A/N: Contains spoilers for ChGK in the Prairie as well as Job Security.

Mid-January 2036. For the first Women's Quiz Bowl World Cup, the United States hold their first qualifying tournament for the high school division on the same weekend Tulane is hosting the collegiate qualifiers.

As with the collegiate division, no more than four players from a given institution can enter, but the ability to pool multiple institutions to form a team rendered the tournament unusable for the purposes of PACE NSC, and, since the US Women's World Cup High School Qualifiers (or WWCHSQ) is run as a mirror of Russia's WWCHSQ (i.e., uses the same questions but held at a different site; Russia's WWCHSQ is held in Moscow), the tournament is unusable for HSNCT qualification.

As for the field: several of the largest high school programs in the quiz bowl world are represented: TJHSST, Wayzata, Chattahoochee, to name only the most prominent three, but most schools with a player attending are forced to pool players together to attend, and it's easy to distinguish who pooled their players and who didn't. Most teams formed for the purposes of World Cup qualification by pooling players from multiple institutions are named after their geographic regions.

Such as Southwest Louisiana, represented by players from the Venomous Agendas and the "neighboring parish", or Kansas, the latter being somehow able to attend precisely because, by pooling players from 4 different schools, they were no longer bound by KSHSAA rules: since Commerce, Georgia is further away than 500 miles from Kansas' border, any of the players' home institutions would have been unable to attend on their own.

The tournament director, the longtime coach of the host institution, Commerce High, was infamous for many years in the Georgia quiz bowl circuit for announcing his intent to host a "Title IX" tournament featuring female-only teams, yet was never able to follow through with it; however, he still edited history for several editions of the WNCC, including both editions that Imélie took part in. With the forty teams assembled in the school's auditorium for the opening ceremony...

"Welcome to the first United States Women's Quiz Bowl World Cup High School Qualifiers. First, let's start with the basics. I assume most of you are familiar with NAQT rules, please raise your hands if you never played under NAQT rules. This tournament will feature five pools of eight teams, seeded based on geographical regions, for the preliminary round this morning. The top two teams in each pool will go into the playoffs in the afternoon and the tournament winner will clinch the US berth in the high school division at the World Cup, hosted in Moscow this season. For this reason, however, it has been decided this tournament will not be using NAQT questions, but rather this tournament will be using... the same questions Russia does for their own World Cup high school qualifiers" the TD harangues the crowd.

"Wait a minute... does this mean this tournament will be held with questions in Russian?" Nassima, a Wayzata player asks, upon hearing about the use of questions from a Russian supplier.

"No. The Russians hold their qualifiers at the same time as we are, with the same English-language questions, and the World Cup will also be staged in English. Several of the players in the Russian field, to the best of my knowledge, normally play on teams already qualified for the HSNCT" the TD answers Nassima.

Russia structured its NAQT middle and high school sectionals by holding auditions under the form of a round-robin tournament, using an original IS set of NAQT questions in English, in which the best 15% get their playoff games taped, in which case whoever appears on TV will compete at the M/HSNCT.

"This is a highly accomplished field of very bright ladies, so I have complete confidence that you will play well in future tournaments, and whoever wins here will represent the United States well at the World Cup"

A highly accomplished field? I hope he isn't referring to just quiz bowl; cross-play with different academic teams is common in quiz bowl. By far the best 4 sources of quiz bowl players, from what I've seen across the country, are science and history bowls, as well as science and subject Olympiads, with mathletics being the most common of the gang. The kind of mathlete that does best in quiz bowl isn't always the one who will perform best as a mathlete; Imélie and Marcia were exceptionally brilliant, but my girls at this tournament prefer to work hard across subjects. From past Venomous Agendas players I coached, about a third of them are mathletes as well, and only two players were debaters. However, I realize debaters and quiz bowlers, on balance, don't fit the same mold; Sadie once claimed that, out of 550 players at the Isidore Newman Invitational the year she first entered it, only 3 played quiz bowl, and only a handful at any given HSNCT will debate, but at least 2, Warren thinks about what a highly accomplished field means and what the players will be accomplished in.

"The regional assignments are posted, as are the game rooms for each and every preliminary game. Good luck everyone" the TD makes his wish.

And so Kansas is assigned to the Southwest regional pool, and same went of Southwest Louisiana? a Kansas player wonders, while keeping her question to herself, going into Kansas' opening game against West Texas.

