Let me take a step back. I told you about the Invitational, but didn't tell you about the ACC Tournament. If you went to the Conestoga Twitter page a week earlier, you would have seen that I was giving it a test run with the ACC Tournament resutls. So if you read that, you already know what happened. If not, enjoy this description of the matches.
First, I believe owing God thanks and praise that he made all things work out for this Saturday. The previous Wednesday evening my grandmother passed away, and I wasn't sure if I would make it back from Connecticut for the tournament. But I believe God recognized my needed leadership in the ministry I was serving, so He made it so that the viewing was Friday and the funeral was Saturday. I spent all Friday morning driving up to Connecticut from home and all Saturday evening driving from Connecticut back to LBC so I could be with my team in a big tournament. Thank you God for being faithful to the calling you gave me.
The team met together for the Sunday School hour for quiz practice, and joined together in worship for the church service. After church all the quizzers met together around the ping pong table for lunch. Sharon, Amanda's mom, brought meatballs for meatball subs, along with sides and deserts. We all ate in good time and left in good time, even though we were pulling it close. We got to Lancaster Mennonite School exactly 2 minutes before 1 p.m., when the tournament started. Luckily for us, our first match wasn't until 1:20 anyway. So we waited out for our match to come, reviewing some questions, some lists and some footnotes.
Conestoga was in Group E with 5 other teams. Therefore, we quizzed 5 matches in the afternoon's round robin with other teams in our group. The first team we were up against was Zion 2. In the season, we had faced Zion 2 and had a close loss. Zion 2 started off the match quickly, while Conestoga had a slow start. Zion 2 kept strong through the whole match, Conestoga struggled. Zion 2 had 3 quiz outs, while Justin was the onl one able to quiz out. Conestoga lost 65 to 105. We were 0-1 in Group H. The quiz team didn't feel too good about losing their first match. They needed to get outside into the beautiful weather and bask in the sun. In the meantime, I looked at the early standings.
At 2:00 Conestoga had their second match vs. Bowmansville 1. This match I started Amanda over Kristy. The match did start slow with Bowmansville 1 getting an error, and Denise not getting the bonus. But then things turned around. Amanda, who has been somewhat dormant buzzed in on question 2 and got it right! This was followed by Denise who got a buzz-in correct. Now Bowmansville responded with scoring 30 points, but that was followed by 2 errors, allowing Denise to quiz out on our side and open a seat for Kristy. Joy and Kristy joined in and got a buzz-in correct, getting us team bonus! Conestoga was the winner, 95 to 65. We were now 1-1.
With an hour until our next match, everyone enjoyed a longer break. Most of the Conestoga quizzers had a make-shift game of softball, using Meredith's long wooden name tag as the "bat." I watched a quiz match between Hope of the Nations and E-Town 1, and went back and forth between the standings to see how they were unfolding. For the most part, they unfolded to our benefit and we had much potential to entering the playoffs.
3:00 came around and so did our match against RiverCorner. The music room was fairly empty with no large crowd watching us. The first 2 questions Joy and Densie buzzed-in correctly, giving Conestoga a strong 20 point lead. Questions 4 and 5 slowed down the match. On question 3, Denises errored and Megan Lehman from RiverCorner couldn't pick up the bonus. Question 4 went by without anyone buzzing in. It was ok; it was areally long question with a really long answer. Megan may have rebounded by getting the next buzz-in correct, but then Conestoga took control of the next 4 questions. Amanda kept going on fire with question 6 a correct buzz-in. Densise got her second question right on question 7. Justin buzzed in answered correctly on question 8, getting us team bonus. Denise kept going with right answers and quizzed out on question 9, giving Conestoga a 75 point lead. RiverCorner answered 4 questions correctly, but it wasn't enough. Joy got the last question and finalized the match. Conestoga was the winner against RiverCorner, 95 to 55.
Since we had back-to-back matches, we had to run from the music room to the Rutt Building for our match against Living Rock 2. Still on fire from our last match, we were ready to go. Amanda was the most on fire because she was the one who opened the match with a correct buzz in. Just must've not wanted to be the last one for team bonus again because he got the second question a buzz in correct. After taking a 20 point lead, we then errored twice, which Living Rock picked up easily. Then Living Rock 2 got a buzz in correct, answering 3 correctly in a row. But Joy buzzed in correctly on question 6 and Kristy on question 8, giving team bonus. It got scary when Living Rock 2 got 3 buzz-ins correctly and was one away from team bonus. But they never got it. Isntead, Kristy quizzed out on question 15, winning Conestoga the match 95 to 75. Conestoga was now 3-1 in Group H.
Conestoga's final match in the round robin was against Goods 2. We had quizzed against Goods 2 in the season and won greatly. We hoped to repeat. For the last round robin match, I went back to starting Kristy over Amanda. Conestoga got the first 4 questions right. Denise started off question 1 with a right bonus, then got a right buzz-in on question 2. Joy interruptted Denise's streak by getting her own buzz-in correct. Denise got her quiz out on question 4, putting Amanda in. There was no team bonus this team, but Kristy got her second consecutive quiz out, also on question 15. Conestoga once again was the winner, with a score of 90 to 45. After losing the opening match, Conestoga went on a 4-match winning streak to finish 4-1 in the group. Since Zion 2 had gone undefeated in our group, Conestoga's 4-1 record put the team 2nd place in Group H. We were going to the playoffs.
Sharon once again was kind enough to bring pizza for the quiz team, and so we all enjoyed a pizza picnic outside in the nice weather. Then the quiz team went to get ice cream, but I went back to the standings to get more information on what was happening. In Group H, Zion 2 finished 1st, Conestoga finished 2nd and Bowmansville 1 in 3rd. All were going to the playoffs. Our opponent in the playoffs would be Strasburg 4, the third place team in Group B, with a 3-2 record. We had closed the season quizzing against Starsburg 4, and we won. We hope to win again. Some other things to notice: the combined Petra team records was 23-2. 3 Petra teams went 5-0 and 2 Petra teams went 4-1. 3 of 5 Petra teams were the champions of their group. Also, 7 of the 8 group champions were 5-0.
