OK…  that might be a bit of an over-dramatic title, but nonetheless, our weekend games tested a wide array of different topics for our loyal (and competitive) teams.  We needed a tiebreaker to determine the winner at one of our venues.  Check out your weekend recaps below:

WEEKEND STATS AND FACTS (33 teams across four venues):

–> Highest Overall Score: Boh’s and Hoes (Captain Benders) and Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Captain Benders) with 165

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Boh’s and Hoes and Arrondissements of Ouagadougou with 165

–> Highest First Half Score: Off Beats (Pretzel & Pizza Creations) with 88

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagering questions and final): Arrondissements of Ouagadougou

–> Overall, our halftime pages played to an average of 17.1, but no teams was able to secure 20 points.

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (75.0% success rate):

–> Some species of African frogs will spontaneously undergo gender transition in same-sex environments.  This real-life fact serves as a key plot point in which 1993 film?

SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (33.3% success rate):

–> In 1964, Pop Artist Robert Indiana created a series of prints and sculptures, one of which would go on to appear on a U.S. postage stamp.  For your wager, which ONE WORD is depicted in each of these works?   (you’ll find the answers later in this blog)

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Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD

Tonight, I got the pleasure of hosting trivia at Springfield Manor Winery in a very competitive game.

The first question of the day brought some trouble for the field at Springfield Manor Winery tonight. Star Search was apparently not a popular talent show among our patrons and I learned that it ran multiple times! I was under the assumptions that Ed McMahon was its only host! The rest of the questions of round 1 did not provide too much trouble for today’s teams. Breakfast for Dinner took a commanding lead after round 1 with Ville Girls and The Adorable Deplorables four back.

Round 2 provided a couple of curveballs for our teams to work around. Heavenly bodies and Materials created problems for most teams. The Declaration of Independence written on parchment seems obvious once you’ve heard that fact, but the teams made strong educated guesses with suede. Once the answer was read an audible groan swept across the venue. Trivia Newton John was one of the few teams that new Parchment and Titan and made a run up to 1st place after round 2. The duo of Mensa Moms was in 2nd and Breakfast for Dinner held onto the podium taking 3rd after 2.

Round 3 question 3 defeated everyone except for Trivia Newton John! Apparently, King Arthur is not a subject studied by many. After the third-round Trivia Newton John expanded their lead, followed by Mensa Moms and Holy Schnitzel close behind.

The final round saw Trivia Newton John expand their lead out to 10 over Mensa Moms, with the Adorable Deplorables in 3rd. The final shook up the ranking and the duo of Mensa Moms finally found a question they unfortunately couldn’t get and fell out of the top 3. Trivia Newton John held the lead through to the final question, Adorable Deplorables moved up to 2nd and Holy Schnitzel regained 3rd place. Our question in two weeks is Doctors of the Catholic Church!

~ Scott

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Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD

Saturday night trivia once again at Belles’ Sport Bar here in Frederick, and we had ourselves a great time playing trivia, a birthday sing-a-long, and a Pour House Trivia host playing in tonight’s game.  We started off with a guitar riff audio clue featuring masters of “the hook” such as Jimmy Page, Lenny Kravitz, and Alex Kapranos.  You can lose your temper with your Uber driver UNLESS you are the CEO of Uber, and we participated in the Caine Mutiny though we still don’t know who stole the strawberries.  Finally we took a visit to Muppet Labs with the inventor Dr. Bunson Honeydew and his accident prone assistant:

Round two started off (traditionally of course) with another audio clue and some alliterative song titles, and then we followed that question up with the New York Yankees and their pending retirement of Derek Jeter’s number.  Jeter by the way is currently shopping to buy a sports franchise, I’m lucky if I can buy a used car, go figure.  We had a word game with for U.S. states that end with “n”, each of which has a generous supply of deciduous trees.  We couldn’t have a game without a little “scandalous” government action so we drummed up this former Marine, the centerpiece to a little federally backed gun running to Iran. Hell, we just send Iran the cash nowadays:

Round three is where the scores started to separate once again as we started off with a little game of “who named the White House “the White House”.  We then stumped all but two teams on the nation of East Timor, but then made up for it with a swimming pool and sodium additive, actors who portrayed Ernest Hemingway, and this rock band that saw success in the early 21st century (and on Inauguration Day):

Our final round started off a bit shaky for the first two questions, All Pro defensive back and former Baltimore Raven Ed Reed, and the Law & Order TV franchise and their five series iterations.  Some were memorable, some not so. They caught the fever quick though with our third question, the board game Pandemic, and the changeling of European folklore, though we never mentioned Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and “The Founders” (sick Star Trek reference btw).  Lastly we did some two word answers with the initials “L.P.”, you know, like the record.  Millennials just look it up on Wikipedia. One of our “L.P.” answers was this 2016 Presidential hopeful for the Libertarian Party:

Nearly every team nailed the final tonight, which was 65 million years in the making.  We had a couple of teams playing with more than seven tonight, and Demented and Sad But Social was one, and our top point winners. Happy birthday Kathy! Here are the (official) results:

First Place:  Uncle Jack

Second Place:  Outwhitters

Third Place:  Smarty Pants

Netx week’s first category:  Season 7 of “The Walking Dead”

~ Ronnie

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Pretzel and Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD

We had a really fun (but kind of a crazy) game here at Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown on Saturday night!  I must say that the teams that play here regularly are always tough and super-competitive, and I was really impressed with our winning team this week!  Our first half saw many correct responses (and bonuses!), as our entire field was separated by just seven points at the break.  Off Beats took the lead with 86 points, but then missed the first question of the third round with a NINE-POINT WAGER!  Needless to say, this U.S. Presidents question cost them the lead when they could not come up with Teddy Roosevelt.  But in an odd occurrence, the Off Beats were the ONLY team to answer correctly on the second question of the round!

After that wild roller coaster ride, the Off Beats still ended up with a one-point lead at the final question, which THANKFULLY they held on to successfully!  Yes, the team was able to surmise “Jurassic Park” as our final answer.  Congratulations!  Once we got through the tie-breaker question that decided who our second and third place teams would be, this is how the night ended…

Finishing in third place was Quality Guesswork, winning the tie to take second place was Give Us Your Beer Money, and with a HUGE sigh of relief, your first place winners were the Off Beats!!  They chose Classic Science Fiction for the next winner’s choice category, so study up and come join us for some fun this Saturday at Pretzel & Pizza Creations!

~ Jon J

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Captain Benders Tavern in Sharpsburg, MD

It was a familiar family-style game of trivia tonight at Captain Benders Tavern in Shaprsburg, beginning with the ever-wholesome Charlie Murphy (and his True Hollywood Stories)! That was just to start Round 1, but we ended it on a high note with a few Awards & Honors.  We turned it up for Round 2’s audio question where I quizzed you on some repetitive song titles (Louie Louie being my personal favorite). Before I set you loose on the Halftime Puzzle Page, I threw you a Brainy Trivia question aaaaand… you taught me how to pronounce parietal (oops).  For the Halftime Puzzle Page I gave you guys a full page of Actors & Their Roles, and you all killed it!

We started Round 3 with our oddball category of the night, Hat Hodge Podge – shoutout to the ever-adorable pillbox! We sped it up at the end there with a little Monopoly Blitz a la Avenue “V”.  Then came time for the 6-4-2 Round where I quizzed you on some geography and tested your flag mastery, and the scores were getting closer by the question.  Round 4 began with some sweet hotel suites owned by Hilton and wrapped with a little From Stage to Screen action and a nod to Daryl Hannah. Then, we took a look at the scores… and had a TIE for 1st place going into the Final Question….

The category was Modern Art, and it needed to set the standings straight.  But NO, you guys weren’t having it.  Both of our leading teams came up wit the correct answer of “LOVE”!  The tie remained, forcing us into our tiebreaker for the night on the Ukrainian population… and the standings looked like this:

First Place:  Boh’s & Hoes

Second Place:  Arrondisements of Ouagadagou

Third Place:  Fisted Sister

**REMINDER: NO TRIVIA NEXT WEEKEND FOR EASTER**

The first category for our next game (in TWO WEEKS) is “Three Amigos“

~ Torie