"Tossup one: In a scene of this play, mothers start singing an "ode to bingo" after scandalizing Angélique for attending the club where Pierrette works" the moderator reads to them.

What kind of play would even have an "ode to bingo" as a scene? Stephanie, the Stag, i.e, the player from Bishop Miège, ponders, while the following clue doesn't seem to be helping the players on either team in the room.

Meanwhile, in the game between Southwest Louisiana and the DFW Metroplex, Marissa, a Venomous Agenda player buzzes in at the end of the first clue and then gives her answer:

"Les Belles-Soeurs"

"Fifteen"

But the following clues are being read in most other rooms; Southwest Louisiana turns out to be one of only two teams that managed to power that tossup at all, the other being Maine. In the Kansas vs West Texas game...

"The core characters of this play, after having entered a catfight, end up lamenting together their "accursed, boring life".

That definitely sounds like a Soviet play, these clues sound like themes that Soviet playwrights held so dear, the West Texan player starts thinking, but she abstains from buzzing in. Same went of the Kansan players, all of which miss the power mark.

"The characters, arriving at various stages of the play, start stealing stamp booklets when the stamp-gluing session is well underway. For ten points, name this play by Michel Tremblay written in vernacular French as a satire on 1960s working-class Quebec society. Three, two, one..." and then the West Texas player buzzes in.

"The School for Wives"

"Incorrect"

Quick! Working class and stamp theft? the Bishop Miège player frantically tries to conjure an answer within the 3 seconds the West Texas player gave her. She buzzes in...

"Catch-twenty-two"

"Incorrect. The answer was The Sisters-in-law"

That is the kind of stuff the Russians include in their world literature quiz bowl questions? We might be playing under NAQT rules, this does not look like scholars bowl questions at all, the Olathe North player ponders, while wondering what that implies for the rest of the questions. The second question comes, and after the first clue is read, no one is ready to buzz in. However, the power mark is far from past. The second clue is then read:

"Its dependence on temperature is described by the van't Hoff equation..."

"Equilibrium constant" Stephanie answers after buzzing in.

"Fifteen. For ten points each, answer these questions about Crimea"

For this bonus, her teammates answer the first two bonus parts just fine. However, the hardest bonus part came at the end. Which was about Crimea in Antiquity.

"This tribe which, according to Herodotus, lived by plundering and war, gave their name to the region in Ancient Greece"

"Taurida?" the Bishop Miège player answers, unsure of her answer to this bonus part.

"Thirty points for the bonus"

Quickly Stephanie emerges as the star of the Kansas team. One of the later questions has one of the more memorable "neg-fives" from that player come up in a science question of all things, which causes her to eat one on this clue:

"This astronomical object's radio pulsation..."

"Radio-telescope"

"Neg five"

Why do I keep eating neg fives? My teammates don't eat neg-fives nearly as much as I do! Stephanie wonders, puzzled by her tendency to eat neg-fives as if they were candy. To her credit, she did power a couple of tossups for Kansas, but the Kansas coach calls for a timeout at the end of this cycle.

"Timeout: we would like to withdraw a player from active play" the Kansas coach announces to the moderator.

The staffers that ref these games realize these girls eat way fewer "neg fives" than boys answering tossups at the same rate. But inevitably, some people will eat one over the course of the tournament. Yet, without the Bishop Miège girl that seems to be eating a neg-five for every power she scores, it seems like Kansas' scoring ability has diminished. They lost several tossups without their star player the coach benched because he feels she negged too much. But then West Texas is back into the game, and they are trailing by just 5 points by the time the last tossup rolls around.

"Final tossup: The Khmer regime responsible for constructing this building also intended it to be a temple to Vishnu, thus marking a change in the main god being worshipped at the time of construction. Before its construction was completed, its religious dedication was changed to Buddhist" the moderator reads when the West Texas player buzzes in, right before the power mark.

"Ayutthaya"

"Neg five"

Nice to see West Texas eat an interrupt for a change, the Kansas coach reflects on this very tossup that secured them their first win of the opening round, even with their star player missing 6 tossups, as more clues are read. These Russian questions aren't too hard after all, a bit on the hard side for high school quiz bowl but maybe their supplier would be worth using for future tournaments.

"For ten points, name this Cambodian temple that appears on the national flag of Cambodia"

"Angkor Wat" a Wichita Heights player answers in her only correct tossup in this game.

