If Only Our Trivia Players Could Talk to the Animals!
Our Wednesday night game was rolling along quite nicely for four rounds. We had some very high scores and confidence was riding high! But then we got the end of round four… Last night’s final question was slightly tougher than normal. Actually, make that much tougher than normal, or to put it mildly, brutal. But, that happens sometimes. Nonetheless, we did have at least one team come up with the correct response (and one host who also would have known the answer, but she doesn’t get to play!), so how would that affect our overall standings?
WEDNESDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (86 teams across 12 venues):
–> Highest Overall Score: We Need a Do Over (Woodside Deli) with 178
–> Highest Score after Round 4: We Need a Do Over (Woodside Deli) with 166
–> Highest First Half Score: Drink ‘Til We’re Cute (Tavern) with 91
–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Because of the brutal final question, no team scored a Perfect 21 last night, but several teams went 20-for-20 through the first four rounds.
–> The candy-themed halftime page played to a slightly easy average of 17.9, with about 20% of our teams scoring a perfect 20. About 10% of our teams scored six points on the 6-4-2, by knowing that the only Greek letter visible on the Wikipedia logo is the Omega.
TONIGHT’S FINAL QUESTION (1.2% success rate):
–> Later depicted in a number of feature films, which fictional character named John originally appeared a 1920 novel subtitled “Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed”? (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)
Those of you that are good at math can probably figure out that exactly ONE TEAM answered Wednesday’s final question correctly. Congrats to We Need a Do Over!
Valley Grill in Middletown, MD
It’s a brand new year here at Valley Grill and we are back for our first game of 2017! The first round featured an iconic sports movie starring Sean Astin, and Italian delicacy, and some lesser known facts about Wyoming. In round two there were some songs and bands with the same titles as well as a little football “fakery”. For the 2nd half we had some CCR, Guy Fieri, and a Civil War battle! It took a tie breaker to settle 2nd and 3rd, here are your results:
First Place: Shake Weight
Second Place: Fat Kids are Hard to Kidnap
Third Place: Team Second Place
Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 (“Stargate” or “Stargate: Atlantis”)
~ Ronnie
The Tavern in Olney, MD
Admittedly, Wednesday night’s game at The Tavern was a little strange. It had a lot of the elements that make up one of those CRAZY, anything goes type endings… There was a LOT of close scores, and the top five teams had been shifting back and forth with each other for most of the game! At the final question, EVERYONE went the full 12 point wager and NOT A SINGLE TEAM got it right!
I was really looking forward to a topsy-turvey, surprise mix up in the top three spots…. (Although we DID need to break a tie for 3rd place) Winning the tie-break to finish 3rd was Moving Forward, 2nd went to Shart Attack, and forming a new team because of some extra people tonight and going on to become tonight’s 1st place winners was Drink Until We’re Cute!! They decided on “American Muscle Cars” for next Wednesdays winners Choice, so study up and I’ll see everyone next week at The Tavern!!
~ Jon J
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD
Damn you Dr. Dolittle! We had such a good opportunity for so many of our teams here at Belles’ tonight, and they just couldn’t get there! Thank God our tiebreaker went well – I was worried it was going to be a night of many tiebreakers, just had that feeling in the air. I was very off my game tonight, it’s not often you will catch me out like you did with your abbreviations tonight… Hope you enjoyed that moment of hilarity 😉
It was fun watching the new teams blend in with our regulars tonight, and I’m not going to lie – I’m never going to look at Swedish leather the same way 😉 After that hard final, and the oh so important tiebreaker it was Tokyo Sex Whale in 3rd, Flight Level Awesome in 2nd, and in first it was traveling team of #Fatkidanceparty! Awesome… it was really fun to watch. I will see you next week when we start with Ken Burns and the art of the slow pan. See you then!
~ Sam
Bennigan’s in Frederick, MD
We had a crazy game tonight in our first game of Pour House Trivia of 2017 here at Bennigan’s in Frederick! Brand new teams, returning friends, and house vets battled hard in what would prove to be one of the more difficult final questions we’ve seen in some time.
Highlights of the Night:
In “Off-to-a-Not-So-Friendly-Start”: The Wyoming question set everyone on edge and threw a number of teams for a loop tonight, with high wagers getting dropped early on it! And the stink eye started with it; guys I keep telling you, I’m only the pretty talent, I don’t write em!
In “I-Fell-Into-The-Trap”: The TRAP question caused even more strife tonight, but part of it was me not catching our little oopsie on the third question. I was prepped for even more stink-eye; I managed to assuage some tempers instead. Thank goodness, because yeesh!
In “OK-I-Giggled”: On the two point bonus tonight for the Jordan question, we had very few teams guess the correct answer. We DID however have several teams put down that Jafar from Aladdin was the current ruler. Not sure if that was meant to be insulting or not…but certainly an amusing answer none-the-less!
The final tonight was a doozy, with no one guessing the correct answer, yet the podium had a last second shake-up!
In third place tonight, Momentary Lapse of Reason!
In second place tonight, Tom Brady!
In first place tonight, Quiz On My Face!
Great game tonight guys! Next week we will kick things off with a Steven King category! Don’t get scared, and come out and see us! Until then,
~ Ian
Woodside Deli in Germantown, MD
In a truly unexpected event, home favorites Front of Class took a dive on our first week back after a two-week holiday. Underdogs We Need a Do Over absolutely blitzed throughout the game, missing only ONE question.
The final question on famous literary characters proved an insurmountable obstacle to all but our eventual winners, and even they admitted their correct answer was a guess! Of course, not one team knew Veruca Salt had sung “Seether”, giving rise to the name of the band whose lead singer famously dated (then hated) the lead singer of Evanescence, Amy Lee. I digress: she might be on my kitchen pass. All told, a fair game with no shocking moments. I suppose this is to be expected as we brave the now holiday-less bitter cold of winter, just mucking about until the warm sun (and cargo shorts) make its reappearance. As always, it was fun. See you next week, Woodside.
