American TV series: Starting with exploiting young Sheldon

There are a total of eight teams, and a single-elimination system is used.

Due to the tight schedule, each match, including halftime, will last no more than an hour.

Therefore, according to the normal process, the champion can be determined in one day out of a total of seven matches.

After introducing the basic procedures of the competition, Ms. Sharon took out several sports uniforms from her handbag and distributed them to the members of the math Olympiad team.

During the competition, participants are required to wear uniforms. This black shirt with the words "Melford High School" on it is considered the uniform of the Melford High School Math Olympiad team.

After distributing team uniforms to Mike and the others, Ms. Sharon specially took an extra one and gave it to Sheldon, who was traveling with them.

"Alright, everyone can rest for a bit on the bus. I'll call you when we arrive," Teacher Sharon said, having finished her chores.

It takes about forty minutes to walk from Melford High School to the math building where the competition is being held.

As the leader of the math Olympiad team, Ms. Xue Lun naturally hopes that everyone can take good care of themselves during this period so that they can perform to their best in the competition.

Just as Mike was leaning against Katie, preparing to take a nap, a small, thin figure quietly crept over.

"Mike, excuse me for a moment, I have something very important to discuss with you," Captain Kevin said in a low, mysterious voice.

Seeing the other person's serious expression, Mike greeted Katie and then followed Kevin to the back of the bus.

“I watched a game with the team last year and have some understanding of the strength of the other seven schools…” Kevin, who came to the back row, shared his insights.

In his words, neighboring schools like St. Mary's High School and Little Garden High School were not a concern. Only last year's champions, Marymont High School, needed to be closely watched.

To deal with this formidable opponent, Captain Kevin came up with a rather unorthodox solution: to have Mike pretend to be a "newbie" as a trump card for the Melford Math Olympiad team against other schools.

According to him, someone as handsome as Mike can easily give the impression of being a playboy.

In students' minds, good-looking students must have a very busy campus life, so they don't have time to focus on their studies.

Conclusion: Physical appearance and academic knowledge are inversely proportional.

From this perspective, Kevin wanted Mike to control his answering time during the first round of question-and-answer sessions, thus disguising himself as a novice to confuse the other party.

In the second round of the sudden death match, in the one-on-one segment, the opposing team is very likely to choose Mike, who is actually a top student but pretends to be a novice, as their school's opponent.

If this plan succeeds, it will become very easy for the Melford Math Olympiad team to win the championship.

After all, everyone knows how good Mike is at math competitions.

It can be said that Captain Kevin's "playing dumb to fool others" approach added another layer of insurance for Melford High School to win this year's Mathematical Olympiad.

“No problem, I’ll react according to the situation during the game.” Mike, who has acting skills, agreed without much thought after hearing Kevin’s suggestion.

The saying goes that the capable should do more, and being able to control the key to victory or defeat makes Mike feel more at ease.

……

After a 40-minute drive, the Melford Math Olympiad team and others arrived at the math hall where the competition was being held.

This is a venue with a very old-fashioned style. In the spacious hall, apart from rows of neat seats, there are no other superfluous decorations. The emphasis is on practicality.

At the very front of the stage, a state-of-the-art projection device was specially installed for this math Olympiad competition to project math problems.

On either side of the projection equipment, there were two rows of lecterns, which served as the answering area for the contestants.

The time was 9:30 a.m., about half an hour before the start of the match.

"Anyone who needs to use the restroom can go now. The rest of you, please stay put and rest here." Teacher Sharon led everyone into the venue and found a rest area in the front row before speaking to them.

Five teams, including those from Melford High School, have already arrived in the spacious mathematics building.

However, each team, including their instructors, generally had no more than ten people. Therefore, the venue still felt quite deserted.

As Mike sat down, he immediately spotted a group of people wearing Marymont College uniforms not far away.

“That curly-haired guy is called Carter. I saw him in the audience last year…” Kevin came to Mike’s side, gesturing to a nerdy-looking boy in the Marymond Math Olympiad team, and introduced him in a low voice.

Judging from his expression, he seemed very dissatisfied with the boy named Carter.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. Last year, the Marymont Math Olympiad team defeated the Melford Math Olympiad team to win the championship.

