A New Monday Night Venue!
Monday night witnessed one of the biggest opening nights in Pour House Trivia history, as Cheesetique in Ballston welcomed 14 teams to its inaugural game. The crowd was a mix of veteran teams and first-time players. Among all seven venues, we saw 67 teams take part in Monday’s game, so let’s check out the details.
ROUND 1:
The opening stanza was a breeze for most of the field, as we covered questions on current TV shows, mattress brands, and desserts. We closed the round by asking for the 19th century author of non-fiction works such as “Life on the Mississippi” and “Roughing It”. Even this literature question was no challenge for our well-versed players, who easily came up with this humorous American:
More than half of our teams even earned bonus points by knowing his actual name: Samuel Clemens. The first round ended with 14 teams recording a perfect score of 36 points.
ROUND 2:
Our audio question covered anatomical song titles. Teams were largely successful here, but earning a two-point bonus was a rarity, as only 22% of our teams knew all three songs: “These Eyes” (The Guess Who), “Died in Your Arms” (Cutting Crew), and “Fat Lip” (Sum 41). The most difficult bonus question of the first half involved a “magically Italian” 1980s film featuring Julia Roberts. While most teams arrived at the correct answer of “Mystic Pizza”, only six teams knew that the film also featured the big screen debut for this A-list actor:
After concluding the round with questions on Colonial America and MLB Hall of Famers, only Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique) swept the second round with a perfect score.
HALFTIME:
The picture portion of our halftime page featured Presidential election losers, while the matching section covered the ages at which certain actors won their Academy Award. The average score for the halftime page was 13.9 points, while only one team notched 20 points tonight. Congratulations to Morgan Station (Morgan Inn), who recorded a perfect score despite an overall average of 13.9 points. Here are Monday’s top scores after the halftime page:
- Morgan Station (Morgan Inn): 88
- Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique): 88
- Piggy Doodles (Il Forno): 86
- TBD (DRP): 86
- Dire Wolves (Il Forno): 85
- Killer Snails (Hershey’s): 85
ROUND 3:
The second half opened with a video game question. Most teams knew that this marsupial recently had his suite of game updated for the PS4:
But only six teams earned a bonus here by knowing the name of Crash’s primary ally: Aku Aku. The fourth question of the round gave us our most difficult wagering question:
–> Nevada State Route 375 runs almost 100 miles, mostly through unoccupied desert terrain. This road would be unremarkable if it weren’t for the various rumors surrounding certain landmarks nearby. For your wager, what is the nickname of this highway?
Many teams were in the ballpark, but this highway is officially known as the Extra-Terrestrial Highway. Across the board, only eight teams came up with this correct answer. Oddly, half of those teams were playing at the Greene Turtle in Hagerstown. Maybe we have some conspiracy theorists in the crowd… Thanks largely to this question, no team managed to sweep the third round with 36 points.
ROUND 4:
Unfortunately, the final round saw many teams start off on the wrong foot, after we began with this question in the topic of Military Matters:
–> Among Middle Eastern countries, this nation of 33 million residents spends the most money on national defense. On most worldwide lists, it ranks fourth behind the U.S., China, and Russia. For your wager, name this country.
Many teams answered incorrectly with Israel, which is certainly not a bad guess. But Israel receives an enormous amount of foreign aid for its military (most of which comes from the United States), so it actually does not spend as much as the correct answer: Saudi Arabia. Only 19% of our teams earned points here, but about one-third of the teams that missed this question wagered NINE POINTS. Ouch…
The second and third questions of the final round were only slightly easier, as we touched on topics such as English runner Roger Bannister and the TV show “American Gods”. Neither of these questions yielded correct answer rates of more than 40%. Once again, there were no perfect scores recorded in the fourth round. Here are your top Monday scores after four rounds of play:
- Killer Snails (Hershey’s): 153
- Morgan Station (Morgan Inn): 144
- That’s a Niner (Greene Turtle): 144
- Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique): 143
- B-58s (DRP): 141
- Worst Case Ontario (DRP): 141
FINAL QUESTION (64.8% success rate):
–> What is the world’s largest country based on land area to have NEVER hosted an Olympic Games (Summer or Winter)?
One year ago, the correct answer to this question would have been Brazil, but about two-thirds of our teams knew that after the Rio Olympics, the nation of India held this distinction. No team managed to score the perfect 21 tonight. Here are your top overall scores:
- Kitten Mittens (Cheesetique): 154
- Killer Snails (Hershey’s): 154
- B-58s (DRP): 153
- Worst Case Ontario (DRP): 153
- Cavs in Five (Il Forno): 150
- Alternative Best Answers (DRP): 150
- Morgan Station (Morgan Inn): 149
- Incoignido’s (Il Forno): 149
- Heavy Metal Parking Lot (Cheesetique): 146
- That’s a Niner (Greene Turtle): 144
TONIGHT’S WINNERS:
DRP in Alexandria, VA: B-58s (Next week’s first category: “Game of Thrones”)
Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD: That’s a Niner (Next week’s first category: “The Fugitive” – TV series)
Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD: Morgan Station (Next week’s first category: The Beach Boys)
Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD: Killer Snails (Next week’s first category: Snakes)
Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD: Tequila Mockingbird (Next week’s first category: “Cast Away”)
Cheesetique in Arlington, VA: Kitten Mittens (Next week’s first category: “Jurassic World”)
Il Forno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD: Cavs in Five (Next week’s first category: “Star Wars”)