PHT Playoff Sunday Recap!
Sunday featured 94 teams vying for those last few coveted invitations to World Series XVII. Even with a more difficult set than usual, some of our teams mowed through these questions with ease:
FIRST ROUND:
After a pair of relatively easy questions on current world leaders and the TV series “Grey’s Anatomy”, we offered up this Three Clues question which included two well-earned bonus points:
CLUE 1: This character will be celebrating his 40th anniversary later this month.
CLUE 2: Though it is rarely mentioned in print, this character lives in Muncie, Indiana, the hometown of his creator.
Very few teams even ventured a guess at this point, with just seven teams successfully earning that two-point bonus. Most of the teams waited for the third clue, which stated that this character has been voiced by Lorenzo Music, Bill Murray, and Frank Welker:
After closing with a question on Amelia Earhart, only two of our teams swept the opening round with a perfect score: PC Principals and High School Prom.
SECOND ROUND:
Sunday’s audio clue featured a mix of music, TV, and film, as we played clips featuring Robert Redford in “All the President’s Men”, the Nirvana song “All Apologies”, and Susan Lucci in “All My Children”. Next up, we asked about these freakish advertising characters:
We saved the most difficult wagering question of the first half for the close of the second round:
–> Name any two of the last three winners of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, each of which featured numbers in its title.
Only 24% iof our teams earned points with at least two of these three correct answers: “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars, “25” by Adele), and “1989” by Taylor Swift. With just nine teams naming all three albums, the second round yielded three perfect scores: PC Principals, Team MAJ, and The Gang Wins the Super Bowl.
HALFTIME:
Sunday’s halftime page featured pictorial representations of U.S. state nicknames, along with a bottom half in which each answer was a two-letter word. With an overall average score of 14.9, we saw six teams earn perfect scores. Here are the highest-scoring playoff teams at the halftime break:
- PC Principals: 91
- High School Prom: 90
- Brother of Menelaus: 87
- My Black Hole Just Exploded: 86
- Literally Anything: 85
THIRD ROUND:
As usual, the third round was the most difficult round of Sunday’s game, but in this particular case, the difficultly level was well beyond what our teams had experienced so far. First up, a little U.S. history, as we asked our teams to name the year in which these three events occurred:
1) The first U.S. Open tennis tournament is held.
2) Clara Barton establishes the American Red Cross.
3) The infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place.
Even with a five-year window in either direction, only 37% of the field answered correctly with 1881. We continued with a blend of Greek Mythology and rock song lyrics, as we discussed the reference to Scylla and Charybdis in the song “Wrapped Around Your Finger”. Even after stumping many of our teams on the topic of the chemical element antimony, a question on TV characters proved to be the most difficult wagering question of the day:
–> In addition to appearing on a prominent NBC franchise, which character also appeared on episodes of “The X-Files”, “30 Rock”, “The Wire”, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”, and “Arrested Development”?
Only 19% of our teams earned points with Detective John Munch (as seen here on “30 Rock”):
Not only did the third round NOT yield any perfect scores, but only two teams answered all five wagering questions correctly: Viennese Oyster and Just Good Enough.
FOURTH ROUND:
Sunday’s final round began by asking our teams to name either one of the first two Disney songs to earn an Academy Award. Only 11% of our teams earned bonus points with songs from these two characters:
We skimmed through the Book of Ecclesiastes and enjoyed a Dark ‘N’ Stormy cocktail, while Sanford and Son was the only team to close out the game with a perfect final round score. After four rounds of play, these were your top scores:
- PC Principals: 163
- High School Prom: 159
- Brother of Menelaus: 157
- Viennese Oyster: 156
- Just Good Enough: 151
SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (69.4% success rate):
–> This term for a large area of land lying at the foot of a mountain has a name which means “foot of the mountain”. For your wager, name this term that shares its name with a region in northwest Italy.
About two-thirds of our teams responded correctly with Piedmont. Congratulations to Just Good Enough, who was the ONLY team to earn the Perfect 21 with correct answers on all wagering questions. Here is the overall leaderboard from Playoff Sunday:
- PC Principals: 172
- High School Prom: 170
- Brother of Menelaus: 164
- Viennese Oyster: 162
- HoJo MoJo: 161
- My Black Hole Just Exploded: 160
- Trojan Pride: 158
- Pugalicious: 157
- MAJ: 157
- Bluth’s Frozen Banana Hammocks: 157
Here are your three highest scoring teams from Sunday:
