Season XXI Playoff Recap

Exactly 200 teams squared off on Saturday afternoon to earn entry into the Pour House Trivia World Series.

FIRST ROUND:

The Season XXI playoff game kicked off with this question regarding television theme songs:

• Identify either one of the two ABC series that debuted in the late 1980s with theme music composed by Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

The easier of the two correct answers featured Joe Cocker’s cover version of With a Little Help from My Friends.  Most of the field earned wagering points with the correct answer of The Wonder Years.  About 30% of the field picked up the first two bonus points of the game by also remembering that the drama Life Goes On used Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da as its theme.  The first round also touched on topics such as The Handmaid’s Tale, famous escapes, and sports team names.  We closed the first round with this Academy Awards question:

• Released one year apart, identify either one of the two films that are respectively the only G-rated film and the only X-rated film to win the Best Picture Oscar since the MPAA ratings system was introduced.

During the late 1960s, the musical Oliver! and the drama Midnight Cowboy fit this description.  As the most difficult bonus question of the round, only 19% of our teams tacked on two bonus points by identifying both correct answers.  Six teams stormed out of the gate with a perfect score of 36 points.

SECOND ROUND:

Today’s audio question incorporated the Periodic Table into three pop songs, as our teams were asked to identify the chemical elements whose symbols matched the initials of three singers.  Not surprisingly, this was the most difficult wagering and bonus question of the first half, with the correct answers of chlorine (for Cyndi Lauper and She Bop), bromine (for Bebe Rexha and Meant to Be), and antimony (for Sara Bareilles and Love Song).  About 40% of the field picked up wagering points, with just under half of those snagging two bonus points with all three correct answers.  Other second round topics included Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, deciduous teeth, and the boilermaker cocktail.  We also played a little geographic word play with this query:

• Excluding blank tiles, identify either one of the two U. S. states whose names CAN’T be spelled out completely using the full allotment of 100 tiles in the standard version of Scrabble.

About one-fourth of our teams nailed both correct answers of Kentucky (there is only one ‘K’) and Connecticut (there are only two ‘C’s).  Seven teams rolled through the second round by posting a perfect score of 36 points.

HALFTIME:

We gave our teams a much-needed boost in the halftime round with a supersized page worth 24 points.  For each of 12 film scenes, teams were asked to identify the film title and the song being played during the scene (and incorporated into the film itself).  The average score landed at 16.7 points, with three teams posting a perfect 24 points: Cat in the Chat, Axe and Tiddies, and Team Wednesday.  At the halftime break, these teams stood atop the pack:

• Xanatos Gambit: 95
• Hipster Fashion Consultants: 92
• Comfortably Dum: 91
• Our Drinking Team Has a Trivia Problem: 90
• Dynamite: 89
• Cat in the Chat: 89

THIRD ROUND:

On a typical weeknight, the third round is the most difficult portion of the game.  That was not the case this afternoon, as four of the five wagering questions yielded success rates of more than 50%.  This European geography question was the only exception:

• Nicknamed Granite City, which Scottish city gets its name from a Gaelic phrase that means mouth of the Dee River?

About one-third of the field responded correctly with Aberdeen.  We continued with questions regarding the recent Broadway revival of The Music Man, fictitious brands from Pixar films, and the Las Vegas duo of Siegfried and Roy.  Nine teams swept the third round on Saturday afternoon.

FOURTH ROUND:

After discussing Muhammad Ali in the 6-4-2, the final round began with the most difficult wagering and bonus questions of the entire game:

• Which name can refer to a large Muppet from Sesame Street or the last name of Harry Truman’s Vice President?

Exactly 10% of the field knew that the name Barkley fit this description.  Furthermore, only eight teams earned two bonus points by also knowing that Alben was the first name of Truman’s vice president.  The final round must have seemed much easier after that speed bump, as we looked at the View-Master toy, the geodesic dome, Olympian Gabby Douglas, and the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Thanks to the first question, only two teams ran the table in the final round with 36 points: Xanatos Gambit and That’s So Clavin.  In a ridiculously impressive feat, Xanatos Gambit recorded a perfect score in ALL FOUR rounds, missing only one possible point on the halftime page.  Needless to say, this juggernaut topped the overall leaderboard heading into the final question:

• Xanatos Gambit: 173
• Hipster Fashion Consultants: 166
• Little Brains, Big Egos: 165
• Cat in the Chat: 161
• That’s So Clavin: 161

FINAL QUESTION (51.5% success rate):

• Though this brand is actually named for its creator, an internet rumor once claimed that which brand was named after three men: Art, Boyd, and Dennis?

Just over half of the field responded correctly with Chef Boyardee.  Congratulations to Hipster Fashion Consultants, That’s So Clavin, and Little Brains, Big Egos, each of which recorded a Perfect 21 on Saturday by answering every wagering question correctly.  Xanatos Gambit also achieved that feat, but this squad deserves a little extra fanfare.  Thanks to the supersized halftime page, this team finished with the highest single-game score in Pour House Trivia history!  This squad is undoubtedly the favorite heading into the World Series.

OVERALL LEADERS:

• Xanatos Gambit: 185 (PHT RECORD)
• Hipster Fashion Consultants: 169
• Little Brains, Big Egos: 165
• Power Vacuum: 163
• Innovations: 162
• Cat in the Chat: 162
• That’s So Clavin: 161
• Fresh Off the U-Haul: 160
• Supernovas: 158
• Alien Bounty Hunters: 158

Good luck to these teams in the PHT World Series!

Alien Bounty Hunters
All About That Bass
Burning Dog Poo and the Human Response
Cat in the Chat
Cheddar Biscuits
Clean Up on Aisle Four
Comfortably Dum (MD)
Cutthroat
Deep Fried Chuckles
Dog Park Mafia
Donner Party Platter
Dynamite
Enough Already
Fabulous Killjoys
Fan Club
Five Heads, One Brain
Fresh Off the U-Haul
Gong Gong and the Butt Demons
Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Hipster Fashion Consultants
How Did I Get Here?
Innovations
Knocking Puss and Boots
Let’s Get Quizzical
Little Brains, Big Egos
Lone Strangers
Mad Facts: Query Road
Marco Polo and the Peanuts
NOVA Compensators
Our Defending Champions
Power Vacuum
Pterodactyl
Rattle and Roll
Safety Third
Satan’s School for Girls
Scotty Doesn’t Know
Sexual Chocolate
Shipwrecked
Slightly Agitated
Stink Floyd
Street Sharks
Supernovas
Team Blaine
That’s So Clavin
Twizzlers
Wagering Pi
Washington Foreskins
We Drink and We Know Things
What the Fork
Worst Case Ontario
Xanatos Gambit