The Invitational Tournament, hosted by AMEC Quizzing

 The last invitational tournament took place in 2019. The last invitational almost took place in 2020, but once the CDC and WHO deemed the coronavirus a pandemic, the Bible quizzing coordinators decided cancelling the invitational tournament made the most sense. Ironically, that 2020 invitational would have taken place at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. It would only seem fitting that that when the invitational tournament began once again, it would take place at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. While taking place at the same location, the host quizzing conference would technically change, even if only in name. If a 2020 invitational happened, it would have been hosted by ACC Quizzing. Now in 2022, it would be hosted by AMEC Quizzing. Anyway, it felt good to return to the invitational tournament.

Since this Stony Brook quiz team started quizzing last year, this Stony Brook quiz team would experience the invitational for the first time. Well, 4/5 of the quiz team would. Kaylee had her band trip to Tennessee, so her quizzing year ended with the AMEC Tournament (local tournament). The Sunday before invitational weekend, the Stony Brook quiz coach Graham Holcomb gave the quiz team a crash course on what he knew and could confirm about the invitational tournament. When Thursday practice came around, and the AMEC Quizzing website had posted the invitational packet, Graham could give the remaining 4 quizzers a better idea of how the invitational would go. All 69 quiz teams participating in the invitational tournament were put in 8 groups, labeled Group A to Group H. Stony Brook ended up in Group B. Each team would quiz every team in the group, so Stony Brook, in a group with 8 other teams, would quiz 8 quizmatches in a round robin format. Once the round robin wrapped up, the top 4 teams of each group would participate in the championship bracket, called the Joshua bracket. Teams that placed 5th, 6th and 7th would end up in the consolation bracket, called the Jonah bracket. Teams that placed 8th and 9th get eliminated from the tournament. The championship bracket, called the Joshua bracket, was a double elimination bracket, and in a way, a triple elimination bracket because the teams that did not place in the top 7 places of the invitational bracket got to compete in the single elimination Nehemiah bracket, a consolation bracket for the championship bracket, virtually to determine 8th place. Graham recalls the layout for the cancelled invitational tournament to be similar, expect that both the championship bracket and consolation bracket were to be single elimination. Since Stony Brook was new to the invitational, a reasonable goal would be to simply qualify for a bracket, but Stony Brook, both quizzers and quiz coach alike, felt like they could make a run for the championship bracket.

In order to make it to the invitational tournament on time, the Stony Brook quiz team had to meet up in the church parking lot at 7 in the morning! Olivia almost slept through her father waking her up, thinking her father mistook Saturday for a school day. She did eventually make it there, 15 minutes late, but it didn't matter because Stony Brook made it to Lancaster Bible College in about a half hour, leaving a quarter hour for the team to find a good seat in the chapel for morning announcements. Once the announcements finished, the quiz team went right to the building where their first match would take place, which positioned itself at the complete opposite end of campus, so Graham could point out buildings to Kate and Lauren, who were not present for the AMEC Tournament at LBC. Since Stony Brook did not quiz until the 2nd round of the round robin, they took the opportunity to watch a quizmatch. More specifically, they watched the match between Blainsport 3 and Pettisville 2 (NorthWest Ohio) because they would quiz Pettisville 2 in round 2. The match started out slow, but eventually, Blainsport 3 would take the lead and take the win. Stony Brook felt confident that they could do the same.

Stony Brook vs. Pettisville 2 (NortWest Ohio)

