The main event, the ChGK Nationals proper, takes up day 2, with an Orthodox mass being held beforehand.

Once the mass ends, the team comes together and then they all start shaking. We did well in brain ring last night, we should be in good position to finish on top. However, I am afraid that two years of sacrifices will be done for nothing if we lose! Patricia ruminates, while she knew what difference she made on the team. Near the entrance to the Russian Mission School's gymnasium:

"Pray that we don't get too many questions on pop culture; that was the topic on the question we failed last year! I get it, it's not like quiz bowl" Patricia then proceeds to pray. Amen.

"That's why you have me to begin with" the sixth player then comments.

"The reason why you feel like we trust you too much is because the question sets tend to lean towards the more academic at higher levels. You are fantastic in history, arts and literature, but only once or twice this season has science questions on a level more advanced than AP courses in high school been asked in ChGK" Yakiv explains to his captain.

The Russian high school system of my time pushed regular tenth and eleventh graders to the level of AP science courses in the US, and humanities got the shaft. And, if you were good, you were often pushed to compete in subject olympiads at the raion level, my own school just picked the best 3 kids in a given subject, Bohdan gets flashbacks from his own time in school when Yakiv mentioned the subject levels of the questions asked earlier in the season.

"So you think my relative weakness in the sciences, outside of maybe biomedical sciences, was not a liability because of the content level?" Patricia asks.

"Yes. My ex was an electrical engineer, he knew more about physical sciences but he was a more one-dimensional znatok (connoisseur) than you. But you implicitly admitted that your scientific weakness was relative, and more specifically relative to yourself in other subjects. You're still pretty strong in science in a ChGK context" Vira explains to her.

"If you compared me to the pool of players in the Great Plains, Rockies and the South, sure, I would be a solid player all-around. If you compared me to historical greats such as Potashev, Druz or Wasserman..." Patricia laments, knowing the basis of comparison can drastically change the conclusion.

Patricia is right. Several of the all-time ChGK greats hold advanced degrees in STEM subjects. But let's not forget about how Russian college students were pretty much expected to continue into graduate school as usually understood by Americans, Bohdan muses, realizing that the bulk of the American ChGK talent is in coastal areas. The most advanced science questions we were asked in tournaments tended to be at most on the level of, well, AP courses, and that was, like, in major international tournaments. Or the Achievement Junkie Invitational.

"I must say the following: on average, competitive ChGK science questions, of which you know by now there isn't a whole lot, tend to have a content ceiling not to exceed approximately ninth to tenth grade" Yakiv comments on the science question content.

"Today, the results of two long years of sacrifices will bear their fruits! We shall crash the Quantum Computers and secure the United States' berth at the ChGK Worlds!" Patricia exclaims, followed by the rest of the team.

"Go Kansas!"

And then the tournament director gives the signal to all teams to get seated at their designated tables. Up to this point, there is no question that appears anything unlike other ChGK tournaments they took part in this season. But then comes a question that eerily starts to feel more like Achievement Junkie Invitational questions, or collegiate quiz bowl bonus parts. In the middle of the second game of the day, no less.

"What kind of rule would be implemented without input from the healthcare system?" the sixth player asks, confused.

"Why would the question writers even talk about the healthcare system? Even less about how the people subjected to it would be stretched to their limits... Cat got my tongue, Patricia is our only hope on this question that somehow feels like a healthcare law question" Yakiv retorts.

"Healthcare law wouldn't fly as a topic in ChGK, even at Worlds!" Sergei shouts, in disagreement with his uncle.

"You've been trusting me far too much! It's not the first time!" Patricia hollers while her mind leaps into action.

I feel like this question will be a coffin (a question of excessive difficulty that very few teams will answer correctly) and therefore prove decisive in whether we will win the US berth at ChGK Worlds! It must involve limits, as well as a word evoking healthcare. Often, in ChGK, saying something isn't thematically related to the answer means that something is related to a word in the answer. Stretching something to its limits could mean... an infinite limit? She muses while her teammates are fighting between each other over possible solutions.

"What is the meaning of stretching the limit here, and also contain a word evoking healthcare?" Bohdan asks, annoyed by the clues.

"You work at a psychiatric hospital, you should have an idea of what could stretch either the patients' limits or the medical personnel" Vira brings up Patricia's workplace.

"Hospital! Yes! Why didn't I think of the hospital rule?" Patricia has a flash of genius with a few seconds to spare.

