On Sunday, January 16, 2022, something happened that, I must admit, I was never expecting to happen. On Sunday, January 16, 2022, a Stony Brook quiz team, consisting of 5 "sophomore quizzers" (quizzers in their second year) scored 155 points in their first 2 matches of the 2022 quizzing year. OK, I must confess that the Lord told me in a dream that the quiz team would score over 100 points in a quizmatch, but I simply dismissed that dream as wishful thinking, not prophetic. Even if I did believe the dream came from God as prophetic, I would have expected 1 quizmatch with exactly 100 points or just over 100 points, not 2 quizmatches of over 150 points. Not don't get me wrong, my disbelief did not come from a lack of faith in the Stony Brook quizzers. All 5 of them got the hang of quizzing by the end of their rookie year, and going into their sophomore year with clear expectations, they came prepared and ready. It's just that scoring over 150 points in a single quizmatch is a big deal for any team, regardless of how many years experience each quizzer has. As a matter of fact, in my 3 years quizzing with Ark Bible, I cannot recall at any point in time scoring over 150 points (I think I would have remembered that because it would have had an impact on me, as you will see), and in my 5 years quizzing with Spring City, only 4 quizmatches exceeded the 150 point mark. Therefore, in this post, I would like to reminisce over Spring City's greatest victories. Now I know a quizmatch called a "great victory" should be a quizmatch that has something like a close win, a comeback win or overcoming a strong and hard opponent, but those are all subjective. Thus, the most objective way to measure a "great victory" would be by the number of points, like a high score. Therefore, the primary determining factor for a "great victory" will be the total number of points scored in the quizmatch because season standings go by points (with that being said, tournament matches will not count, due to the fact tournaments go by wins, and most teams, including Spring City, practice a "mercy rule" by stopping after clinching the win). As a secondary determining factor to figure out any ties, the tiebreaker will go point differential to what the other team scored. And for the fun of it, to build up hype and suspension, let's countdown from 4th greatest victory to 1st greatest victory.
4) 2007 Season Week 3: Spring City - 155, Hopewell 1 - 10.
Spring City had not quizzed against Hopewell 1 since the 2006 season, and in that quizmatch, Spring City lost. In this quizmatch, Spring City would make up for it and then some. On February 4, 2007, on the third week of the quizzing season, Spring City would sit across from Hopewell 1 in Conestoga's sanctuary. I quizzed out on question 6. Tim quizzed out on question 10. Mike quizzed out on question 12. Sometime between my quiz out and Tim's quiz out, Christine got a buzzed in and answer correctly, giving up team bonus. After Mike's quiz out, Chelsea got a question right for another 10 points. Following that, Hopewell 1 throws another bonus in Spring City's direction, and since Mike remains in his seat, he gets the bonus correct. With 4 errors on Hopewell's side, Hopewell 1 was on the brink of either being shut out or losing with a negative score due to 1 more error. Fortunately for Hopewell 1, they did 1 question right, and they kept their errors to no more than 4, avoiding both possible worst case scenarios. Spring City won, 155-10. While the win had a big impact on Spring City, the loss had an even bigger impact on Hopewell 1. When Spring City had a rematch versus Hopewell 1 during the Invitational tournament, when Hopewell 1 entered the room, Hopewell 1's top quizzer, Bryant Burkhart asked, "So, is this the execution room?" It was. We won that match, too, 130-30.
3) 2007 Season Week 1: Spring City - 155, Blainsport - 0.
Blainsport had become quite the formidable foe for Spring City. Spring City had quizzed against Blainsport once in each of the past 2 seasons. Not only did Blainsport win both of those quizmatches by scoring over 100 points, the last match-up had Blainsport winning by a score differential of 100 points. Seriously, Blainsport had become quite the formidable opponent for Spring City. This 2007 Blainsport quiz team, however, looked quite different from the Blainsport team of the past 2 years. The quiz team only had 4 quizzers, 1 of which was a veteran and 3 of which were rookies. This did not necessarily mean automatic win for Spring City. Before quizzing Spring City, Blainsport had a quizmatch versus Paradise 3, which ended in a tie of 75 points each, and Blainsport was 1 away from team bonus. That may have been more of a reflection on Paradise 3 and less of a reflection on Blainsport. During the Spring City vs. Blainsport quizmatch, I quizzed out first, Tim quizzed out second, and Mike quizzed out third. After the three of us quizzed out, Christine got a buzz-in correct, giving Spring City team bonus. After the team bonus, rookie Chelsea, who is at her first quizmeet of her life, who is in her second quizmatch of her career, buzzes in and answer right for another 10 points. Chelsea would also get a bonus sent her way, but she didn't get it because she said houses instead of homes (I now found this ironic because that didn't fly in 2007, but I could see it working in 2022). Christine, after giving team bonus, would also get another question right. By the end of 15 questions, Spring City shut out Blainsport. That was my first time that my team scored over 150 points (at least to my recollection). As we shook hands, I felt weird. I didn't know what to say to them. I almost wanted to apologize. As the week went on, however, my feelings shifted. I had compared the 2005 & 2006 Spring City vs. Blainsport match-ups with the 2007 Spring City vs. Blainsport match-up, and an interesting stat emerged. If you add the scores of the 2005, 2006 and 2007 match-up, Spring City and Blainsport are tied at 240 points a piece! That is because, for each quizmatch individually, the winner has always scored over 100 points, and loser has always scored no more than 55 points. That tie of points would never be broken because, as far as I can remember, Spring City would never again quiz a quiz match versus Blainsport, in either the season, local tournament or Invitational tournament. Blainsport would have a bit of a slump for the next few years, even completely absent for the 2010 quizzing year, but they would bounce back by 2011 with 6th place finish in their league during the season, and then another bounce back in 2012, culminating in 2nd place finish in the Invitational tournament.
