Quizzing March Madness Part 2: Invitational

A good quizzing year has got to end with a bang. So what could be bigger than putting together 5 conferences of Bible Quzzing into one giant quizzing tournament. Yes, just as we finished every year, the last tournament is the invitational. The "Ohio tournament", as we ACC quizzers call it, was in Pennsylvania, at Lancaster Bible College. Kind of an oxymoron. There were 81 teams altogether: 2 from Virginia, 7 from Wayne County, 9 from West Liberty, 10 from Northwest Ohio and the most coming from, of course, the ACC with 53 teams. A total of 81 teams for 3 days in Lancasater, PA. What kind of craziness could this result in? Let me tell you...


FRIDAY NIGHT:
I was the first quizzer to arrive at the Deitricks. I was the first one that they saw live with the new shaven head. Yes, I followed my team into shaving our heads. I was the last,m but I did it. Now, while Tim and Mike bic-ed their head (shaved it down to the skin on their skull), I went with Bobby and wenth an eighth of an inch. Slowly all the quizzers entered in with their stuff. Tim brought Chelsea and Alyssa, and we saw Tim's bald head. He lookled like Mr. Clean. When Mike cam in, he looked like some kind of White Supremesist. Bobby had re-shaved his head for the occasion. Now we were truly 4 men in a vow. And these 4 men were ready.


Usually for practice, Spring City practices from 7-9 P.M., four practice matches, two from Dave, two from Vicki. Even when we had that overnight for the ACC Tournament, we did the same. But this was the invitational. This is different. So we practiced from 7-10 p.m., 6 practice matches, 3 from Dave, 3 from Vicki. Ya got to step it up for the big tournament of the year. After practice, we relaxed and had fun. I set up my Wii for the girls. They thought they set up all the pieces, but theey forgot the important sensor bar so the Wiimote could be read. Silly girls. "You need all the parts." lol. I was more focused on studying. In the middle of it, Tim and Mike called Bobby and I up to the room. Literally. I got a call on my cell phone from Tim to come up with Bobby and bring snacks and drinks. We did go up, but nothing happened up there. I just continued to study. So I went back down to play Wii until Mrs. Deitrick told us to go to bed at 12:30 because we had to leave by 6:30 a.m. the next morning. Bobby and I roomed. I went to bed listening to the material and praying for my team.


SATURDAY
I woke up at 6:10 to Bobby's cell phone alarm going off. He said, "We have 5 more minutes." So I rolled over. Well, a couple more "5 minutes more" I decided to get up. It was 6:25 a.m. So I decided to get up and do my thing to get ready. As my parents have always told me, I'm loud when I get up. I was loud enough to wake up the Deitricks. Apparently, the electricity went out and their alarm did not wake them up. So we rushed frantically about to get out of the house. The funniest part was Mike and Tim. Vicki explained to them what had happened, but not thoroughly enough for them to explain. She did explain how the power went off, but not that it was now back on. So when Mike went to turn on the lights, with his hand on the lightswitch, Tim said, "Don't bother to turn on the lights, the power is out." So Mike didn't turn on the lights and they got dressed in the dark. We finally were all together to leave by 6:50, twenty minutes after we wanted to. I practiced on the way up. Everyone threatened me that if I played "Horse-and-punch-buggy" they would all wail me back harder, so I skipped on that.

We somehow got there right on time, at 8 a.m. on the dot. Still, we were a little late for the big meeting because we had to say hi and catch up with the quizzers from our host family last year. Then we went into a packed auditorium for the announcements. We didn't hear a lot because we had to find a seat. I did hear an announcement about how they were going to deal with a block. If the quizmaster was uncertain of a block, but it kinda looked suspicious, they could reset the buzzers and ask another question. If it happened again, or if they were really sure, then they could asses a foul. It was a good call from the staff. We prayed, and then we off to matches.

We had the second round in the round robin, so we had to go to another match before. We went to GSC-205 because we had the next match there and we wanted to watch the quizmaster. The match there was Grace Chapel 2 (West Liberty) vs. New Danville (ACC). It was match from Group N with New Danville as the seeded team. It was obvious New Danville was seeded as they took off with the match. New Danville won easily. As our team watched, we watched where they were buzzing in and if we knew the answer by then. We were doing with that. The questions seemed easy, and we for the most part knew the answers. Now it was our turn in the room...well, almost. The match got over early, and we had to wait for our opponents. So we prayed and studied a little bit more. Tim read up on Honda motorcycles. Finally Zion 1 arrived. They had been watching Zion 2. Last time we quizzed against Zion 1 we won barely 90-80 in a hard match. This time, Zion 1 was not as hardcore against us. We maintained getting 90 points, which included me quizzing out. We won 90-45. We did better than we did last time against Zion. Spring City started in their round robin 1-0.

Repeat process. We had to wait a a round until our match, so we went to the room anyway to watch the quizmaster. This quizmaster was a favorite of our team: Jaime Detweiler. We also had a favorite scorekeeper as well. It always seemed like the match before us involved Grace Chapel 2 because the matched before us was Grace Chapel 2 (West Liberty) vs. Goods 2 (ACC). Grace Chapel 2 had a better start for this match, but they weren't going to win this one either. Spring City just watched how Jaime quizmastered. Now it was our turn up. Our match was against Crossway 1, a team from West Liberty. This was not the same one Landon from last year was on, thank goodness. They were seeded. Still, we approached this team with caution. Caution was not needed at all. We won 90-20. Spring City was still undefeated 2-0.

Reapeat process again. Spring City had a rest match, so once again we went to the room we were going to be in to watch the match. In that room the match was Petra 4 (ACC) vs. Central 1 (Northwest). We cheered for our friends on Petra 4, but mainly to watch the quizmaster. Next was our match against Byerland...again....again again. Yes, this was our third match against Byerland. The first time in the season we beat them greatly 135-55. The second time was in the ACC Tournament, where we barely won 65-55 by me quizzing out on question 15. We hoped to do more of a season performance thanthe ACC Tournament performance against them. Some things in the match never change. Both Charise and I quizzed out. But like other matches against Byerland, after Charise quizzed out, and there was really no action on Byerland's side. We won 105 to 45. Spring City remains undefeated 3-0 with one more match in the round robin.

Repeat process again again. We had to wait a match to our last match. So we went to the room and watched the match before us. It was important to watch this quizmaster because the staff was from West Liberty. We watched Timberline have a successful win against Neffsville 2. Now it was our shot. Our match was against Hinkletown 1. We had played them once in the season and won 100 to 45. This time Hinkletown 1 was stronger than in the season. They took control in the beginning and took a good lead. I quizzed out, but sloppily. In the end Hinkletown was the winner. Spring City finished the round robin 3-1.

Now things got difficult. We were done at 3-1. The other 4 teams still had one match to go. Hinkletown 1 was 2-1. Byerland was 2-1. Crossway 1 was 1-3. Zion 1 was 0-3. Because Zion 1 lost to Crossway 1, they were out of it. Yet their game would decide a major factor. We could be tied for first in a 2-way tie or a 3-way tie. A 2-way tie would be decided by head-on. A 3-way tie would be decided on errors. The 2-way tie would be in our favor, the 3-way tie would not be in our favor. We could end up 1st, 2nd or 3rd. We definitely did not want 3rd because 3rd meant quizzing against Sonnenberg/Pleasant View, a powerhouse team combining the best quizzers from two churches. 1st or 2nd is our aim. The last two quizmatches in our our group were Hinkletown 1 vs. Crossway 1 and Zion 1 vs. Byerland. We needed the underdog Crossway 1 to win over Hinkletown 1 to get first. If they couldn't win, we needed winless Zion 1 to win against Byerland so we could get 2nd. If neither happened, we would get 3rd, and have to quiz against Sonnenberg/Pleasant View. Tim and Mike went to the Zion vs. Byerland match; Dave and I went to the Crossway vs. Hinkletown match. It was looking good as Crossway was winning at one point with the score 55 to 20. But Hinkletown 1 got their act together and won against Crossway 1. So now we needed Zion to win. It seemed hopeless as Zion was winless at that point and clearly out of the tournament. But they put their best into it and got their only win of the tournament. Thank you, Zion 1! So Group F finished this way:

Group F
1. Hinkletown 1 (3-1)
2. Spring City (3-1)
3. Byerland (2-2)
4. Crossway 1 (1-3)
5. Zion 1 (1-3)

Not that first place we wanted, but it got us into the tournament. We were 1 of the 64 teams going to quiz in the afternoon in the bracket. Only 17 teams didn't make it, including Zion 1 and both Emmanuels. We found out our next match would be in GSC-204 against Rockville 1. But for now, we went and had lunch. Lunch was catered barbeque. Chelsea didn't like it because it was mostly meat. I enjoyed my chicken barbeque sandwich, but I also tried to study in between. When we were done, I took Chelsea and the rookies back to the Good Shepherd Chapel. We updated my personal bracket, and then we found a place in the hallway to practice. I ask them questions. Bobby got most of them.

As the morning went, we had to wait a match until we were up. The match in the room before that was Petra 1 vs. Blainsport. Since I usually root for who I predict will win, and the Deitricks were friends with the Eshes, I rooted for Petra 1. But Dave went to cheer for Blainsport. It seems like he never cheers for the people I'm cheering for. I'll never get that. Anyway, Petra 1 performed like a champion, which they are. Andrew Weiler quizzed out on question 3, all buzzes. Megan Blank covered the situation questions. They got team bonus and another quiz out, plus one more right to boot. Petra 1 was victorious, scoring 130 points. Now we were up against Rockville 2. We had quizzed Rockville 2 in the season, winning 75 to 50. This time we did better. We performed at Petra 1 strength, scoring in the triple digits, giving us the win. We were advancing in the winners bracket.

Our next match would be either against Zion 2 or Longenecker, and it was Longenecker. Longenecker finished 3rd in Wayne County, but it was a close 3rd, only missing 2nd place by 45 points. Longenecker has always been a tough team, and they still were. We could not compete with them and lost the match. We were on the one-loss side of the bracket.

Luckily going from one end of the bracket to another gives you a 1-match break until the next match. As usual, we went into the room we were in next. We watched Paradise 2 vs. Petra 3, both teams we quizzed in the ACC Tournament round robin. It started out as a close match, but Petra 3 took off and won the match. Now it was our turn up. The previous match was an inner church match between Goods 1 and Goods 3, and we would quiz the winner. Apparently Goods 1 was the winner because they were our opponents. Spring City took control of the match. I quizzed out. We won against Goods 1, advancing us in the losers bracket.

Since we were further in the bracket, matches were now closer, and we had hurry off to our next match. We returned to the room where we quizzed Hinkletown 1, hoping for better results this time. It was against Petra 6. I had forgotten it at the time, but this was another team we had quizzed in the season. We had beaten them at their home sanctuary in the season. At a smaller room at LBC, we were able to get our second win against Petra 6 this year. We were advancing in the second chance bracket more.