I had a quick coach's meeting to go for bus assignments. Conestoga didn't get the bus seating we would have wanted, but Fred made sure we would on the way back. The meeting got over in enough time for the quizzing movie. After the quizzing movie was the Top 50 Bible Quizzers List. We (at least I) cheered loudly and wildly for our quizzer on the Top 50 Quizzers List: Denise. Denise finished in 35th with 575 points. Then afterward the playoffs were ready to begin.
So came our playoff match against Starsburg 4. Same quizzers, same line-up. Denise opened the quizmatch with a correct buzz, and Joanna from Starsburg 4 responded on question 2 with a correct buzz-in. Conestoga took a heavy lead into the quiz match. 4/5 the way through the match, we were winning 80 to 30, thanks to Denise and Joy quizzing out. Things sounded set. But the 30 points Strasburg 4 got was 3 buzz-ins by 3 different quizzes. On question 13, Joanna from Strasburg 4 got another question correctly, putting her one away from a quiz out. So with 2 questions left, Strasburg 4 was one question away from a quiz out and one question away from a team bonus. On question 14, Strasburg 4 got that 4th quizzer to buzz in correctly for the team bonus. The score was now Conestoga - 80, Strasburg 4 - 70. I was sitting on the bench thinking, "Anybody but Joanna, anybody but Joanna..." because if no one got it right, Conestoga won, if anyone of the conestoga quizzers got it right, Conestoga won, if any Strasburg 4 quizzer but Joanna got it right, it would be a tie and there would be overtime, but if Joanna got it right, Strasburg 4 would win due the 5 extra points for the quiz out. The worse case scenario happened. Joanna buzzed in, answered correctly, quizzed out and won the match for her team. Strasburg 4 was the victorius team, 85 to 80. Strasburg 4 would go on, but Conestoga was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round. Our day was done.
With Conestoga done, the quizzers went home, but I stayed to see the rest. In the second round, Strasburg 4 would lose their next match against Petra 1. I watched Petra 2 beat Petra 5. In the quarterfinal round, there was a re-match of the semifinal season match between Petra 2 and Slate Hill 1. The match started out close, but Petra 2 took a good lead and the win this time. In the semifinals, Petra 2 won against Gehman and Petra 1 won over Weaverland 2. The final match was Petra 2 vs. Petra 1. This also started out close, but Petra 1 would be the victorious team, winning 85 to 50. So the 2010 ACC Tournament ended with Petra 1 in 1st place and Petra 2 in 2nd place. Congratulations Petra 1 for winning the championship.
Showing posts with label ACC tournament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACC tournament. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The LMS Tournament
I've been quizzing in the ACC Tournament for 8 years, so let me give you a little history listen. This year, the ACC Tournament was moved to Lancaster Mennonite School. I myself can't exactly say why, but I can guess that it has to do something between LBC becoming too expensive the LMS actually becoming big enough to host a tournament. Anyway, in my quizzer career, this is now the third location the ACC Tournament has been in. As you know from my previous blogs on the event, it use to be held at Lancaster Bible College (my college!), but that was only from 2004 to 2008. Before then, it use to be at Pequea Valley High School. Since it was, it was sometimes called the Pequea Tournament, named after the host building. Now after we stopped going to Pequea, it went back to mainly being called the ACC Tournament. (I never heard it be called the LBC Tournament.) But now we are at LMS. Hence, this blogs title. But enough of explaining about the title. Let me explain what happened at the tournament.
We have to go back to Saturday night. That's where it all starts. The Deitricks thought it was best that we have practice both Thursday night and Saturday night. Since Tim had work and Mike had a birthday party, it was just Alyssa, Bobby, Chelsea, and me. Since the Deitricks wrote 18 question sets, and there was only 4 of us, quiz outs were 5 questions. Still, some of us had problems quizzing out. We had more fun filling our columns with happy faces, mad faces, stars and tar pits than points. lol. We had our good matches, we had our bad matches. After practice and snack, we watch the Power of Ten, a short movie. And as Robert had asked me, I brought my wii so we could play Super Smash Brawl. Robert liked it a lot, but not so much for Alyssa. She didn't know any buttons, so she was just trying her best to play. She won one, with my help ;). But the rest I won. Still, it look like Robert enjoyed himself. We went to bed at 11:30 like Mrs. Deitrick wanted, but Robert and I listened to the material as we fell asleep.
Sunday morning we practiced again during the Sunday School hour. Tim and Mike were as late as usual. Once again, practices became more of getting tar pits, smileys and stars, but we also got a lot of points, too. We generally seemed to know our material. We stayed for all of worship, then left. We had lunch in the van as Mr. Deitrick asked us questions. We got there about 10 minutes before the festivities began.
Spring City has a habit of quizzing in the first set, which happens exactly at 1:oo. With only 10 minutes before quizzing, Mrs. Deitrick quickly did rounds of questions until time for the match. So after the quizmaster made announcements, we started out match against Hinkletown 3. Spring City owned in buzzing, as most of the questions were Spring City buzzing in. Yet Hinkletown 3 got a couple. The match started slow for Spring City, but we quickly caught up to our normal performance. I quizzed out. Spring City won 115 to 40.
Our next match was at 2:00, so I had the chance to watch our oppoents twice. First I watched Ridgeview 2 vs. Akron 2. Dave came to watch with me. I kept the score. The match was close in the beginning, all the way up to the end, when Akron 2 took the lead and took the win. I was pretty sure Spring City could win against both of them, for both teams were slow at buzzing in. Spring City's fast buzzing alone gave us an edge. The next match I watched was Hinkletown 3 vs. Strasburg 1. It was a slow match, as bonuses came with errors. A contest and rebuddal came out, but no time outs. Strasburg 1 was in the lead when I left. I had to leave in the middle of the match to get to my match on time. How embarassing!
But I made my 2:00 match on time. It was Ridgeview 2 vs. Spring City. A few more fans showed up for the match. This time, Spring City made sure it wasn't as slow as it was last time. Mike took the first question by buzzing in and getting it right. By question 3, we had 30 points, and it was quite possible to have team bonus by question 4. Robert was a little too slow, so we had to get in. Later on, we did get team bonus, and we also got 3 quiz outs. Dave felt so comfortable with our younger quizzers, he took Mike out when he quizzed out. Spring City won the match 145-20. Spring City was 2-0 in Group G.
