Thursday night’s game of Pour House Trivia proved that no matter how much trivia knowledge your team possesses, sometimes simple math can be its biggest downfall.  Needless to say, a question about “the last 175 years” proved to be the undoing of at least a couple of teams.  Oh well…  A few of our teams put up some massive scores on Thursday night, including one venue where the top three teams all scored at least 170!:

THURSDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (72 teams across nine venues):

–> Highest Overall Score: Ant Farm Keyboard (Fish Market) with 172

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Lowered Expectations (Quincy’s) with 163

–> Highest First Half Score: Your Mom (Bunker), Thoroughly Screwed (Bunker), The Fan Club (Quincy’s), Breadsticks (Quincy’s) with 90

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Scoundrels (Smoketown Brewing)

–> The Famous Doctors on our halftime page played to an average of 15.6, with ONE TEAM (Scoundrels) scoring 20 points.

–> Our 6-4-2 was as only five teams know that a “Seattle dog” is a hot dog covered in cream cheese.

TONIGHT’S FINAL QUESTION (37.4% success rate):

–> In what city would you find the Europa Hotel, which earned the moniker of “the most bombed hotel in the world” after suffering 36 bomb attacks it suffered between 1971 and 1998?   (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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Quincy’s in Gaithersburg, MD

It may have been a rainy Thursday, but that didn’t stop the veteran teams from coming out to Quincy’s for another fierce bout of Pour House Trivia.

Highlights of the Night:

In “Most-Repeated-Category-of-the-Night”: Every now and then I have to take the time to make sure a category has been heard and understood.  “Let’s Get B-Z” was one of those, where despite my best efforts at enunciation, had to be read, re-read, spelled out, read some more, and left with a “Look, if you’re still confused just come ask me, alright?” *sigh*

In “That-Doesn’t-Look-Right”: I have never heard the name of the Clash’s bassist before. I HAVE heard of Paul Simon before.  So when I read the name Paul Simonon, my brain can’t help but come to a screeching halt as I try to process something that makes no sense. After three or four read-throughs, I had to stop and go double check Wikipedia to make sure I wasn’t going crazy or having a stroke. Turns out In just need to broaden my knowledge of rock band members.

In “Who-Said-Anything-About-Fun-Facts?”: Guys, lets face it, life can be pretty ugly sometimes. Which means that sometimes trivia can be less than uplifting. I never claimed that a question about a hotel being bombed 36 times was gonna be a fun fact though, so yelling at me about how depressing that is… I mean what do you want me to do about? It happened, we’re asking about it; no one is pretending its all happy fun times!

The final was make or break tonight, and while some teams were on the right track, only a few came out on top.

In third place tonight, Blue Collar!

In second place tonight, the Fan Club!

In first place tonight, Lowered Expectations!

Great game tonight guys! Next week we’ll kick things off with the film Stand By Me! Study up, and we’ll see you next time!

Until then,

~ Ian

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Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD

Tonight, I had the honor of subbing for one of the best trivia hosts, Sam, at one of the most fun trivia venues, Champions! Fourteen teams showed up tonight to make this a race from pillar to post!  Round 1 did not create much fanfare with most teams acing the round. The second question of the round did provide a couple hiccups with a couple teams guessing Jeopardy when hearing about the new digital screens during the game show question! Part 2 of Question 4 “It’s the world’s most populous country whose name fits this theme. (B-Z)” had team guessing Belize instead of Brazil! Other than these minor two questions we had an easy first round with Power Vacuum, Comfortably Dum and FnQ in a three-way tie for first.

Round 2 was also easy for our trivia patrons apart from Modern Writers which provided a bit trepidation for a few teams. The field started to spread out a bit with Power Vacuum in first, Comfortably Dum in 2nd and Pickle Ricks in 3rd.  Painters of Yesteryear was the pain in the side for round 3 – only 40% of the teams answered this question and for the first time in a long time, I received the same joke answer (6 letters, 3rd letter is a T – BATMAN!). Power Vacuum and Comfortably Dum kept their respective positions from the previous round but this time SynnStorm moved into 3rd!