Our next match was against another Petra. This was Petra 5. Petra 5 was not to be taken lightly. Then finished 4th in League A, 6th in the whole ACC, with an average of 89 points. Seeded in both tournaments, they had also won the ACC Tournament this year. So it was the 2008 ACC Tournament Champions vs. the 2005 ACC Tournament Champions (even though Mike and I were the only ones left from that 2005 team). Another thing comes to play with quizzing against the ACC Tournament Champions. Last year Spring City quizzed against Rockville 1, the ACC Tournament Champions at the time, in the losers bracket and beat them, knocking them out! So it only made sense when we won against Petra 5. Yes, Spring City was the winners. We were moving on in the one-loss bracket, while Petra 5 was not. Add another ACC Tournament Champion to the Spring City victim list :)

Our next match was against the team we were avoiding quizzing against in the beginning. This was the dreaded match against Sonnenberg/Pleasant View. Being one of 6 matches going on, the small classroom was crowded with many viewers. Since Sonnenberg/Pleasant View was the only Wayne County quizteam quizzing at the time, it seemed like everyone from Wayne County was cheering for them! We had attracted some fans too. Zion was there, and so was Slate Hill 2, and even Blainsport was there! (See, it paid for Dave to be cheering for them!) Cheering might have helped Sonnenberg/P. View, but it didn't help Spring City. Sonnenberg/PV took off with their perfect quizzer Dennis Stauffer quizzing out. What suprised me is that they kept him in, despite having subs, including Dennis's own sister! The highlight for Spring City was that I quizzed out. That's it. They did a good job, and Sonnenberg/Pleasant View won.

So Spring City was done for the day, the tournament, and the year. As for the tournament, Spring City was 6-3: 3-1 in the round robin, 3-2 in the bracket. I quizzed out most, if not all, the matches. Comapred to last year, it seems we did better last year. Last year Spring City made it a match further in the tournament bracket: last year it was 4-2, this year was 3-2. But compared to 2005 and 2006, we did better this year than both of those years. Now that I look back on it, this was a pretty good tournament.

Our match was the last one of the afternoon, leading us up to the 2 hour break for dinner. We got to the dining hall late because of our match, and it was packed! We found some booths in the corner and had dinner there. Chelsea was relieved to find more meatless options this time. After dinner, Tim and Mike went to play frisbee with Calvary and Crossway (I found that odd considering both of them had matches that evening). Chelsea, Alyssa, Bobby and I went back to the Good Shepherd Chapel. I finished filling out my brackets, thanks to much help from Chelsea. We got most of the way done, then we went into the chapel for the fun match at 6 p.m.

At 6 p.m. there was a fun match, the biggest fun match I have ever seen among quizzers. 20 quizzers would be quizzing at once. It was the 4 best quizzers from each conference to see who the best conferences was. I didn't recognize any of the quizzers on West Liberty or Virginia because they don't put their standings online, but I recognized the other quiz teams. The ACC had its 3 perfect quizzers: Andrew Weiler (Petra 1), Jordan Keener (E-Town 2), and Kim Weaver (Good Shepherd), as well as 4th place quizzer Joel Delinger from 2nd place ACC team Paradise 4. Northwest Ohio had their 2 perfect quizzers Eliot Nofziger (Lockport 1), Whitney Stamm (Sand Ridge), 3rd place quizzer Sarah Schoenhals (Central 1), and 7th place quizzer George Miller (Edgerton Alliance). Wayne County came with their top 4 quizzers. They had their 3-year 1st place, and finally perfect quizzer Dennis Stauffer (Sonnenberg/Pleasant View) and his 3rd place brother David Stauffer (Sonnenberg/Pleasant View). They also had 2nd place Michelle Raber (Longenecker) and Brian Nussbaum (Orville). Their top 4 quizzer came from their top 3 teams! The buzzers were pretty well created for a 5-way match. The machine recognized the first one in, and blocked it out from all the buzzers. The bonus would be the second fasted buzz in from another team. The machine actually knew this! Pretty impressive! All cheering broke loose as every team cheered loudly for their conference. Last time there was a fun match was in 2005. In that 2005 match, Wayne County's best quizzer Dennis Stauffer (yes, the same Dennis Stauffer, duh) shamed all the other conference's perfect quizzers, especially the ACC's perfect quizzer Lisa Weaver, by quizzing out almost immeadiately. This time the ACC would not allow it. The ACC took an early lead. Since there are 20 quizzers up at the same time, quizouts were only 2 questions, totalling 25 points. Jordan Keener was the first perfect quizzer to quiz out, followed by another perfect quizzer, Andrew Weiler. Dennis still had to get in! He did eventually and quizzed out. Those 25 points were the only points for Wayne County. The match was interesting and fast paced. Poor Virginia couldn't seem to stay on pace! The weirdest question was this one. It was a good question that most of the quizzer audience knew, but no one on stage did! It went through all 5 conferences and was no one got it! That attracted a lot of boos. West Liberty pulled themselves together and make a comeback, having 2 quizouts. Northwest Ohio had Eliot Nofziger quiz out, and got 10 points on top of that. It came down to the last question with West Liberty and ACC tied at 50 points. On the last question, West Liberty buzzed in and got it right! West Liberty won with 60 points, ACC got 2nd with 50 points, Northwest Ohio 3rd with 35 points, Wayne County with 25 points came in 4th, and last was Virginia, unable to score anything. With West Liberty's all-star quizzers winning the match, it seemed like they were the best conference in quizzing. With their top 3 teams still in the tournament, could they go all the way and take first?