First Place: We Need a Do Over
Second Place: Front of the Class
Third Place: Nerds Say What (What?)
Next week’s first challenge: Astronomy. Best read up on Neil deGrasse Tyson, or at least check his Twitter.
Fair Winds,
~ Chief
Nido’s Ristorante in Frederick, MD
This week we started out with a question about Italian food, which is certainly fitting for Nido’s. This time, we asked about ‘farfalle’ pasta, which we learned is named after the Italian word for ‘butterfly’. The audio question was a fun one, as we played three separate clips, each with two songs; the first song had a title that was identical to the band performing the second song. I thought it was pretty cool, and teams did well on Poison and Kiss but struggled with Seether.
Halftime asked teams to identify stories based on their original illustrations, as well as identifying a bunch of seemingly unrelated items that were all the names of candy bars. The third round ended up being pretty rough, as only a few teams survived unscathed; the science-themed ‘TRAP’ question in particular burned quite a few teams. The final question tonight was quite a doozy, as nobody was able to get it right. This led to Much More Deeper taking third, while second went to Team Wednesday and the win went to The Donner Party! Congrats! Next week we start with a question about the Frederick News Post! I’ll see you all then!
Until next time,
~ Chad
Bennigan’s in Clarksburg, MD
Back once again, looking to make a late season run, was Dusty Baker School of Management, our Season 13 World Series Champions! These guys are the real deal and tonight was no different! With a perfect sweep of the first half, they looked to instill fear upon all the teams at Bennigan’s. BUT it was not over for a few of the competitors, looking and HOPING that Dusty Baker would slip up in the 2nd half.
The second half included a slip up on a two-point bonus slip in the 3rd round that about half the teams picked up, which helped to close the gap a bit. Guy Fieri’s TV show is “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and we needed the EXACT title for points. Dusty Baker’s “Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins” did NOT cut it and they lost some ground. It was Roaming Gnomes who was giving them a run for the money, hoping the 4th would toss them some hope as well.
Dusty Baker was NOT perfect in the 4th, but the 4th seemed to hurt everyone a bit, as we went into the final with DB leading the pack. Not a runaway, a few teams still were in striking distance, including Don’t Call me Shirley, down six points, looking to get some luck with a final question.
Well, good news and bad news. Dusty Baker missed the final. The bad news though? Everyone did. A super hard one tonight leaves the bar speechless!… and pointless. Dusty Baker was able to bet small enough to hang on to a lead and take down the win tonight! Grats on another win! Playoff invites going out next week. Be there!
Next week’s first category: “Hamilton”
Memories in Mount Airy, MD
Another packed game, and 2017 is off to a great start!! With so many teams, the energy level in Memories was near an all-time high, and we crowned a first night champion!
Also, it’s not the Tet Offensive.
First Place: MEOWL
Second Place: Sexual Chocolate
Third Place: WWDTM
MEOWL (or LOWL the Third) took it down and selected 1990’s TV Sitcoms as next week’s first category. See you next week!
~ Nick
Furnace Bar and Grill in Thurmont, MD
Tonight at the Furnace in Thurmont, our team had a blast, fighting neck and neck in a close game that literally came down to the final question. One question that really helped teams find where they where destined for a classic rock question about CCR. Mountain Misfits where able to get their wager and the two point bonus. However, they finished just short of the top prize and eternal glory. Here are our top winners:
First Place: Soda and the Watchamacallits
Second Place: Mountain Misfits
Third Place: The Rocks
Next week’s first category: “Doctor Who”
~ Devan
Barefoot Bernie’s in Hagerstown, MD
When it’s three regular teams (all champions) topping the standings after each round, it’s like a cage fight. Everyone claws for an advantage. I really do wish everyone could see the drama there is in just watching the scores change. In an incredibly close game, it came down to a four-point spread between first and third going into the challenging final question. No one got the answer, so it all came down to wagering… Here are your final standings
First Place: Does He Look Like a Biff (with a strategic two-point wager)
Second Place: Sad Fat Dragons
Third Place: Taint Too Proud To Beg
Next weeks first category: World War I
Applebee’s in Waynesboro, PA
It was another strong showing tonight at Applebee’s in Waynesboro, as we had another nine teams make it out for what turned out to be a very close game. The final was a VERY tough one, and thanks to some clever betting, Bees? was able to make their way into a tiebreaker with JuJu and Friends. J uJu and Friends came closer to the population of Jordan, so they were able to jump up to the 2nd place spot, with Bees? taking 3rd. Here were your top three:
First Place: We Are Groot (a.k.a.Patty Smyth’s Warriors)
Second Place: JuJu and Friends
Third Place: Bees?
Next week’s first category: Muppet Frogs
Thank you all for continuing to come out to play with us. We’ll see you next week!
~ Kyle
Clover Theater in Cloverdale, CA
2017 started off with a bang with a record twelve teams competing. At the end of the first round, newcomers THE RIVER ROADSTERS were tied for first and they would remain in the top position all night. Another new team, UNFROZEN CAVEMAN LAWYERS, were in seventh after the first round but muscled their way all the way up to second. Stalwarts MARK’S ANGELS ended up in third.
No one knew the final question but the majority of the group assumed it would be Johnny Appleseed or Rin Tin Tin (which is actually kind of close). We go again next Wednesday with a first category of Parisian Cuisine.
1st Place: The River Roadsters
2nd Place: Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers
3rd Place: Mark’s Angels
Winner’s Choice: Parisian Cuisine