"Ten"

On the final bonus, they only managed to score the "gentleman's 10", that is, answer the easiest bonus correctly, and they fail to even answer the other two bonus parts.

"And that's the game. Score?"

"Kansas wins, two hundred eighty-five to two hundred fifty-five"

Southwest Louisiana, meanwhile, blows the DFW Metroplex like crazy, and emerges as the clear favorite to win the Southwest pool, considered by many as the weakest of the tournament. And Kansas bring their star player back into the lineup for their next game, this time against New Mexico.

However, TJHSST, Chattahoochee and Wayzata all find out the hard way that relying on their internal player pools alone was not a recipe for success in this tournament given how wildly the girls in their talent pools varied: all three schools, into the prelims, mostly amount to one player that pulled most of the weight, another one that was decent but not great, and two girls that don't buzz in nearly as often as the other two. As a result, all three are already out of playoff and hence of World Cup contention by round 6. Even Kansas proved to be more balanced than these three teams.

Going into round 6, however, it appears that Kansas is the big surprise of this tournament, especially since Kansas was known to so many across the country, in a quiz bowl context, as the North Korea of quiz bowl, and their regulations prescribed a format, for high school, that differ from international quiz bowl standards enough to cause concerns. Because of that, no one expected much of KS at the high school level.

One more win and we advance to the championship bracket, everyone on both Kansas and Southwest Louisiana teams start thinking going into the sixth game, into which they go undefeated.

"This is round six of the preliminary phase of the 2036 US World Cup High School Qualifiers. This game pits Kansas against Southwest Louisiana. Best of luck to both teams, here's tossup one..."

Oh boy... that tossup starts with research papers on the consequences of the widening of social inequalities, a Major starts thinking, while the second clue causes that Major to leap into action. The real class war is within the rich? Time to buzz in! she then slams the buzzer.

"Elite overproduction"

"Fifteen. For ten points each..."

Look at how aggressive the Kansan captain is! She is willing to buzz in earlier than we are, and sometimes she powers a tossup, but when she negs, it gives us three seconds of breathing room, which is an eternity in a quiz bowl game. Most opposing players in this tournament tend to just wait until they have a semblance of certainty, but she clearly doesn't, Warren ponders while the game is otherwise fought tooth and nail. But the other Kansas players buzz in about once or twice apiece per game, while there's a better balance on the Southwest Louisiana side. Shortly after halftime ends, both teams resume play...

"Tossup eleven: The Ottoman defeat at the hands of Russia at the Battle of Kozludzha in 1774 led to the signature of this treaty. Under the terms of this treaty, Russia gained direct access to the Black Sea for the first time" the tossup is first read by the moderator.

So the Sea of Azov does not count as a direct access to the Black Sea? Of course not, the Kerch Strait! Stephanie thinks while she buzzes in, 3 words before the power mark.

"Treaty of Kuçuk Kaynarca"

"Fifteen"

The following tossup, on the other hand, is more likely to lead to a buzzer race than the last one. A buzzer race the Southwest Louisiana team knows they must win if they are to win the game and therefore advance to the playoff round, even though they know the game is far from over with 9 tossups still left to play in this game.

"Tossup twelve: This poem by Geoffrey Chaucer depicts a..."

"Canterbury Tales" the Stag answers after slamming the buzzer.

She keeps us on edge the way no one else at this tournament does, West Texas, New Mexico, DFW Metroplex, and so on. The Stag can power a question on a tossup and eat a neg five on the next, a Venomous Agenda shakes in her seat, seeing the opponent buzzing in before the first clue is even read in full.

"Neg five. This poem by Geoffrey Chaucer depicts a dream made by Alcyone, which then uses the dream to relay a message to Juno. It's not the Canterbury Tales, but the second part of this poem depicts a black knight composing a song for the death of a lady"

Of course, it's not going to be the Canterbury Tales; our opponents negged by giving precisely that as an answer! By now we know Russian tossups tend to place power marks shortly after the second clue. But a black knight composing a song for the death of a lady in a Chaucer work that isn't the Canterbury Tales? Marissa ponders the answer and then buzzes in after hearing about the composition of a song for the death of a lady.

"The Book of the Duchess"

"Fifteen"

This is the most exciting preliminary game I moderated in this tournament and perhaps of this season! the moderator keeps to himself, shaking in his seat as the buzzer races start to increase in intensity and this game has the most powers scored thus far. Yet, going into the final regulation tossup, Kansas is in the lead by 35 points, and Southwest Louisiana can still win but they need to not only get the tossup correctly, but convert all 3 bonuses to win.

