a socre that was something like 125-40. We were 1-0 and Neffsvile 1 fell to 0-1.
Next match was against Reading 1. It was a close match. We started losing points because of errors. Reading One got 4 errors. In the end, we lost 65-60. Ugh! It was only by 5 points. Anybody could have gotten in on our team for the win. If Reading One would have buzzed in and errored, they would have lost 5 points so we could at least tied and gone into extra questions. Nonethess, whether you lost by 5 or 55, a loss is a loss. This is why I am glad the regular season does not go by win-loss. Now we were 1-1.
Next match was E-Town 1. I had watched some of their previous matches and scouted out the competition with Christine. We they had been 1-2. We won. They fell back to 1-3 and we advanced to 2-1.
Next match was against Paradise 2. They did well in the regular season, but not as well during the tournament. That was still true for our game. We won again. Our new record was 3-1.
We had two empty sets before our last match. Our team went to watch Reading One vs. Petra 2. Both teams were 3-0. Someone had to lose. We were rooting for Reading One, hoping to get in second place. Reading One lost, mostly due to errors. After that, I went to practice. We really needed to win against Petra 2. It was necessiary. Right now, standings were as followed- Petra 2: 4-0; Reading 1: 3-1; Spring City: 3-1; Neffsvile 1: 0-4. E-Town 1: 1-4. Paradise 2: 2-3. Two way ties win by head-on-head winner. 3 way ties goes by errors. We needed to win if we wanted a chance to stay in. Even if Reading One lost along with us, we would come in third due to the head-on-head lost. On top of that, we needed Neffsville 1 to beat Reading One. Even if both of us one, there would be a three-way tie. It would go by errors and we already had 19 errors. That would have never worked. We needed to win, along with Neffsville 1.
Then the last and most important match came. Whatever we did, Petra 2 seemed to match it. I quizzed on questions 2, 3 & 4, three in a row. Brandon errored out. After question number 14, we were down by 10. Someone on Petra 2 errored. The bonus went to Christine. She got it right! She saved the match! We went into extra questions. In extra questions it came down to the wire again. We got team bonus on question 18. We won. Our final record was 4-1. Now it all came down to Neffsvile 1 vs. Reading One.
We waited ever so patiently for the results. The match went on during ours. Then the tally came. I was the first to see. I yelled...."NEFFSVILLE WON!!" The boyz (including me) went wild. We screamed, we yelled, we jumped up and down, we yelled, "WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!" We did finish first place with a record of 4-1. Petra 2 finished second also with 4-1. The two of us were going to the playoffs. Third place was Reading One with 3-2. Fourth place was 2-3 Paradise 2. Fifth place was given to E-Town 1 with 1-4 record. Last was 1-4 Neffsville 1. They were my biggest heroes. We hunted them down to thank and hug them. Although, some people say Neffsvile 1 didn't beat Reading One, Reading One beat itself. They lost points to errors.
Then we had dinner in the cafeteria. It was hoagie, but all I had was a pickle and Mountain Dew. When Reading One came in, you can tell the lost devastated them. I also found out Reading 2 just lost entering the tournament. Maple Grove 1 was devastated by the tournament. They finished 1-4.
After dinner, was the quizzing video and the announcemnt of the Top 50 Quizzers List. The quizzing video was OK. I think they did better in the past. I was in it though, so that made things better. Then came the announcement of the Top 50 Quizzers List. Quizmaster Jamie Detweiler announced it. I liked it better last year when they announced it on the movie. Oh well. I finished 34th place with 510 points. I was exhuberant (sp?) when I got up. I finished ahead of Kairsie and Josh, both from Zion. I finished below Tim Moss from Reading 2, Krystal Willman from Hopewell 4 and Brandon Tedor from our team. There was one perfect quizzer. Her name was Lisa Weaver from Akron 2. Congratulations for maintaing quizzing out every match!
Our first playoff match began. We played Rivercorner 1. They barely got into the playoffs. They were 3-2. We played them before. This was the team I quizzed out before in the last 3 questions with two errors. They finished the season in 19th place. We got 5 errors, but did get team bonus. We started out well, but then River Corner 1 caught up. We won. We would advance.