So I finished my bracket and looked for a good match to watch. I found one: Slate Hill 1 vs. Petra 1. Last year Petra 1 was unstoppable unless they ran into Slate Hill 1. That's what caused them to lose to Slate Hill 1 in the finals match of the 2007 season, making Slate Hill 1 the 2007 Champions. But this year, not needing to deal with Slate Hill 1 in the season playoffs, Petra 1 was the 2008 Champions. So this match was the 2007 Champions vs. the 2008 Champions. Who would prevail? The room was a classroom in Sabastian. I wasn't the only one who wanted see this match because the room was packed! I had to stand up in the middle to get there, and so did Chelsea, Alyssa and Bobby! It was apparent Petra 1 was the new champions, for they took a lead Slate Hill 1 couldn't catch up to. Slate Hill did their best, but they were not match for Petra 1. Petra 1 took the win, and moved on. Slate Hill1, who finished 4th place last year in the Invitational, was done, not getting anything in the Invitational this year. Still, I shook their hands and complimented them for a good year, although it wasn't as good as the last one.

I went back to the Good Shepherd Chapel to see the last match in the winners bracket which would decide who would go into the final match on Sunday without a loss. The match was Crossway 2 (West Liberty) vs. Sand Ridge (Northwest). This was literally 1st place in Group A vs. 1st place in Group B. Both were undefeated to this point, and they showed it. Sand Ridge did the same as they did last year. They took the match in their control and took the win. Just like last year, Sand Ridge would be quizzing on Sunday in the final match, either finishing 1st or 2nd.

I always liked watching inner-church matches in quizzing, and this match couldn't come any better. Late in the tournament, it was Petra 1 vs. Petra 2. These were (arguably) Petra's 2 best teams going at it. This match would decide what team would be in the top 4. The match was in s-101, and appriorately, for the lecture hall (of Tyrannus, lol) classroom was pretty much filled. All of Petra had to be there, as well as most of the ACC people still there, because the other match going on between 2 Ohio teams. Petra 1 was up to par, continuing their domination, but Petra 2 was not up to their par. Dave Jensen quizzed out, but that was the highlight. Petra 2 got enough errors to lose points, and the bonuses helped Petra 1. Petra 1 was victorious and going on. It was the end for Petra 2.

The final match of the night was between in the Good Shepherd Chapel between Petra 1 (ACC) vs. Calvary (West Liberty). The loser would finish the tournament in 4th place, the winner would go on to be one of the top 3 teams and quiz on Sunday. We knew Calvary because these were the girls who hosted us last year. This match also had history. Petra 1 and Calvary faced off in the losers bracket last year, with Petara 1 the victor. So here they went again. We cheered for our friends on Calvary, and so did the rest of West Liberty. The cheering didn't help. History repeated itself with Petra 1 being the victorious team. Crossway 2 (West Liberty), Petra 1 (ACC), and Sand Ridge (Northwest) were the top 3 teams, the last 3 teams in the tournament. They would go home looking forward to more matches the next day. The other 78 teams were done, and their year was over, including Spring City.

Once we got everyone rounded up, Spring City quiz team went back to their coaches' house. Mrs. Deitrick cooked us up a nice snack of soft pretzels and pizza rolls. We debriefed about what happen this day. We didn't play Risk, but had a small, short game of scum, and some more Wii. Alyssa really got into the Wii Boxing. We thought she was going to take out the TV! We all went to bed by 1 a.m., tired out by the days events. We made sure we all set our clocks :)

SUNDAY:

As the last day of quizzing came, we got up in enough time, got ready, had breakfast and left on time. On the way there, Tim and Mike caught up on lost sleep. It was very quiet. With the rest of people still up, I played my game of "horse and punch buggy, no punch backs". Since it was a Sunday moring, all the Amish were out, and so there was a lot of punching. Since Chelsea and Alyssa were in front of me, they got the most hits. I hope they didn't have too many bruises!

This time we arrived right on time for the start. We eventually found seats in the back. They did something different this year. Fred wanted to show how our quizzing is an act of worship, so he had us doing praise and worship mixed in with the final quizmatches. I liked it, very much because I agree with Fred's thinking. Quizzing is an act of worship and should be treated that way. It gives a new attitude to your heart when quizzing. So the first match was the match to figure out who would take on the undeafted Sand Ridge from Northwest Ohio. This match was Petra 1 (ACC) vs. Crossway 2 (West Liberty). This would be a deciding match, for if the winner wanted to be the champions, they would need to win 3 matches in one morning. These teams seemed evenly paired up, as they began the match with either a tie score or a near to tie score. But Petra 1 started taking a lead, and before Crossway 2 knew it, that lead was too far ahead to stop Petra 1. Petra 1 was the winner and was going on to the final match.

After more praise and worship, the final match was on. The last two teams standing were Sand Ridge (Northwest) and Petra 1 (ACC). What I saw, I'm not sure how many people were expecting that, but I wasn't expecting it, and neither was Sand Ridge! Maybe it was after having last year's Invitational championship handed to them through 10 bonuses, they thought the same would happen again. Not ture. Petra 1 quizzed wisely. As for what happened last year, almost the opposite happened as Petra 1 had no errors, while Sand Ridge gave up 6, all which Petra 1 used. That also means that Sand Ridge lost 10 points. They could've had 30 points, but they lost 10, thus only scoring 20. By question 13, Sand Ridge had clearly lost, but they still called a timeout afterward! Mrs. Detirick was wondering why the would call timeout after question 13. I joked around and say, "Threats. The coaches wanted to threaten their grades. The coach threatened with chains and ropes." (lol, that is definitely an inside joke.) Petra 1 won the match 155-20.