Driven by a sense of honor or a competitive mentality, Kevin, who came to watch the game last year, felt somewhat unbalanced towards Carter, who also came to watch the game from Marymount College.

Moreover, according to Mike's observation, the boy named Carter in Marymont's math team, judging from his meticulous dressing style and proper behavior, is definitely a rigorous person in real life.

This is exactly the opposite of Kevin's personality, who has a hip-hop style and unconventional behavior.

From this perspective, it's understandable that Kevin dislikes the other party.

Just as Kevin was badmouthing the other person, Carter, who was in the center of Marymon's team, turned around and looked over as if he could sense something.

The two math team captains stared at each other across the distance, as if a storm was brewing.

Clearly, both of them considered each other a formidable enemy.

Finally, it was Carter, who was frowning, who first nodded politely and then looked away.

"Tch, pretentious~" Kevin, who had won the eye contact, curled his lip, seemingly very disdainful of the other party's "gentlemanly" behavior.

Judging from the situation, the two are indeed incompatible.

After that, more than twenty minutes passed as the teams silently observed each other.

Around 10 a.m., the remaining three math Olympiad teams arrived at the math building, and the math Olympiad league in this region officially began.

Chapter 209 Champion

To ensure the excitement of the competition, the morning's matches were grouped as follows: last year's first-place finisher played against the eighth-place finisher, the second-place finisher played against the seventh-place finisher, and so on.

Therefore, Marymount College, the number one seed, and Melford High School, the number two seed, will not face each other in the preliminary rounds this morning.

After everyone was seated, the match between Marymount Academy and Little Garden High School, which ranked eighth last year, officially began.

The preliminary round of the math Olympiad competition was also divided into two rounds. In the first round, the team members from both sides took turns answering questions, totaling thirty questions.

If both sides answer all questions correctly, they will enter the second round of the buzzer round, which consists of ten questions. The team that answers six questions correctly first wins.

As last year's champions, Marymont College naturally received more attention.

Captain Kevin, who set his sights on winning the championship and defeating Carter, began observing Marymont College and the others as they prepared to take the stage.

……

Problems involving sums, differences, and multiples; arithmetic sequence problems; summation of sequences; average value...

An elderly professor wearing thick glasses was on stage, overseeing the progress of the competition.

However, as the competition began, the questions in the first round of question-and-answer sessions did not seem to be very difficult.

"These questions are too easy!" Young Sheldon, a special audience member, questioned the math olympiad problems that only required basic calculations.

“It’s really not difficult…” Mike leaned back in his chair and casually agreed.

As an eleventh-grader, he was technically someone who was brought in to make up the numbers.

To his surprise, the math Olympiad, which Ms. Sharon had taken so seriously, had such easy questions in the first round of the preliminary competition.

In addition to the necessary calculation problems, these questions also include some fun brain teasers.

For example, with interesting problems like the chicken and rabbit problem, Mike could instantly find the answer by looking at the question on the projection screen behind him before the host even finished reading the question.

It's fair to say that someone with an IQ like Mike or Sheldon would find mental arithmetic and speed calculations to be basic skills, so there's naturally no difficulty for them.

However, Kevin and the others waiting to go on stage had rather serious expressions.

The problems that only required calculation weren't particularly difficult for them. However, having to come up with an answer within the allotted thirty seconds, coupled with factors like nervousness, meant that they might make mistakes if they weren't careful.

Based on this empathy, Captain Kevin, while maintaining a serious expression, glared with "fierce" eyes at the Marymont Academy students answering questions on the stage.

He probably wanted to put more pressure on the students from Marymont College in this way, hoping they would make mistakes due to nervousness.

However, faced with absolute strength, Captain Kevin's little schemes did not succeed.

Afterwards, as the question-and-answer session progressed, the complexity of the later questions increased significantly.

The fifth member of the Little Garden High School Math Olympiad team appears to be an eleventh-grade student. Having missed a year of high school, his knowledge of math Olympiad is clearly inferior to the others.

As it turns out, not all the eleventh-grade students selected for the math Olympiad team were super geniuses like Mike and Sheldon.

Later, in the final round of the question-and-answer session, this eleventh-grade student from Little Garden High School lost the opportunity to enter the second round of the math Olympiad team because he exceeded the time limit for calculation.