We got done early. Our second playoff match would be against Petra 1 or Conestoga 3. The easier team would be Conestoga 3. We prayed to play them. Our prayer was granted. We played Conestoga 3. Once again, a lot of errors. We won though. We advanced. We now realized we have a trophy, no matter what. I was satisfied at this point. But it wouldn't stop there.
Again, we looked at the possible outcomes. Either Hope Comm 1 or Slate Hill 1. We did not want to play Hope Comm 1 we lost by 50 against them. Luckily, we didn't have to. Our match was against Slate Hill 1. I reminded my team we already won a trophy, but we could still win a bigger trophy. The match started. We got team bonus. We took a lead. We got team bonus. We won. We were going on to the final match of the tournament!
First, Hope Community 4 and Slate Hill 1 got tropies for 3rd place. Then the final match started. It was Spring City vs. Goods 1. Not an easy team. In the regular season, they finished first in their league, third of all quiz teams. The lost in the semifinals to Petra 2, who they beat revengefully in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. Supposedly, in the regular season, they beat a team 195-0, with 5 quiz outs and team bonus. Now it came down to us and them. The match started. Brandon quizzed out. A timeout was called after question 6. We were winning 65-0. Let's not get cocky now, they still could have team bonus. The match continued. I quizzed out just like Brandon. Mike and Aubrey buzzed in to get us team bonus. After question 13, I knew we won. I tried hard to surpress my happiness, but I couldn't. In the end, we won 120-50. When the match was over, there was much jumping up and down, cheering, yelling, hugging, etc. We received our trophy. I held it a lot and didn't want to let go. We were also allowed to take back the the big brackets and our Group D poster.
Reflection on the ACC tournament: I am so happy. The happiest day of my left is when I accepted Jesus as Christ and my savior. The second happiest day would have been Sunday. I was #34 quizzer and #1 ACC Tournament team. I was proud of myself and my team. I would like to take this time to thank some people. First and most important is our God, El Shaddai. He has given us his blessing and allowed us to win. We are his chosen team. There are tons of times we should have never won, but we did. He gave us all our wins. He gave Neffsville 1 a win so we would enter the playoffs. And he also gave us all the "easier" teams during the playoffs. Thank you Lord. Second I want to thank is Christine. She saved us from the losing the tournament. She tied up the final match which we needed to win. Third is a bunch of people. It's Neffsville 1! Without them, we would have never made it either. They weren't going to make it anyway, but they still won. The adreneline rush is still with me. I have so many pictures I will never forget. I will keep asking myself, "How did we do this again?" It is beyond belief. One of my great accomplishments is complete. As Queen would say, "We are the champions, my friend...."
Quizzing Question of the post:
What could be proper kind of?
Countdown to Invitational:
4 days, 4 hours, 4 minutes
Thursday, March 10, 2005
When all else fails.....
Ever make early buzzes and not enough got out of the quizmaster's mouth? Do you know that word is key, even though you don't know why it's key? Or perhaps you just don't know the answer. When all else fails, I figured there are certain answers you can give. They are the most commonly used answers. And they are no wheres near key. The answers to the ceratain questions are:
WHO: The Lord
WHAT: The temple of (the Name of) the Lord
WHERE: Egypt
WHEN: At/During the night
WHY: Because the Lord's people have sinned against the Lord
HOW: Loudly/In a loud voice
HOW MANY: Seven (7)
SITUATION: Solomon to the Lord
I think these are pretty good and use these. But most likely I won't. During practice, I made good buzzes. I quized out all four times, with 5-question quiz outs. That's a total of 20 correct questions. However, we weren't at full power. Only four of us were there. And it seemed that the only who studied was....me. I hope we can get team bonus on Sunday.
Quizzing Question of the post:
What are the cedars as plentiful as in Jerusalem?