We had a break set, then came our 2:40 match: Spring City vs. Livng Rock 2. The team was coached by the Bergs. Spring City has crossed the Bergs a few times in quizzing, especially during tournaments. This is the first time we quizzed against the Berg's daughter, Becca Berg. When 2:39 came around, as the team gathered to pray, we realized we were missing someone. It was Tim! No one could get ahold of Tim! Luckily Tim rolled around at exactly 2:40 so we could start our match. Anyway, the match started, and Spring City performed similar to our last match. We had 3 quiz outs, topped off with team bonus. Living Rock 2 wasn't as fortunate as Ridgeview 2 because they could only get 10 points. We had our strongest win of the day at the end of the match, winning 145 to 10. But still, the two teams came together to shake hands. Thank you, Living Rock 2, for being good sports about it...well, for the most part. I did hear a quizzer say, "Thank you for crucifiying us." While some might have been offended, I took it as a compliment. :). Spring City was now 3-0.
We had another break set. So I watch Hinkletown 3 vs. Petra 1 because I knew I had to scout Petra 1. Up to now, Petra 1 was 4-0. Petra 1's performance against Hinkletown 3 was similar to ours. They buzzed in a lot, giving few questions to Hinkletown 3. They got both quiz outs and team bonus. They won the match, scoring over 100 points. Petra 1 was now 5-0. Their last match was us. I knew that's what it would come down to.
Starting at 3:20, Spring City had back-to-back matches. The first match was against Akron 2. Spring City has faced Akron a couple times, especially in tournaments, and most of the time it is a win. While not as spectacular as the Ridgeview 2 or the Living Rock 2 match, Akron 2 was a great match for Spring City, even better than against Hinkletown 3. Spring City got team bonus and 2 quiz outs. We won the match 130-40. We shook hands with the other team, but couldn't stick around for much more, for we had to get to our next match in the other building.
Once we got to the other building, we went upstairs to our match against Strasburg 1. Now Strasburg 1 performed at the same level as Living Rock 2 and Akron 2 in the season, but from watching in the ACC Tournament, they knew what they were. They were about to prove that to us. Strasburg 1 contested twice, even as early as the first question! That sounds like something Tim would do (lol). Spring City errored a lot, coughing up a lot of bonuses. Some of them Strasburg 1 got, the others Strasburg missed. Their number 1 quizzer errored out, which helped me quiz out. It got close. Spring City racked up enough errors to start losing points. But after switching into conserative mode, Spring City did win 70 to 55. Spring City barely made it to 4-0.
After a break round, Spring City was now to face Petra 1. Both teams were 5-0 and in the playoffs. Now it was just a final battle for that no. 1 seed, which was the bye in the tournament. We prayed together with Petra 1 and then the match started. Petra 1 took an early lead in the match, 20-0. We tried to keep close to them, but we struggled. Not too many highlights of the match on Spring City's side. The biggest highlight would have to be my contest. I got for a bonus "Where was Abraham staying when Abraham said of Sarah, 'She is my sister'?" Right from the start, I thought it was a bad question, and planned to contest from the start. Until then, I babbled. "Egypt.....and Gerar.....and he also said it to Sarah before they left as in what to say wherever they go..." This babbling went on until time ran out. They judges briefly met together, and then came out to say it was wrong. I immediately contested the question. First I started out, "If I have found favor in the quizmasters eyes, may he let me contest the question?" (I always wanted to do that). After everyone laughed, the quizmaster said, "I think I have to let you" (which isn't true, the quizmaster can deny a contest, so yes, a quizzer must ask for permission to contest). So I explained to the quizmaster that it is a bad question because both in Egypt an Gerar Sarah is called Abraham's sister. Furthermore, Abraham tells Sarah before they left Haran that wherever they go, she should say that she is Abraham's sister, so really it was probably said more than those 2 places, and Egypt and Gerar are just two examples of that. Thus, I suggested the question be thrown out and a new one given. So the staff went back into huddle to talk it over. This huddle took longer, with a lot of page flipping. Finally the quizmaster came up. "Thank you for waiting," he started. "We're going to grant your contest, but not the way you are thinking. We're going to give you the bonus points. You're right, it does appear in different places. So we're going to accept multiple answers." I was happy and took it. So after 8 years of quizzing, I made my 3rd career, and won my first one. But in the big picture it didn't matter. Spring City gave enough bonuses that Petra 1 could win. The final score was Petra 1: 75, Spring City: 65. This is how Spring City finished it's round robin. That was Spring City's first ACC Tournament Round Robin loss since 2006. With that in mind...
Spring City finished the round robin 5-1. 5-1 got us 2nd place in Group G, which put us in the playoffs. The only difference from being in first place is that we had to quiz 1 more match. Now look at it in the bigger picture. This is the 5th time Spring City has been in the playoffs in the past 6 years. Like I said, this was Spring City's first loss in the ACC Tournament Round robin since 2006. So from 2007-2009 in the round robin, Spring City is 17-1. Pretty impressive. If you want to date it back to when I starting quizzing for Spring City, Spring City is 24-5 in the round robin. Spring City is not to be taken lightly in the ACC Tournament.
So mom was nice enough to get me a salad for dinner. Tim and Mike went out to eat. So the rest of the team ate together. When we were done eating, I went out to fill out my bracket. Then I spent a little alone time in room 200. I don't have the time or space to explain that; maybe I will explain it later. Then we all gathered in the Fine Arts center for the ceremonies. I usually am loud and riled up for these things, but not today. I feel like I was more just taking in the surrounding for one last time as a quizzer. Fred got up and thanked all who were involved in quizzzing. Then we saw the quizzing video, produced by Brian Harnish, which I saw myself in a few times. Then came the individual quizzing awards. This year they changed it to the top 66 (I wasn't a big fan of it. As I say, "When everyone is special, then nothing is special") One by one, I saw quizzers go up. I saw many friends go up, but only 1 teammate went up. Tim Moss finished in 39th with 510 points. If Tim chose to end his career after this season, he will have officially ended his career better than any of his brothers. As I saw the points people scored go up, I saw the placings go up. I knew I finished 1 short of perfect, but how many people were perfect. Then I heard, "2 people tied for 4th place with 615 points," I knew what to expect next. "From Spring City, Graham Holcomb!" And just as I declared I would at the beginning of the season, I went and went BYAH! for every quiz out I had, totalling 17. With one final BYAH! I went to Fred, received my award. If there was any order I was suppose to stand in, I violated it. Instead of standing with the perfect quizzers, I want to stand with my quizzing brother Tim.