"What is the hospital rule?" Yakiv asks her, with the siren ringing.

"No time to explain it here" Patricia deflects the suspicions of her teammates, while the laschtok writes "hospital rule" on a card.

The reason why I always wrote hospital rule in lowercase is because the hospital rule wasn't actually discovered by L'Hospital, Patricia reflects on the answer.

At the end of the second game, Yakiv comes back to her with a question about the hospital rule, presumably not having taken any single-variable calculus course.

"We're in the lead, but you told me there was no time to explain what the hospital rule is" Yakiv voices his concern to Patricia.

"The hospital rule is used to resolve indeterminate forms when calculating the limit of a fraction. Derivatives are taken at each level of the fraction and then the limit of the fraction becomes the limit of a division of derivatives, provided the derivatives exist at that point.

"Too advanced for me. And this question is the question that had the fewest correct answers. Honestly, it could have been a question at Worlds" Yakiv shrugs.

"You still think we trust you too much? We could never have taken it without you! Even then, at Worlds, I don't expect that many teams to take it, maybe the Chinese, maybe another team with one player using advanced math on a regular basis..." Vira sighs, feeling, however, that there would be no more math questions.

"Come on! We might be in the lead now but we must keep playing the same as we did for the next two games!" Patricia shouts at her players.

After eating lunch elsewhere in northwest Bronx, the tournament resumes and one of these questions, unlike so many questions in past tournaments, is a question that has someone else finding the answer:

"What is commonly used and asked by kids but their users run the risk of fading out if used carelessly?" Sergei reformulates the TD's question.

"Fading out in what sense?" Patricia asks, confused about the possible meanings of fading out. "All I know about childhood psychology and development is that unresolved childhood trauma is a risk factor in someone getting a zavisimost. That's why I begged you not to trust me too much!"

"Fading out isn't used in mental health. Vira?" Yakiv asks his sister.

"I remember a reading on remedial action for professional development, and it seems to be implying that, as much as tutoring may be asked by the kids, relying too much on tutors may make the kids too dependent on them. When that happens, their skills fade out. For some, it might be an acceptable price to pay" Vira comments on fading out.

"I never really asked for it, people asked me for help! And I paid an implicit price for my academic prowess under the form of cheating attempts, such as copying homework..." Patricia comments on Vira's explanation. "Do we all agree that tutoring is our answer?"

"I am not surprised at all, Patricia. I was in Stephanie's shadow, both in scholars bowl and in the classroom, so I wasn't asked to help all that often" Sergei comments on his own dealings with tutoring.

"I concur" Bohdan adds to this chorus in the nick of time.

Often people viewed tutors as people who crammed material in an emergency. Social studies and, to a lesser extent, language arts, were subjects that people often deemed of lesser importance so they were willing to take on the risk of not understanding the material in the long run, Vira muses after this question. Patricia is clearly a brain, I'm sure she knows how smart she really is.

Almost one hour later, during the final game, the Quantum Computers and the Kansas State Team are tied for first. Going into the final regulation question, these two teams are the most nervous, along with Saturday 13, who can still win but only if both Kansas and the QCs fail to answer this question correctly. And even then, Saturday 13 will need to face a 3-way shootout.

"One last question, and we must answer this one correctly or else our dreams of Worlds will be postponed yet another year. You all understand what this means?" Vira asks her teammates.

"Yes!"

The final regulation question makes all 3 teams shake in their seats, but spaced far enough apart to have at least one team between each other. This set has caused many a surprise: a math question, a question on child developmental psychology, to name the least common topics, Yakiv reflects on the questions. The blitz starts in earnest.

"Sir John Falstaff/Fastolf. After all, it is a blitz" Sergei answers the first sub-question, which was about a medieval England figure who inspired a play character.

Kansas scored the first correct answer of the blitz. Then, the second sub-question is about a specific kind of real estate property.

"Really? What kind of mass-manufactured home would lack stylistic consistency?" a confused sixth player asks his teammates, the clock ticking.

"Normally mass-manufactured items have consistent styles within the same manufacturer, but perhaps it has to do with the variety of manufacturers? Or should I say builders?" Vira asks in turn.

"McMansions. There are, like, six different names used in real estate for that sort of home, but I have the feeling it's the only one that specifically evokes mass manufacturing" Bohdan explains while the siren rings on the second sub-question.

Phew! Our hopes for Worlds are still alive, Patricia sighs, while the question went by too fast for her to contribute much of anything. The final sub-question comes around: I have a short life, but in death, I have the smoothest surface in the universe.

"What exactly is the smoothest surface in the universe?" Yakiv asks his teammates.

I am not about to let our dreams of Worlds die because of a stupid blitz sub-question! Just don't think of the Quantum Computers and it will be fine! Patricia ruminates, while struggling to think of an object that could possibly have the smoothest surface in the universe in death.

"I'd say a neutron or quark star would have the smoothest surface in the universe" Patricia belatedly provides a clue.

"What are these things the corpses of?" Yakiv ask a his captain, more nervous than he has ever been in a tournament.

"Supergiant stars" Patricia then writes it down on a card for the sixth player to bring over to the game committee, when the siren rings two seconds later.

At the end of the regulation 48 questions, two teams are tied for first. The Kansas State Team (a.k.a. Patricia's team) and, from Los Angeles, the Quantum Computers (ChGK teams can be named independently).

"I'm nervous..." Patricia comments, trembling like a leaf.

"No matter what happens, this is our best finish at the national championship" Vira reassures her. Go Kansas!

"Go Kansas!" The team shouts in unison before raising their arms.

And, unlike the regulation questions, which were asked in Russian, this tie-breaker question will be asked in English. The tournament director first shows the closed black box for everyone in the room to see, and then asks the question:

"This is a black box question. The object in the black box is used to save people from cravings and is also used as a painkiller. Name the object in the black box" the tournament director asks both teams, with all other teams watching, powerless, the California and Kansas state champions go at it.

Patricia's heart beats louder and louder in her chest, and her mental functions seem to decrease in efficiency with every passing second. And she is sweating as her intellect appears to be malfunctioning. What am I even doing here? Why did it have to come to this, despite playing perfectly in regulation time? she ruminates while she keeps thinking of what this one question implies for the rest of their ChGK season. She seems unable to formulate coherent thoughts at this point.

"What could people potentially crave that might be sated with a painkiller?" Yakiv asks his teammates, seeing Patricia sweat with each and every word their teammates say, knowing however, she will rarely speak early.

"A craving is an intense desire for something" Bohdan adds to this cacophony of a discussion over what could possibly link saving someone from a craving and a painkiller.

"If the object in the black box saves its users from cravings, the wording of the question implies that what the object in the black box is supposed to sate a craving of something dangerous" Sergei adds while Patricia keeps sweating.

Come on, brain, I just need a few seconds of mental clarity! Patricia thinks while her forehead heats up and she struggles to regain control over her intellect.

"Can a painkiller save people from craving even more dangerous drugs?" Vira asks, unsure of whether the clues can be reconciled.

"Of course, Vira. I overheard one of the outpatient drug addicts talk about methadone saving him from cravings at work" Patricia answers, still sweating.

"How do you know this?" the sixth player asks a sweating Patricia.

"I work as an assistant director of the outpatient drugs ward at a psychiatric hospital, the alarm then rings, signaling the end of the 60s in the first overtime question"

"Your answers please!" the tournament director asks both team captains.

"Methadone" Patricia answers in a husky voice tone.

"Cannabis" Mikahil, the Quantum Computers' captain, tells in a more natural voice tone shortly afterwards.

"Cannabis is, yes, used as a painkiller in states where it is allowed for medical use, but it isn't used to save a patient from a craving, whereas methadone is used to save patients from craving heroine. And then the 2042 US ChGK champions are..." the tournament director explains while a member of the appeals committee then rolls a drum. "The Kansas State Team, which will represent the United States at the ChGK Worlds, held in Bakhmut!"

"Yes! We did it! Sergei and Vira then jump for joy, followed by the other 4 Kansas players"

In collegiate quiz bowl, math and science was my weakness, at least early on. But here my own scientific knowledge saved our bacon, Patricia reflects on this tie-breaker question, which was much like black box questions asked on Russian TV. And Patricia's scientific knowledge saved the team on 3 occasions rather than one here.

"Kansas wins! Now, on to the ChGK Worlds in Ukraine, and we must start planning our vacation times around them! As well as compete in an online tournament per week" Patricia informs her teammates.

"One question: what are your banking details for wire transfer?" Yakiv asks his captain, while being ready to reimburse her for the travel expenses of the tournament.

"Not here please. However, our objectives at Worlds are clear: we're not here to defeat Syria or North Korea only"