Since Sand Ridge only had 1 lost, and 2 losses are needed to be eliminated from the tournament, the same matchup had to faced off once again. The only difference in the setup was the team switched sides. So after a few more praise songs, both teams marched back onto the stage at different sides. Sand Ridge was looking for a win right after a loss, Petra 1 was looking for their 3rd consecutive win of the day. This match was closer than the last one. Even the errors were closer. Sand Ridge only managed to error 3 times, while Petra 1 errored 4 times, one away form losing points. But alas, the match went to Sand Ridge, winning 80-60. So this is the final results:

2008 Invitational
1st place: Sand Ridge (Northwest Ohio)
2nd place: Petra 1 (ACC)
3rd place: Crossway 2 (West Liberty)
4th place: Calvary (West Liberty)

There are many things you can point out as special for these top 4. The obvious is Sand Ridge is the Inviational Champions for the third consecutive year. Petra 1 is the first ACC team since 2004 to make the final match and place in the top 2 teams. According to our fun match on Saturday, the best team should've been from West Liberty. A West Liberty quiz team wasn't the best quiz team, but West Liberty did manage to have 2 of its teams finished in the top 4, the 2 seeded in the tournament. Furthermore, by Crossway 2 taking 3rd place, it is the first time a West Liberty team has been part of the top 3 since 2004. Between the 2 West Liberty teams, there was a split of brothers and sisters. It was great to see them both bring something home this year.

So that was it for matches.....for the year. The day closed off nicely. Merv gave a sermon on the material. It talked about Acts in our lives today. He seemed to mention everything, but he left out the revival fire seen in Acts, as Dave always tries to point out to us. After the message came a closing word with the word all next year's quizzers had been waiting for: next year's material. As the cordinator for Northwest Ohio walked up, it became obvious to what conference was hosting the tournament next year. Dave and I had figured this since they hadn't hosted since 2004. In 2009, we were going back to Northwest Ohio. I had only been there once before, and it was at Pettisville High School. This time, it was going to be at Archibold High School. The cordinator announced, "For next year's material, it made sense to us that we should go back to the beginning...we will be studying on the first part of Genesis." So the quizzing material will be the opening of Genesis. It was ironic because Tim said no more than 12 hours before that annoucement, "Wouldn't it be great to quiz on Genesis?" Tim insisted afterwards that he was right, while I his "guess" wasn't valid. Which chapters in Genesis they didn't specify. Anyway, I got started on the Tuesday after this anouncement.

So the rest of the day was peaceful. We all said goodbye to our quizzing friends, both the Ohio and Pennsylvania ones, not knowing if we will see them again until next year. I reminded some of them, including my own teammates, that I do exist outside the 3 months of quizzing :-). As these people were leaving, I got them to sign my orange shirt, the one with all the quizzers' names on it. Once our coaches gathered our quiz team together, they took us out to Friendly's to congratulate us for a year well done. There we ran into some ACC Quizzing staff. After full from a meal, we went back to the Deitricks. On the long ride back, most people slept, exhausted from the weekend and possibly the whole quizzing year. I decided to have last minute fun in the van, as I sat in the middle and played jello with Chelsea and Bobby on both sides. When we got back to the Deitrick's abode, we stayed there until picked up by our parents. All incoming parents congratulated the team for a good year.

So to briefly say what happened the next two days following. I was on Spring break. So I really had nothing to do. Monday was transition day, officially ending one year and beginning another year. I sorted through all my quizzing stuff, reflecting on the year. Maybe I'll tell you about those reflections sometime. Tuesday was the first day of the offseason. I opened my Bible, turned to Genesis 1:1, and wrote on a notebook, "Question number 1, question. When did God create the heavens and the earth? In the beginning Genesis 1:1". Look at quizzing 2009, here Graham comes!

Quizzing March Madness Part 1: ACC Tournament

Sorry I haven't wrote the results in a while. I had a lot of work to do for college. And I thought I should study quizzing for the tournament coming up (more about that later). Besides, this has given me time to think about what happened last Sunday.

Last week was the ACC Tournament. We practiced friday night, we practiced Saturday night, we practiced Sunday morning during Sunday school. We were determined in our practice. Yet we have some fun. The Spring City boiz stayed overnight, and played some Wii. And believe it or not, we went to bed at a decent time...1 in the morning. At church, we practiced, then we worshipped...well, most of us. Tim and Mike bought a pizza for Joelle so they could get Rit's Water Ice from her. Well, we were ready to leave to leave, and they weren't there yet. Mrs. Deitrick was about to kill both of them! So when they got back, Mrs. Detrick had and had a "talk" with them. And while she was having the talk with them, Chelsea, Alyssa, Bobby and I watched ironically as the pizza blew off the car top, came out of the box, and fell face down on the concrete. Well, Mike and Tim did what 2 smooth guys would do: dust it off and put it back in the box. It was a good laugh afterward. We arrived at Lancaster Bible College at noon. Being a student there, I bought my teammates and coaches lunch (and later on dinner). After eating a little studying, we went right to our 1:00 match.

Our first match was the first of the day at 1:00. We quizzed against Byerland. It was ironic that we were opening our ACC Tournament the same way we opened out season: quizzing against Byerland. there were a lot of things that happened the same in both matches. Charise Garber quizzed out early. After that, not much happened on Byerland's side. Then a lot of this happened different, and it was all on our side. We got a lot of errors, so many we lost points. Tim errored out. The suprising thing was Byerland was not picking up the bonuses we were giving them. If they did, they would have taken a clear lead and won. It was close. It came down to the last question. We were losing 45-55. Any Spring City quizzer getting it right and tie the match up, but if I could quiz out, we would win. The 15th question started, "Whose court..." and I buzzed in. I paused to think about it, and went with the first thing that came to my mind that seemed the most reasonable: "Caesar's court." I was right! We barely won against Byerland 60-55. Sloppy. Spirng City was up 1-0.