So in the 8 years of my career, the last 6 years I finished in the top 100, the last 5 years I finished in the top 50, the last 4 years I finished in the top 20, the last 2 years I finished in the top 10, and this past season I finished in the top 5. In those 6 years I have 81 quiz outs (2004: 7, 2005: 12, 2006: 15, 2007: 14, 2008: 16, 2009: 17) and 3210 points. (2004: 370, 2005: 510, 2006: 585, 2007: 530, 2008: 600, 2009: 615).
After the ceremonies, we split to the rooms to our match. Spring City got to face Zion 1, 3rd place in their group. As a matter of fact, they had finished in a 3-way tie for 3rd at 3-3, and they won due to less errors. After praying, we were ready to start. Hannah Gehman from Zion 1 gave Spring City a scare when she quizzed out a third of the way through the quizmatch, and had taken a sizable lead in front of Spring City. I turned to Tim and said, "Let us both match her" and that's what we did. Both Tim and I quizzed out. Spring City beat Zion 1 by scoring twice as many points, 90 to 45. Once Hannah was out, all Zion picked up was 10 points.
There were no more break rounds, so Spring City was off to our next match. The seeded team we had to quiz against was Conestoga. If you don't know, Conestoga and Weaverland 2 tied for 4th place in League B in the season. This is important because the 4th seed is the seeded team. Because Weaverland 2 won against Conestoga in the season, they got 4th place and the seed. Not like it really mattered because Conestoga was put in the same group with Weaverland 2. But the irony is that the same thing happened in the group in the ACC Tournament as it did in the league in the season. Both teams took off, and it came down to their head-on match. This time, though, Conestoga was the winning team, so they got the bye. Now Spring City got their ahead of time, before the whole staff was ready, so the ready quizmaster gave us practice questions, which were really old quizzing questions from week 4 of the season. The way Spring City was doing, things were looking up. But that is what could have knocked us off our rocker. Spring City errored...a lot. Both Tim and I, Spring City's top 2 quizzers, erorred out. We were 6 errors alone. So naturally we lost points. It seemed any points we earned were quickly lost. Not only did we lose points, but we kindly handed bonuses which were converted into points for the other team. Needless to say we lost. This had to be the hardest match for me to error out and for my team to lose. Why? This match was my 250th career quizzing match. What a match no. 250 turned out to be. Instead of quizzing out, I errored out. Instead of winning, we lost, and now we were out of the tournament. Another time Tim was denied a trophy.
So for the rest of the night, I watched other teams quizzed. It was hard getting into the quizzing, knowing that we lost in such a horrible way. It was hard to pick a team to root for when you wanted to be that team. I saw Petra 3 win against E-Town 1 in the quarterfinals, and Conestoga win against Petra 3 in the semifinals. Then everyone crowded in the Fine Arts center for the final match of the ACC Tournament. On one side Conestoga had one their 3 matches to get to the final match, on the other side, Bowmansville 1 had done the same. Bowmansville 1 was rearing to go, and they showed it. By question 4, they were in the lead 40-0. It was hard for Conestoga to produce a comeback, and they just could not. After 15 questions, Bowmansville 1 was the victorious team, winning 100 to 40. So the ACC Tournament ended, and so did quizzing in PA. Bowmansville 1 was the ACC Tournament Champions, with Conestoga in 2nd place. Congratulations to both teams.
We have to go back to Saturday night. That's where it all starts. The Deitricks thought it was best that we have practice both Thursday night and Saturday night. Since Tim had work and Mike had a birthday party, it was just Alyssa, Bobby, Chelsea, and me. Since the Deitricks wrote 18 question sets, and there was only 4 of us, quiz outs were 5 questions. Still, some of us had problems quizzing out. We had more fun filling our columns with happy faces, mad faces, stars and tar pits than points. lol. We had our good matches, we had our bad matches. After practice and snack, we watch the Power of Ten, a short movie. And as Robert had asked me, I brought my wii so we could play Super Smash Brawl. Robert liked it a lot, but not so much for Alyssa. She didn't know any buttons, so she was just trying her best to play. She won one, with my help ;). But the rest I won. Still, it look like Robert enjoyed himself. We went to bed at 11:30 like Mrs. Deitrick wanted, but Robert and I listened to the material as we fell asleep.
Sunday morning we practiced again during the Sunday School hour. Tim and Mike were as late as usual. Once again, practices became more of getting tar pits, smileys and stars, but we also got a lot of points, too. We generally seemed to know our material. We stayed for all of worship, then left. We had lunch in the van as Mr. Deitrick asked us questions. We got there about 10 minutes before the festivities began.
Spring City has a habit of quizzing in the first set, which happens exactly at 1:oo. With only 10 minutes before quizzing, Mrs. Deitrick quickly did rounds of questions until time for the match. So after the quizmaster made announcements, we started out match against Hinkletown 3. Spring City owned in buzzing, as most of the questions were Spring City buzzing in. Yet Hinkletown 3 got a couple. The match started slow for Spring City, but we quickly caught up to our normal performance. I quizzed out. Spring City won 115 to 40.
Our next match was at 2:00, so I had the chance to watch our oppoents twice. First I watched Ridgeview 2 vs. Akron 2. Dave came to watch with me. I kept the score. The match was close in the beginning, all the way up to the end, when Akron 2 took the lead and took the win. I was pretty sure Spring City could win against both of them, for both teams were slow at buzzing in. Spring City's fast buzzing alone gave us an edge. The next match I watched was Hinkletown 3 vs. Strasburg 1. It was a slow match, as bonuses came with errors. A contest and rebuddal came out, but no time outs. Strasburg 1 was in the lead when I left. I had to leave in the middle of the match to get to my match on time. How embarassing!
