PHT Season XVI Playoffs and Pub Crawl Recap: Game 1
The Season XVI triple-header began with games at two of our finest venues: Champion Billiards in Frederick and Capitol City Brewing in Arlington. Combined, we welcomed 59 teams to these two games:
FIRST HALF:
Our first game began with a question on early TV appearances, as we were looking for the pair of Oscar winners who landed early career roles on the sitcom “Growing Pains”. Most of the field earned points with Leonardo DiCaprio, but only 16% of our teams earned bonus points by also giving us this correct response:
After questions on Advertising Slogans and the Solar System, we followed with the most difficult wagering question of the first round:
–> What is the modern name of the formation that the Lakota Sioux referred to as The Six Grandfathers?
Only 29% of our teams gave us this correct response:
We closed the first round with the most difficult bonus question of the first half, as only four teams knew that British comedian Eddie Izzard (and NOT Ralph Fiennes) provided the voice for Lord Voldemort in “The Lego Batman Movie”. Thanks to that final question, the first round did not yield any perfect scores, though three teams topped the first round leaderboard with 34 points. The second round began with just nine teams earning bonus points on our audio question, as they were able to name the familial relations of three musical families: The Carpenters, The Judds, and LMFAO. Next up was a back-breaker, coming in the seemingly innocuous category of Cocktails:
–> Which liqueur would you add to a White Russian to turn it into a Mudslide?An overwhelmingly popular wrong answer was Kahlua (or coffee liqueur), but a White Russian already includes Kahlua:
Instead the correct answer was Irish cream. Not only did we see correct answers from just 21% of the field, but more than half of the teams that missed this question wagered at least seven points. Yikes! The rest of the round continued smoothly, but the damage had been done. Fittingly, the ONLY team to earn a perfect score in the second round was Charlie and the Vodka Factory. Seriously, you can not make this up…HALFTIME:
Our first halftime page of the day landed on the easier side, as pixelated images of TV shows proved to be no match for our highly skilled teams. The average score came in at a whopping 18.9 points, with exactly half of our teams registering a perfect 20 points. Here are your top scores after the first half of the first game:
- Brother of Menelaus: 87
- Fat, Drunk, and Stupid: 86
- Wiseacres: 84
- Charlie and the Vodka Factory: 83
- Syn Storm: 82
SECOND HALF:
We began the third round by asking our teams to name either one of the two South American countries which are members of OPEC. One of these (Venezuela) was quite easy, while the other (Ecuador) was much more difficult. Nearly every team earned their wagers here, but only 18% earned two bonus points with two correct answers. After quizzing our teams on the music of Beyonce and the exploits of Casanova, we continued with this sports question:
–> Among former NFL quarterbacks, this unique distinction is held by such players as the MVP of Super Bowl 29 and the winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy. Name this distinction most recently held by former Dallas Cowboys backup quarterback Kellen Moore.
The two quarterbacks referenced in this question were Steve Young and Tim Tebow, who (along with Moore) were notably different from of their counterparts in that they were left-handed. Finally, we closed the round with the most difficult bonus question of the first game. After a relatively easy question on the memoir “Marley & Me”, only three teams earned bonus points by also knowing that its author was John Grogan. Our defending World Series champions Dave Martinez School of Management recorded the only perfect third round score.
Only three teams earned the full points on this six-point question:
–> Released in 1990, this film will soon be adapted into a Broadway musical with Samantha Barks portraying the title character.
After many of our teams struggled through the first three rounds of this game, the questions seemed to ease up a bit in the final round. Even the normally difficult topic of Renaissance Art was a breeze, as more than half of our teams named the creator of this work:
That would be “Girl With a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. After a quick snack break for some clam chowder (both New England and Manhattan varieties), we saw seven teams earn perfect scores in the fourth stanza. Here are the top scores from the first game after the fourth round:
- Dave Martinez School of Management: 161
- Brother of Menelaus: 157
- Proper Villains: 150
- Fat, Drunk and Stupid: 150
- Charlie and the Vodka Factory: 150
FINAL QUESTION (39.7% success rate):
–> Which Hungarian inventor’s lesser-known creations include “Snake” and “Magic”, though his namesake “Revenge” was actually created by someone else?
Just under two-fifths of our teams answered this final question correctly:
Yes, that is the Rubik Snake. Congratulations to Fat, Drunk, and Stupid, who notched the only Perfect 21 of the first game. These were your highest scoring teams from the noon games:
- Dave Martinez School of Management: 163
- Proper Villains: 162
- Fat, Drunk and Stupid: 162
- Brother of Menelaus: 160
- Wiseacres: 160
- Gin and Cupcakes: 155
- Probably Worth a Google: 155
- Power Vacuum: 155
- B-58s: 154
- Stink Floyd: 154
WINNER’S GALLERY:
