After seeing Georgie off again, Mike took Sheldon and met Ms. Sharon and the others in front of a bus.
"Look who's here! Our ace Mike, and the super little genius Sheldon…" Kevin, still dressed in a flamboyant hip-hop style, seemed very excited today.
Before he could continue his antics, Ms. Sharon spoke, "Everyone's here, let's go. The sooner we get to the venue, the more time we'll have to prepare."
Ms. Sharon seemed more serious today than usual.
The year-end Math Olympiad League, initiated by the Department of Education, divided different regions into many competition zones.
To ensure fairness, each competition zone would fix eight teams based on their educational resources.
Therefore, ordinary public high schools like Medford would not compete against elite high schools in Houston.
Furthermore, because the champion of each competition zone would receive an extra credit when applying for university, to some extent, the annual Math Olympiad League could be said to be a good opportunity for students from ordinary high schools to win better university admission letters.
On Medford High's side, after all the members of the Math Olympiad team and Sheldon, the special audience, got on the bus, Ms. Sharon began to explain the schedule to everyone.
There were eight teams in total, using a single-elimination system.
Due to the tight schedule, each match, including the halftime break, would not exceed one hour at most.
So, according to the normal process, the total of seven matches would determine the champion within one day.
After introducing the basic competition process, Ms. Sharon took out several T-shirts from her handbag and handed them to the members of the Math Olympiad team.
Uniforms were required for the competition, and this black T-shirt with the Medford High logo was the team uniform for Medford High's Math Olympiad team.
After distributing the team uniforms to Mike and the others, Ms. Sharon specifically took out an extra T-shirt and gave it to Sheldon, who was accompanying them.
"Alright, everyone can rest for a bit on the bus. I'll call you when we arrive," Ms. Sharon, having dealt with the miscellaneous matters, reminded everyone.
From Medford High to the math hall used for the competition, it would take about forty minutes.
As the leader of the Math Olympiad team, Ms. Sharon naturally hoped that during this time, everyone could rest well and perform at their best during the competition.
Just as Mike was leaning on Cady, about to take a nap, a thin figure quietly approached.
"Mike, excuse me for a moment, I have something very important to discuss with you," Kevin said mysteriously, lowering his voice.
Seeing his serious expression, Mike greeted Cady and then followed Kevin to the back of the bus.
"Last year, I watched a competition with the team and have some understanding of the strengths of the other seven schools…" Kevin, having arrived at the back, began to share his insights.
In his words, nearby academies such as St. Patrick's High School and Little Garden High School were not to be worried about. Only last year's champion team, Marymount Academy, needed special attention.
To deal with this strong enemy, Kevin came up with a somewhat unconventional solution: to have Mike pretend to be a "newbie" as Medford High's Math Olympiad team's trump card against other schools.
According to him, people with very handsome looks like Mike easily give off the impression of a playboy.
And in students' preconceived notions, generally, handsome classmates must have a very rich campus life, and thus no time to settle down and study.
Conclusion: looks and knowledge are inversely proportional.
From this perspective, Kevin wanted Mike to control his answering time during the first round of rotating questions, thereby disguising himself as a novice to mislead the opponents.
This way, in the second round's sudden death match, during the one-on-one segment, the opposing team would very likely pick Mike, who was actually a top student but pretending to be a novice, as their school's opponent.
If this plan succeeded, it would become very simple for Medford High's Math Olympiad team to win the championship.
After all, everyone was well aware of Mike's level.
It could be said that the method of playing dumb to catch a tiger, proposed by Kevin, added another layer of insurance for Medford High to win this Math Olympiad championship.
"No problem, during the competition, I'll react according to the situation." Mike, who possessed performance skills, readily agreed after hearing Kevin's suggestion.
As the saying goes, the more capable, the more work. For Mike, being able to control the key to victory in his own hands made him feel more at ease.
...
After about forty minutes of driving, Medford High's Math Olympiad team and others arrived at the math hall used for the competition.
This was an old-fashioned venue, with a spacious hall that, apart from rows of neat seats, had no other superfluous arrangements, emphasizing practicality.
And on the podium at the very front, for this Math Olympiad competition, an advanced projection equipment was specially installed to project Math Olympiad questions.
On either side of the projection equipment, two rows of desks were placed, serving as the answering areas for the contestants later.
It was currently 9:30 AM, and there was approximately half an hour until the competition began.
"Anyone who wants to go to the restroom can go now. The rest of you, rest in place—" Ms. Sharon led everyone into the venue, found a resting area in the front row, and then said to everyone.
In the spacious math hall, including Medford High, five teams had already arrived.
However, each team, including the accompanying teacher, generally did not exceed ten people. Therefore, the venue still seemed very quiet.
Sitting down, Mike immediately saw the team wearing Marymount Academy marked clothing not far away.
"That guy with curly hair is Carter; I saw him in the audience last year…" Kevin came to Mike's side, subtly gesturing towards a nerdy-looking boy in the Marymount Math Olympiad team, and quietly introduced him.
From his expression, he seemed very displeased with the boy named Carter.
But then again, last year, the Marymount Math Olympiad team defeated Medford High's Math Olympiad team and won the championship.
Out of a sense of honor or rivalry, it would naturally cause Kevin, who watched the competition last year, to feel some imbalance towards Carter from Marymount Academy, who also watched the competition.
Moreover, from Mike's observation, the boy named Carter in the Marymount Math Olympiad team, judging by his meticulous dressing style and proper conduct, was definitely a rigorous person in life.
This just happened to make him and Kevin, with his hip-hop style and erratic behavior, two extremes in personality.
From this point of view, it was normal for Kevin to dislike the other party.
Just as Kevin was badmouthing the other party, Carter, who was at the center of the Marymount team, seemed to sense it and turned his head to look over.
As the two Math Olympiad team captains met each other's eyes across the space, it was as if a storm was brewing.
It was clear that in both their minds, they regarded each other as major adversaries.
Finally, it was Carter, frowning, who politely nodded first, and then voluntarily shifted his gaze away.
"Tch, putting on an act." Kevin, who had won the gaze confrontation, curled his lips, seemingly disdainful of the other party's "gentlemanly" demeanor.
From the looks of it, their personalities indeed clashed.
Afterwards, as several teams quietly observed each other, more than twenty minutes passed.
Around ten o'clock in the morning, when the remaining three Math Olympiad participating teams successively arrived at the math hall, the Math Olympiad League of this competition zone officially began.