But I made my 2:00 match on time. It was Ridgeview 2 vs. Spring City. A few more fans showed up for the match. This time, Spring City made sure it wasn't as slow as it was last time. Mike took the first question by buzzing in and getting it right. By question 3, we had 30 points, and it was quite possible to have team bonus by question 4. Robert was a little too slow, so we had to get in. Later on, we did get team bonus, and we also got 3 quiz outs. Dave felt so comfortable with our younger quizzers, he took Mike out when he quizzed out. Spring City won the match 145-20. Spring City was 2-0 in Group G.
We had a break set, then came our 2:40 match: Spring City vs. Livng Rock 2. The team was coached by the Bergs. Spring City has crossed the Bergs a few times in quizzing, especially during tournaments. This is the first time we quizzed against the Berg's daughter, Becca Berg. When 2:39 came around, as the team gathered to pray, we realized we were missing someone. It was Tim! No one could get ahold of Tim! Luckily Tim rolled around at exactly 2:40 so we could start our match. Anyway, the match started, and Spring City performed similar to our last match. We had 3 quiz outs, topped off with team bonus. Living Rock 2 wasn't as fortunate as Ridgeview 2 because they could only get 10 points. We had our strongest win of the day at the end of the match, winning 145 to 10. But still, the two teams came together to shake hands. Thank you, Living Rock 2, for being good sports about it...well, for the most part. I did hear a quizzer say, "Thank you for crucifiying us." While some might have been offended, I took it as a compliment. :). Spring City was now 3-0.
We had another break set. So I watch Hinkletown 3 vs. Petra 1 because I knew I had to scout Petra 1. Up to now, Petra 1 was 4-0. Petra 1's performance against Hinkletown 3 was similar to ours. They buzzed in a lot, giving few questions to Hinkletown 3. They got both quiz outs and team bonus. They won the match, scoring over 100 points. Petra 1 was now 5-0. Their last match was us. I knew that's what it would come down to.
Starting at 3:20, Spring City had back-to-back matches. The first match was against Akron 2. Spring City has faced Akron a couple times, especially in tournaments, and most of the time it is a win. While not as spectacular as the Ridgeview 2 or the Living Rock 2 match, Akron 2 was a great match for Spring City, even better than against Hinkletown 3. Spring City got team bonus and 2 quiz outs. We won the match 130-40. We shook hands with the other team, but couldn't stick around for much more, for we had to get to our next match in the other building.
Once we got to the other building, we went upstairs to our match against Strasburg 1. Now Strasburg 1 performed at the same level as Living Rock 2 and Akron 2 in the season, but from watching in the ACC Tournament, they knew what they were. They were about to prove that to us. Strasburg 1 contested twice, even as early as the first question! That sounds like something Tim would do (lol). Spring City errored a lot, coughing up a lot of bonuses. Some of them Strasburg 1 got, the others Strasburg missed. Their number 1 quizzer errored out, which helped me quiz out. It got close. Spring City racked up enough errors to start losing points. But after switching into conserative mode, Spring City did win 70 to 55. Spring City barely made it to 4-0.
After a break round, Spring City was now to face Petra 1. Both teams were 5-0 and in the playoffs. Now it was just a final battle for that no. 1 seed, which was the bye in the tournament. We prayed together with Petra 1 and then the match started. Petra 1 took an early lead in the match, 20-0. We tried to keep close to them, but we struggled. Not too many highlights of the match on Spring City's side. The biggest highlight would have to be my contest. I got for a bonus "Where was Abraham staying when Abraham said of Sarah, 'She is my sister'?" Right from the start, I thought it was a bad question, and planned to contest from the start. Until then, I babbled. "Egypt.....and Gerar.....and he also said it to Sarah before they left as in what to say wherever they go..." This babbling went on until time ran out. They judges briefly met together, and then came out to say it was wrong. I immediately contested the question. First I started out, "If I have found favor in the quizmasters eyes, may he let me contest the question?" (I always wanted to do that). After everyone laughed, the quizmaster said, "I think I have to let you" (which isn't true, the quizmaster can deny a contest, so yes, a quizzer must ask for permission to contest). So I explained to the quizmaster that it is a bad question because both in Egypt an Gerar Sarah is called Abraham's sister. Furthermore, Abraham tells Sarah before they left Haran that wherever they go, she should say that she is Abraham's sister, so really it was probably said more than those 2 places, and Egypt and Gerar are just two examples of that. Thus, I suggested the question be thrown out and a new one given. So the staff went back into huddle to talk it over. This huddle took longer, with a lot of page flipping. Finally the quizmaster came up. "Thank you for waiting," he started. "We're going to grant your contest, but not the way you are thinking. We're going to give you the bonus points. You're right, it does appear in different places. So we're going to accept multiple answers." I was happy and took it. So after 8 years of quizzing, I made my 3rd career, and won my first one. But in the big picture it didn't matter. Spring City gave enough bonuses that Petra 1 could win. The final score was Petra 1: 75, Spring City: 65. This is how Spring City finished it's round robin. That was Spring City's first ACC Tournament Round Robin loss since 2006. With that in mind...
Spring City finished the round robin 5-1. 5-1 got us 2nd place in Group G, which put us in the playoffs. The only difference from being in first place is that we had to quiz 1 more match. Now look at it in the bigger picture. This is the 5th time Spring City has been in the playoffs in the past 6 years. Like I said, this was Spring City's first loss in the ACC Tournament Round robin since 2006. So from 2007-2009 in the round robin, Spring City is 17-1. Pretty impressive. If you want to date it back to when I starting quizzing for Spring City, Spring City is 24-5 in the round robin. Spring City is not to be taken lightly in the ACC Tournament.
So mom was nice enough to get me a salad for dinner. Tim and Mike went out to eat. So the rest of the team ate together. When we were done eating, I went out to fill out my bracket. Then I spent a little alone time in room 200. I don't have the time or space to explain that; maybe I will explain it later. Then we all gathered in the Fine Arts center for the ceremonies. I usually am loud and riled up for these things, but not today. I feel like I was more just taking in the surrounding for one last time as a quizzer. Fred got up and thanked all who were involved in quizzzing. Then we saw the quizzing video, produced by Brian Harnish, which I saw myself in a few times. Then came the individual quizzing awards. This year they changed it to the top 66 (I wasn't a big fan of it. As I say, "When everyone is special, then nothing is special") One by one, I saw quizzers go up. I saw many friends go up, but only 1 teammate went up. Tim Moss finished in 39th with 510 points. If Tim chose to end his career after this season, he will have officially ended his career better than any of his brothers. As I saw the points people scored go up, I saw the placings go up. I knew I finished 1 short of perfect, but how many people were perfect. Then I heard, "2 people tied for 4th place with 615 points," I knew what to expect next. "From Spring City, Graham Holcomb!" And just as I declared I would at the beginning of the season, I went and went BYAH! for every quiz out I had, totalling 17. With one final BYAH! I went to Fred, received my award. If there was any order I was suppose to stand in, I violated it. Instead of standing with the perfect quizzers, I want to stand with my quizzing brother Tim.
