The third quiz in the room that will be quizzing the longest today.  That first quiz was worth all the salami in the Mediterranean, but the second quiz was one we were just grateful to get through.  For some reason, the pairing this year seems to be more of a struggle than it has in the past.  Should we eliminate 15 teams as a potential number and require a 16th team to sign up before we allow team #15?  Should we relegate Mr. West to the pairing room, so that it is quicker?  Should we allow people who do not capitalize the two letter abbreviations of states to post on the big board?  All of these were questions that came into mind as they switched the teams who were participating in this quiz at least twice.  So, we finally landed on New Hampshire vs. Wisconsin vs. Alabama.

Would you believe me if I told you that Wisconsin was dominant, but there is a kid, who sits in chair 3 for Alabama that you will hear a lot about one day?  If you don't believe me, ignore the rest of this blog, because I am going to spend the rest of it convincing you that is the case.  Wisconsin started by getting a free question on the first iteration of the first question.  That was a harbinger of thigs to come as Wisconsin then sailed away to 8 strait questions.  5 were by the person who sat in chair two (when she answered, it sounded as if the masses were lauding Hannah, but far be it from me to assert whether or not that is her actual name), while chair 3 contributed a couple and chair 4 mopped up a question.  With a score like 0 (NH) to 190 (WI) to 0 (AL), the observing fans were falling into a holding pattern of monotony.

However, A time out by New Hampshire seemed to give new life to...Alabama?  Yes, after the timeout from NH, Alabama chair 3 went on to get questions 10 and 11.  The team also got a free question and really looked like a different team post-timeout.  WI (chair 2, who quizzed out doing so, by the way) got question 12, NH got question 13, and WI got question 14.  That led us to a Wisconsin timeout and a score after 14 questions of 20 (NH) -210 (WI) -50 (AL).

Alabama chair 3 then asserted himself as the best quizzer remaining in the quiz and got three questions in a row.  Quite an accomplishment for a quizzer who looked mediocre for the first 9 questions.  In doing so, he eliminated all doiubt in the quiz and the quiz was now just a matter of finishing up the string.  WI 4, WI 1, and AL 3 finished the quiz by getting relatively stress-free questions.  AL chair 3 quizzed out, in so doing and I am predicting that he will be among the best quizzers in the national conversation shortly.  All-in-all, a quiz which exemplified a team that is on the mountaintop now (WI), a team with a quizzer who may one day take them there (AL), and a team who we are just glad they came and we hope they improve (NH).

Final score 20 (NH) - 240 (WI) - 130 (AL).

Now, can we get the pairings to the next round sooner than we got these?