Finally, 9 o'clock rolled around, and finally, it came time for Stony Brook's first quizmatch of the tournament. The quizmatch began with a correct buzz-in from Cooper, a Pettisville 2 quizzer. On question 2, Olivia buzzed in, but a Pettisville 2 quizzer began speaking! Once everybody realized what had happened, Olivia answered correctly, causing Stony Brook to gain 10 points and Pettisville 2 to lose 5 points, resulting in a Stony Brook 5 point lead. Olivia would buzz in on the next 2 questions and answer them both right, thus quizzing out by question 4. The Stony Brook quiz coach called a time out and asked the rest of the team for the opinion to keep Olivia in or pull Olivia out of the quizmatch. At first, they felt hesitant to pull Olivia out, but after talking it over, they agreed the best course of action would involve Olivia coming out, so Olivia sat down on the bench. On question 5, Pettisville 2 quizzer Brianna errored, but Caleb could not get the bonus. On question 6, Pettisville 2's David buzzed in and answer correctly, closing his team's deficit to 20 points. On question 7, Caleb would be the one to error and Brianna would be the one unable to get the bonus. Stony Brook took back control of the match on question 8. It started with a right buzz in from Kate on question 9. On question 9, Brianna would commit her second error, which this time Caleb answered correctly. Caleb would repeat his success on question 10 with his own right buzz in on question 10. Kate would then answer 2 back-to-back questions (1 buzz in, 1 bonus) correct for her own quiz out. Again the quiz coach called a timeout. By the point, the score was 90-15 in Stony Brook's favor, so in no way could Pettisville 2 come back and win this. Normally, Graham would tell the Stony Brook quizzers to hold back to allow the Pettisville 2 quizzers to make the match look close on paper, however, Caleb stood 1 question away from his first quizout of the year. Therefore, Graham pulled Kate out of the match and spaced Caleb and Lauren so each would receive double the bonuses. It worked. On question 13, Joselyn from Pettisville errored, sending a bonus to Caleb. Caleb got the bonus right, earning himself his first quiz out for the year! For the fun of it, Graham called timeout, pulled Caleb out, leaving Lauren up there alone. Graham assured here that she didn't have to do anything because Stony Brook already had the win. On question 14, Nautica of Pettisville 2 buzzed in and errored, accumulating the 5th error for Pettisville 1, causing them to lose another 5 points. The bonus went to Lauren, as the only quizzer available on Stony Brook, but Lauren did not know the answer, so Stony Brook did not add any more points. On the last question, Nautica redeemed herself with a correct buzz-in, earning 10 points for Pettisville 2 in place of the 10 points they loss for errors and fouls. Stony Brook won the quizmatch 105-20! As the team was shaking hands, Graham "apologized" to the Pettisville quiz coaches, explaining that Caleb earned his 1st quizout of the year, and his coach was merely trying to help him. They understood.

Lauren is the only one left after 3 quiz outs!

The Stony Brook quiz team had no time to celebrate their victory, as they had back-to-back matches! Fortunately, they did not have to go too far, just merely going downstairs for their match versus Mennonite Christian Assembly 1 (MCA 1, for short), a Wayne County team. The match started by Ian from MCA 1 buzzing in, but he errored, and Olivia picked up the bonus for 10 points. On the next question, Kate buzzed in and answered correctly for another 10 points. 2 questions in, and Stony Brook was up by 20 points! Ian of MCA 1 would bounce back, buzzing in and answering question 3 and 5 right, tying up the score. Then more of MCA 1 get involved. Gavin got a bonus correct on question 6, and Mya got a buzz in right on question 7. Now MCA 1 had the 20-point lead! Olivia would attempt to close that lead on question 8 with her correct bonus, but MCA 1 quizzer Adleline with her own right buzz in, keeping MCA 1's 20-point lead and putting MCA 1 a single question away from team bonus. Things could quickly get out of hand for Stony Brook, but the tide would turn in Stony Brook's favor instead. On question 10, Kate buzzed in and answered correctly, closing MCA 1's lead to a mere 10 points. On question 11, Olivia buzzed in and answered right, quizzing out. This quiz out gave Stony Brook a 5 point lead. Just as before, the Stony Brook quiz coach called time out to pull Olivia out, giving Kate an opportunity to receive twice as many bonuses. It would pay off on the next question. On question 12, Ian, who was at "full count" (2 correct + 2 errors) buzzed in. He was either quizzing out or erroring out. Unfortunately for him, it was the latter. Fortunately for Kate, she quizzed out on Ian's error out (ironically, that's not the first time that's happened to Kate this year). Again, Stony Brook called time out, and their quiz coach, just like before, pulled out Kate and rearranged the seats so both Caleb and Lauren could receive twice as many bonuses. Caleb didn't need it though. On question 13, Caleb buzzed in and answered correctly. Now Stony Brook was also 1 question away from team bonus. Graham called time out one last time. With Stony Brook in the lead 80-50, he reminded the team that MCA 1 was just 1 question away from team bonus, which could tie the score, but Stony Brook was also 1 away from team bonus, which would seal the win. Graham encouraged Caleb and Lauren to just own the last 2 questions, and then they didn't have to worry about team bonus. On question 14, something interesting happened. MCA 1's Ian either didn't know or forgot he errored out, for he buzzed in! He answered so fast the staff didn't haven't enough time to react. It happened so fast that quizmaster BJ Snyder did not know how to react. After consulting with his staff, the quizmaster gave Ian both an error and foul. Lauren would get the bonus, which she could come up with the answer, but it didn't matter, for that 5-point foul would put them out of contention for the win. On the last question, Gavin did try to buzz in for team bonus, but he got an error instead. The bonus went to Caleb, which Caleb converted into points. Stony Brook won over MCA 1, 90-45! Ston Brook was now 2-0 in Group B!