So in the 8 years of my career, the last 6 years I finished in the top 100, the last 5 years I finished in the top 50, the last 4 years I finished in the top 20, the last 2 years I finished in the top 10, and this past season I finished in the top 5. In those 6 years I have 81 quiz outs (2004: 7, 2005: 12, 2006: 15, 2007: 14, 2008: 16, 2009: 17) and 3210 points. (2004: 370, 2005: 510, 2006: 585, 2007: 530, 2008: 600, 2009: 615).
After the ceremonies, we split to the rooms to our match. Spring City got to face Zion 1, 3rd place in their group. As a matter of fact, they had finished in a 3-way tie for 3rd at 3-3, and they won due to less errors. After praying, we were ready to start. Hannah Gehman from Zion 1 gave Spring City a scare when she quizzed out a third of the way through the quizmatch, and had taken a sizable lead in front of Spring City. I turned to Tim and said, "Let us both match her" and that's what we did. Both Tim and I quizzed out. Spring City beat Zion 1 by scoring twice as many points, 90 to 45. Once Hannah was out, all Zion picked up was 10 points.
There were no more break rounds, so Spring City was off to our next match. The seeded team we had to quiz against was Conestoga. If you don't know, Conestoga and Weaverland 2 tied for 4th place in League B in the season. This is important because the 4th seed is the seeded team. Because Weaverland 2 won against Conestoga in the season, they got 4th place and the seed. Not like it really mattered because Conestoga was put in the same group with Weaverland 2. But the irony is that the same thing happened in the group in the ACC Tournament as it did in the league in the season. Both teams took off, and it came down to their head-on match. This time, though, Conestoga was the winning team, so they got the bye. Now Spring City got their ahead of time, before the whole staff was ready, so the ready quizmaster gave us practice questions, which were really old quizzing questions from week 4 of the season. The way Spring City was doing, things were looking up. But that is what could have knocked us off our rocker. Spring City errored...a lot. Both Tim and I, Spring City's top 2 quizzers, erorred out. We were 6 errors alone. So naturally we lost points. It seemed any points we earned were quickly lost. Not only did we lose points, but we kindly handed bonuses which were converted into points for the other team. Needless to say we lost. This had to be the hardest match for me to error out and for my team to lose. Why? This match was my 250th career quizzing match. What a match no. 250 turned out to be. Instead of quizzing out, I errored out. Instead of winning, we lost, and now we were out of the tournament. Another time Tim was denied a trophy.
So for the rest of the night, I watched other teams quizzed. It was hard getting into the quizzing, knowing that we lost in such a horrible way. It was hard to pick a team to root for when you wanted to be that team. I saw Petra 3 win against E-Town 1 in the quarterfinals, and Conestoga win against Petra 3 in the semifinals. Then everyone crowded in the Fine Arts center for the final match of the ACC Tournament. On one side Conestoga had one their 3 matches to get to the final match, on the other side, Bowmansville 1 had done the same. Bowmansville 1 was rearing to go, and they showed it. By question 4, they were in the lead 40-0. It was hard for Conestoga to produce a comeback, and they just could not. After 15 questions, Bowmansville 1 was the victorious team, winning 100 to 40. So the ACC Tournament ended, and so did quizzing in PA. Bowmansville 1 was the ACC Tournament Champions, with Conestoga in 2nd place. Congratulations to both teams.
Friday, March 14, 2008
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!
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!
Saturday, March 08, 2008
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!
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!
Friday, April 06, 2007
Flashback to Sunday, March 25: ACC Tournament 2007
Oh, quizzing, how I miss thou! I miss the sound of the buzzers going off. I miss the hardcore studying. I especially miss every one of my quizzer friends. It's upsetting because truth is hitting me. The few quizzers older than me are done quizzing and I'll never see them again. Quizzers not on my team I won't see again until 2008 quizzing. The quizzers on my quiz team I will see at least one more time, and I'm hoping 2 more times after that. That's a total of 3 times in a matter of 9 months until 2008. That's depressing. So what to do? All I have is the memories of the past. So I'll live on them. Let's start with the stories of the stuff you didn't hear: the tournaments. Let's go back to the ACC Tournament.
~~~~~***FLASHBACK***~~~~~
It was on Sunday, March 25. I was beginning to get over a fever. It had been anywhere between 100.1 to 103.7. Later I would find out this is broncitus. I had a sore throat so bad that it hurt every time I swallowed. It was easier to swallow liquids than solids, so I was on a liquids only diet. The previous night I had an extra practice. I broke my liquids only diet by having Mrs. Deitrick's lasagna. We weren't all there. Mike had to work, and so did Tim. At least Tim came over for questions around 11 PM. I wasn't there for that. I decided to sleep at home for my health and the health of the other quizzers. I quizzed late, later than I would perfer, but a quiz out is a quiz out.
We had 9 AM practice as well. Our team was together for the first time since Thursday. We looked awesome together with our new shirts. They were cerulean T-shirts. On the front it said "Spring City 2007" and on the back it had the verse we chose that best represented the team. It was Luke 19:40, "If they keep quiet, then the stones will CRY OUT." My quizzing buddy for the day was Stitch. We fit as much practice matches in as possible during that hour. After the worship songs in church, the church prayed for the quiz team and then we were off to Lancaster Bible College.