The end of Round 4 really tested Champion’s team’s confidence. For the final two questions only two teams – no surprise Power Vacuum and Comfortably Dum – nailed both of them! Every round had the same 1st and 2nd place teams with a different 3rd place team and this time it was Sluggs Normal!  This was great timing for Sluggs Normal because the top teams got the final and our standings were the same as they were going into the final with it being Power Vacuum, Comfortably Dum, and Sluggs Normal respectively in first, second, and third.

The first category next week is: Panic at the Disco!

~ Scott

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Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA

Another fine game of Pour House Trivia is in the books down here at Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, as we had seven teams battle it out for our top three prizes and bragging rights.  Our first category was successful for all of our teams as they knew in which Greek city Paul the Apostle was penning his thoughts to the Romans.  We had a bizarre Brazilian bazaar question where we purchased some benzene, and remembered the Hall of Fame career of NFL coach Bill Walsh.  We also found out on which continent approximately 70% of the world’s fresh water resides, and took a trip down memory lane as we spun the wheel and remembered the original host of “Wheel of Fortune”:

For round two, we listened to some popular American pop songs performed in foreign languages, realized that the last century and a half of British male monarchs have either been named George or Eddie, and used our diaphragm to shout out for the great state of Iowa.  These teams didn’t miss a single question in round two, and the most interesting piece of information for the round was the surprisingly small degree of separation between The Godfather and this guy:

As we finished the halftime puzzle and rolled into round three, we had six teams tied for three places in a very close game.  Round three wouldn’t prove to open up the field, as only one point was missed as a scoring opportunity, and the game remained a tight one.  Our subjects included the hexagonal shape of Crispix cereal, the 16th century painter Titian, an early film role for actor Kiefer Sutherland, and the elasticity of colliding objects as defined in physics.  Our biggest pop culture moment of the round was this ground breaking TV kiss from the late 1960’s:

The final round is where the scores finally started to separate a bit, as five misses were sprinkled about the round amongst our seven teams.  Most folks new of The Teapot Dome scandal circa 1921, but weren’t entirely sure of the President at the time.  Folks also did fairly well identifying Mary, mother of Christ, but missed our reference later on to the former Washington Senators and a fictional deal with the Devil.  Charlie teething on his brother’s finger was our viral video choice, and all but two teams apparently had seen the YouTube sensation.  Outside of the final question, the most misses of the night was The Clash and their most recognized (both physically and critically) album of 1979:

Four of our seven teams nailed tonight’s final, and though there was no strategic wager, it did remove the front running team for the majority of the game from the top three places.  Here are the results:

First Place:  Good Answer, Good Answer

Second Place:  Cranius Maximus

Third Place:  Cake or Death

Take me out to the ballgame, as our first category for next week is Baseball History

~ Ronnie

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Smoketown Brewing in Brunswick, MD

A full house tonight at Smoketown Brewing in Brunswick, and those always lead to great, loud, ruckus games. Everyone enjoyed the winner’s choice, responding with “YES!  A SPORTS QUESTION!”.  All 11 teams did well throughout the first two rounds, though it was the halftime puzzle page that tripped a lot of teams up.  With an average score of 15, only one team recorded a perfect score.  Yes, perennial powerhouse The Scoundrels earned 20 points to take a two-point lead into the break.

Round three also brought the dreaded Art History question, with only three teams earning their wagers (and one team getting it before the crossword-style hint: congrats Singing Inferno!).  Round four almost wiped out the bar with the album cover question, and made me look dumb in the process with my pronunciations.  There’s always one per game…

The Scoundrels maintained its lead for the entire second half, clinching the victory before we even asked the final question (which they answered correctly anyway).  Meanwhile, the other teams traded between second and third place back and forth, but with only four correct answers on the final question, the overall standings looked like this:

First Place:  The Scoundrels

Second Place:  I Drink and I Know Things

Third Place:  Rebel Alliance

See you next week!

