#22. Literature (Saturday, March 15, 2008)
What was your best day…of beating your rival for the first (and perhaps only) time?
Last we saw me and my quizbowl career (#59), I was a high school junior picking up the pieces of my disappointment from essentially costing my school’s team (Lisgar) a decent shot at a provincial title.
And for much of the first half of my senior year, quizbowl seemed like an afterthought, given my (ultimately unsuccessful) focus on the whole Ivy League university application process.
But we knew we had a strong, if not spectacular, team this year. My best friend Nigel Healey (#89, #59) was the captain and best player by far, but we didn’t know how he stacked against the top players from other schools in Ontario. Colin Griffiths (senior), Chelsea Barrett (junior), and I filled out the rest of our team. At Reach for the Top (Canadian quizbowl, #109), the three of us were good – but not much more beyond that.1 Where I had been able to shine, though, was at NAQT (U.S. quizbowl); as I was the clear second-best player on the team and had actually been able to hold my own against Nigel in practices.
Quick reminder. This is Reach for the Top. This is NAQT.
So in February, we have the regional preliminaries for Reach for the Top. Going in, we hadn’t practiced too much. But that one was just a formality. We win all our games easily (scoring the most points out of all the school in the regions), even while missing Chelsea; and during that day, something clicks in me. We were the best team there by far, striking fear into our opponents and demolishing them methodically, and I was one of the main players. I was one of the main players on an amazing quizbowl team. I was in a truly unique position.
From that point on, my motivation in quizbowl jumps up several notches. I run through all the old online question packets, dig through every relevant Wikipedia article I can find, and start actively seeking a trivia meaning behind every single thing I come across, trying to build up that knowledge base to take full advantage of this position and achieve something great.
The March Break that precedes this Saturday I spend mostly going through this entire new packet website I find (as well as reading The Jungle and Wuthering Heights on my “list”).
Side (but important) note: The “list”, as I had been referring to it non-stop to Nigel since sophomore year, was a list NAQT published of the 100 most mentioned fiction works in their questions. It was my bible and starting point for taking on the literature specialty on the team (an area that was sorely lacking). I had also intended to read all 100 books on that list, though I hadn’t even reached twenty by the time my quizbowl career ended.
Then Saturday comes. And it is the day of the hybrid tournament.
The hybrid tournament was this semi-serious/semi-casual NAQT tournament for mainly university-level teams. It was self-organized, with the teams contributing their own questions, and contained a mix of serious academic quizbowl and a fair amount of “trash” (pop culture, sports, random stuff).
So it’s two Lisgar high school teams, one led by me (with a bunch of grade 9s/10s) and one led by Nigel (with Colin and some others); and eight university teams – from Toronto, McGill, Ottawa, Rochester, and Queen’s.
The day starts off slow. We lose two of our first three games and I play mediocre (worst part: I forget the first name of the hockey player on the Avalanche that Todd Bertuzzi sucker-punched2, and so my team doesn’t get to answer the follow-up bonus questions all on Pokemon). But the next two games, I pick it up. I’m the best player in the room both times, and we win both.
That afternoon, my team plays against Nigel’s team. And we destroy them. Or, more accurately, I destroy him – in the only head-to-head matchup in quizbowl we ever had in our four years at Lisgar. I score over 100 points, a lot of them on literature questions, and everyone in the room – not least of all Nigel – is shocked.
The day ends with my team finishing 6-4 (not winning, unfortunately). But when Brian Scott (#109) reports the two highest-scoring players in the tournament, they are: (1) Nigel, (2) Jeff; and by a fairly large margin over everybody else. (I was effectively tied with Nigel with two rounds left, but he pulled ahead.)
I couldn’t believe it. I was a high school student, and the second-best player at a tournament featuring almost all university teams. I was a high school student, and the second-best player at a tournament featuring almost all university teams. I was a high school student, and the second-best player at a tournament featuring almost all university teams.
And Nigel was first. Put us together and our school had a fair shot at winning the U.S. High School National Championship, while being the only Canadian participant.
Bring. It. On.