"Tossup twenty: this organ is divided into endocrine and exocrine parts. Langerhans islets can be found in this organ..."

Everyone dreads this moment, not only the Kansas players, who can feel this game could be lost in a "whiff of grapeshot", but the Southwest Louisiana players feel the pressure is on them. Now it becomes a question of who can buzz in the fastest, as both the Stag and the Venomous Agenda appear poised to press on the buzzer. The only way to neutralize the Stag is to buzz in faster than her; Langerhans islets? the Venomous Agenda mathlete starts thinking while she has some semblance of an answer at the ready. In the meantime, the Stag is also preparing to buzz in, but the Venomous Agenda mathlete presses the buzzer a fraction of a second faster.

"Pancreas" Anastasia, the Venomous Agenda mathlete, answers after buzzing in.

"Fifteen. For ten points each, answer these questions about computer memory..."

Just because that Venomous Agenda player powered this question does not mean they will win, the Wichita Heights player starts thinking, and she also was beaten to the buzzer by the Venomous Agenda mathlete.

Said mathlete provides the answers to the first two parts of the bonus, but the third part of the bonus will decide whether they go in overtime or not.

"This phenomenon occurs when dynamically allocated random-access memory has become unreachable. The moderator then starts counting up to five, but at the count of four... Answer?"

"Fragmentation?" Marissa answers when the mathlete fails to provide one.

"Memory leak" Twenty points for this bonus, this means the game is tied, three hundred twenty on each side. We're going in overtime!

The first two of the three overtime tossups are powered, one apiece per team, and this entire game boils down to this third overtime tossup.

"Tossup twenty-three: This African river's source, in northwestern Zambia, is in a black marsh known as a dambo. The Cahora Bassa Lake lies in its Mozambique portion..."

"Kwyjibo" Stephanie answers after buzzing in prematurely.

"Neg five"

Ouch. While I might have scored powers during that game, I caused Kansas to lose that game against Southwest Louisiana through reckless buzzing, who now don't even have to answer the tossup at all to win, the Stag reflects on this interrupt she just ate on this geography tossup.

"The Upper and Middle portions of this river are separated by the Victoria Falls. For ten points, name this river marking Zambia's southern border"

"Zambezi" the second Major player answers after pressing on the buzzer.

"Ten. And that's the game. Southwest Louisiana wins, three hundred forty-five to three hundred thirty"

The Kansas coach is quick to remind them that they are going into it with a 5-1 record, and the standings also show their next opponent going in with a 5-1 record. Southeast Texas. The stakes for that final preliminary game have increased for them; whoever wins this game finishes second in the Southwest pool and therefore they have a shot at the World Cup.

This is where the Red Army betrays their inconsistency in question writing; the difficulty varies wildly from a packet to another, from a question to another even. It makes me wonder whether the Red Army's question writers just throw clues left and right for some semblance of pyramidality, the moderator of the game pitting Southeast Texas against Kansas, a Commerce High male player (the school's female players both play on the Northern Georgia team), muses while he prepares packet #7 of the set for the upcoming game.

Here's my chance to redeem myself from this game against Southwest Louisiana! Stephanie thinks while she gets seated for that last preliminary game. Speaking of the game #7 against Southeast Texas, everyone realizes that, with one last tossup to go, they have no room for error, knowing both teams' dreams of World Cup participation lie on that one tossup-bonus cycle, since, going into it, both teams are tied 270-270. Everyone is shaking in their seats as the moderator reads the question.

"Tossup twenty. In 1988, a requiem from this man composed in memory of Rossini was premiered for the first time. I Lombardi alla prima crociata was this man's first opera to be translated from Italian"

I've been Kansas' best player, but also the most erratic. I might have a higher tolerance for risk, but even then, these are clues I'm not willing to risk negging on, the Stag thinks upon hearing the first two clues.

I Lombardi alla prima crociata? I know I listened to it on some podcast, but here's my chance to buzz in! the Topeka-Highland Park player cogitates, ready to slam the buzzer, while the opposing player from Sugar Land also reaches for the buzzer.

"Verdi!" the Topeka-Highland Park player shouts after her buzzer lights up.

