On November 8, the South Shore quiz bowl team played a match against Butternut. The players for South Shore in this match were Izzy Rantala, Caden LaFontaine, Kyla Smith, and Ethan Bratley. The moderator for the match was Ellen Nelson. South Shore was the home team, so they got the first question in Round 1. This match was fairly normal, and from early on South Shore easily secured a lead. South Shore played a little riskier in this match, simply because they had points to spare. They got a few more wrong than usual, but they were also getting plenty of questions—both given to them and passed from Butternut–correct. Butternut passed on quite a few questions, but also surprised South Shore every once in a while with knowledge in certain areas that allowed them to get questions correct that South Shore didn’t know the answer to. 

Here are some questions from the match (might not be the exact wording): Category: Dynamite – “Old sticks of dynamite are known to leak a yellowish explosive liquid. What is this liquid called?” The answer: Nitroglycerin. Butternut answered this question correctly. Category: Queens of Egypt – “Name one of the two most famous Queens of Egypt.” South Shore said ‘Cleopatra’ and got this question right. Category: Blends – “‘Splurge’ is a blend of the word ‘splash,’ and what other word?” South Shore said ‘urge’ and got this question wrong. The correct answer was ‘surge.’ 

There were questions from all sorts of categories like that, and many others. Some common categories are: Literature, Figures of Speech, Government, Oceans, Landforms, Subatomic Particles, and more. The questions above were categories that are very specific and not in every match. The teams never know what kinds of categories are going to come up in any given match, but the common ones previously listed are in almost every competition. This can help the players to study certain categories they know will most likely come up. Some categories are just going to be random and unpredictable, but that is what makes matches fun.

Butternut did their best in this match, but South Shore was on fire. The final score was 80-20, with South Shore taking the win. With this match completed, there is only one more regular season match for South Shore before the tournament at CESA-12. The last match will be a rescheduled one against Bayfield, most likely in January. As of right now, South Shore’s record is 8-3, and they have a current total of 660 points for the season. The amount of points will help determine where South Shore is seeded for the tournament. The last match against Bayfield will be a great chance for South Shore to try and get some final points before the tournament.