Spring City was in Group F, a group with 7 teams. We had 6 matches that day. They were against (in order of occurance): Strasburg 1, Maple Grove 1, Petra 7, Neffsville 1, E-Town 3, Bowmansville 2. The first 5 matches we got team bonus. The first 4 we scored in the triple digits. The E-Town 3 match we won with 90 points and 80 points against Bowmansville 2. I can't remember too many specifics, but I'll go over what highlights I do remember. Against E-Town 3 we only scored 90 points, but we had control of the match. We got to about question 12 and the only way for them to win was with help from us by losing points because of errors, which we had a lot. So we specifically told our quizzers not to buzz in unless they 100% knew the rest of the question and the whole answer. It's something that i don't think I'll ever say to quizzers again. The match against Bowmansville 2 was an impressive performance. Last time we won against them the score was 135 to 40. They were still a below average team. For them to hold us to 80 points was pretty impressive. The most exciting match was against Maple Grove 1. At the end of question 14 the score was tied. Question 15 started out "What did the blind man shout..." and Chelsea buzzed in. It was a good buzz, but Chelsea couldn't think it up in the 30 seconds. The bonus went to Maple Grove 1. "What did the blind man shout all the more?" It was one of those reverse situation questions that Mrs. Deitrick always asked that I didn't like. The Maple Grove quizzer didn't recognize this. She guessed "Praises to God?" All the quizzers on Spring City who knew it let out this huge sigh of relief. She was also wrong. We went to 3 extra questions. Spring City came out of the overtime victorious.
So Spring City finished 1st place in Group F, 6-0. This was enough to get us to the playoffs. The other team going to the playoffs was 2nd place E-Town 3 with a 5-1 record, the only loss being against us. We were satisfied with our performance. We took pictures of the Group. We then went to the playoff bracket to find out our opponent. It was Weaverland 1. We had a picnic lunch in the gym. Bryan and Tim were more occupied in basketball rather than eating. They did eat eventually.
We got back in the Good Shepherd Chapel by 6:15. The quizzing movie was first. It had an interesting mix of 2 songs. I was in it twice, once in a picture freeze frame and a short clip with me wearing my crown on the fun night. Then the announced the top 60 quizzers list. Both Tim and I made it. With my 530 points, I finished in 16th place. It was good to see Tim get back in the top 60 quizzers. Andrew Weiler once again was a perfect quizzer. That means he quizzed out 35 season matches in a row. Amazing. Another quizzer that finished perfect was Renee Weaver from Akron. I'm guessing she's somehow related to Lisa Weaver, a perfect quizzer for 2 consecutive years as well. Someday, that'll be me. All I want is one year perfect.
Now the playoffs were to begin. Round 1 against Weaverland 1. I don't remember it too well. All I remember was trailing Weaverland 1. I remember by the end of question 13, Weaverland was winning 80 to 50 and all that could get us the win was team bonus. All the starters were still up. Tim sacrificed his seat willingly to let Chelsea get in. I pulled my buzzer away because all that mattered was either Christine or Chelsea getting in for team bonus. We tried and failed. Weaverland 1 won 90 to 45. We lost points to errors as well. We were devastated, Tim the worst. Mike later told Brandon that I took it fairly well. I would have taken it worst if I realized like the rest of the team that we quizzed against Weaverland 1 before and one. Yup, week 3 of the season we won 90 to 65. We had the power to win and we didn't. It's like Tim said. If only we could lose one in the group in order to win that first round playoff match, we would have done it. But it doesn't work that way. Don't be sorry for me, I already won this tournament. Feel sorry for Tim, his second year in a row he made the playoffs but not even to the semifinal matches. Poor Tim.
I stayed until the end as usual. I saw Slate Hill 1 quiz against Petra 1 again as the season final rematch. Once again, Slate Hill 1 was victorious. Petra 1 had their second loss of the year, against the same team. Having a feeling that Slate Hill 1 had a possibility of going all the way, I watched them for the rest of the playoffs. The next they quizzed against was Strasburg 1, and they took that victory. In their semifinal match, Slate Hill 1 quizzed against E-Town 3, a team we beat in our group. They had beat Paradise 4 and Byerland 1 to get to where they were, but they couldn't get pass Slate Hill 1. Slate Hill 1 took the match, winning 110 to 55. I quickly went to the sanctuary to see if I could catch the tail end of Rockville vs. Petra 5. At the end of question 15, Rockville and Petra 5 had tied it up. They were given 3 extra question. After 18 questions, Rockville won 100 to 85. Before the final match of the tournament, Fred handed out the awards for 3rd place. They went to Petra 5 and E-Town 3. Yes, E-Town finished 3rd place for the 2nd consecutive year. Then the final match was ready. It was a repat season semifinal match: Slate Hill 1 vs. Rockville. It was just last week Slate Hill 1 beat Rockville with a score 110 to 65. I was sure things would turn out the same way. This match was closer. It came down to the last question. Slate Hill had the lead 65 to 55. On the last question, the Rockville quizzer buzzed in and quizzed out. Rockville won against Slate Hill 1, 70 to 65. Slate Hill 1 finished 2nd place, and Rockville was the champions of the 2007 ACC Tournament. Congratulations to Rockville on a sucessful tournament championship! I was very impressed on how Rockville did not give up just because they saw they lost against this team, but put their heart into it to come over it and win!
~~~~*** END FLASHBACK***~~~~~
Looking back, I am still upset we lost to a team that we beat before, but besides that, we did pretty good. We swept through our group like it was nothing. For the 3rd time in 4 years, we brought Spring City out of the round robin and into the playoffs. I overcame my sickness, and didn't perform too bad. God took my weakness, and made it His strength. And while doing all of this, we had a fun time. That matters too. Now, I wish they would just post that final standings so we can see where our lower quizzers finished.
~~~~~***FLASHBACK***~~~~~
It was on Sunday, March 25. I was beginning to get over a fever. It had been anywhere between 100.1 to 103.7. Later I would find out this is broncitus. I had a sore throat so bad that it hurt every time I swallowed. It was easier to swallow liquids than solids, so I was on a liquids only diet. The previous night I had an extra practice. I broke my liquids only diet by having Mrs. Deitrick's lasagna. We weren't all there. Mike had to work, and so did Tim. At least Tim came over for questions around 11 PM. I wasn't there for that. I decided to sleep at home for my health and the health of the other quizzers. I quizzed late, later than I would perfer, but a quiz out is a quiz out.
