Monday Trivia is Impressive!

We added Pinemoor Bar & Grill in Arlington, VA to the Pour House Trivia family on Monday evening, which helped PHT to a Monday attendance record! A 20-teamer at Ragtime and 18 more at Aslin Beer Co pushed the mark up to 171 teams at 15 locations.

FIRST ROUND:

Two bonus chances in the opening round were tough on our teams. We asked this scientific question:

• Sporting a single-letter symbol, this element is actually odorless in its natural state. However, when combined with hydrogen, it emits a foul scent similar to rotten eggs. Name that element.

Most teams were able to identify sulfur from that question, but only 16% added bonus points for getting within one of its atomic number, 16. The round concluded with a question about the 55th anniversary of Sirhan Sirhan’s assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, which carried a 14% bonus success rate for teams able to name the location of that shooting, the Ambassador Hotel. The lone perfect score here was earned by Get Off My Lawn (Quincy’s).

SECOND ROUND:

We started this round with an audio question about TV theme songs for shows based in Texas, then moved to grab a glass of root beer. After that, we reached the first half’s most difficult wagering question:

• Hollywood cowboy Gene Autry spent more than 30 years as the owner of which Major League Baseball franchise?

Only 42% of the field named the then-California Angels. This was also the toughest bonus question before halftime, as just 7% of teams knew Vladimir Guerrero earned the 2004 American League MVP award in his first season with the Angels. A quartet of perfect scores were recorded in this round, by You Had Me at Chester Arthur (Cushwa), Hipster Fashion Consultants (DRP), Bumble Bitches (Ragtime), and Killer Snails (Quincy’s).

HALFTIME:

Monday’s halftime page was a one-topic affair; teams were given ten pages from novels and earned a point each for naming the exact book title and its author. There were 25 perfect scores here, while the average team earned 15.1 points. These teams had the highest scores at the halftime intermission:

• Witiots (Bushwaller’s): 89
• Killer Snails (Quincy’s): 89
• Bumble Bitches (Ragtime): 88
• You Had Me at Chester Arthur (Cushwa): 87
• FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 86 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

Three Clues about the Twix candy bar started the second half, and 12% of teams earned bonus points for submitting the right answer before the final clue was given. We revisited a famous live album next:

• Deriving its title from a quote spoken by Don Henley, which live album was the first release by the Eagles following a 14-year hiatus?

Hell Freezes Over was correctly named by 34% of our teams. The lowest bonus success rate came at the midway point of the round:

• The development of cubism is largely attributed to which two artists? One was a Spaniard who painted Girl with a Mandolin, and the other was a Frenchman who painted Violin and Candlestick.

Just six teams named both Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. This was the only round with no perfect team scores.

FOURTH ROUND:

Thirteen teams got all six points for identifying the number five from the first clue. We began the fourth round with a question about the Mediterranean islands belonging to Spain; this was the hardest bonus opportunity of the round, with 11% knowing Spain’s most populous island is Tenerife of the Canary Islands. Not to be outdone, this round featured the two toughest wagering questions on Monday. Things got animated to start:

• After 11 seasons on the Fox network, which animated series began airing original episodes on TBS in the fall of 2014?

A little under one-third of the field was able to name American Dad! for their wagering points. From there, we moved to a basketball question:

• What is the only current NBA division whose teams span three time zones?

A game-low 22% of teams knew the NBA’s Northwest Division spans from Portland to Minnesota. This round’s perfect teams were You Had Me at Chester Arthur (Cushwa) and Hipster Fashion Consultants (DRP). Before the final question, these were the top scores:

• Killer Snails (Quincy’s): 157
• You Had Me at Chester Arthur (Cushwa): 156
• H.R. Puf’n’Stuf (DRP): 156
• Cobra Kai (DRP): 156
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 155 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (7.02% success rate):

• Coined during the 19th century, which 12-letter word meaning extraordinarily impressive gained widespread usage during the early 1990s?

While many teams considered adjectives or superlatives used in the 1990s, that word was actually given to name the Lollapalooza music festival! With a very tough final question, there were no Perfect 21 teams in Monday’s game. Things ended with these highest scores:

• Crystals (Clyde’s): 162
• Suits in the Middle (Clyde’s): 158
• How Did I Get Here? (Quincy’s): 152
• Drunken Teachers (Rai’s): 152
• You Had Me at Chester Arthur (Cushwa): 151
• George Washington’s Camel (DRP): 151
• Witiots (Bushwaller’s): 149
• Killer Snails (Quincy’s): 149
• Almost All American (Il Forno): 147
• Bumble Bitches (Ragtime): 146
• Hipster Fashion Consultants (DRP): 146

MONDAY’S WINNERS:

Ellie’s Pub in Winchester, VA: No Probllama  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Elvis Presley Films)

Clyde’s in Alexandria, VA: Crystals (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Wagner’s Ring Cycle)

Cushwa Brewing in Williamsport, MD: You Had Me at Chester Arthur  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: One Tree Hill)

Hidden Key Brewing in Greencastle, PA: Anibrainiacs  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Mothman)

DRP in Alexandria, VA: George Washington’s Camel  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Sopranos)

Bushwaller’s in Frederick, MD: Witiots  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 30 Rock)

Rockwell Brewery in Frederick, MD: Jerk and Thrive  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: June 12 Birthdays)

William Jeffrey’s Tavern in Arlington, VA: Ryno  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Billboard Hot 100 #3 Hits)

Ragtime in Arlington, VA: Bumble Bitches  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Mythical Creatures) 

Aslin Beer Co in Herndon, VA: True Guru  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Despicable Me)

Quincy’s Bar and Grille in Gaithersburg, MD: How Did I Get Here?  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Rhyme Time)

Rai’s Pour House in Sterling, VA: Drunken Teachers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Acronyms)

Pinemoor Bar & Grill in Arlington, VA: I Don’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Marine Corps History)

Il Forno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD: Almost All American  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Matt Damon Films)