[larrymcg421]

GATA Winter Open (January 2023)

Format: Varsity - 30 Teams, Round Robin + 8 Team SEPO
Powers: Yes
Bouncebacks: Yes
Negs: No

Team A

Prelims

Innovation Academy A 440, North Gwinnett 275 - Krish and Adhav combine for 4 powers and 100 pts
Innovation Academy A 550, Maynard Holbrook Jackson 40 - Adhav with a massive 75 pt game
Innovation Academy A 305, Lambert 295 - Both teams play pretty bad on bonuses, but we pull it off on a late literature tossup that Krish powers.
Innovation Academy A 340, Buford 260 - Both teams get 9 tossups, but we play better on bonuses and bouncebacks.
Innovation Academy A 460, Gordon Central 65 - We open the game with 6 straight tossups and never looked back.

Playoffs

Round of 8: Innovation Academy A 440, Alliance Academy 290 - Might be our best win of the season. I had to read (moderate) for Alliance Academy's prelim matches and they were scary good. However, Adhav's 4 powers stake us to a huge early lead that Alliance can't make up.
Semifinals: Midtown 520, Innovation Academy A 170 - And we come back down to earth a bit by getting dominated by Midtown (and Charles) yet again.
3rd/4th Game: Innovation Academy A 310, Lambert A 305 - One of the most exciting wins we've had. We hold a 20 pt lead on the last question. Krish buzzes and blanks. Lambert powers and is within 5. They get the 1st bonus, putting them up by 5. They miss the 2nd bonus, and we get the bounceback to go up by 5. One more bonus and they miss it.

Finishing 3rd here out of a strong 30 team field is perhaps our best accomplishment yet.

There was also a JV division, which was mostly us and Chattahoochee teams, just like the Spartan. Chattahoochee's top JV team won, while our top JV team (playing without Krish because I moved him up) finished 2nd.