Opening the quizzing season at LMH

Practices were going well. Rookies were buzzing in and answering correctly. Our 2nd year quizzer was quizzing out. Everyone else was doing the same. You know it's going to be a great year. It already is.

At the Spring City worship service, the quiz team was brought forth to receive the church's blessing. We each showed our name tags and the symbols on it, which are to represent who we are and how to pray for us. I got a pillar. I am the pillar of the team. Please pray I will be. I like being able to stand strong for the team. After church the quizzers did their thing by meeting in the kitchen and having lunch. Tim tried asking me questions, but Tim couldn't stump me. So he gave up and asked others. I was feeling ready.

So we had 5 practice matches before the real ones came up. I quizzed out on every one. Some were fast quiz outs, some took a while. But practices went well. One practice match Mike was the first one to quiz out. Chelsea quizzed out once, Bobby quizzed out once. Errors were limited. In one match, we errored the first 3 questions, and then never errored again for the rest of the match. It was all good. I had confidence in myself and the team. I was so confident, I was able to eat a whole meal. We were ready.

We got to LMH. It was our job to serve drinks and snacks, so our van trunk was full of all of it, including my stuff for back to college. We arrived there about 6:10 and had to find a new parking lot because of construction. I didn't know who to expect. No Hopewell, no Reading, no Hope Community, no Media. The people from Maple Grove wouldn't be the same. Who was there? Well, I saw friends from Zion and Slate Hill. And I did see some from Reading, in forms of a timekeeper, an Emmanuel quizzer, and a few fans.We got in for worship. Fred explained a few things, Merv pepped us up, and we were ready for another season of quizzing.

The first match I watched was Goods 3 vs. Neffsville 1. Goods 3 was a rookie team. I only watched this match because they were in the same room we would be next, and I watching how Jon Howe was quizmastering. He was doing his usual slow pronunciation of words. I was showing Bobby how a quizmatch worked and how to "scout" teams and staff, while giving some simple stragegy. Before we knew it, we were up. The team we faced was Byerland. I took seat 3 because I knew if I started in seat 1, I would stuck there all year. Tim took seat 1, Mike took seat 2, and Chelsea seat 4. Tim errored twice early. I quizzed out on question 6. Of course, question 7 was a situation question. My team didn't even try. But when Tim got the bonus, he got it right. Then we heard the question, "Whose clutches..." and Bobby buzzed in! He answered "Herod's clutches" and he got it right! Bobby got us team bonus!! Mike followed with a quiz out. Tim, with 2 errors, finally quizzed out on question 14. It was close call for Tim's quiz out. We won 135-55, with 3 quizouts and a team bonus.

We had about 3 matches until our next match. The first match I watched was Living Rock 1 vs. Slate Hill 2. I wanted to scout Slate Hill 2 and observe what this new church would do. By the end of the match, Slate Hill 2 won 75 to 15, but it was messy. Slate Hill 2 errored 4 times, and Living Rock errored 6. I wanted to go watch my friends at Zion, but I had to help unload the snacks for snack time. I got to hear that Zion 2 ended up tying E-Town 3. Finally, I went to watch Good Shepherd vs. Paradise 2 so I could scout Paradise 2 for the next week. Good Shepherd won 90 to 35. I hurried off to my next match

The last match of the night was Spring City vs. Slate Hill 2. We sat in the same seats. I wanted seat 3 because I knew from last match Sarah Good was sitting also in seat 3. We had talked before, so I thought it would be good to sit across from her, to make it a little more fun and interesting, and to make sure my bonuses were going to a good cause. But bonuses were not going over that way. Question 1 I buzzed in and got correctly. Question 2 was a footnote question (although Tim said they wouldn't ask footnote questions ). Still, I buzzed in and got it right. Question 3 I jumped, but Tim jumped faster. He got it right. With Spring City leading 30 to nothing, Slate Hill 2 called a timeout. They needed to rethink things over. Back in on question 4, I quizzed out. Tim soon followed with a quizout on question 11. Mike froze up this match. He buzzed in once, and got one bonus, but both were ruled incorrect. The one Mike errored on was a bit humerous. He told a 30 second story, and as he told it, he got further from actual text. After a judges meeting, they marked him incorrect. Then Mike contested. It was also a 30 second story, and that story also went further away from text as he told it. He obviously did not win the contest. We still needed team bonus. Even without Mike, we pulled through. Bobby again buzzed in and answered correctly. Chelsea got back into the swing of things. She buzzed in, answered correctly. We got team bonus. 2 quiz outs and a team bonus led us to win over Slate Hill 2 110 to 20. It was disappointing we couldn't have another year with 3 perfect quizzers or end the night with 135 average, but we did good in the match.

So here's how Spring City did. By scoring 135 and 110, Spring City now has an average of 122.5. We are hoping that propels into first place. I want to point out that our league does not have Petra 1, Slate Hill1 or Rockville 1, 3 of the 4 teams that made it to the season playoffs last year. Slate Hill 1 scored 145 points both of their matches, giving them an average of 145. Petra 1 got 140 points one match without team bonus, but they didn't get team bonus either matches, making them only score about 100 points the other match, making their average 120ish (compared to finishising with 131 average last year). The only other playoff team is Paradise 4, who are in our league. Dave found out that they finished with roughly a 100 point average. We definitely topped that. The only other threat is Petra 2, and I do not know how they did. 122.5 just might do it, even though it didn't do it last year. Sure, we not going to be the top team of all 56 teams, but we've already done that before. I just want the top spot in our league to give us hope for season playoffs.

As for the quizzers on Spring City, we did good. It's sad we can't start off with 3 perfect quizzers, but we do have 2, both Tim and I. Mine perfect is not fully perfect, but more perfect than usual. Both quiz outs were all buzzes with no errors and no bonuses. So 6 correct buzz ins gave me 2 quiz outs, on questions 6 and 4. It was awesome. Thank you, God! Tim was a little later for his quiz outs, question 15 and question 11, and Tim got a couple errors, but still he's perfect. Mike's one quiz out, and one match of nothing averages out to 17.5 point/match. Bobby scored 10 points each match for team bonus, totalling 20 points on the year already. Chelsea in 2 matches only got 10 points, but greatly helped for team bonus. She has average of 5 points/match. This team is looking strong, and I can't wait for the next week to go!

P.S. I got back to college on time. I got to reunite with old friends and set my room back up. Unfortuneatly, my ride home on Thursday nights fell through. Please pray that I can find another one! I miss my team and I need them!