Stony Brook vs. MCA 1 (Wayne County)

The Stony Brook quiz team did have a 2-round break before their next match at 10:20 a.m. versus Hinkletowne 2. This was an interesting quizmatch because both teams had a Kate and a Lauren (so try not to get lost!). The quizmatch began with a correct buzz in from Stony Brook Kate. On question 2, Paige from Hinkletown 2 buzzed in and errored, and Caleb picked up the bonus for 10 points. Just 2 questions into the quizmatch, and Stony Brook already had a 20-point lead. Hinkletown 2 attempted to close in the point deficit with their Kate buzzing in and answering correctly, but Caleb would follow up with his own right buzz in, maintaining that 20-point lead. Hinkletown 2 Kate would again try to help her team close the point gap with another correct buzz in, but this time Olivia would follow up with her own right buzz in, again returning Stony Brook to its 20-point lead. The middle of the quizmatch slowed down greatly. Stony Brook gave up 2 errors, and Hinkletown 2 gave up 1 error, but neither team could pick up the bonus.  The last third of the match became very interesting. After committing 2 errors, Paige finally got her first buzz in correct, once again shrinking the point difference, but once again, Olivia would reply with her own right buzz-in, bringing Stony Brook back up 20 points. Then, on question 12, Hinkletown 2 Lauren buzzed in and answered correctly, but this time, when Kate attempted to bring the lead back up by buzzing in, but she caused an error instead. Fortunately, for Stony Brook, Paige could not get the bonus. With 2 questions left, the Stony Brook quiz coach called a timeout. The good news was that Stony Brook was winning 50-40, but the bad news was that Hinkletown 2 was one quizzer's correct buzz in for team bonus, but the good news was that Stony Brook was 1 Lauren buzzing in and answering right for team bonus. The quiz coach simply encouraged the quiz team to maintain and extend the lead, and anybody can do it, but he reminded the team that if Hinkletown 2 got team bonus, then Stony Brook would need team bonus. Sure enough, on question 14, Lana for Hinkletown buzzed in and answered correctly, giving Hinkletown 2 a 70-50 lead, their first lead the whole quizmatch. Before the quizmaster could announce question 15, Graham simply said, "Lauren," and Lauren knew what that meant. On question 15, quizmaster Kyle Hertzler asked, "Who did not sin and charge..." and Lauren buzzed in! She thought about the answer for bit and said, "Job." She was right! That was team bonus, and that was the win! Stony Brook won 80-70, and their 3-match winning streak put them at 3-0 in Group B. In hindsight, Stony Brook benefited from Hinkletown 2 earning team bonus on question 14, for even if Stony Brook got any points from Caleb, Kate or Olivia on question 14, Hinkletown 2 would have won with team bonus on question 15.

