PHT Playoff Saturday Recap!

Before we get into the details of Saturday afternoon’s playoff games, we have an IMPORTANT note regarding this season’s Pour House Trivia World Series.

The venue at which we have held the World Series for the last seven years, Hager Hall, notified us less than two weeks ago that it was suddenly closing its doors for massive renovations.  This left us without a venue for the event and very little time to figure out another plan.  We have been diligently working on alternatives and have considered and explored many options.

Due to the short notice and/or capacity issues, we were not able to secure a venue (or even multiple venues) for a June 9th World Series.  Consequently, the postponement of this event was inevitable.  Given the venues near Frederick that can accommodate the event (and their own availability), we have chosen to hold the event at the Thurmont Event Complex on Sunday, August 18, 2019.

If your team has received an invitation to World Series XIX, please make sure we have your e-mail address as we will follow up to confirm your team’s intention to play at the World Series.  We very much apologize for this inconvenience in spite of the fact that situation arose beyond our control.  We very much value each of you as players and strive to create the best trivia game possible.  We hope that you accept our choice of alternative and trust that among the options we were given, this was the most optimal, all things considered.  Keep a look out for an e-mail from us…

Now, onto the playoff games!  The five afternoon playoff venues for Season XIX welcomed 74 teams vying for a precious berth in the PHT World Series.

FIRST ROUND:

Opening round topics from Saturday afternoon included the chemical composition of the U.S. penny, notable alumni from Howard University in Washington, famous people named Leonard, and the period from British and Indian history known as the Raj.  In a clever twist, each of those four answers were also the names of characters from “The Big Bang Theory”!  many of our top teams rolled through the first round with ease, as eight teams began their game with a perfect first round score.

SECOND ROUND:

After a relatively easy first round, our teams were given a rather difficult audio question, as they were asked to identify three musical acts whose names include nationalities.  We listened to Modern English (“I Melt With You”), American Authors (“Best Day of My Life”), and rapper French Montana (“Unforgettable”).  Only 37% of our teams earned wagering points, with just THREE teams tacking on two bonus points by correctly naming all three artists.  We continued with a look at 19th century computer pioneer Charles Babbage, the NFL MVP Award shared by Brett Favre and Barry Sanders, and the letters of the Greek alphabet.  We closed the first half with this question on the topic of Oscar-winning actresses:

–> After sorting the winners of the Best Actress Oscar alphabetically by last name, the first two women on the list both won their awards in the first half of the 1960s.  For your wager, name either of these actresses.

Most of our teams earned wagering points with the correct answer of Julie Andrews (who won for “Mary Poppins”), but only eight teams picked up two bonus points by also knowing that Anne Bancroft won an Oscar for portraying Anne Sullivan in “The Miracle Worker”.  Thanks to the audio question, none of our teams notched 36 second round points.

HALFTIME:

World flags and celebrity non-fiction books were the two topics found on Saturday afternoon’s halftime page.  With an overall average of 16.3 points, this page yielded nine perfect scores.  Here are your highest scoring afternoon playoff teams at the halftime break:

• Hipster Fashion Consultants:  89
• Balls In:  85
• Unsavories:  84
• Pi:  83
• H. R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff:  83
• Cell Phony Baloney:  83

THIRD ROUND:

Saturday’s second half began with a Three Clues question concerning the word ‘shaggy’, which included about one-third of the field earning two bonus points by recognizing the details of the 1950s Disney film “The Shaggy Dog” (as well as its remake).  Next, we discussed World War I poetry, astronomical etymology, and the work of Leonardo da Vinci.  The third stanza closed with a question regarding the disaster film “2012”, but only seven teams picked up bonus points by knowing that Danny Glover portrayed the President of the United States in this film.  As a result, no perfect scores were posted in the third round.

FOURTH ROUND:

After a quick trip to Italy in the 6-4-2 question, we opened the final round with this query about college nicknames:

–> Two teams in the West Division of the Big Ten Conference have nicknames which are also the names of occupations.  For your wager, identify either one of those two team nicknames.

The college sports fans were in the house today, as nearly half of the field earned bonus points by naming both the Purdue Boilermakers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  Later, we stumped most of our teams by asking them to name the highest peak in Europe.  Though Mont Blanc was once considered to be one of the Seven Summits, the tallest peak on the European continent is actually Mount Elbrus, which is found in the Caucasus range of southern Russia.  The fourth round ended with a three-part question which applied the Last Word / First Word concept to TV titles.  Thanks to the geography question, Unsavories earned the only perfect score in Saturday afternoon’s final round.  These were your highest scoring teams heading into the final question:

• Unsavories:  160
• Hipster Fashion Consultants:  159
• H. R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff:  155
• Cell Phony Baloney:  150
• Balls Out:  148

FINAL QUESTION (50.0% success rate):

–> The ancient physician Hippocrates coined the term ‘carcinoma’ after seeing a tumor that resembled the shape of which animal?

Exactly half of our teams were able to decipher the clues on this final question, linking carcinoma to cancer, thereby arriving at the correct response of crab.  Congratulations to Unsavories, who recorded the only Perfect 21 on the afternoon.  Good luck to all of the teams invited to World Series XIX on August 18!  Here is your overall leaderboard from Saturday’s playoff games:

• Unsavories:  172
• Hipster Fashion Consultants:  171
• H. R. Puff ‘N’ Stuff:  167
• Cell Phony Baloney:  162
• Balls Out:  158
• HoJo MoJo:  155
• Chunky Lover:  152
• Why Not Zoidberg:  151
• Four Pours and Seven Beers Ago:  151
• Gotta Have ‘Em:  148