Sixteen games of trivia ended with an explosive finish!  At one of our venues, the House Championship was decided on the tiebreaker question!  Check out the nightly recaps to get all of the details:

TUESDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (97 teams across 16 venues):

–> Highest Overall Score: Finkle is Einhorn (FireFlies) with 169

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Finkle is Einhorn and Wingardium Triviosa (Quincy’s South) with 157

–> Highest First Half Score: Wingardium Triviosa with 87

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Wingardium Triviosa

–> Our halftime page featuring ten-letter TV show titles and international liquors played to a difficult average of 14.7, with only ONE TEAM (Wingardium Triviosa) scoring a perfect 20 points.

–> About 13% of our teams scored six points on the 6-4-2 question by knowing that the source of the Amazon River is in Peru (which does NOT border Argentina).

TUESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (27.3% success rate):

–> After the U.S. Department of Defense, which company is the largest consumer of explosives in the U.S.?  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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Capitol City Brewing in Arlington, VA

There are no “downer” nights when it comes to Cap City trivia, but some are just more fun than others.  A feisty pack of trivia squads, a particularly electric question set, and the anticipation of Saturday’s playoffs – it all came together for a perfect storm of good-hearted, brain-busting madness!

Round One last night was certainly not the “slow pitch” sequence it often is – our newcomers were thrown right into the deep end, with questions on American holiday history, famous Borises (Borii?) and French phraseology.  No one made it out with a perfect score, but the Valley Girls, Thinkin Kraken, and Capitol City Goofballs all acquitted themselves admirably!

Now You’re Just Being Selfish – The Valley Girls served up a winner’s choice tonight on the work of Gilbert & Sullivan.  I’ve noted here before how these guys are unbelievable opera buffs, and they just might be the only ones around – they took down 14 points (nine plus their five-point bonus) on Question #1, and no one else got anything.  Now that’s how you leverage a winner’s choice pick!

Intriguing Guess – Challenged to delete three letters from “SOY MILK” to glean the name of a brand of dairy alternatives, one team settled on… “SOIL”.  That certainly does satisfy the wordplay part of the question, but… would you drink something called “Soil”?

In Round Two, we reviewed South Asian rivers and infant apparel, and wondered at which D.C. personality would have been recently portrayed by not one, but three, beautiful young actresses on SNL.  The halftime page was comprised of a pretty thorny picture round, plus a matching game on international liquor brands that really gave our alcoholics an opportunity to shine!  No one got 20/20 here, but the Goofballs scored 19 – putting them on top with 84 points!  Thinkin Kraken was hot on their heels with 83; this team really caught fire this week!

Welcome Back – It’d been a while since we saw erstwhile mainstays Hillary Did Harambe around Cap City, but a couple HDH veterans made an appearance last night, anchoring a new team: Bryce Harper’s Punch-Out!  It’s great to have you back with us!

In the second half, the Valley Girls’ hopes seemingly faded when they missed their five-point bonus on “fearless” films, art, and pop music.  Meanwhile, the Goofballs plowed ahead through Air Force bases, airlines, and Stephen King adaptations; Thinkin Kraken matched them blow for blow throughout, preventing them from expanding their lead by more than a few points!  Tips of the Hat went out to Bryce Harper’s Punch-Out, the sole team to know both Oscar-winning James Bond theme songs, and who jumped up to third from the middle of the pack.  More Tips of the Hat to the Krakens and Pilsners of Azkaban, our only two teams to grab six points on that Amazonian 6-4-2 question!

Going into the Final, it was the Goofballs and Krakens atop a dogpile of closely-matched teams.  Who could correctly deduce an American company that leads the nation (second only to the DoD) in consumption of explosives?  This Final shook the scoreboard like an Etch-a-Sketch, and our top three finishers just so happened to be the only three that got it right:

First Place:  Capitol City Goofballs

Second Place:  Pilsners of Azkaban

Third Place:  Valley Girls

Honorable Mention to Thinkin Kraken, who (I’ll admit) I was quietly rooting for last night, and – even after missing the Final – only landed one point out of third place.  This is a tireless regular squad that always plays hard, and earned some recognition this week.

~ Austin

Next week’s first category:  “Twin Peaks”

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Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD

Thirteen teams joined us at Champion Billiards in Frederick tonight, and that number would prove to be lucky for some!  Tonight we crowned our Season XV House Champion, and I got the pleasure of watching some of my most competitive teams sharpening their wits for pub crawl battle this weekend!  Right out of the gate we had a struggle bus moment for some of our teams, as they took issue with a BEER of all things!  Bohemia, beer, there’s a connection – I swear! The teams who picked up pilsner on that one would be the ones to watch tonight as our game heated up quickly.  Good thing you were taking advantage of the ice cold beer specials tonight!  The first round wasn’t terrible to you, but there were some solid bonus points picked up with Decoration Day and the plethora of Boris(es?).

Our second round brought us something we don’t see very often – a tough audio question AND talking about babies and creepers without it being weird!  That’s a lie, it was weird.  Who talks about getting a creeper for their baby!? Team The Ones with the Baby of course aced that question…  We also learned that very few of you feel the need to check out the Golf Hall of Fame, no matter what state it’s in.  Silly sports ball…

We were all over the country in Round 3, and not in a good way.  Edwards Air Force Base is in California, and if you didn’t know that I am certainly not buying the face you flew there in the 80’s…  The “Fearless Girl” made an appearance in this round, and I was surprised by how many of you came up with all three Stanford quarterbacks on the NFL draft question!  That was much better then the 11 question marks and sad faces I expected.  The kicker on this round was definitely the James Bond film song question.  I am sorry I couldn’t give points for “Some Sam Smith song” but you didn’t really need the points anyway…

The 6-4-2 question took some prisoners, but even after a goose egg on a guess, Comfortably Dum was yards ahead and just had to not screw it up in the final round.  Something they have struggled with in the past 😉  Wiseacres wanted it badly, and weren’t willing to give an inch.

The final round rolled along fairly well for our teams, and the final definitely set the stage or a thrilling finish.  Teams were nervous, with a category like American Companies anything can and will happen!  It turns out the nerves were warranted and it was a tough (but good!) question tonight.  Only two of our teams picked up the correct answer of Disney.  Not exactly the first company that comes to mind when you think explosives.

Comfortably Dum rode that lead on in to first place tonight with a great showing, while Jungle Fever jumped up to second place as the only other team to get the final.  While Wiseacres took third place tonight, they also took home House Champions and a round of applause!  Nice job guys and gals, you worked for that title this season, I can’t wait to see what you do at the World Series!  Good luck to all my teams at the playoffs this weekend, and I will see you next week for a first category of Game Shows That Used Oversized Props.  Oh, that’s a good one!

~ Sam

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Cugini’s Restaurant in Poolesville, MD

Another fine night of Tuesday trivia at Cugini’s in Poolesville, and there was a bit of tension in the air from two teams who were separated by only nine points to become House Champions! With the fine holiday weekend behind us we paid respects to our vets with one last Memorial Day question, and toasted the occasion with a tall glass of soy milk. We had a deja vu question that I swear I heard somewhere before, and finally ended the first with trio of Boris’.

The second round started with the traditional audio clue and three songs with a very “hot” title, but then cooled down along the shores of the Ganges River.  It was then off to St. Augustine to visit the PGA Hall of Fame, only to play dress up with this staple of baby fashion.

We moved on to three ladies spoofing Ivanka Trump on “SNL”:

Round three gave us three clues for this empowering term…

Then we moved on to sunny California and Edwards Air Force Base, where we met three NFL quarterbacks who were all Stanford grads…

We then capped the third off with some Oscar winning songs about this super spy…

On to the final round, which started with something that I didn’t know, Stephen King’s “The Mist” is being made into a TV series.

