In March, Community High School won a state championship. Not in basketball–the school doesn’t even have a team–but by arguing an imaginary wrongful death lawsuit.

“George Romero,” a partner in an energy drink company, died of heart failure at a party for the “Zombiepocalypse.” But was Romero himself to blame, for years of drug use that weakened his heart–or did his business partner trick him into taking a deadly caffeine overdose?

With separate teams arguing both sides–and other students playing expert witnesses–Community beat Grand Blanc High School in the thirty-first annual Michigan High School Mock Trial Tournament. It was the team’s fourth state championship since 2010 and sent them to the nationals in Madison, Wisconsin, in May.

The team didn’t do as well as they’d hoped–thirty-seventh out of forty-six state champions competing–but two students, Avery Farmer and Eve Kausch, won best witness and best attorney awards.

The kids seemed fine with that. At a meeting the week after they returned, they were already strategizing for the 2015 competition.