Did Wednesday Trivia Reach Perfection?

Seventeen area venues took part in hosting Pour House Trivia on Wednesday evening for a total of 171 teams, including one which was after a feat that hadn’t happened in several years…

FIRST ROUND:

An opening question about Arkansas and Tennessee preceded the first round’s most difficult way to get points, a Three Clues question about the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In that question, 36% of the field got at least their wager but only 11% named the team before the third clue for bonus points. The round wrapped up with a study of the warthog and a cliffhanger involving actor Noah Wyle on the former TV series ER. Sexual Chocolate (Memories), Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s), and Scuby (Barstool) each had perfect scores in this round.

SECOND ROUND:

Three songs, each with the name of a common tool in the title, were the focus of the night’s audio clue. This proved to be the hardest wagering chance of the first half with 29% of teams naming at least two of the three songs and only seven teams (tied for a game-low) knowing all three to get the two-point bonus. Later on, we had a little pope-pourri:

• Who cited his declining health upon becoming the first Roman Catholic Pope in nearly 600 years to renounce his position?

All teams needed to get was his papal name for credit, which 61% did with a correct answer of Benedict; a little more than one-fifth of the field tacked on a pair of bonus points for also listing his papal number of XVI. The condiment known as Russian dressing and early-2000s Vin Diesel action romp xXx concluded this round, in which Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s) provided the only perfect score.

HALFTIME:

Teams had to name famous military conflicts by the image, then match American athletes to the events where they won Olympic gold medals on Wednesday’s halftime sheet. For the second week in a row, teams averaged 15.8 points on this page while this time, 29 teams managed a perfect 20-pointer. At the halftime intermission, these were the high scores:

• Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s): 92
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 89
• Trending Towards Fourth (T. J. Stone’s): 88
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 86
• FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 85 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

In round three, we started with a semi-filmography of Emma Watson, then ran into the round’s toughest wagering question:

• In spite of its common English name, which Spanish archipelago actually takes its name as a reference to dogs?

Taking its name from the Latin for Islands of the Dogs, that region is known as the Canary Islands; just under half the field provided that correct answer. Other topics in this round included the mineral jade and long-running game shows Jeopardy!, The Price is Right, To Tell the Truth, and Let’s Make a Deal. Perfect scores in this round were earned by Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s) and We Hate Ballet (Craftworx).

FOURTH ROUND:

A 6-4-2 about the state of Michigan saw 11 teams get all six points by naming it after the first clue, regarding its state university having the most all-time wins in NCAA football history. The final round provided a couple of hard bonus opportunities, as well as the least-successful wagering question of the night. An opening three-parter asked teams to fill in the blanks on a trio of chronological world-leader lists by country, and 11% aced it to get bonus points. A Last Word/First Word followed:

• Which seven-word title would you have if the Third Eye Blind song that features the lyrics Turn around your back on each other/That’s a good idea, break a promise to your mother was also the lead single off the album Rumours by Fleetwood Mac?

Mash those titles together, and you get Never Let You Go Your Own Way. A game-low 25% of the field figured it out to get credit. Questions on the element mercury and clothing company Nautica were up next, before the last bonus question of the night had one final punch:

• A gang of Batman comic villains, whose lesser-known members include The Lion, The Carpenter, The Unicorn, and The Walrus, are based on characters that appear in what particular British literary sequel from 1871?

A little more than half of our teams got wagering points with Alice Through the Looking-Glass, but only seven teams knew that the leaders of that aforementioned gang were Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Once again, Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s) represented the only perfect score in this round. You may be sensing a pattern here, but they also aced the halftime sheet and the 6-4-2 question to lead the pack with a perfect score heading into the final question:

• Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s): 170
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 157
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 157
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’): 153
• What the Fork (TGI Fridays): 152

FINAL QUESTION (24% success rate):

• Due to a franchise relocation in 2011, this U.S. state hosts teams in only three of the four major mens North American pro sports leagues. Name that state, which is currently the most populous state to not have teams in all four leagues.

When the Thrashers left for Winnipeg in 2011, that left Georgia without an NHL team; almost a quarter of the field got that right. And yes, one of those teams was our only Perfect 21 team on Wednesday. Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s) correctly answered every wagering question in the game, and we’ll have a note on their special feat after this final scoreboard:

• Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s): 182
• Oh Wait (Hops N Shine): 162
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’): 161
• Vixen (Memories): 161
• The Gang Plays Bar Trivia (Belles’): 160
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 160
• Pterodactyl (Memories): 157
• Unsuccessful by Choice (Hops N Shine): 155
• Trending Towards Fourth (T. J. Stone’s): 155
• WFT for Life (T. J. Stone’s): 154

By scoring all 182 points in Wednesday’s game, Just For Fun (T. J. Stone’s) became the first team in three and a half years to record a perfect game at an in-person Pour House Trivia event! Strangely enough, it seems to be much easier to do that online, as there have been over 200 perfect scores recorded on our YouTube games since the beginning of the pandemic. There must be something in that series of tubes…

Anyway, congrats to our perfecto squad! Let’s see if we can do this again in less than three years, eh?

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Moe’s Peyton Place in Springfield, VA: That’s What She Said  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: First-Generation Pokemon)

Valley Sports Grill in Middletown, MD: Shania Twainsaw Massacre  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Jane Austen)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Flight Level Awesome  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Nintendo 64)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Vixen  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: WKRP in Cincinnati)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Peeping Tom Cruises  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: General Medicine)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: What the Fork  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Musical Instruments)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Texas-Sized Ten-Four  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Human Anatomy)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: Terrible Team Name  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Chemical Compounds)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: Oh Wait  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Perry Mason (original))

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Locust Street  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Brazil)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: Lemonheads  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Welsh Corgis)

T. J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Just for Fun  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Video Game Films)

Craftworx Taproom in Gainesville, VA: We Hate Ballet  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Interpol)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Trivia Vampires  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Wives of the Beatles)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: All About That Bass  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Never Have I Ever (film))

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: Jake’s Fan Club  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pitch Perfect Soundtrack)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: SEC Football)