So…arrived in Atlanta yesterday, after a four to five hour long plane flight, during which we, er, threw Biscoff at each other and generally dicked around. And played Botticelli – I think it took us around forty minutes to finally get “Squanto”.
We met Allan’s brother at the airport and had lunch, during which we found out exactly what constituted “traditional Southern food” (not really) and Richard went around freeloading off everyone. After that we spent half an hour walking around the airport looking for the public transport system-thing, spent another half hour on the public transport system (for those who want to know, it’s called MARTA, and it’s kind of like a really well-maintained BART.)
To some people’s delight, and maybe other people’s horror, our hotel rooms connect to each other. Yes. They connect. Which means, more or less, that we can go to each other’s rooms without having to go into the hallways and knocking. This saves time, but then we get some slightly ridiculous…incidents. Just use your imagination.
Scrimmage rounds lasted from six to ten on Friday evening. We played three rounds (in proper A and B teams, for once) and had dinner, during which everyone raided Dairy Queen and Jo recorded everyone eating their ice cream cone, because eating an ice cream cone is like slightly suggestive, if you think about in a very twisted way. Also if you eat like Jeffrey. That is all I will say on the subject.
Saturday. I was woken up by Richard at seven in the morning, and when I complained that seven was too early, he responded that Jeffrey had been up since five playing Vindictus. We had breakfast, walked to the Hyatt, watched the players’ meeting (spent another fifteen minutes looking for seats) and started rounds.
The way HSNCT works, I think, is a pretty interesting system. It’s this “card system”, where every team receives a card when they check in. The cards are ranked, so if you’re a really, really good team, then you get a card very close to 1, and if you’re a weaker team, your rank is lower. So A team started out with card 31, while B team started with card 159.
Some interesting incidents throughout the day:
A team:
- Richard brought five books. Two came up during the prelims today.
- Sumukh got a tossup on “avocado”. Suspend your disbelief.
- There was a tossup on “California”. A team buzzed “Texas”.
- For those of you who remember “Njörd” (Jeffrey’s plushie shark), he went around with him as a hat today. At least three people complimented him on it, with at least two being female. This is how you get girls, people.
- Failed a bonus on Ke$ha. Hmm.
B team:
- We met this one-man team under the name “Hamilton Academical”, who played with his teammate, a miniature plushie penguin named Constantine XI, named after the Byzantine emperor.
- Our third round (out of ten played) was against this team from Louisiana. I noticed that one of the girls watching them had a Mokuna plushie. That aside, it wasn’t a great round, especially because apparently everyone heard Jonathan say “four” instead of “four hundred.” It just….I mean, what.
- I forgot who wrote the Pillow Book. (Sei Shonagon, according to the moderator.)
- Neil got the “Journey to the West” tossup. A big fat fail to Jonathan and Allan, no offense. Should have powered that one.
- My one regret for this tournament is that I did not get the Justin Bieber tossup. Sigh.
- B team cannot do lit. Like, we just cannot do lit. Unless it’s Chinese, of course.
Miscellaneous:
- Jeffrey and Jo fought a nerf gun war during lunch today. It consisted of Jo hiding in closets, Jeffrey hiding behind beds, Jo hiding in hallways, Jeffrey running around shooting people with darts, etc, etc.
- This one team zeroed a bonus on samurai. I think the highlight was some girl on their team saying “katakana” instead of “katana”.
- The conference room labeled “Chicago E” is known as the “totally swank” room amongst MSJ players. Why? There is modern furniture, a massive widescreen television, not to mention a kitchenette. Pretty swank, huh.
So, at the end of preliminaries, MSJ A has won seven games and lost three, while MSJ B won six and lost four. This means, in other words, that both our A and B teams are going to the playoff rounds tomorrow. MSJ A’s first match tomorrow is against Dunbar A, while MSJ B is playing Lahoya A for our first match tomorrow.
Television in Atlanta is pretty interesting. We spent most of today watching that tooth fairy movie, and most of tonight watching Adult Swim. Our after-prelims dinner consisted of everyone either ordering pasta or pizza, epic word games, “is this Black Magic” becoming a miniature meme, and three rounds of Mafia.
So, tomorrow we have to be ready to start rounds at eight thirty, again. Wish us luck, and here I am hoping that everyone’s going to get plenty of coffee.
Highlight of the Day: We are in Atlanta, also known as the headquarters of Coca Cola. Despite this, Jonathan managed to find a bottle of Pepsi. Truly, what an achievement.