"Congratulations to Marymont Academy for being the first to qualify for the semi-finals!"

After the results were announced, the old professor who was hosting the competition announced the results of the first match.

Because there are only eight participating teams, defeating just one opponent is enough to advance to the afternoon's semi-finals.

"Little Garden High School is so useless!"

Down in the audience, Captain Kevin, who had always considered Marymond Academy his rival and thus projected himself onto Little Garden High School, clenched his fist in frustration after seeing Little Garden High School dramatically lose the game because they answered the last question wrong. At the same time, a look of disappointment and frustration rose on his face.

One can imagine that while he was putting pressure on Marymont College with his eyes, he was probably also cheering on Little Garden High School in his heart.

However, as the bottom-ranked school last year, Koh-Hana High School does not have the strength to become a "dark horse" this year.

"Next up, please welcome Melford High School and Peterborough High School to the stage for their match!"

Formal math competitions aren't that fun. After the first round of results were announced, the professor on stage presided over the proceedings and continued with the second round.

"Go for it, Mike!" As a special audience member, Sheldon was a little disappointed with the difficulty of the math competition, but he still sent his best wishes when he saw Mike about to take the stage.

After all, Mike's intelligence had earned his approval.

Young Sheldon is likely in a similar situation to Kevin before, projecting himself onto Mike.

"Don't worry, I'm fine even without cheering!" Mike smiled easily and stood up with his teammates.

Then, accompanied by Ms. Sharon's encouraging words, Captain Kevin led the Melford High School math Olympiad team onto the stage.

As their team passed by the Marymont College Math Olympiad team, who were on their way to the game, Captain Kevin, who had always considered them his rival, seized this excellent opportunity to provoke them.

He glanced sideways at Carter, who was at the front of the opposing team, and muttered in a low voice, "Don't think that beating the last-place team is anything special. This year's champion will only be us!"

"Really? I hope you can make it to the finals," Carter, who looked like a bookworm, retorted with a smile.

This captain of Marymont College is not as dull as he looks; on the contrary, he is quite cunning.

He seized the perfect moment, and with just a light, sarcastic remark, he successfully provoked the already agitated Kevin.

While Kevin was about to retort with words, Carter had already led Marymont's team to the stands below.

His nonchalant demeanor suggested that he didn't take last year's runner-up Melford team seriously.

"You just wait!" Kevin said angrily to Carter's back, as if he had punched cotton.

"Calm down, Kevin. They're probably trying to provoke you..." Mike, who was second in line, whispered to his captain.

Kevin may not have noticed that Carter of Marymont College was not as indifferent to Melford as he appeared.

His actions to provoke Kevin were clearly much more sophisticated than Kevin's earlier glare.

In precise mathematical calculations, any emotional fluctuation can be distracting, leading to errors.

Clearly, Carter's deliberate attempt to provoke Kevin was not well-intentioned.

"I know I won't let him succeed..." Reminded, Kevin calmed down a little.

As the team leader, he knew very well that now was not the time to act impulsively.

Then, Kevin, who was seething with anger, led his team to their own answering area at the host's urging.

With nowhere to vent his anger, his eyes turned "fierce" again.

First, Kevin glared at the Marymon group below the stage with that dangerous look, then turned to examine the Petersburg High School team members opposite him with the same look.

The Petersburg team members, unaware of what had happened, were caught in the crossfire. Before long, they felt guilty under Kevin's glare and quickly avoided his gaze.

It's clear that the team from St. Petersburg High School, which finished second to last last year, isn't as motivated this year.

"Alright, now let's move on to the round-robin question-and-answer session between the two teams~" The old professor in charge of the event also noticed Kevin's expression in the question-and-answer area, but he mistakenly thought it was a sign of Kevin's enthusiasm.

With this understanding, the previously stern professor even nodded slightly to Melford High School as he proceeded with the competition.

Chapter 210 During the game

Problems involving sums, differences, and multiples; arithmetic sequence problems; summation of sequences; binary numbers and their applications; divisors and multiples; averages, etc.

The knowledge points for the second and first games were largely the same; only the question bank was changed.

In this situation, Melford High School and Peterborough High School did not encounter particularly difficult questions at the beginning of the first round of the preliminary rounds.