Our second match was 2:15 vs. Timberline. A rookie team who finished low in the ACC Tournament, we thought this match should be easy. With Fred as quizmaster, it wasn't as easy as we were hoping. I did the worst thing I could ever do: error out. I failed my team by killing a seat and not quizzing out. I'm embarrassed that I have to tell you this. I'm better than this. My team expects more out of me. I am the one who is suppose to set an example. That was a bad example. Luckily, my team was able to turn around my mistake and win 100-45. Another sloppy match. Spring City was up 2-0.

We had a back-to-back match. We quickly hurried to Sebastian to have a match against Petra 3. Coached by Jim Good, all the Petras give us a run. Petra 3 did. I was able to quiz out this on, including a question where I had to babble for the whole 30 seconds about Eutychus. But we went back to Tim erroring out. Our errors added up and we started losing points. Petra 3 was catching up, and they did good catching up, but they didn't catch up fully and at the end of the 15 regulations questions, we tied at 90 points. We had a timeout and we reminded our quizzers they couldn't error because we'd lose points. With myself quizzed out, and Tim errored out, we had to trust in the other quizzers because the top 2 were out. Question 16 Mike gets right and takes a 15 point lead 105-90. Question 17 Petra 3 gets right for ten points, keeping our lead to 5: 105-100. Question 18 the question was "Where was Mnasion from?" The whole question got out and since nobody else buzzed in, Chelsea buzzed in and tried. She picked the wrong place and errored, losing up 5 points. The bonus went to Petra 3. If they got it right, they would win. that was the longest 30 seconds I have felt in my life, but no answer came out. The scored was tied at 100, and we were going into a sudden death question. Question 19, question. "Who were rounded up.." Bobby buzzed. He answered, "Some bad characters." He was right! Bobby quizzed out and won the match for us! We were so happy for Bobby. We hoped that it would never come down to that close again. Spring City was up 3-0, and first place in our group.

We had a rest period and then went to our 4th match at 3:15 vs. Paradise 2. We lost to them in the season, and I thought this would be one of our hardest matches. In fact, this match was one of our best. We errored a lot as usual, but we scored 110 points, the most we scored all day in a regulation length match. We won 110-35. Spring City was still an undefeated 4-0. We couldn't stay too long. Our 5th match was at 3:35, another back-to-back match. It was against Bowmansville 1. We faced a Bowmansville last year in the ACC Tournament and won. I didn't do to well this match either. There was 2 situation questions. The first one I was beaten on because the Bowmansville quizzer buzzed in on "Who said this and..." and I wasn't lined up for the bonus. The second situation I did get in on, and I had a good buzz, but I suffered from a brain fart and couldn't bring up a right answer. The bonus was easily picked up. I also got a second question wrong that I was pretty sure I was right. Then this one question began "How many days..." Of course there are many days in the text. Since my roommate Eric was there, I decided to answer him. From the Strong Bad e-mail #186 called "Environment", I answered in my best Strong Sad voice, "3 days." Suprisingly, I got it right. and I did quiz out. We won 90-65. We had taken a 5-0 lead for first place. With our upcoming opponent Akron 4 being 0-5, and all the other teams having lost 1 to us, we had clinched 1st place in Group H. We were going to the playoffs. We still did do our best against Akron 1. It was sloppy, and almost as bad as we did against them in the season, but we won 80-30. Spring City went undefeated in Group H 6-0. Sadly, we had errored 30 times in 6 matches.

The afternoon round robin and evening playoffs were separated by dinner. We had dinner in the cafeteria, bought by me. We tried to study, but we were too distracted by other things and the excitement of making the playoffs. Before the playoffs were to begin, everyone met in the chapel for what we had been waiting for: the quizzing video and the announcement of the Top 60 Bible Quizzers List. The movie was awesome. Click on this sentence to see it. I made a few appearances in it. Just look for the orange, and it's me :). The best one was at the end, where you can see my going "BYAH!" at the end, even though you can't hear it. Then they started with the Top 60 Bible Quizzers List. As they started, they started with low points, and I felt good that I was going to finish high, and my hopes that I would be in the top5 rose. But as we got closer to my position, I realized Iwasn't going to finish that high. Tim finished in 29th place with 530 points. I finished 8th place with 600 points. It wasn't the top 5, but I set personal high records. This was the highest number of points, highest number of quizouts, and highest placing ever. But it didn't feel too special. I was 1 of 6 to finish 8th place. When 6 people are 8th place, 8th place isn't that big. Spring City had 2 top 60 quizzers (later stats would show Michael Schwager finished 85th place with 350 points, meaning Spring City has 3 Top 100 quizzers). The year ended with 3 perfect quizzers, one of them being Andrew Weiler, who is perfect for his third year in a row, and he's only quizzed for 3 years!

Then we were off to playoffs. We had to wait a match before we got to ours, so the match we watched was Petra 1 vs. Gehman. Since Petra 1 won the season, it looked like a shoe-in for them. Man, was I wrong. Gehman looked like they were the season champions the way they quizzed. The one quizzer looked like he was an Ohio quizzer. Gehman won and was moving on to the next round. Now was our match against Rivercorner. It was a close one, but midway through the match we came from behind and took the lead. The lead was so far ahead that we had despite them scoring on the last question, we still won 65-55.