Stony Brook vs. Petra 2

After having a break round, the Stony Brook quiz team had their next match at 11:00 a.m. versus Petra 2 in the Good Shepherd chapel. Petra 2 had finished 4th place in AMEC Quizzing League B (at least after week 7), so Stony Brook expected a rough quizmatch. Indeed, it was a tough one. Of the 15 questions of the quizmatch, Petra 2 buzzed in on 2/3 of them. As a matter of fact, half of those were in the first third of the quizmatch, and they were all correct. Yes, Stony Brook had to start the match 55 points behind (the extra 5 is because Petra 2's perfect quizzer Abbie quizzed out on question 3) before they could get their first points. Stony Brook did try valiantly. Kate got 2 buzz ins correct, and Lauren got a bonus right, but when Petra 2 got a quiz out on question 12 and team bonus on question 13, the quizmatch practically finished. Petra 2 kindly let up so Stony Brook could make the quizmatch look closer on paper. Olivia took advantage of that by getting 2 correct buzz-ins on the last 2 questions. Stony Brook lost 55-110. They were now 3-1 in Group B.

Stony Brook vs. Logansville 1 (West Liberty)

The Stony Brook quiz team had no time to grieve their loss, as they had to hurry upstairs to their next match versus Logansville 1, a West Liberty team. Now Logansville 1 was the season champion of West Liberty, making this a rough match. To make matters worse, this match would be the first time Stony Brook had an Ohio staff, making things even tougher. Once Stony Brook got acclimated with Ohio buzzers and Ohio staff, the quizmtach began. Logansville 1 started off strong with 3 correct buzz-ins in a row, putting Stony Brook 30 points behind from the start. Olivia interrupted them with her own right buzz in on question 4, but then Logansville 1 quizzer Ezra buzzed in and answered correctly, giving Logansville 1 their first quizout of the quizmatch. Then, for the next 5 questions, Logansville 1's Ben buzzed in on every single question. He did bring himself to "full count" (2 right + 2 errors), which Olivia used the bonuses to quiz out, but Ben himself quizzed out on question 10, getting Logansville 1 their second quizout of the quizmatch. For the final third of the match, Logansville 1 continued to dominate, buzzing in on all those questions. If keeping track, then yes, Logansville 1 buzzed in on 14 of 15 questions. Now Logansville 1 only got 3 of the last 5 right, and Caleb even got a bonus of 1 of the wrong ones, but through their dominance of the last third of the match, they got team bonus and a third quiz out, sealing the quizmatch. Stony Brook lost 45-135. They were now 3-2 in Group B.

After losing 2 quizmatches 2 rounds in a row, the Stony Brook quiz team much needed a break. Fortunately, the cafeteria had just opened for lunch. Stony Brook headed down to the cafeteria and got in line. The quiz team enjoyed a lunch of barbecue sandwiches, applesauce and brownies (except Olivia, who had a vegan beans and rice mix, potato chips and a vegan chocolate chip cookie). Since the forecasted cloudy and rainy day ended up becoming quite a sunny day, the team ate their lunch outdoors on the patio. When the team had wrapped up lunch, they quickly gave up their seats so other teams could have a seat. Since the lunch intermission was still going on, the quizzers went to the open gym to enjoy some volleyball, while the quiz coach found a comfy seat in the business office to watch NCAA March Madness on his smartphone. 

Once the lunch intermission had ended, the Stony Brook quiz team had a quizmatch versus Maple Grove 1. Now Stony Brook had quizzed Maple Grove 1 during the season, and it resulted in Stony Brok losing 30-130 to them. Sadly, this rematch would only be slightly better for Stony Brook, but ultimately, not really. Stony Brook did begin strong. They answered 3 questions correctly in a row on questions 2, 3 and 4. Yes, 4 question in, and Stony Brook led 30-10. Unfortunately, question 4 would be the last time Stony Brook scored. Maple Grove 1 buzzed in on the remaining 11 questions. Since Maple Grove buzz in for 3 of the first 4, that meant Maple Grove 1 buzzed in 14 of 15 questions. Now Maple Grove 1 did not get all their last 11 buzz ins right. In fact, 3 of them became errors, but Stony Brook could not turn a single bonus into points. Due to 8 of the 11 buzz ins being correct, Maple Grove 1 got a quiz out on question 10, team bonus on question 13 and another quiz out on question 14. Stony Brook lost 30-115. Stony Brook had gone from a 3-match winning streak to a 3-match losing streak, and now found themselves 3-3 in Group B. Honestly, Stony Brook kind of expected these results. Everybody on the team knew that the matches versus Petra 2, Logansville 1 and Maple Grove 1 would be hard. Everyone was just glad Stony Brook got that 3-match winning streak to balance out the 3-match losing streak. And by no means was Stony Brook out of the running for the championship bracket.