"Fifteen"

Yes! My only power in seven games! We win! Now that's a buzzer race I shall remember for a while; by doing this I prevented my teammate from eating one neg too many, as if she didn't already eat enough of these as it was, the Topeka-Highland Park player reflects on this final tossup, as the Sugar Land player and her teammates all watch, powerless, the Kansas team coast through the bonus only to donut it (that is, not answering any of the three parts of the bonus correctly).

"And that's the game. Kansas wins, two hundred eighty-five to two hundred seventy"

All teams are assembled yet again for a few announcements from the tournament director, as the leaderboards are updated for each pool.

"First announcement: additional prizes are going to be awarded for individual scores. The first of these prizes is the power prize, awarded to the player who scores the most powers. Because the top scorers are not the same in the prelims as in the playoffs, the prelim awards will be given out soon. Second announcement: if you wish to host your own WWCHSQ mirrors, Krasnaya Armiya is the question supplier"

"If we are to play the Red Army in Moscow, you must keep your tendency to neg under control! In Russia, negs eat you!" the Kansas coach screams at Stephanie.

"I don't personally expect the Russians to play any better than whoever is going to win this. If we can win even with the amount of negs I have been eating, then we can win the World Cup with the same amount of negs!"

As of right now, my stat line is 28-22-30, for 71.53 PP20TUH. While the other people ahead of me on the individual scoring leaderboard are all eliminated, for negs, the second highest still in the playoffs ate less than half the negs I ate! Finally, for powers, if we consider only those in the playoffs, I am in the lead, too, since, as with individual scoring, the others ahead of me are eliminated, too. So I might return home with the playoff power prize and the playoff high scorer prize! the implications of awarding a neg prize and a power prize sinks into Stephanie's mind, while the prelims awards ceremony gets underway and the top three prelim scorers are also the top three in powers scored in the prelims; Stephanie is fourth in both.

"From Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the third highest scorer in the preliminary round, Ziana Adhikari!" The statistician then presents Ziana with the bronze medal and a pack of 3 LED bulbs, which the other two prelim high scorers receive also. "From Wayzata, the second highest scorer in the preliminary round, Nassima Shahrizad! And from Chattahoochee, the highest scorer in the preliminary round, Brianna Reiss!"

After the prelims' award ceremony ends, an opposing coach, whose team is eliminated, asks the tournament director about the price of using the WWCHSQ set, while keeping in mind the field of this tournament is far from covering the entire field of quiz bowl-playing ladies.

"How much does Krasnaya Armiya charge for us to buy mirroring rights to this tournament?" TJHSST's coach asks.

"They charge about two thousand rubles per team, or about thirty dollars at today's exchange rate, and hence Red Army sets are much cheaper than NAQT"

The other big surprise in this tournament is Maine. They squeaked into the playoffs by narrowly edging out the Tri-State Area and take up second place in the Northeast pool, but behind Massachusetts, but is perhaps the most imbalanced team into the playoffs, with Kansas a close second. Their playoff opener against Kansas ends up being a neg-fest where both star players trade powers and negs in equal measure.

"Tossup number six: In medieval times, this Russian city was the northern terminus of the Route from the Varangians to the Greeks"

"Belgorod" the Stag answers after buzzing in.

"Neg five" the moderator announces, while Julie, the Maine star player, buzzes in immediately thereafter.

"Novgorod"

"Fifteen"

I am pushing the opponent to buzz in faster than they would like, then again so does she, Stephanie starts thinking while she feels the first bonus part is easy enough not to have to rely on her. After this gain of 30 points, then comes the next tossup.

"Tossup number seven: In 1983, this process was simplified among the Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II"

Both star players are locked into a merciless buzzer race, as the second clue is being read:

"An extraordinary form, known as the equipollent variety of this process, allows a person enjoying cult status..."

"Beatification" Julie announces after buzzing in.

Shoot! She beat me to a buzzer race! I'm not about to let her go scot-free if her answer proves incorrect! the Bishop Miège player muses while awaiting the verdict for this tossup.

"Neg five"

Time to buzz in! I was just a little too slow and this could have been mine to power! she thinks while slamming the buzzer, with an answer ready to go, without even one more word read on the second clue.

"Canonization"

"Fifteen. For ten points each..."

But not all tossups were negs followed by power-vulching in that game. There still were questions that neither side could power, nor were willing to neg on it, including tossup number 17, which is one of those that went to the FTP clue.

"For ten points, name this novel by Cortazar famous for the author recommending a specific nonlinear reading order"

"Rayuela" the Topeka-Highland player answers in her second buzz of the playoff game.

