A Titan-ic Weekend of Trivia!
The final weekend in October featured 39 teams across six venues.
FIRST ROUND:
It is certainly a rarity that the most difficult question of an entire game is asked during the first round, but such was the case on Friday night with this query on the topic of chemical elements:
–> Bearing the atomic number of 47, which precious metal is the best conductor of electricity at room temperature?
Overwhelmingly, the most popular (wrong) answer here was copper, as only one out of 22 Friday teams earned points with the correct answer of silver. Our Saturday teams face a bit of a struggle in the opening stanza as well, as a three-part question regarding sports venues did not yield any bonus points. None of our weekend teams began their game with a perfect first round score.
SECOND ROUND:
For their respective audio question, Friday’s teams listened to three songs whose titles begin with the word “IF”: “If I Could Turn Back Time” by Cher, “If It Makes You Happy” by Sheryl Crow, and “If I had $1000000” by Barenaked Ladies. Meanwhile, our Saturday teams listened to film trailers for “Eat Pray Love”, “Zero Dark Thirty”, and “American Hustle”. On each night, only two teams earned bonus points with three correct answers. Other second round topics included Angela Merkel, the nation of Gabon, the Keebler elves, and Bruce Springsteen, the latter of which included a bonus question that stumped our entire Saturday field. None of our 17 teams knew that Bruce closed his final concert at Giants Stadium (which was also the final event of any kind at the stadium) with the song “Twist and Shout”. Just as in the opening stanza, we did not see any perfect scores in the second round.
HALFTIME:
Halftime topics from last weekend included famous facepalms, U.S. state outlines, and films that were loosely based on works of literature. Four teams earned a perfect halftime score of 20 points, while the combined average across both nights reached 17.2 points. These were your highest scoring weekend teams at the halftime break:
- Full Bullpen (Belles’): 85
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 84
- Uncle Jack (Belles’): 81
- Zambookie (Belles’): 81
- FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 80 POINTS
THIRD ROUND:
Third round topics from last weekend included the film “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, events from the year 1947, the board game Candy Land, and the “William Tell” overture by Rossini. After striking out on perfect rounds during the first half, one team in our field notched 36 points in the third stanza: Cultured Heathens (Pretzel & Pizza).
FOURTH ROUND:
In last weekend’s final round, our teams dealt with topics such as the Broadway musical “A Chorus Line”, the nation of the Bahamas, the work of sexual researcher Alfred Kinsey, and the Beastie Boys music video for “Sabotage”. Both of our fourth rounds this weekend closed with the nightly Three Clues question. Our Saturday teams dealt with the TV series “Supernatural”, while our Friday teams heard three clues regarding the word purple. Full Bullpen (Belles’) posted the only perfect final round score last weekend. Your list of the highest weekend scores after four rounds of play included these teams:
- Full Bullpen (Belles’): 160
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 149
- Cultured Heathens (Pretzel & Pizza): 147
- Offbeats (Pretzel & Pizza): 146
- Staff Infection (P.B. Dye): 144
FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (25.0% success rate):
–> German chemist Martin Klaproth named the element of uranium after Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, and named which other element after Uranus’ children and descendants?
SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (30.0% success rate):
–> Identify the two teams (one from each league) that have never won a World Series despite the fact that each team has reached the Series on more than one occasion.
Friday’s correct answer was Titanium (named for the ancient Greek Titans), while the two teams were were looking for on Saturday night were the Texas Rangers, who lost the World Series in both 2010 and 2011, and the San Diego Padres, who lost in 1984 and 1998. None of our teams answered every wagering question correctly to earn a Perfect 21. Here is your final weekend leaderboard:
- Full Bullpen (Belles’): 162
- Uncle Jack (Belles’): 154
- Five Heads, One Brain (Springfield Manor): 151
- Cultured Heathens (Pretzel & Pizza): 147
- Weasigators (Springfield Manor): 147
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 143
- D.C. Swampers (Frey’s): 143
- Staff Infection (P.B. Dye): 139
- D.C. Swampers (Pretzel & Pizza): 136
- Offbeats (Pretzel & Pizza): 134
LAST WEEKEND’S WINNERS:
Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Five Heads, One Brain (Next week’s first category: “Supernatural” – TV)
Black Walnut at P. B. Dye in Ijamsville, MD: Staff Infection (Next week’s first category: HOST CHOICE)
Vanish Brewery in Leesburg, VA: NO GAME THIS WEEK (Next week’s first category: Orville Redenbacher)
Frey’s Brewing in Mount Airy, MD: D.C. Swampers (NEXT GAME NOV. 29 – First category: Single Malt Scotch)
868 Estate Vineyards in Hillsboro, VA: Trivia Vampires (NEXT GAME TBD – First category: World History)
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Full Bullpen (Next week’s first category: Famous Houses)
Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Cultured Heathens (Next week’s first category: “Girl Genius”)