During the Thursday evening practice, the Stony Brook quiz coach Graham Holcomb asked the Stony Brook quiz team if they missed last week's quizzing material in comparison to this week's quizzing material. To his surprise, they answered no! The Stony Brook quiz coach thought last week's material would be easier due to the visual nature of the visions, but instead, the Stony Brook quizzers found the shorter material easier to remember. For some practices, nobody could tell the material felt easier, for these practice matches were full of errors and missed bonuses. For other practice matches, no one could doubt that the material was easier, for those practice matches were full of correct buzz-ins and quiz outs. Even when quizzers would stumble and fall, they definitely displayed that they could improve.
Improved indeed. By the time the Sunday afternoon practice rolled around, the practice matches looked better. The correct buzz-ins and the right bonuses outnumbered the incorrect buzz-ins and wrong bonuses. Even more to the point, the quizzers knew the answers faster, so fast that they could pretty much answer right after buzzing and saying their audible/intelligible word. Because the 4 practice matches went so fast, this gave the quiz team the opportunity to have 2 practices matches of review questions, which they definitely needed due to the fact this quizmeet would have the last 5 questions as review questions. The first practice match of review questions was round and tough, as wrong buzz-ins outnumbered right buzz-ins (only 5 rightbuzz-ins), and incorrect bonuses outnumbered correct bonuses (only 3 correct bonuses). The second review practice match, however, was not too shabby. Only 4 errors for that practice match. Thanks to the 2 review practice matches, the quiz team felt better about review. After a vegan dinner of beans, rice, flatbread and salad, the quiz team head off to Petra Church for the last quizmeet of the quizzing season.
Stony Brook had to wait around for the 3rd round for quizzing to begin for them. For the first round, the team, as a whole, decided to stay in the sanctuary and watch Stony Brook's sister church, Slate Hill, versus Petra 1. On paper, it looked like a good match. Slate Hill was 1st place in League A, and Petra 1 was 4th place in League A. Surely this would be a good match. It may have been good for Slate Hill, but it was not a good match for Petra 1. Facing Slate Hill, Petra 1 did not look like a 4th place team. Slate Hill would always beat them in, and when Petra 1 could get it, they would error. Slate Hill easily got a win out of that and easily scored in the triple digits. For the second round, Graham and Caleb decided to scout out Hinkletown 4 in their match versus Calvary Monument 2. It seemed like Hinkletown 4's top 2 quizzers got as many points as they got errors. Calvary Monument 2 took advantage of this, taking hold of a win.
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| Stony Brook vs. Hinkletown 4 |
Finally, the 3rd round came around, and finally came Stony Brook's match versus Hinkletown 4. Hinkletown 4 began the match with 2 correct buzz-ins: one from Trevor and then one from Jaiden. Jaiden tried to make it 2 in a row, but his 2nd buzz-in would result in an error. This error would turn the match around for Stony Brook. Not only would Kaylee get the bonus correct, she would also get the next 2 right, quizzing out by answering 3 questions right in a row! To make matters even better, Olivia would add in her own correct buzz, bringing Stony Brook up to a 25 point lead. She would attempt her own consecutive correct answer, but she would get an error instead. Fortunately for Stony Brook, Hinkletown 4 could not get the bonus. Stony bounced right back with Kate contributing her own right buzz-in, further bringing up Stony Brook's lead upon Hinkletown 4 by 35 points. Even better, because Kaylee, Olivia and Kate all had correct buzz-ins, if either Caleb or Lauren could buzz in and answer right, Stony Brook could get team bonus. The match would turn, however, in Hinkletown 4's favor. At this point, Hinkletown 4 would take control, buzzing in on 5 of the next 6 questions, answering them all correctly. The only interruption was when Olivia had her own right buzz-in right in the middle. The match went from Stony Brook leading by 35 points to Hinkletown 4 winning by 15 points. Olivia could tie with a quiz out, but Lauren or Caleb could win it with team bonus. On question 15, Oliva buzzed in and quizzed out, earning the team 15 more points. The match ended in a tie, 80 points a piece.