The next playoff match was Spring City vs. Petra 2. Last time we quizzed them, we won 120-70. Petra 2 took the lead early in the match. We tried to catch up but when we did, they would just take the lead again. I got one situation right, but the second one I didn't because I said "apostles" when it should have been "elders". Petra 2 quizzer Dave Jenson said the same thing, and even contested he was right, and I rebuddled that I was right, but nothing happened, nobody got the points. At the end of question 13, we called timeout. I had 1 buzz in right and 2 errors. Tim had 2 right. We were one away from team bonus and Tim was one away from a quiz out. We needed both the team bonus and a quiz out. I shoulda been pulled, but I didn't think of it. Question 14 went to Petra 2 and they got it right. It was too late. We lost. Question 15 Tim buzzed in and got it right, and quizzed out, but it was no use. We were out.

Upset about being 1 match away from winning, I barely watched the semifinal match between New Danville and Petra 5. All I know was Petra 5 won. So the final match was Petra 5 vs. Petra 2 because Petra 2 beat Slate Hill 1 in their semifinal. Petra 5 took off and left their counterpart Petra 2 in the dust. Petra 5 beat Petra 2 115-55. Congrations to Petra 5 for the championship, congratualtions to Petra 2 for 2nd place, and congratulations for Slate Hill 1 and New Danville for the semifinals. Also, congratulations to the top 60 bible quizzers!

March Madness Quizzing style

The season is over, but quizzing is far from over! We got 2-weeks of fun-filled, full-packed tournaments. We have both the ACC Tournament with 55 ACC Quizzing teams and the Invitational with about 90 teams from 3 Ohio confrences, 1 Pennsylvania conferences, and 1 Virginia Conference. Let's go back to the first one, the closer one, the ACC Tournament. For those who don't know, here's how it rolls: The 55 teams are placed in 8 groups, A to H, with 6 to 7 quizteams. Each team plays everyone in their group, quizzing 5 to 6 matches. Standing are measured in win-loss, and the top 2 teams in each group enter a single elimination playoff to find the ACC Tournament champion.

So now to get more specific on Spring City. Spring City is 1 of 7 teams in Group H. The other teams are Byerland, Timberline, Akron 1, Bowmansville 1, Paradise 2, and Petra 3. Because we finished 4th place in the season, we got the seeding that makes us the highest in the group. That doesn't always mean anything because teams that weren't able to good on a weekly breakdown of 2 to 3 chapters can be outstanding when it come to 19 chapters of review. Just like real March Madness (the basketball), look out for upsets. There can be cinderella stories. You are definitely going to want to come and see this. Come to Lancaster Bible College to watch this great tournament go down. Come watch Spring City! we're trying to build huge fan base and it wouldn't be the same without you there. Here's our schedule


Time Room Match
1:00 p.m. GSC-201 Spring City vs. Byerland
2:15 p.m. GSC-203 Spring City vs. Timberline
2:35 p.m. SAC-107 Spring City vs. Petra 3
3:15 p.m. SAC-107 Spring City vs. Paradise 2
3:35 p.m. SAC-111 Spring City vs. Bowmansville 1
4:15 p.m. SAC-104 Spring City vs. Akron 1


And if we make to the playoffs, there will be at least one more match, hopefully 4 :). Oh, there is another event happening today. At 6:15 is the quizzing video and the announcement of the Top 60 Bible Quizzers List. Everyone should come out for that because Tim and I are in both! Come and watch! It's an all-day event, so come when you can, leave when you have to!

Now as the real March Madness comes along, everyone is starting to already fill out brackets, trying to predict who will win and go on to the next round. Well, since 2006 I have been attempting to do the same thing with the ACC Tournament, trying to predict the winner. Now there is a certain weight of favoritism for certain teams (lol), but for the most part, it is a good logical hypothesis, with the occasional yet expected upsest. So here is who I think the first and second teams will be in each group, respectivevly:

A REMINDER THESE ARE MERE PREDICTIONS!!

Group A: New Danville, Forest Hills
Group B: Petra 5, Emmanuel 1
Group C: Paradise 4, Hinkletown 1
Group D: Petra 2, Weaverland 1
Group E: Rockville 1, Zion 1
Group F: Petra 1, Rivercorner
Group G: Slate Hill 1, Petra 4
Group H: Spring City, Paradise 2

Yes, if you haven't noticed, I believe that 4 of the 6 Petra teams will go to the playoffs and 2 of 4 Paradise teams will go to the playoffs. Now that you see my prediction for who will be in the playoffs, let's see how I think the playoffs will go down.




So that would make the two semifinalist teams Petra 1 and Paradise 4 (who the finalists in the season final), the 2nd place team Rockville 1 (the 2007 ACC Tournament Champions) and 1st place Spring City (the 2005 ACC Tournament Champions). Hey, if it was your team, you be predicting it to go all the way too! What would be the point of competing if you didn't think your team could make it all the way?! But I give best wishes to everyone. Let's see who can go the farthest!

Closing the quizzing season at LMH

My apologies on it being so long for me to tell you what happened at quizzing. I've been so busy with other homework assignments that I haven't had the time. It is good that I waited as well because we didn't get the standings immeadiately so I couldn't tell you how I finished. Now I can.

