PHT World Series XXI Recap
More than three years in the making, the Pour House Trivia World Series finally returned to Maryland on February 25, as the best and brightest PHT teams descended upon Cannon’s Events Center in Brunswick, MD. Our field featured 49 teams hoping to be crowned Season XXI champions and take home the top prize of $1,000.
FIRST ROUND:
As expected, most of the field cruised through the first four questions in the opening round, as we delved into topics such as the Rob Roy cocktail, the Netflix series Stranger Things, foreign languages, and the Tasmanian devil. More than a dozen teams were eyeing a perfect first round score until this NFL question dashed most of those hopes:
- Identify any two of the three quarterbacks that started and won a Super Bowl with the team that drafted them as the first overall selection at the NFL Draft.
About half of the field earned wagering points with any two of the three correct answers of Peyton Manning, Troy Aikman, and Terry Bradshaw. In what was easily the most difficult bonus of the first half, only three teams tacked on two bonus points with all three correct answers. As a result, Xanatos Gambit earned the only perfect score of the opening round.
SECOND ROUND:
The World Series audio question included three pairs of songs mashed together. We listened to One by Metallica mixed with Down Under by Men at Work, Havana from Camila Cabello mashed with Smooth from Santana, and Linger from the Cranberries mixed with Get Lucky from Daft Punk. Later, we looked at the derivation of the word tycoon, films based on the American Girl dolls, and alliterative titles from Charles Dickens. This second round question regarding U. S. currency proved to be the most difficult wagering question of the first half:
- Last year, which celebrity who is mentioned in the song We Didn’t Start the Fire became the first openly LGBT woman to be depicted on a U. S. coin?
About 40% of the field responded correctly with astronaut Sally Ride. With a very impressive start, Xanatos Gambit entered the halftime round with a perfect score of 72 points by sweeping the second round as well, while How Did I Get Here? and defending World Series champions Donner Party Platter also ran the table in the second stanza.
HALFTIME:
The World Series halftime sheet also featured a mashup of sorts, as teams were given ten pictures of celebrities in commercials. Instead of naming the celebrity or the company, the field was instead asked to identify the city that is home to a sports venue named for that company. Obviously, this page was incredibly difficult, as the overall average reached just 10.8 points. Six teams led the field with 15 points. At the halftime break, these teams topped the World Series standings:
- Xanatos Gambit: 85
- Donner Party Platter: 81
- Wagering Pi: 75
- Little Brains, Big Egos: 75
- Hipster Fashion Consultants: 75
THIRD ROUND:
The start of the second half was diabolical for the World Series field, as we opened the third round with questions regarding poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and paintings such as The Last Supper and The Scream. Our teams got a bit of a reprieve with this query about a recent chart-topping tune:
- Maybe we should have asked this question during late nights in the middle of June, but which song spent 59 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart before reaching number one last March?
This was the only third round question which more than half of the field answered correctly, as 58% of our teams gave us Heat Waves by Glass Animals. Only four teams snagged two bonus points by also knowing that this song was released on the album Dreamland. We continued with two more difficult questions regarding the Ebro River in Spain and the 1980s period drama film The Mission. The overall success rate in this round reached just 41%, with no perfect scores recorded.
FOURTH ROUND:
After visiting Tennessee in the 6-4-2 question, we went shopping for Birkin and Kelly bags from Hermès before posing this anatomical question to our teams:
- What is the common name for the tendons connecting the papillary muscles to the tricuspid and mitral valves?
Just under half of the field responded correctly with heart strings, though some teams actually submitted the correct response as a joke answer. Sandwiched between relatively easier questions about the musical South Pacific and celebrities born on February 25, we asked the most difficult wagering question of the entire game:
- For the episode Grass on the Streets and Weeds on the Rooftops, which series drew the largest primetime audience for any scripted series during 2022?
Only seven teams responded correctly with the western drama Yellowstone. As a result, Little Brains, Big Egos posted the only perfect score of the final round. Heading into the final question, these teams were vying for the championship:
- Xanatos Gambit: 155
- Donner Party Platter: 150
- Little Brains, Big Egos: 142
- How Did I Get Here?: 131
- Hipster Fashion Consultants: 128
FINAL QUESTION (28.6% success rate):
- During the 1960s, which U. S. state had its two-letter postal abbreviation changed to eliminate confusion with a Canadian province?
Since the abbreviation NB was also claimed by New Brunswick, the letters NE became the new abbreviation for the Cornhusker State. Fourteen teams improved their score by giving us the correct answer of Nebraska. With each of our top four teams responding correctly, there was very little movement at the top of the final leaderboard. Congratulations to Season XXI champions Xanatos Gambit! Here is the complete final leaderboard:
| 1 | Xanatos Gambit ($1,000) | 163 |
| 2 | Donner Party Platter ($500) | 156 |
| 3 | Little Brains, Big Egos ($250) | 151 |
| 4 | How Did I Get Here? ($125) | 143 |
| 5 | Innovations ($50) | 134 |
| 6 | Stink Floyd | 132 |
| 7 | Supernovas | 131 |
| 8 | Cat in the Chat | 127 |
| 9 | Fan Club | 120 |
| 10 | Heavy Metal Parking Lot | 119 |
| 11 | Sexual Chocolate | 117 |
| 12 | Hipster Fashion Consultants | 116 |
| 13 | Street Sharks | 115 |
| 14 | Clean Up on Aisle Four | 113 |
| 15 | Washington Foreskins | 111 |
| 16 | Slightly Agitated | 109 |
| 17 | Team Blaine | 105 |
| 18 | Comfortably Dum | 103 |
| 19 | Wagering Pi | 102 |
| T-20 | Mad Facts: Query Road | 101 |
| T-20 | We Drink and We Know Things | 101 |
| 22 | NOVA Compensators | 100 |
| 23 | Power Vacuum | 99 |
| 24 | The Lone Strangers | 98 |
| T-25 | Dynamite | 97 |
| T-25 | Fresh Off the U-Haul | 97 |
| T-25 | That’s So Clavin | 97 |
| 28 | Gong Gong and the Butt Demons | 96 |
| 29 | Rattle and Roll | 95 |
| 30 | Our Defending Champions | 94 |
| 31 | Scotty Doesn’t Know | 92 |
| 32 | Cutthroat | 91 |
| 33 | Satan’s School for Girls | 90 |
| 34 | What the Fork | 88 |
| 35 | Dog Park Mafia | 87 |
| T-36 | Alien Bounty Hunters | 85 |
| T-36 | Shipwrecked | 85 |
| 38 | Bernie Dog Poo and the Human Response | 84 |
| 39 | Five Heads, One Brain | 83 |
| T-40 | Enough Already | 79 |
| T-40 | Marco Pollo and the Peanuts | 79 |
| 42 | Deep Fried Chuckles | 75 |
| 43 | Knockin’ Puss and Boots | 74 |
| 44 | Fabulous Killjoys | 73 |
| T-45 | Safety Third | 72 |
| T-45 | Pterodactyl | 72 |
| 47 | All About That Bass | 54 |
| 48 | Lets Get Quizzical | 50 |
| 49 | Twizzlers | 42 |
Good luck in Season XXII!