Successful? Standardized Practice Part 3

I completed the third of four weeks of "Beat SAP" , and as I planned, I followed Gee's principles on video games and learning. This meant that today's round was more challenging than the last. Both classes lost today's game, meaning that they have to win next week. I was worried that they'd be discouraged after loosing, even though last week's win was by a smaller margin. They still came up with good answers and were on task 99% of the time, but they were unable to win due in part to more difficult prompts and to less time. They were eerily quiet at the end of the game, but one (usually cynical) student said, "We'll get him next time." Some others responded by stating something along the lines of "he'll go down" next week. This made me think of a few things - first, they are still motivated (at least some of them) and second, they personalized the "enemy" and are taking the mission to beat "him" seriously. Another student, who was the last left in class after the bell, stated "I still like Fridays in this class, but I wish we would have won." So, they do have some investment in this four part activity, and that investment (as far as I can tell) has not waned. The big question is: will they be motivated to use their creativity as strongly on the tests which are coming up in two weeks?