"Ten"

Kansas wins this playoff game, with no less than a dozen negs between both teams, six each from Stephanie and Julie, the Marshwood player, respectively first and second on the negs leaderboard.

"And that's the game. Kansas wins, two hundred ninety to two hundred thirty-five"

Clearly, as the playoff rounds continue being played, there are three teams that are poised to have an actual chance of representing the United States at the World Cup in Moscow, in late June. These teams being Massachusetts, Southwest Louisiana, and Northern Georgia. But everyone on the Kansas team knows their path to victory and hence to Moscow will require beating at least two of these teams.

And, to make this worse, two of the four Northern Georgia players are playing on their home turf, since they are the two female players of the host institution.

"This is round four of the playoffs of the 2036 US Women's World Cup High School Qualifiers, pitting Kansas against Northern Georgia. Best of luck to both teams, and here's tossup one"

Relax. They'll probably neg this one anyway! a Commerce player (or QuizCats as they are known internally) muses while the tossup is being read. We have yet to face the biggest opponents, but the next one will be far harder than Kansas.

"This empire first came to power because of Roman inability to defend itself against the Sassanids. The empress of this short-lived empire is today celebrated as an icon by Syrian women's rights activists"

An ancient empress celebrated by Syrian women's rights activists? This means the empire in question claimed territory in modern-day Syria, and on top of that, Sassanids on some border of it? Stephanie starts thinking furiously and then slams her buzzer.

"Palmyrene Empire"

"Fifteen"

Ouch. They powered the question but if you buzz in a lot, and power a lot of questions, you will usually neg some, too, the QuizCat history player starts thinking while watching, powerless, the Kansas players convert all 3 bonus parts.

As they expected, the game is fought tooth and nail, but with Kansas somehow keeping this game close near the end, with one tossup to go. Kansas still has a gap of 25 points to bridge, and the following question is their last chance to bridge it.

"Tossup twenty: The Theorema Egregium states that the Gaussian variety of this quantity is invariant in three dimensions under the local isometries. Calculating this quantity requires, for a curve, to take three partial derivatives of its parametrization"

This is not the sort of question I think I can power, so I wonder who can do so on this team, the QuizCat mathlete ponders while the Cedar Shoals and Chamblee Charter girls are both stumped on this question. And the history QuizCat player may as well forget about answering the tossup since it was obvious it was a math question. But the time for powering it is up.

"The diopter is a unit that is applied to this quantity in lenses"

An answer, quick! I might be wearing contact lenses, but diopters are for eyesight correction power! the QuizCat mathlete keeps thinking, and then her hand leaps into action, leading the QuizCat to press the buzzer, not realizing the answer contradicts the first two clues.

"Eyesight correction power"

"Neg five. For ten points, name this quantity that is nonzero when a line deviates from a straight line"

The gap has narrowed to 20 points, so someone must first buzz in for us to stay in the game against Northern Georgia! the player from Olathe North who, thus far, has been the lowest scorer on this Kansas team, starts thinking while the moderator starts ticking the three seconds.

"Your answer?"

"Curvature" the Olathe North player buzzes in before the third second elapses.

"Ten. For ten points each, please answer these questions on cost overruns"

Now it's down to 10 points. All we have to do is answer 2 of the 3 bonuses correctly, and we win over Northern Georgia, the Stag thinks, while various topics related to cost overruns come up that they fail to answer the first two of them correctly. It's all down to this bonus part, we answer this one correctly, our hopes for the World Cup are still alive. But most questions were on literature, art, history, RPMSS or science, with no current events or pop culture questions.

"This behavior describes a tendency to justify future expenditures on unfinished or underperforming projects based on past expenditures"

"Sunk cost fallacy" Stephanie answers.

"Ten points for this bonus, we're going in overtime. The game shall resume in sixty seconds"

Which one will we be getting from our opponents' star player, going into overtime, the one that powers tossups, or the one that negs tossups? She makes all of us nervous, the QuizCat mathlete keeps thinking, as they take a well-deserved break.

The first overtime tossup results in a twenty-point lead for Kansas since the Stag power-vulched Northern Georgia, but Northern Georgia powered the second overtime tossup. Which means that, going into the third overtime tossup, the onus is on Kansas not to squander their five-point lead.

"Third overtime tossup: This oil-on-canvas painting from Georges de la Tour..."

