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!