Stony Brook vs Hopewell

Again, the Stony Brook quiz team had no time to mourn their loss, for they had a consecutive match, this time versus Hopewell. Now the Stony Brook quizzers had watched Hopewell quiz a match in this tournament earlier. They watched Hopewell quiz Pettisville 2, the same Pettisville 2 Stony Brook quizzed earlier that morning. It was quite an interesting quizmatch. In that quizmatch between Hopewell and Pettisville 2, 11 of 15 buzz ins resulted in. Yes, both teams lost points from their errors. The 4 correct buzz ins were all from Pettisville 2, and as a matter of fact, they were from 4 different Pettisville quizzers. Yes, despite 11 errors in that quizmatch, Pettisville 2 got team bouns, which credited them with the win. Stony Brook felt like they could dominate this quizmatch. Indeed, the time came for Stony Brook to dominate. For the first 10 questions, Stony Brook buzzed in on 9 of them, and that 1 Stony Brook did not buzz in on, neither did Hopewell. Not that doesn't mean Stony Brook got them all correct. In fact, Stony Brook got 3 incorrect, but Hopewell couldn't get the bonus either. 2/3 the way through the match, Stony Brook led 65-0. Hopewell took control in the last third of the quizmatch. They buzzed in on 4 of the last 5 questions. They only got half of them right, but for the ones they got wrong, so did Stony Brook with the bonuses. Once the quizmatch had concluded, Stony Brook had won 65-20. It wasn't one of Stony Brook's strong wins, but it was a win nonetheless, and it put Stony Brook up to 4-3 in Group B.

The Stony Brook quiz team had an hour break before their last match in the round robin. The Stony Brook quizzers went back to the gym to play some more volleyball, but the Stony Brook quiz coach watched more Group B quizmatches to see where Stony Brook would fall and what they needed to do to finish a favorable seeding. It was a good thing the Stony Brook quiz coach did watch, for Stony Brook fell in a peculiar position. Stony Brook would either finish 3rd or 5th in their group, and it mostly depended on how Stony Brook did in their final round robin match versus Blainsport 3. If Stony Brook won versus Blainsport 3, they would be tied with Blainsport 3 for 3rd place, and the tiebreaker would favor Stony Brook because of the head-to-head win. If Stony Brook lost, and Maple Grove 1 won their quizmatch versus MCA 1, Blainsport would finish 3rd and Maple Grove 1 would surpass Stony Brook for 4th pleace, leaving Stony Brook in 5th place. Even if both Stony Brook and Maple Grove 1 lost, both Stony Brook and Maple Grove 1 would end up tied for 4th place, and the tiebreaker favored Maple Grove 1 due to the head-to-head win. The top 4 teams of each group got to participate in the championship bracket, so if Stony Brook wanted to participate in the championship bracket, they needed to win versus Blainsport 3. Now Stony Brook had quizzed Blainsport 3 during the season, and it was close match, with Blainsport 3 winning by 10 points on the second-to-last question. Whether close or a blow-out, this time, Stony Brook had to come out the winner.

