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