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?