Before Stony Brook knew it, their hour break had ended, and time had to come to face off versus Blainsport 3. Just like in the season quizmatch, this Invitational quizmatch started out strong for Blainsport 3 with their quizzer Cole buzzing in on the first 4 questions. Now Cole did miss one, and Olivia did pick up that bonus, but by question 4, Cole had quizzed out, giving his team a 25-point lead over Stony Brook. Stony Brook took charge by buzzing in and answering correctly the next 2 questions: one from Olivia and 1 from Lauren (who did a wonderful job naming Job's 3 friends!). Blainsport 3 quizzer Ty interrupted Stony Brook's streak with his own correct buzz in, but Olivia followed up with her own right buzz in, quizzing out and tying up the score at 45 on question 8. Now Ty would follow his teammate Cole's example by dominating on the buzzer for the next 3 questions. Now he did give up an error, which Caleb picked up, but Cole had quizzed out by 11. Now Blainsport 3 had a solid lead of 70-55. On question 12, Kate attempted to catch Stony Brook but, but she could not. Fortunately, Blainsport 3 did not get the bonus points, either, so at least Blainsport did not extend their score even more. Question 13 went by with nobody buzzing and nobody answering. Kate tried again on question 14, and this time, her buzz in was correct. Blainsport 3 was still winning, but now, it was just a matter of 5 points. As long as Stony Brook got question 15 right, whether a buzz in or bonus, Stony Brook won. Stony Brook did not need a quiz out or team bonus, so any of the 3 Stony Brook quizzers could get the last question correct. Stony Brook just had to get the last question correct. On question 15, the quizmaster asked the question, and Blainsport 3's Alli buzzed in confidently, so confidently she clearly knew the answer. Sure enough, she answered the question right. Blainsport 3 won the quizmatch 80-65. Ironically, during the season match, it was also Alli who broke the tie and gave Blainsport 3 the win.

After their loss versus Blainsport 3, Stony Brook finished the round robin 4-4, which placed them in 5th place, as mentioned earlier. While 5th place disqualified Stony Brook from the championship bracket, 5th place did not disqualify them from the tournament. Teams that finished 5th, 6th and 7th in their group ended up in a single-elimination consolation bracket, called the Jonah bracket. More specifically, the 5th place team got a first-round bye, while the 6th place and 7th place teams duked it out. The 5th place teams would play the winners of those matches. Since Stony Brook finished 5th place, it ended up in the single-elimination consolation bracket, named the Jonah bracket. More specifically, Stony Brook earned a bye, meaning they had a break before their next quizmatch. Graham and Caleb went to watch the quizmatch that would determine Stony Brook's opponent, while the girls took a mental break. Graham and Caleb watched Weaverland 3 vs. Good Shepherd 1, for the winner would quiz Stony Brook. Good Shepherd 1 began strong with their top quizzer quizzing out, but the team didn't do much after that. Weaverland 3 easily caught up, and then they sealed the deal with team bonus near the end. Weaverland 3 won, and they would become Stony Brook's opponent.

A few rooms down would host the quizmatch between Stony Brook and Weaverland 3. The quizmatch started with Kaitlin from Weaverland 3 buzzing in, but she did not answer correctly. Unfortunately, Olivia answered the bonus incorrectly, too, keeping the score tied at 0. Olivia redeemed herself on the next 2 questions, buzzing in and answering questions 2 and 3 right. Her streak was only interrupted by her own teammate Kate buzzing in and answering correctly. Stony Brook took the lead 30-0. Kiana of Weaverland 3 helped her team catch up a bit with 2 consecutive buzz ins right, bringing the score to 30-20 in Stony Brook's favor. Stony Brook would extend the lead even more with Olivia quizzing out on question 7 and Kate quizzing out on question 9. After 9 questions, Stony Brook lead 70-20. At this point, Kaitlin got back into the quizmatch, and she buzzed in and answered right 2 questions in a row. She attempted to make it 3 in a row and quiz out on question 12, but she errored instead, an error which Caleb could not pick up the points. Caleb redeemed himself on question 13 with his own correct buzz-in, bringing the score to 75-40. At this point, the Stony Brook quiz coach called a timeout. He pointed out that the only way Weaverland 3 could win was with team bonus, but since they only had 2 in for team bonus, one Weaverland 3 quizzer would have to buzz in and answer correctly on question 14 and another Weaverland 3 quizzer would have to buzz in and answer right on question 15. While Stony Brook was 1 Lauren away from team bonus, but the quiz coach pointed out that team bonus was not necessary. Either Caleb or Lauren (because Kate and Olivia quizzed out) could extend the lead and seal the deal. On question 14, Weaverland 3 quizzer Montanna buzzed in and answered correctly. Despite a closer score, Stony Brook still lead by 25 points. As long as Weaverland 3's Trista did not buzz in and answer right, Stony Brook would win. On question 15, Weaverland 3's Trista buzzed in and answered right, giving Weaverland 3 team bonus. Stony Brook lost 75-85. Now Stony Brook was eliminated from the Invitational tournament.

