A Tale of Two Academic Teams

Chapter 16: Ghosts from the debate floor

"Tossup number two: A region in this country was called, in Ancient Greece, Pentapolis" the moderator reads, while Sadie buzzes in after hearing the word Pentapolis.

"Libya"

"Fifteen"

While St. Croix Prep isn't particularly strong by Venomous Agenda standards, Sadie seems to see renewed determination in Kelsie's eyes. Which brings out the best of that opposing player. That, even though the Lions' Lincoln-Douglas player didn't seem affected either way. And the game is surprisingly close, which makes everyone more nervous, even with Kelsie playing her best game of the season.

"Taiwan" Sadie answers while buzzing in.

"Protest" St. Croix Prep's LD player shouts.

"Noted. But provisionally ten points"

I had a feeling either Kelsie or their LD player would protest a tossup at some point, Sadie muses, when all clues led to the answer she gave on tossup number 9. The rest of the game against St. Croix Prep plays out in a virulent exchange of answers, correct and incorrect.

Relax: the protest won't be considered if we win by 55 points or more. Even with Kelsie keeping this up, we might still have a chance to prevent them from making their vengeance a reality, Sadie muses, with the game tied with 2 tossups to go, and ready to look Kelsie up on NAQT once the game ends.

"Tossup number nineteen: Recent research theorized that two of these events occurred less than ten million years apart"

These look like geological times to me, but I have the feeling it looks like a three-way buzzer race between Kelsie, the LD player and myself, Sadie muses, especially since she has flashbacks of Grapevine. And Tal Atkins, too, of this one tossup where she answered when her head violently hit the buzzer due to headaches. At Grapevine, so many teams argued one side's plan would cause a mass extinction! Sadie then presses the buzzer, a fraction of a second before the LD player does, thinking it might have to do with mass extinctions.

"Mass extinction"

"Fifteen. For ten points each..."

Especially when your resolution revolves around war occurring in flashpoints or climate change, people will attempt to persuade judges that the opponent's arguments will cause mass or human extinction. That sort of strategy doesn't always work, but for the first two months this season, it was a favorite of public forum teams on the aff, Sadie reflects on how mass extinction is used in debates, perhaps too much outside of climate change topics.

"Twenty points for the bonus" the moderator announces before the next tossup starts.

We can still win, but we will need to be perfect to do so, Kelsie muses, while shaking in her seat. So does everyone else, since St. Croix Prep is trailing by 35 points: the Venomous Agendas know that dropping the next TU will leave them open to the protest, and the game would then be wide open.

When the last tossup arrives, both teams find themselves unable to answer it before the FTP clue:

"For ten points, name this poet who's considered the father of Ukrainian romantic poetry"

"Taras Shevchenko" Anna answers after buzzing in, scoring her only tossup in this heated game.

"Ten"

After playing my best game of the season, we still lose this game? If only I can keep playing like this in future games... Kelsie ruminates while she secretly hopes the whole bonus would go dead.

Poor Venomous Agendas! They were unable to answer the first two bonus parts, it's down to this final part. Everyone gets nervous but it definitely happened that the hardest part was earlier in the bonus.