For the next two days, both high school teams start reading the latest in college quiz bowl packets, while the experience of being read college packets made Warren turn to "regular-plus" high school packets for middle schoolers.
But when the fundraiser begins on Thursday night, in a packed auditorium, many a VA fan attend in an attempt to see what they regularly hear about but never really saw first-hand, since VA never hosted a debate tournament, and they almost never watched quiz bowl either.
In Novi, however, the DCC fans in attendance are puzzled as to why they have rivals at the other end of the country, and why either Detroit Country Day or Cranbrook would have refused to play online exhibition LD games the way VA does tonight. With Marcia hosting online.
"Tonight's show features, first, the Lincoln-Douglas debate game. For the Venomous Agendas..." the principal names VA's LD player, and then explains the basics of LD to a crowd that's mostly clueless about it, other than VA playing it.
"I am Marcia, as the host, I will be the head judge for this game" She then states the topic for this game, which is simply the LD topic for January-February. "Heads, VA argues on the aff, tails, DCC will argue on the aff"
And... wow. DCC might have fielded its best player in the game, the one who won the LD state championship (or what passes for one), VA's player seems able to hold her own despite not being projected to represent Louisiana at Nats, while still being a decent debater nonetheless. However, the game is still close.
In both schools, people seemed to treat this game as a breath of fresh air, especially given how debates were treated in media. And drawing enough people in both towns to net them a few hundred dollars for their respective teams. However, it's clear as day to Marcia that VA draws a much bigger crowd than DCC.
When the debate game ends, Marcia announces the result...
"That was a close game. And the winner is: DCC!" Marcia announces as she readies the packet for the middle schoolers' game against DCC C, while the principal announces the middle school roster for that game.
That packet is actually from the latest Penn Bowl, one of the early regular-plus sets on the collegiate quiz bowl schedule. And man that's rough to watch for all parties involved. Even considering that Marcia's experience of moderating quiz bowl games came from past Penn Bowls.
Rough even for DCC C, whom Warren believed up to this point that the middle school team, codenamed VA C for the purposes of this card, could play against and still hold its own.
But what made it painful to play is that both teams needed to wait until the FTP clue to buzz in on a good chunk of tossups. Such as on this one:
"For ten points, name this type of force applied to objects in rotation" Marcia reads.
Josiane then buzzes in. "Torque"
"Ten" Marcia then proceeds to read the bonus VA's middle school team earned.
Not even that made the fans of either team feel like they should keep watching. There just didn't seem to be any power until late in the game but it's clear that both teams are in way over their heads playing on the 2029 Penn Bowl packet #1.
"Scholasticism!" DCC C's literature player answers.
"Fifteen"
Lilina gave me this free ticket so I can watch two teams struggling to answer paragraph-long questions? The LD game was already painful enough, but here both teams are struggling, George starts feeling like he's getting tired, as he's sitting right next to Dayton, who also doesn't seem to make heads of the questions. When the middle schoolers' game ends, the score is announced:
YOU ARE READING
Can't Stop the Questions
RomancePablo, a sophomore playing tight end for Venomous Agendas High, plays the best football game of his life, but as the season comes to a close, his coaches tell him he can't rely on football to go to college, forcing him to buckle down on academics fo...