2) 2009 Season Week 4: Spring City - 170, Weaverland 1 - 10
Spring City did not start out the 2009 season as they did the past 2 years. In the past 2 years, Spring City would start out in 1st place, and they would spend the rest of their season hanging on, trying their best not to slide down in the standings too low, which usually resulted in a top 5 finish in their respective league. The 2009 season started out quite the opposite. In the 1st week, Spring City only scored 135 points, averaging 67.5 points per match, placing them 17th in the league. To put that in perspective, in the past 2 years, Spring City would score 135 in their first match alone! Then, to make matters worse, by the end of the 2nd week, the quiz team had 325 points, averaging 65 points per match, dropping the team to 21st league. Quarter-way through the season, out of the 5 quizmatches, only 1 exceeded over 100 points, and barely with 105 points. It may have been easy for Spring City and its fans to think the quiz team was past its prime, but Spring City would make up for those first 2 quizmeets in a single quizmatch, during week 4 of the season, versus Weaverland 1. Tim, Mike, Robert and I took the starting lineup. I quizzed out first. Tim quizzed out second, on literally the next question after I quizzed out. Mike quizzed out third. Robert quizzed out fourth. Yes, we had 4 quiz outs, with Robert being that 4th quiz out. It was his second quiz out of his career, and the first one of that year. Of course, for all 4 quiz outs, at least question was a correct buzz-in, so we naturally got team bonus for an additional 20 points. Since Chelsea and Alyssa weren't doing too hot, once Mike and Robert quizzed out, they got the opportunity to sit back, relax and watch the rest of the quizmatch play out. Robert looked really confused when the Weaverland 1 quizzer sitting across from him errored, and the quizmaster gave the bonus to him. While the bonus does not go towards his individual score, he did give the team another 10 points. Spring City won the quizmatch 170-10, due to 4 quiz outs, team bonus, and Robert giving the team an extra 10 points on a bonus. Thanks hugely to this giant win, Spring City would shoot up in the standings, which would eventually result in finishing the season 4th place in their respective league and 10th place overall in ACC.
1) 2008 Season Week 5: Spring City - 170, Emmanuel 2 - 0
At the beginning of every year, once I got the schedule, I had a habit of ranking all our opponents from hardest to easiest. When I got the scheduled in 2008, I thought that the quizmatch versus Emmanuel 2 would be the 2nd easiest (no, I don't remember who I picked to be the easiest). I believe I came to that conclusion because the Emmanuel 2 quiz team consisted of 4 rookie girls (they also carried a stuffed emu to fill in the seat if one of them quizzed out because the quiz team's full name was Emmanuel Mennonite Unworthy Servants, or E.M.U.S. for short). Turns out this quizmatch would become the easiest quizmatch of the year. First, I quizzed on on question 5. Second, Mike quizzed on question 7. Third, Tim quizzed out on question 10. Fourth, Bobby quizzed out following Tim. Yes, we had 4 quiz outs in this quizmatch. To make matters even sweeter, all 4 of those quiz outs were all on buzz ins, making it more impressive than the previously mentioned quizmatch versus Weaverland 1. Of course, that also gave Spring City team bonus. Speaking of which, on a related note, Spring City buzzed in on all 15 questions, also making it more impressive than the prior quizmatch versus Weaverland 1. For the remaining 3 questions that were not part of the 12 questions that went towards the 4 quiz outs, Chelsea got a buzz in correct, and Spring City committed 2 errors. Yes, Spring City errored twice, but Emmanuel 2 could not capitalize on it to take some points away from that quizmatch. They dropped both errors with incorrect bonuses. Therefore, Spring City won with a 170 point shutout due to 4 quiz outs, team bonus, and Chelsea giving 10 points extra. This humongous win would send Spring City up in the standings, which, by the end of the year, would result in Spring City finishing 4th in the league and 8th overall, making the 2008 Spring City team the best season performance that I have ever been part of.
Remembering and reminiscing over those quizmatches, I looked to see how Spring City did in those other quizmatches during the quizmeet. During the quizmeet with the Weaverland 1 quizmatch, Spring City also
scored 145 points versus Maple Grove 2 the quizmatch after, but the
quizmatch before, Spring City lost to Grace Point 1 55-75. Among those 3
quizmatches, Spring City averaged 123 points per match in that
quizmeet. During the season opener of the 2007 season, before that quizmatch versus Blainsport, we scored 135 points versus Good Shepherd 2. Between 135 points versus Good Shepherd 2 and 155 points versus Blainsport, we averaged 145 points per match in that quizmeet, possibly and probably the highest quizmeet point average ever in my 5 years with Spring City and my 8 year quizzing career total. Still, looking back on these quizmeets, I never had a single quizmeet in which my quiz team scored over 150 points twice in the same quizmeet. While I admire Spring City's top 4 greatest victories, I also applaud Stony Brook for doing something the team I quizzed on while a quizzer could never do: score 150 or more points twice in a single quizmeet :)