~ Zach

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Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD

Alright, let’s get business out of the way: I apologize for running long.  I should have had better control of the crowd, despite the massive number of new teams.  My trivia mentor has given me new techniques to manage new teams (you know who you are, you procrastinators!)  Otherwise, this was one of my favorite games of trivia hosted, ever.  It was complete chaos through rounds three and four.  New teams were unexpectedly competitive, veteran teams were unexpectedly weak.  In the end, though, the final question separated the chaff from the wheat.  That being said:\

Observations (I like to make game observations):

1. Y’all need to brush up on your Presidential history, even the obscure ones.  Millard Fillmore is at least slightly famous, even if only in the mind of Mr. Matt Mills (formerly of Constantly Changing Team Name, now renamed as Bowling Green Massacre.)

2. Abs and diaphragm are not interchangeable.  Seriously.

3. There was no shortage of people actually WEARING elastic-banded clothes.  And yet, some of you didn’t know that it’s a property of physics.

4. The Clash is unacceptably underappreciated.

After recording the high score of 19 on the halftime puzzle page, Flight Level Awesome took the lead and never looked back.  They tried to give back the lead on the last question of Round 4, but bounced back nicely with one of three correct answers on the final question, notching their second win in a row.  Here are your finishers for the week:

First Place:  Flight Level Awesome

Second Place:  Pugalicious (NEWCOMERS!)

Third Place:  Master Haters

P.S. I kinda miss “Suck It, Chief…” I wonder where they went.

Next week’s first category:  Samuel L. Jackson Movie Deaths (so… not this movie below)

Fair Winds,

~ Chief

 

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Rocklands Farm Winery in Poolesville, MD

Tonight at Rocklands Farm Winery in Poolesville, we witnessed a very close game, as Maybe Babies was attempting to make it three wins in a row, while the rest of the field was trying to start a winning streak of their own.  After a rather difficult halftime page, Maybe Babies took a slight lead at 78 points, just two points ahead of Six Pack.  That lead grew to seven points after Maybe Babies became the only team answer all five questions correctly in the third round.  In addition, Maybe Babies was the ONLY team to earn points on our 6-4-2 question, so they began Round 4 with an 11-point lead, looking to make it a runaway victory!

The major turning point to give them their largest lead was when they answered the Viral Video question correctly regarding the video “Charlie Bit My Finger”.  After the fourth round, Maybe Babies held a 13-point lead going into the final question, meaning they could not be caught.  Oddly, our second place team Six Pack ALSO held a 13-point lead over the third place team, meaning that they were also locked into their position.  Meanwhile, the fight for third place went to The Transplants, who hung on despite missing the final question.  What a great game!

Until next time

~ Devan

Next week’s first category:  Paul McCartney

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Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL

I truly had a lovely night hosting Thursday night Pour House Trivia at Right Around The Corner in St. Petersburg.  It warms my heart to see so many of our teams return every week!  Whether they do it for me or the cash prizes, we’ll never know.  The IPA’s were flowing (shoutout to team Surrogates for buying me one) and the competition was as aggressive as ever.  I can definitely tell our teams have been working out their trivia muscles every Thursday because this week was awesome.  We started out strong with a question about “Wheel Of Fortune”, which pretty much everyone got right, but no one could remember the original host!  Other topics included Antarctica, Pro Sports, and words that have B and Z!  Brazil is the only one I could guess…

Round 2 was practically flawless with only TWO incorrect answers in the entire round!  Topics include popular songs in foreign languages, Geography, and muscles that you use to breathe with! (diaphram)  Round 3 was the highlight of the evening, because something happened that NEVER has before.  Before I could finish the second reading of the question I had ALL answers in!  It was a comic book question, and Right Around The Corner is an arcade, so go figure…  We also had quite a bit of fun with the question about the famous YouTube video “Charlie Bit My Finger”, though the impression is harder than you’d think.