I went to church at Spring City. Lunch quickly followed. I had many various things, from soup to bagel to pizza. After lunch, we had quizzing practice. I was feeling pretty good when I was studying. In practice, I seemed to be not studying. I couldn't buzz in on the ones I knew, and when I did buzz in, I didn't know the answer. I was also suffering from a lot of "brain farts", that is, not being able to recall what I knew. I always say there are 2 1/2 functures the brain does in quizzing. The first is to know when to buzz in. The second is to have the right answer. The half is to connect the two. My half wasn't working. So I could do was go over my notes again.

We arrived at LMH, me all decked out in orange, including orange hat, scarf and mittens. My orange quizzing buddy was tigger, but when Bobby gave me an actual orange and Chelsea drew a face on it, Otto the Orange became the new quizzing buddy. We went into the auditorium for praise and worship. A lot announcements followed, including one fun match with 20 quizzers. Sounded interesting. Then we were off to our matches. I was two quiz outs away from breaking a point record and a quizout record, so I wanted the quiz outs bad. I didn't get to see a first match. I wanted to watch Rockville 1, but when we got there, the buzzers weren't set up and the staff wasn't there. So I quickly rushed to go watch Slate Hill 1. I got to watch the middle part. Slate Hill 1 was losing and couldn't seem to get it together. This match was going to slow, and I had to go to my match.

Spring City's match was against Good Shepherd. I sat in seat 1 against the perfect quizzer Kim Weaver. She did good. She quizzed out yet again. I even helped her by giving her a bonus. So she was replaced by a substitute. The sub gave me a bonus, and I dropped it! Totally unacceptable. I couldn't get the situation either. I did quiz out eventually, on all buzzes. One down, one to go. Tim also quizzed out. Mike for the third consecutive match got 20, but couldn't quiz out. We won 90 to 45.

We had one match until our next match. So the guys watched Petra 4 vs. Rivercorner. Why? Petra 4 was in 4th place and we were in 5th place. We needed to score more than 20 points then Petra 4 to take the 4th place. 4th place was essential because we needed it to get a good seeding in the ACC Tournament. We must have made the match a bit ackward for RiverCorner. First, Rivercorner is an all-girls team, and only the guys for Spring City were there cheering. On top of that, we were the loudest ones there. I wonder if it effected Petra 4 that they knew we were cheering for their opponents. Whatever the case may be, 6th place Rivercorner beat 4th place Petra 4. Petra could only score 50 points. We were ahead by 40 points on the night. We just needed to keep it.

Our match was a long awaited match. It was against Zion 1. After much trashtalk and strategizing, both teams were ready for the head-on. I saw Jeremiah in seat 1 and wanted to sit across from him, so I sat in seat 1. At the last minute, they made a seat change and I ended up sitting across from Hannah. Fine. I was up to challenge. Or so I thought. Well, one again they stole our situation questions. Hannah quizzed out first and was replaced by a sub. I had to earn this on my own. I did it. Their loud cheering couldn't throw me off. I quizzed out on question 10 with one last loud BYAH! Zion 1 put up a good fight, but we won 90-80 by the same thing happening as last match. In the last 4 matches, I quizzed out, Tim quizzed out, and Mike was 1 right question short of quizzing out. We scored 180 points that night. As long as Petra 4 didn't score more than 120 points in their last match.

I quickly searched for anyone from Slate Hill 2 to find out how their match went. They didn't win, but they didn't lose either. They tied at 75 points! I was so happy that I went BYAH! down the halls. Spring City had finished their season in 4th place. This has been the highest I have ever finished with a team, either the 4 years with Spring City or 3 years elsewhere. Despite our average going down 1 point, we made it. Go Spring City!

So while they were trying to figure out what teams were in the playoffs, they had a fun match. 20 quiz coaches were randomly choosen to go up there. Dave was chosen as one of the coaches. I saw a lot of other familiar faces. Betty Esch was suppose to go up, but Rich went up in her place. So the quizmaster referred to him as Betty from that point on. Mark Graybill said, "If I get called up, you can call me Bob." He got called up. So if anyone sees him in the tourament, call him Bob. The match was intereting. Some showed they were good coaches by showing they knew the material. Dave showed the typical Spring City performance. He got one buzz in for team bonus, and then errored. His quizzers enjoyed cheering for him like a coach. At the end of 18, 2 of the 5 teams tied for the win. Dave's team was not that team. Now it was time for playoffs. League A 1st Petra 1 was playing League B 2nd New Danville, and League B 1st Paradise 4 was quizzing Slate Hill 1, who was 2nd in League A.

I went to see Petra 1 vs. New Danville. Let me tell you, from the beginning Petra 1 owned that match. New Danville only got one buzz in right, and two bonuses right, for 30 points. Petra 1 had the rest. They got 3 quiz outs and a team bonus, giving them a score of 135. You could tell Petra 1 had this match won since question 10. Petra 1 was victorious and moving on to the final match. I quickly hurried up to the door of the auditorium to see what was happening. The teams were lining up to shake hands. To my surprise, Paradise 4 had beaten Slate Hill 1 95 to 70. Slate Hill was not going to have consecutive championships.

The final match was Petra 1 vs. Paradise 4. Petra 1 had been in this position before. Would they repeat of overcome it? In the beginning, it was neck and neck. Andrew did his quizzing out thing. At the end of the match, it was tied at 75! Playoff matches can't end in ties, so they were going into 3 overtime questions. First question a quizout from Paradise 4. They take the lead 90-75. Second question is an error and missed bonus. On the third question, Deb Henson buzzed in and got it right. What was so special about this was she got team bonus and a quizout all on the same question! Despite all Petra 1's errors in the final match, they won it 105-90. Petra 1 takes home the season championship for the first time since 2003. Congratulations Petra 1!

Now we look forward to tournaments. More on that Saturday!