Stony Brook had no time to celebrate their close call, as they had to hurry to their next quizmatch, this time versus Petra 7. This time Stony Brook would start off the quiz match with a correct buzz-in from Kaylee. Dirk from Petra 7 tried to earn Petra 7 their first correct buzz in for their first points. He would instead error. Unfortunately, Lauren could not get that bonus. On question 3, the reverse would happen. Kate would buzz in, error, give a bonus to Owen of Petra 7, and he would not get that bonus. After those 2 rough questions, Olivia world get Stony Brook back on track with a right buzz-in. Petra 7 would again try to get on the board with their own Caleb buzzing in on question 5, but he too errored. The bonus would go to Kate, and Kate would take off in the quizmatch. Not only would Kate get the bonus correct, she would also get the next 2 right, quizzing out by answering 3 questions right in a row! Almost halfway through the quizmatch, and Stony Brook was shutting out Petra 7 with a 55 point lead. On question 8, Carlos from Petra 7 would finally put points on the board for Petra 7, but Olivia would respond with her own correct buzz-in, to which Carolos would again buzz in and answer right. 2/3 the way through the match, and Stony Brook was winning 65-20. Question 11 rendered a funny moment. The quizmaster Ryan King asked the question, "Debir was king of what?" All the Stony Brook quizzers heard "The beer was king of what?" (Apparently the Stony Brook fans heard the same thing.) Olivia had the funniest face of confusion! Kaylee buzzed in and tried her best, answering the "cupbearer" (because maybe the cupbearer tested the king's beer as well as the king's wine?), but of course, she got it incorrect. Fortunately for Petra 7 quizzer Seth, he knew what the quizmaster was asking for, and he gave the correct answer of "Eglon." On question 12, Petra 7 quizzer would again attempt to his first point for the match, but again, he could not. Once again, Lauren could not pull through for the bonus. On question 13, Carlos would get his 3rd buzz-in right, thus quizzing out and bringing his team's score to 45 points. Now Stony Brook had only a 20-point lead. At this time, Graham called a time out to remind the team that Olivia's quiz out would be good, and either Caleb or Lauren getting in for team bonus was better, but Stony Brook could merely get the win by just staying ahead, which could include Kaylee. On question 14, the quizmaster read out the whole question. It looked like it would go unanswered, but Olivia buzzed in, guessed "Money?" and got it right, thus quizzing out! At the point, the Stony Brook quiz coach reminded his team, "And that is why you always try with a guess!" On question 15, it looked like this question would read until the end, too, but once Stony Brook's very own Caleb heard "devoted to what" he buzzed in, answered "destruction," getting it right and getting team bonus! Stony Brook won 110-45!
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| Stony Brook vs. Petra 7 |
After a quick celebration, Stony Brook headed back to the sanctuary to see who would make the season playoffs. It turned out that Slate Hill and Strasburg 1 had tied for 1st place in League A! Before the season playoffs could commence, a quick 9-question quizmatch had to take place to break the tie between Slate Hill and Strasburg 1. Slate Hill would take an early lead, and Strasburg 1 would do a good job catching up, but Slate Hill would win over Strasburg 1 with a score of 55-40. (This may be a conspiracy theory, but I think maybe Strasburg 1 let them win, so Strasburg 1 could avoid quizzing Strasburg 2 in the semifinals, in the hopes of quizzing them in the finals.) With the tiebreaker match in the books, the season playoffs were set. League A 1st place Slate Hill would quiz League B 2nd place Strasburg 2, League B 1st place Calvary Monument 1 would quiz League A 2nd place Strasburg 1, and the winners would quiz each other for the championship. Stony Brook watched Slate Hill vs. Strasburg 2 to cheer for our sister church Slate Hill. Unfortunately, all Stony Brook cheering could not help Slate Hill. They really missed Isaiah. Strasburg 2 would take the win. During the match, Strasburg 1 came in to watch the remainder of the match. Clearly, from their positive reaction, they had won, too. Sure enough, the season championship would come down to Strasburg 1 versus Strasburg 2. Strasburg 2 would have a strong start with Ashton quizzing out early, but Strasburg 1 would take the lead and eventually the victory. Strasburg 1 would win the final match over Strasburg 2, with the score 90-70. Congratulations to Strasburg Mennonite Church for the having 2 teams make the final, but especially to Strasburg 1 for winning the season championship!
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