Countdown to Invitational:
9 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes
WHO: The Lord
WHAT: The temple of (the Name of) the Lord
WHERE: Egypt
WHEN: At/During the night
WHY: Because the Lord's people have sinned against the Lord
HOW: Loudly/In a loud voice
HOW MANY: Seven (7)
SITUATION: Solomon to the Lord
I think these are pretty good and use these. But most likely I won't. During practice, I made good buzzes. I quized out all four times, with 5-question quiz outs. That's a total of 20 correct questions. However, we weren't at full power. Only four of us were there. And it seemed that the only who studied was....me. I hope we can get team bonus on Sunday.
Quizzing Question of the post:
What are the cedars as plentiful as in Jerusalem?
Countdown to Invitational:
9 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes
Monday, March 07, 2005
End regular season 2005
With anticipating my last two matches of the regular season, I got to Spring City at 12:30. We were without Michael and Josh. We had 3 Week 8 practice matches, then 2 review practice matches. I did better with the review than the weekly. I would find out that would be good. An hour later, we had dinner. Believe or not, I ate. Not only did I ate I had a double portion. It was warmed-up frozen lasanga and salad. Then we got in the van in left. That was the emptiest I saw the van ever. We asked questions around. I did good and helped Christine. Michael called in the middle to find out how we were doing. We got to LMH with time to spare.
First match was against #15 E-Town 3. I was the one and only quizzer on Spring City to quiz out. They were all on buzzes: one Situation, two review. We got a bunch of errors, so much we began to lose points. We lost to them 90-50. I didn't notice, I was happy I quizzed out. I can't believe that even though I got something wrong, the quiz master didn't mark me wrong. He gave me the whole time.
Our last match was against River Corner 3. They were in fifth place. Last time we played a fifth place team (Blainsport), we lost big time. This time was better. I once again quizzed out. Aubrey also quizzed out. Then came question 14. The quiz master asked, "How many stone..." and Christine buzzed in! She answered "twelve" and she was correct! We got team bonus, thanks to Christine! We don't need no Michael! We have Christine. In the end, we won 120 to 45.
Then came the intermission between the two matches. And as custom, they had the quizzers, quiz coach & staff 3-way match. I didn't know anybody, only quizmaster Jaime Detweiler. I predicted the quizzers would win. I was right. The quizzers won with 75 points. Second place was the coaches with 45 points. The staff finished with 30 points. Then came to announcement to who would play the semifinals.
In League B, Maple Grove 1 finished 1st and Petra 2 finished 2nd. As for League A, in 1st place was Goods 2. In the last match of River Corner 2 and the two last matches of Rockville 1, Rockville got ahead and River Corner 2 fell behind. Rockville 1 would finish 2nd in League A. So for the semifinals, it would be Maple Grove 1 vs. Rockville 1 and Goods 2 vs. Petra 2. I watched Goods 2 vs. Petra 2. Goods 2 got team bonus, but got a lot of errors. That hurt them. Petra 2 got two quiz outs. They won. I also found out that Maple Grove 1 beat Rockville 1. The final match would be Maple Grove 1 vs. Petra 2. Maple Grove 1 won against Petra 2, 90 to 50. Maple Grove 1 is the first team (at least since 1992) to win consequtive championships. Congratulations to Maple Grove 1!!!!
Reflections: I am so happy I got two quiz outs. With those two quiz outs, I scored over 500 points all year! Yay! I also finished with more points than Josh and Jake Moss. I didn't get enough points to beat Tim Moss, but I did tie Tim's number of quiz outs. So I am satisfied. My average went to 26.8, rounded off to 27. I hope that's enough to get in the Top 50 Quizzers List. I look on to the ACC tournament now.
Quizzing Question of the post:
Where did the Lord choose to put His Name?
Countdown to Invitational:
11 days, 5 hours, 31 minutes
First match was against #15 E-Town 3. I was the one and only quizzer on Spring City to quiz out. They were all on buzzes: one Situation, two review. We got a bunch of errors, so much we began to lose points. We lost to them 90-50. I didn't notice, I was happy I quizzed out. I can't believe that even though I got something wrong, the quiz master didn't mark me wrong. He gave me the whole time.