Both teams get lost on this tossup clues and, in a desperate attempt to preserve their five-point lead, the Stag buzzes in as soon as she feels able to formulate an answer, even if the power mark has been missed.

"The Card Shark with the Ace of Diamonds" Stephanie answers, sighing.

"Neg five. For ten points, name this painting that is prominently featured on a Chinese cookie box"

There's only one Chinese cookie box featuring a Georges de la Tour painting on it, the Chamblee Charter player thinks, while the clock is ticking on their answer window.

"Your answer?"

"Rixe de Musiciens"

"Ten. And that's the game. Northern Georgia wins, three hundred forty to three hundred thirty"

Oh crap, I caused Kansas to lose this game. We can still go to the World Cup, but we will need to play perfectly, from here on out, and not just against our next opponents, but given my erraticness, this cannot be guaranteed, the Stag thinks, while going into the next game room, for their next game, this time played against Massachusetts.

And this game was undoubtedly the worst loss incurred by Kansas at this tournament; even their game against Southwest Louisiana in the prelims still went into overtime, but Kansas lost in regulation against Massachusetts because the Stag ate too many interrupts. After the Massachusetts game...

"And that's the game, Massachusetts wins, three hundred eighty to two hundred ninety"

"Your incessant diet of negs caused us to lose our one shot at defeating the Red Army!" the Kansas coach yells at Stephanie once more.

"The Red Army? Why are you so fixated on having us play against the Red Army, as if the Red Army represented the apex of international girls' high school quiz bowl?" Stephanie asks her coach.

"We wanted to show that we could play quiz bowl with, and against, ladies of the highest level, while giving us an opportunity to act outside of KSHSAA's restrictive rules"

Even though the Massachusetts game has wrecked their morale, and made the lesser players buzz in less, which in turn, makes the Stag buzz in more to cover for the loss of willingness to buzz in, Kansas then goes on to win the next 2 games, with the Stag scoring an even higher fraction of Kansas' points.

But going into the game against Southwest Louisiana, Warren can't help himself but compare the Stag to Imélie's high school self. That Bishop Miège player is very much like Imélie in that she is strongest in M&S as well as history, and she feels intellectually solid, but unlike Imélie, she eats tons and tons of negs. A loose cannon, if you will.

A game where, despite their best efforts, Kansas still lose, with no dramatic last-tossup showdown unlike the preliminary round game between these two teams.

Kansas ends up finishing the playoffs with a 6-3 record, which makes it just wait for the awards ceremony to begin in the school's auditorium, and Kansas finished fourth. Once the final awards ceremony begins, a total of 15 books are on a shelf, as well as medals accompanying each of them, but no trophies.

"On behalf of the organizing committee, I thank you all for attending the United States Women's World Cup High School Qualifiers. It has been a wonderful tournament and I hope the use of Russian question packets has been a positive experience" the TD announces before the prizes are handed out.

"The bronze medalists, Northern Georgia! The silver medalists, Massachusetts! And the gold medalists, the winners of the 2035 United States Women's World Cup High School Qualifiers, who will represent us at the World Cup in Moscow, Southwest Louisiana!" the statistician announces while books and medals are handed out to the teams that earn medals at this tournament.

Individual scoring prizes are then handed out but restricted to players that played in the playoff phase. The statistician then prepares the packs of LED bulbs, before returning to the podium to announce the high scorers.

"As with the preliminary phase high scorers, it turns out the cumulative high scorers also win the power prizes. The third highest scorer, from Illinois, Marina Baiul! The second highest scorer, from Maine, Julie Jutland! And the top scorer, from Kansas, Stephanie Stagg!"

After the individual high scorer prizes are distributed, along with the power prizes, Stephanie is in for a surprise the statistician prepares to take out from underneath the podium he announces all the results from.

"It also appears that Stephanie became the high scorer of this tournament despite eating more than double the interrupts Julie ate, yet Julie was the second highest on the negs leaderboard. For this reason, Stephanie will be awarded a special neg prize"

Which turns out to be the actual legislative text of Title IX, in its current version. We were never given neg prizes in scholars bowl, but is it normal for a quiz bowl tournament of this caliber to award neg prizes? Stephanie thought, upon receipt of the Title IX text.

Historically, neg prizes like the one Stephanie received included material that might be funny to its recipient, such as action figures and books that are of no real use to a quiz bowler and were often awarded to players that score high but not necessarily at the top.