ChGK in the Prairie

Chapter 17: Achievement Junkie Invitational

Fast forward to the first Saturday after January 1, 2042. The size of the field is just massive for what she expected from a charity ChGK tournament. Several dozen teams are attending so that the tournament raised more funds than the initial target, along with other donations made by attendees.

Good thing this tournament is sanctioned by the IAMG, or International Association of Mind Games, that is, the international federation of ChGK, so we can protect our MAK rating (kind of like Elo rating in chess) should we do well. However, the tournament attracts teams as far away from Kansas as Tashkent or Baku, for whom this tournament is at night whereas it's morning for us, Patricia muses, while waking up in the early hours of the morning, realizing she mostly ran the synchronous tournament on her lonesome, with an appeals committee made up of 3 of the remaining 5 players: Bohdan, Vira and Yakiv. So of the original team members, only 2 are playing at the Achievement Junkie Invitational.

But because the team knows that the Achievement Junkie Invitational wouldn't count as much towards their MAK rating if there are more legionnaires (i.e. players not on the regular roster) than players on the regular (basic) roster, they know they can only get 2 more players.

I guess, Sergei and the sixth player will have to play shorthanded, so who could fill the gap? Ainslee? No. She appeared too one-dimensional intellectually to succeed in ChGK. Bohdan's wife accepted to play since she will be on the appeals committee at State on Mardi Gras. So it leaves me to find the final player we are allowed to field. There's Stephanie or Catria. My first choice would have been Stephanie since she's the TD of State, but Sergei told me she couldn't. Which leaves me with Catria. Even though Catria isn't as erudite as Stephanie, she is far from brainless or intellectually one-dimensional. Hopefully her brain has sufficiently healed from her alcoholism to allow her to play, since she didn't relapse, Patricia muses before calling Catria for help. Luckily, Catria lives in the same neighborhood as she does...

"Hi Catria, it's Patricia from the Congressional debate club. I wonder if you're free later this morning"

"Hi Patricia. Why?" Catria asks Patricia.

"One of our players became sick and cannot play at a charity ChGK tournament"

"ChGK? What's ChGK? You never talked about ChGK to me!" Catria shouts through her phone.

"Suffice to say that ChGK is a team riddle contest. In a way, playing ChGK is much like questioning in a Congressional debate session, in that you must come up with ideas quickly" Patricia explains as succinctly as possible to the soon-to-be college student.

Is that the only thing that translates from Congressional debating to ChGK? a puzzled Catria thinks about other similarities to Cong that ChGK might have and that could make her get settled in playing ChGK.

I don't harbor much hope for the team at this charity tournament since I don't think Catria's knowledge base is going to substitute for mine. Maybe for Vira's; Vira isn't that erudite. Sure, Catria has some intellect, but as a ChGK player, she's a complete unknown, Patricia muses while waiting for a response from Catria. Speaking of Catria, she asks her parents about whether she can play ChGK, but her parents are missing some information.

"Where and when?" Catria asks Patricia.

"I will take you to the tournament myself, in Overland Park. It starts in an hour, so you need to decide quickly"

Because this tournament is a charity tournament, I don't expect this tournament to be a tournament laden with too many teams in contention for Worlds. Probably a couple of teams with a player or two struggling with addictions of some sort. Normally, I wouldn't leave the team in this condition, but since I organize this tourney for a cause I believe in, I am willing to take the risk. Catria might like playing the game, as she might not, but there are about a half-dozen teams in contention for Worlds playing, Patricia reflects on how her teammates will approach this tournament.