Our last match was against River Corner 3. They were in fifth place. Last time we played a fifth place team (Blainsport), we lost big time. This time was better. I once again quizzed out. Aubrey also quizzed out. Then came question 14. The quiz master asked, "How many stone..." and Christine buzzed in! She answered "twelve" and she was correct! We got team bonus, thanks to Christine! We don't need no Michael! We have Christine. In the end, we won 120 to 45.
Then came the intermission between the two matches. And as custom, they had the quizzers, quiz coach & staff 3-way match. I didn't know anybody, only quizmaster Jaime Detweiler. I predicted the quizzers would win. I was right. The quizzers won with 75 points. Second place was the coaches with 45 points. The staff finished with 30 points. Then came to announcement to who would play the semifinals.
In League B, Maple Grove 1 finished 1st and Petra 2 finished 2nd. As for League A, in 1st place was Goods 2. In the last match of River Corner 2 and the two last matches of Rockville 1, Rockville got ahead and River Corner 2 fell behind. Rockville 1 would finish 2nd in League A. So for the semifinals, it would be Maple Grove 1 vs. Rockville 1 and Goods 2 vs. Petra 2. I watched Goods 2 vs. Petra 2. Goods 2 got team bonus, but got a lot of errors. That hurt them. Petra 2 got two quiz outs. They won. I also found out that Maple Grove 1 beat Rockville 1. The final match would be Maple Grove 1 vs. Petra 2. Maple Grove 1 won against Petra 2, 90 to 50. Maple Grove 1 is the first team (at least since 1992) to win consequtive championships. Congratulations to Maple Grove 1!!!!
Reflections: I am so happy I got two quiz outs. With those two quiz outs, I scored over 500 points all year! Yay! I also finished with more points than Josh and Jake Moss. I didn't get enough points to beat Tim Moss, but I did tie Tim's number of quiz outs. So I am satisfied. My average went to 26.8, rounded off to 27. I hope that's enough to get in the Top 50 Quizzers List. I look on to the ACC tournament now.
Quizzing Question of the post:
Where did the Lord choose to put His Name?
Countdown to Invitational:
11 days, 5 hours, 31 minutes
Thursday, March 03, 2005
It's clear what I got to do
Now, with only two matches left, it is clear what I have to do to stay in the Top 50 Quizzer's List. I need at least an average of 25 points. To have a final average of 25 points, I need a total of 475 points. Right now I have a total of 440 points. At the mimimum, 35 points. To get at least 35, I need to quiz out once or score 20 points in both matches. What I would like to do is maintain my current average of 26 (It's really 25.88, but it is rounded up to 26). Then I would need to score at least 55 points. Therefore, I would quiz out once at score at least 20 points the other match. I will aim for 2 quiz outs.
I hope I get 2 quiz outs. I really want them. With them, I could not trump Krystal, but beat several others I want to beat, as long as they did poorly. Practice yesterday was good when I had this week's material. But when we did an all-review match, I errored out. That's not good. I can't wait until the tournaments (that was sarcasm). I just have to make sure I quiz out by question 11. I hate being dependent on review! And we have no Michael for Sunday!
Quizzing Question of the post:
Where was Samson buried?
Quizzing Joke:
Q: How could thongs make Samson weak as any other man?
A: When Delilah was wearing one :-)
Countdown to Invitational:
15 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes
I hope I get 2 quiz outs. I really want them. With them, I could not trump Krystal, but beat several others I want to beat, as long as they did poorly. Practice yesterday was good when I had this week's material. But when we did an all-review match, I errored out. That's not good. I can't wait until the tournaments (that was sarcasm). I just have to make sure I quiz out by question 11. I hate being dependent on review! And we have no Michael for Sunday!
Quizzing Question of the post:
Where was Samson buried?
Quizzing Joke:
Q: How could thongs make Samson weak as any other man?
A: When Delilah was wearing one :-)
Countdown to Invitational:
15 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes
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