We wrapped up a great night with some questions about politics, machinery, the Virgin Mary, and a super hard question about sports and pop culture (i.e. “Damn Yankees”)!  Kong swooped in for the first place, with Over 140 only a couple points behind them.  A big congrats to our winning teams, I hope to see all you beautiful geniuses next time!

Next week’s first category:  “Star Trek”

~ Melissa

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Fish Market in Alexandria, VA

Another night at Fish Market, another game with double digit team numbers, always one of the busiest venues of the week for Pour House Trivia!  About half of the teams tonight were returning crews looking to build up those World Series points and compete against the other Fish teams, while the other half were newcomers who were just looking for something fun to do!  Either way, both ends of that spectrum were welcome and it proved to be a fun one tonight!

As we’ve seen in the past, we definitely have some good new teams (hell, we had a new team WIN Fish Market about a month ago) but usually it’s the veterans that make the noise!  Among the veteran teams that made the noise tonight were Poe Pouree, Ant Farm Keyboard, and PC Principals, all three of which traded off the lead throughout the game. We had a good number of tough questions tonight that seemed to separate the “men from the boys”, so to speak, including what was our hardest question of the night: PAINTERS OF YESTERYEAR!

A crossword-style hint didn’t help most of the field, as only three teams were able to pick up “Titian” for points.  Yes, 16th century Italians… I’ll add that to the list with opera and the like.  So, AFK, PCP, and Poe the only teams to pick up points there.  AFK led by two points going into the 6-4-2 BUT Poe Pouree pulls an early trigger and is able to move into the lead going into the fourth round!  AFK needed something to go their way in order to snag the lead back.  They got the “luck” in the form of a Baseball Q.  Poe Pouree has been notoriously bad at Sports and this one didn’t do them any favors.  They missed out on a three-point wager and a potential two-point bonus here, while AFK picked up max points, turning the tides in Ant Farm’s favor.

After losing the lead on the 6-4-2, AFK got it back and led by two points going into the final question. The final played tough tonight, less than half of the teams converting points.  Among that percentage was in fact our three stars tonight: PC Principals, Poe Pouree, and Ant Farm Keyboard, all picking up points and locking in their finishes! Great game though!  Poe and AFK jumped around each other for a bit at the end there!  We’ll be back next time with a first category of 1990s One Hit Wonders! Until then 😉

~ Bill

 

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Guido’s Speakeasy in Frederick, MD

We had a great battle going for the top spot during our Thursday night game of Pour House Trivia here at Guido’s Speakeasy in Frederick!  Our top two teams were killing it all night long!  They were tied for first place after the first round, but Unathletico Madrid snuck into the lead after recording the high score of 18 on our halftime round.  A first-half score of 88 points is one of the highest we’ve seen here in a while!  In the third round, Unathletico Madrid missed the last question of the round, which concerned the film “Stand By Me”.  Although they only had their one-point wager left to use, this was also their BONUS category, so they lost an additional five points, and gave up the lead to Tuna Noodle Casserole!

In an ironic twist, Tuna Noodle Casserole missed the final question of round four.  In this instance, it was T.N.C. who missed their one-point wager as well as their five-point category bonus, thereby relinquishing the lead back to Unatheltico Madrid!  I was really excited to see what was going to happen when we reached the final question. Neither team backed down and they both wagered the maximum 12 points without blinking an eye.  Both teams answered correctly so we didn’t get a last second switch up, and after the dust settled, here were our top finishers:

In 3rd place was Miss Emma!  With, a great fight from start to finish to take second place was T.N.C., and winning it all was Unathletico Madrid!  They selected the animated TV series “Rick and Morty” for next week’s first category, so study up, and I’ll see everyone next Thursday at Guido’s!!

~ Jon J