Marim fired heavy criticism at her seniors, but Nahum had no intention of letting that brat run her mouth as she pleased.
"It's easy for you to criticize us as a bystander," Nahum said. "But, if you actually challenged these strong players, you'd realize just how brutal reality is."
"Okay. Then, sub me in," Marim responded. "If you don't have the balls to fight tooth and nail for the win, then lemme do it."
Nahum raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to go out there and challenge the 3rd strongest team in the region?"
"Heck yeah. Lemme at 'em."
"... they'll eat you alive."
"Pft, c'mon. They're middle schoolers, just like us," Marim said matter-of-factly. "I mean, it's clear they take the game WAY more seriously than any of us and practice a hella ton. But, otherwise, they're only as good as middle schoolers can get. So, we should be able to take at least one game from them, you know?"
"Such strong conviction..." Nahum grumped. And the worst part is that I don't have a single counterargument to refute her!
It was undeniable that ending the day with a 0-5 defeat would be shameful, regardless of the skill gap between the two teams. In most sports, the underdog was still expected to win at least a few battles here and there, not to suffer a complete stomping.
But could the Tycoons still salvage anything here? After four crushing defeats in a row, the probability of winning the 5th game was close to nil.
"Hmph. Very well," Nahum said. "If you want to challenge these improbable odds so badly, then you're free to sub in. I'm sure somebody would be more than happy to step out at this point." He turned to the others for confirmation. The responses were as he predicted.
"Yeah, I'll gladly do it. Get me out of this hell, haha."
"Totally. This one-sided slaughter isn't doing any good for my health."
Most members of the team wished for nothing more than to see this nightmare end. Nobody was expecting anything anymore. Only a miracle could save them. However, miracles weren't supported by math, so it was foolish to wish for one.
"Zero backbone, huh." Marim shrugged. "This is why I keep saying you guys are no good. With this kind of crappy attitude, you wouldn't have beaten even last year's Stratus."
"Now that is a bold statement," Nahum objected. "According to the statistics, I'm quite confident we would've come on top."
"Just barely, at best," Marim corrected. "This team just sucks, that's the long and short of it. And, everything starts with this weak attitude you've got toward the competitive scene."
"We're simply realists, that's all."
"Have you never heard of upsets in sports? You know, stories about underdogs beating champions?" Marim asked. "Do you think any of them won by being a 'realist' and by giving up before the match even started? Of course not, right? These guys played their hardest despite the unlikely odds and found a way to score that W."
"I... I suppose so..." Nahum didn't have a single counterargument here, which was rare. Normally, he was able to take on anybody in a debate. But Marim was a tough opponent. The girl's arguments cut deep like a blade.
"Very well, you've convinced me," Nahum conceded. "Let's switch our gears and aim for the win at any cost, as unlikely as it might be to achieve."
As expected, the rest of the team was skeptical. "But, the math..." "It's unscientific..."
"True, it isn't," Nahum agreed. "But, surely, the probability isn't zero."
Marim scoffed. "And, even if it IS theoretically zero, it can still happen."
"Excuse me?" Nahum raised an eyebrow. "Now you've lost me."
"Take this eraser, for example." Marim waved the object in question. "Let's say I throw it at the wall." WHISH! She did exactly that. The eraser flew across the room, hit a random spot on the wall, then fell down.
Marim smirked as she turned to Nahum. "Do you know how to calculate the probability of me hitting that specific spot on the wall?"
"Er, how did that go again..." Nahum knotted his brow. He heard bits and pieces about this advanced math topic, but hadn't formally studied it in cram school yet. So, he wasn't sure which formula to plug into this.
"I think I know," Jake said. "I remember seeing examples like this. It's something along the lines of dividing the size of the eraser by the size of the wall, right?"
"Correct." Marim nodded. "So, how large do you think the probability is?"
"Well, the eraser is small, and the wall is big, so…" Nahum mused. "You take a small number and divide it by a large number, so I suppose the result becomes a very small number."
"Not just 'very small'," Marim corrected. "It's impossibly small, almost zero."
"Is that really so?" Without concrete mathematical evidence, Nahum wasn't convinced about such approximations. He had to see some numbers to confirm this.
"Think of it this way," Marim said. "Do you think I'd be able to hit the EXACT same spot in the EXACT same angle if I throw the eraser again?"
"No way."
"So, you intuitively agree that the chances are practically zero, right?"
"Hrm. I suppose it's very close to zero, yes." Nahum nodded. "At the very least, it's not the kind of probability I'd expect to encounter in real life very often."
"Then, let me ask you this: what were the odds of me hitting that specific spot on the wall before I threw the eraser? Like, if you had to place a bet on where exactly the easer would hit, what would be your odds of winning that bet?"
"Quite poor, I'd imagine..." Nahum's words trailed off as he processed the meaning of this statement. "As you said, the chances of guessing a specific spot are 'practically zero'. I'm not missing anything, am I?" He turned to the other boys for some cross-reference.
"That's how I understand it, too," Jake said. The others nodded in agreement as well.
"So, you all agree that me hitting that specific spot on the wall was a zero-chance event, right?" Marim asked. "And yet, it just happened. I threw the eraser, and it hit that one specific spot. This is proof enough that zero-chance events happen around us all the time."
Nahum pushed his glasses. "Hrm. I suppose you're right, as unintuitive as that sounds…"
All of this was supposedly backed up by math, yet it sounded ridiculous. How could zero-chance events happen so commonly? There had to be more to this advanced topic than met the eye. Nahum made a mental note to research the topic extensively to get to the bottom of it.
"So, considering how often zero-chance events happen," Marim continued. "Do you still think it's impossible for us to win one game against Stratus? Are you saying the odds are below zero or something?"
Nahum adjusted his glasses in response. "Well, mathematically speaking, the odds can't go below zero, so…"
"Right? Then, let's freakin' do it!"
With that, thanks to Marim's mind-bending math speak, the team regained some of its willpower. They were going to try one more time before concluding that all hope was lost.
And so, despite being a junior, Marim made it into the first-string for this one last game. Will her inclusion make all the difference!? Only time will tell…