To keep the competition exciting, the morning brackets were set up to pit the top seeds against the bottom ones: first place versus eighth, second versus seventh, and so on.
Because of this setup, the number one seed, Marymount Academy, and the number two seed, Medford High, wouldn't face each other during the morning preliminaries.
Once everyone was seated, the match between Marymount Academy and last year's eighth-place finisher, Parkside High, officially kicked off.
The Math Olympiad preliminaries were split into two rounds. The first was a round-robin format where teams alternated answering thirty questions total. If both teams answered everything correctly, they'd move to a "sudden death" buzzer round of ten questions—the first team to get six right would take the win.
As the defending champions, Marymount Academy naturally drew the most attention.
Kevin, our team captain—who had made it his personal mission to dethrone Marymount and crush their captain, Carter—started analyzing them the moment they stood up to take the stage.
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"Systems of equations, arithmetic progressions, series summation, averages..."
An old professor with thick, coke-bottle glasses presided over the stage, announcing the topics.
However, as the first round-robin phase began, the questions didn't seem particularly challenging.
"These questions are insulting," Sheldon commented from the audience. As a special spectator, he was already questioning the validity of a Math Olympiad that only required basic arithmetic.
"Yeah, pretty basic..." Mike replied, leaning back in his chair, looking relaxed.
Technically, as a junior, Mike was just a warm body they had dragged in to fill a spot. He was surprised, though. Ms. Sharon had made a huge deal about this competition, but the difficulty level of this first round was underwhelming.
Aside from the necessary calculation problems, there were even some "fun" logic puzzles thrown in.
For example, they tossed in one of those classic "two trains leaving the station at different speeds" word problems. Before the host could even finish reading the text off the projection screen behind him, Mike had already calculated the answer.
For people with IQs like Mike and Sheldon, mental math and speed calculations were as automatic as breathing. It was hardly a challenge.
However, Kevin and the rest of the team waiting in the wings looked grim.
Sure, the calculation questions weren't rocket science, but having to solve them within a strict thirty-second window—while dealing with stage fright and adrenaline—changed the game. One slip-up could lead to a wrong answer.
Driven by that anxiety, Kevin maintained his serious expression while shooting a "death stare" at the Marymount team on stage.
He was probably trying to psych them out, hoping the pressure would force a mistake. Unfortunately, in the face of absolute competence, Kevin's little mind games didn't work.
As the round-robin continued, the complexity of the equations ramped up a notch.
Parkside High's fifth member looked to be a junior. With one less year of high school math under his belt compared to the seniors, there was a noticeable gap in his knowledge base.
It turned out that not every junior drafted into the Math Olympiad team was a super-genius like Mike or Sheldon.
During the final stretch of the round, the Parkside junior panicked and ran out of time on a calculation, costing his school the chance to move on to the buzzer round.
"Congratulations to Marymount Academy for being the first to secure a spot in the semifinals!"
The old professor on stage announced the results immediately. Since there were only eight teams, winning a single match was all it took to make the afternoon semis.
"Parkside is useless!"
Down in the waiting area, Kevin slammed his fist into his hand. He had been projecting himself onto Parkside, desperate to see Marymount lose. Watching Parkside drop the ball on the last question and lose in such a dramatic fashion made him look like a disappointed parent.
He had spent the whole match mentally cheering for the underdog while trying to hex Marymount with his eyes. But Parkside, being last year's bottom seed, just didn't have the "Cinderella story" magic in them.
"Next up, Medford High versus Peterborough High. Please take the stage."
Official Math Olympiads don't leave much room for pageantry. As soon as the first match ended, the professor moved the program along to the second bout.
"Go get 'em, Mike," Sheldon called out. Even though he was disappointed by the difficulty level, he still offered his encouragement. Mike's intellect was one of the few things Sheldon actually respected.
At this point, Sheldon was practically doing the same thing Kevin had done earlier—living vicariously through Mike.
"Don't worry. I could do this in my sleep," Mike grinned, standing up with his teammates.
With a final pep talk from Ms. Sharon, Kevin took the lead, marching the Medford High Mathletes toward the stage.
As they crossed paths with the Marymount team coming down, Kevin—who had been treating them as his mortal enemies—seized the opportunity to talk some trash.
He craned his neck, side-eyeing their captain, Carter, and muttered, "Don't get cocky just because you beat the bottom-feeders. We're taking the trophy this year."
"Is that so? Well, I hope you actually make it to the finals then," Carter replied, flashing a polite, nerdy smile.
The Marymount captain wasn't as oblivious as he looked. In fact, he was pretty sharp.
His timing was perfect. With just one passive-aggressive comment, he successfully triggered Kevin, who was already running on high emotion. Before Kevin could fire back, Carter had already led his team down to the audience seating.
His casual attitude made it clear he didn't view Medford—last year's runner-up—as a serious threat.
"Just you wait..." Kevin growled at Carter's back, feeling like he'd punched a pillow.
"Chill out, Kevin. He's trying to tilt you," Mike whispered from the second spot in the line.
Kevin might not have noticed, but Marymount's Carter was definitely paying attention to Medford. He just hid it better. His little jab was a calculated move, much more sophisticated than Kevin's earlier strategy of just staring at people aggressively.
In precise mathematical operations, any emotional volatility creates distraction, and distraction leads to errors. Clearly, Carter was playing dirty.
"I know. I won't let him get to me..." Kevin took a breath, reeling his temper in.
As captain, he knew this wasn't the time to lose his cool.
Still, holding onto a bellyful of rage, Kevin led the team to their podiums at the host's urging.
With nowhere to vent his anger, his eyes went "feral" again. First, he shot a dangerous glare at the Marymount team in the audience. Then, he turned that same intense, crazy-eyed look onto the Peterborough High team standing across from them.
The Peterborough students, who had no clue what was going on, were basically innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. Within seconds, they wilted under Kevin's glare, awkwardly looking away to avoid eye contact.
As last year's second-to-last place team, Peterborough evidently didn't have much confidence coming into this year's tournament.
"Alright, we will now begin the round-robin phase for both teams," the presiding professor announced. He noticed the intense look on Kevin's face but mistook the suppressed rage for competitive passion.
Interpreting it as dedication, the usually stern professor actually gave Kevin a small, approving nod as he started the match.