Stony Brook vs. Weaverland 3

Since the dining hall opened for dinner right as Stony Brook got eliminated, and since the church already paid for dinner, the Stony Brook quiz team stayed for dinner. The team enjoyed ham, chicken legs/thighs, green beans, potatoes, rolls and cupcakes (except for Olivia, who got the vegan option of a mushroom stuffed with risotto and a salad). Since the clouds did not produce their rain just yet, the team returned to their table outside to enjoy their dinner. Since each quizzer's respective parent(s) had arrived by that time, the Stony Brook quizzers decided they had enough excitement for one day and decided to go home. The Stony Brook quiz coach decided to stay and watch the rest the quizmatches until the Saturday quizzing had concluded.

On Sunday morning, Graham met Kate and Lauren (and Lauren's father Shawn) to go down to Lancaster Bible College to watch the final matches and the closing ceremonies. AMEC Quizzing coordinator Fred Hertzler wanted to make it clear and obvious that quizzing was an act of worship, so he intermingled worship singing and quizzing matches by placing worship songs between every match. First, Strasburg 2 beat Calvary Monument 1, placing Calvary Monument 1 3rd place in the Invitational tournament and placing Strasburg 2 in final match. Second, Smithville (from Wayne County) defeated Maple Grove 3, making Smithville the Jonah bracket champions (as I jokingly kidded with the quiz team, that mean Smithville was the most average team of the tournament). Third, King's Cross 3 (a NorthWest Ohio team) came out victorius over Petra 2, making King's Cross 3 the champion of the Nehemiah bracket (in a way, that made King's Cross 3 8th place in the tournament and Petra 2 9th place in the tournament). Finally, Strasburg 1 won over Strasburg 2, thus winning the Invitational championship. At the quizmatches and some more praise and worship songs, pastor and AMEC president Jesse Johnson gave a great sermon entitled "Don't follow your dreams; follow God," which tied together all the messages of the 5 books the quizzers studied this year. The tournament ended as it always did: by annoucing the invitational location and material for next. Jonas Dienner, the coordinator of NorthWest Ohio invited everybody to NorthWest Ohio next year to quiz on Exodus! Yes, after 9 years in the vault, Exodus will return. The closing prayer happened at 11:00 a.m., and Graham, Kate and Lauren (and Shawn) returned to the church by 11:30 a.m.

Congratulations to Strasburg 1 for such an amazing Invitational tournament! Strasburg 1 never lost a quizmatch the whole weekend, neither in the round robin nor in the double-elimination playoff tree. On top of finishing 1st place in the season and 3rd place in the AMEC Tournament, Strasburg 1 had a very successful year, making themselves one of the more successful quiz teams in the past 22 years. Congratulations to Strasburg 2 for a strong 2nd place in the Invitational tournament. Strasburg 2 only lost once in the round robin, and their 2 losses in the double-elimination playoff tree were both to Strasburg 1. While Strasburg 2 may have felt like "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" due to their 2nd place in both the season and the Invitational, they did something that some teams can barely do once, and they did it twice! Congratulations to Calvary Monument 1 for their 3rd place! On top of finishing 3rd place in the season and 2nd place in the AMEC Tournament, they also had a successful year. Congratulations to Blainsport 1 for their 4th place in tournament! Their 4th place finish is a nice additional to the AMEC Tournament championship. More pertinent to this blog spot, congratulations to Stony Brook for a job well done for their first Invitational tournament. For the first tournament covering the whole material while quizzing versus both Pennsylvania and Ohio teams, they didn't do too bad. In the round robin, they finished 4-4, or .500. Compared to the season, which they finished 8-12-1, or .405, or the AMEC tournament, which they finished 2-5, or .400, Stony Brook had the best win-lost percentage all year. While the end may have felt disappointing, especially considering the one thing that couldn't happen happening all the time, Stony Brook's placing did not really feel like it represented how it did. Stony Brook did so well, it should have belonged in the championship bracket, for they played like a championship caliber team. Good job on an Invitational well done and a year well done!