We had 9 AM practice as well. Our team was together for the first time since Thursday. We looked awesome together with our new shirts. They were cerulean T-shirts. On the front it said "Spring City 2007" and on the back it had the verse we chose that best represented the team. It was Luke 19:40, "If they keep quiet, then the stones will CRY OUT." My quizzing buddy for the day was Stitch. We fit as much practice matches in as possible during that hour. After the worship songs in church, the church prayed for the quiz team and then we were off to Lancaster Bible College.
Spring City was in Group F, a group with 7 teams. We had 6 matches that day. They were against (in order of occurance): Strasburg 1, Maple Grove 1, Petra 7, Neffsville 1, E-Town 3, Bowmansville 2. The first 5 matches we got team bonus. The first 4 we scored in the triple digits. The E-Town 3 match we won with 90 points and 80 points against Bowmansville 2. I can't remember too many specifics, but I'll go over what highlights I do remember. Against E-Town 3 we only scored 90 points, but we had control of the match. We got to about question 12 and the only way for them to win was with help from us by losing points because of errors, which we had a lot. So we specifically told our quizzers not to buzz in unless they 100% knew the rest of the question and the whole answer. It's something that i don't think I'll ever say to quizzers again. The match against Bowmansville 2 was an impressive performance. Last time we won against them the score was 135 to 40. They were still a below average team. For them to hold us to 80 points was pretty impressive. The most exciting match was against Maple Grove 1. At the end of question 14 the score was tied. Question 15 started out "What did the blind man shout..." and Chelsea buzzed in. It was a good buzz, but Chelsea couldn't think it up in the 30 seconds. The bonus went to Maple Grove 1. "What did the blind man shout all the more?" It was one of those reverse situation questions that Mrs. Deitrick always asked that I didn't like. The Maple Grove quizzer didn't recognize this. She guessed "Praises to God?" All the quizzers on Spring City who knew it let out this huge sigh of relief. She was also wrong. We went to 3 extra questions. Spring City came out of the overtime victorious.
So Spring City finished 1st place in Group F, 6-0. This was enough to get us to the playoffs. The other team going to the playoffs was 2nd place E-Town 3 with a 5-1 record, the only loss being against us. We were satisfied with our performance. We took pictures of the Group. We then went to the playoff bracket to find out our opponent. It was Weaverland 1. We had a picnic lunch in the gym. Bryan and Tim were more occupied in basketball rather than eating. They did eat eventually.
We got back in the Good Shepherd Chapel by 6:15. The quizzing movie was first. It had an interesting mix of 2 songs. I was in it twice, once in a picture freeze frame and a short clip with me wearing my crown on the fun night. Then the announced the top 60 quizzers list. Both Tim and I made it. With my 530 points, I finished in 16th place. It was good to see Tim get back in the top 60 quizzers. Andrew Weiler once again was a perfect quizzer. That means he quizzed out 35 season matches in a row. Amazing. Another quizzer that finished perfect was Renee Weaver from Akron. I'm guessing she's somehow related to Lisa Weaver, a perfect quizzer for 2 consecutive years as well. Someday, that'll be me. All I want is one year perfect.
Now the playoffs were to begin. Round 1 against Weaverland 1. I don't remember it too well. All I remember was trailing Weaverland 1. I remember by the end of question 13, Weaverland was winning 80 to 50 and all that could get us the win was team bonus. All the starters were still up. Tim sacrificed his seat willingly to let Chelsea get in. I pulled my buzzer away because all that mattered was either Christine or Chelsea getting in for team bonus. We tried and failed. Weaverland 1 won 90 to 45. We lost points to errors as well. We were devastated, Tim the worst. Mike later told Brandon that I took it fairly well. I would have taken it worst if I realized like the rest of the team that we quizzed against Weaverland 1 before and one. Yup, week 3 of the season we won 90 to 65. We had the power to win and we didn't. It's like Tim said. If only we could lose one in the group in order to win that first round playoff match, we would have done it. But it doesn't work that way. Don't be sorry for me, I already won this tournament. Feel sorry for Tim, his second year in a row he made the playoffs but not even to the semifinal matches. Poor Tim.
I stayed until the end as usual. I saw Slate Hill 1 quiz against Petra 1 again as the season final rematch. Once again, Slate Hill 1 was victorious. Petra 1 had their second loss of the year, against the same team. Having a feeling that Slate Hill 1 had a possibility of going all the way, I watched them for the rest of the playoffs. The next they quizzed against was Strasburg 1, and they took that victory. In their semifinal match, Slate Hill 1 quizzed against E-Town 3, a team we beat in our group. They had beat Paradise 4 and Byerland 1 to get to where they were, but they couldn't get pass Slate Hill 1. Slate Hill 1 took the match, winning 110 to 55. I quickly went to the sanctuary to see if I could catch the tail end of Rockville vs. Petra 5. At the end of question 15, Rockville and Petra 5 had tied it up. They were given 3 extra question. After 18 questions, Rockville won 100 to 85. Before the final match of the tournament, Fred handed out the awards for 3rd place. They went to Petra 5 and E-Town 3. Yes, E-Town finished 3rd place for the 2nd consecutive year. Then the final match was ready. It was a repat season semifinal match: Slate Hill 1 vs. Rockville. It was just last week Slate Hill 1 beat Rockville with a score 110 to 65. I was sure things would turn out the same way. This match was closer. It came down to the last question. Slate Hill had the lead 65 to 55. On the last question, the Rockville quizzer buzzed in and quizzed out. Rockville won against Slate Hill 1, 70 to 65. Slate Hill 1 finished 2nd place, and Rockville was the champions of the 2007 ACC Tournament. Congratulations to Rockville on a sucessful tournament championship! I was very impressed on how Rockville did not give up just because they saw they lost against this team, but put their heart into it to come over it and win!
~~~~*** END FLASHBACK***~~~~~
Looking back, I am still upset we lost to a team that we beat before, but besides that, we did pretty good. We swept through our group like it was nothing. For the 3rd time in 4 years, we brought Spring City out of the round robin and into the playoffs. I overcame my sickness, and didn't perform too bad. God took my weakness, and made it His strength. And while doing all of this, we had a fun time. That matters too. Now, I wish they would just post that final standings so we can see where our lower quizzers finished.
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