A Tale of Two Academic Teams

Chapter 25: Chantal's Downfall

While the policy pair is eliminated, and somehow finishing in tenth place, there are three players still playing: Chantal, who got her first 3s and 4s in the international extemp quarterfinals, but still advances to the semifinals nonetheless, thanks to a strong performance in the octos. And, of course, the public forum pair, who played two strong games back-to-back that morning, winning both. I guess, I can still make it to the final, but I'm going to need two strong semi-final rounds to get there. I'm the only underclassman left in international extemp, here I am, Chantal muses, while realizing that maybe, maybe the parish newspaper's comparisons could hold.

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"We got tenth place, so what about I go to watch your next round and then Chantal's second semi-final round?" Rebecca texts Sadie.

"Yes, I suppose" Sadie answers, and then giving out the time and place of the next PF game the VAs are going to play today, in round 11. Especially since there is no guarantee Sadie will even play in round 12, given that Sadie's pair incurred one playoff loss up to this point in the tournament.

"Sadie, since we finished tenth, I hope you can finish in the top-ten, too" Rebecca tells Sadie once at the game room.

"One can dream, I guess..." she sighs.

With each new round, the crowds keep getting bigger, but even in round 11, for public forum, the classrooms in use were not the largest. A far cry from what laymen usually imagined a debate tournament, or at least Nats, to be like.

"Now that Sophie is eliminated, you're the only quiz bowler left! You know what that means!" Sadie's mother tells her before the game begins.

"First off, what is not to say that other quiz bowlers didn't enter supplemental events? Secondly, you only care about the people who played at the HSNCT. There might be some quiz bowler playing here who turned their attention to speech and debate when it became clear their school wouldn't make it to the HSNCT. So you should really say that I am the only HSNCT participant left in the main events" Sadie retorts to her mother.

"Yeah, you don't need to be Quiz Bowl Sadie to understand how some non-HSNCT school could have a quiz bowler playing here!" Sophie tells Sadie's mother. "That said, good luck"

But the cold, hard truth is that not many schools remaining in the main events are even quiz bowl-playing schools to begin with. Oh God, it's the HSNCT all over again, only with the activities reversed. Not only that, but since policy placed tenth, then I would feel like a failure if I don't at least get to the top-14 considering the size and strength of the field, Sadie muses. We must do better than policy!

"Just competing here is already stressful enough as it is, so enduring another two days in another event would make me feel sick" Chloe adds.

"This is my mother" Sadie introduces her mother to Chloe, then turns to Sophie. "And this is Sophie, from Wisconsin; you might not remember her, but she played for Sheboygan South at the HSNCT"

"How does it feel to juggle speech and quiz bowl?" Sadie's mother asks Sophie and Chloe.

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Meanwhile, Chantal is elsewhere on campus for round 11, awaiting the topic draw. She can sense everyone getting stressed out, including herself. Going into round 11, she is a front-runner, poised to make it to the top-6, and her father would no longer be judging any further international extemp games.

But, unlike preliminary speech rounds, where efforts are made to ensure that no player speaks in the same position throughout all 6 rounds, in the playoffs, it's essentially a reverse order of the rank of the players in a room going into a round. So, in this round, Chantal is the penultimate player to speak, but has the disadvantage of not having as much choice in the topic since topics are drawn in the order players speak.