We had an A+B=C about insects, which is kind of fitting considering the King reference above, and celebrated the life of JFK, whose birthday was yesterday. We talked about the homophone regarding this object…

Then finished off the final round with a word that always found it’s way into 1980’s pro wrestling commentary, PANDEMONIUM!

Our final wiped out the bar, but who knew that Disney was the second largest purchaser of explosives in the U.S.? Congratulation to No Clue as our House Champs, great job!  Here are the results:

First Place:  Drunk and Disorderly

Second Place:  MoMo

Third Place:  No Clue

Our first category for next week is everyone’s favorite Amazonian, Wonder Woman!

~ Ronnie

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Orioles Nest in Frederick, MD

Tonight, I filled in for Chad at the Orioles Nest in Frederick, as he was on vacation!  He will be back next week, but I had an extremely enjoyable time hosting you all.  What a game we had, as competition was tight heading into the playoffs this weekend.  The Book Club Babes came storming out of the gate with an impressive first round, but they lost their seven-point wager to close the second round, missing a question on the location of the World Golf Hall of Fame.  That kept the scores very close as we moved into the halftime puzzle page.  At the break, our entire field was separated by just two points!  Needless to say, it was anyone’s game in the second half.

In the third round, our leaders We Are Number Two saved their seven-point wager for the James Bond question at the end of the round.  We asked for either one of the two James Bond songs to win Oscars, and a miss there dropped We Are Number Two down to fourth place.  They where able to make a small comeback as Turd Ferguson dropped a couple of crucial questions landing them outside of the top three.

Going into the final question, we saw some strategic wagering that lead Fill Stick to tie Book Club Babes, forcing a tie breaker for the win.  The two teams were asked the population of Peru.  Fill Stick answered ten million, while the Book Club Babes answered 3.12 million.  Needless to say, there are a lot more people living there than our trivia players realize, as the correct answer was 31.1 million!  That meant that Fill Stick was the winner of tonight’s game, while Book Club Babes dropped into second place on the tiebreaker, and rounding out the top three was We Are Number Two.  Thanks again teams, and good luck in the playoffs!

Next week’s first category: “Idiocracy”

Until next time

~ Devan

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Senor Tequila’s in Germantown, MD

Tonight we hosted the final game of Pour House Trivia Season XV at Senor Tequila’s in Germanton, and with only our top teams in attendance, the game flew by.  We started the game by learning that no one knows who John Adams (the composer) is, and that asking for a Founding Father to get there won’t get you very far.  Also, no one had any idea that ‘onesie’ was actually trademarked, but that thankfully didn’t seem to matter tonight.  The (Time for a New Computer) Fan Club took an early lead, putting up an impressive score of 83 points at the break.

Our Three Clues / One Word question proved to be the toughest of the night (before the final), with none of our teams able to surmise the word ‘Fearless’ from the clues given.  Oh, and how are there only two James Bond songs with Oscar wins for Best Original Song?  It feels like “Goldfinger” and “Live and Let Die” both should’ve won as well, right?

After striking out on the 6-4-2 question, Beer Pressure rolled through the fourth round with a near perfect score, but would it be enough to overtake our leaders?  The final tonight was a doozy – the massive number of Fireworks set off each night by the Walt Disney Company makes it the largest consumer of explosives in this country outside of the Department of Defense.  Even though we did not have any correct answers on this final question, it didn’t make much of a difference in the standings.

In second place tonight, Beer Pressure!

In first place tonight, a fitting cap on their House Championship, The Fan Club!

Good game tonight guys, and a hearty congrats to our Season XV Champs, the Fan Club, who have chosen to start next week with a question on NBA Champions.  Watch and study, and we’ll see you next time…

Until then,

~ Ian

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FireFlies in Alexandria, VA

It looks like folks are still recovering from Memorial Day weekend – the rest of Bad Hombres didn’t show, so the one Bad Hombre who did make it joined onto newcomers Slightly Awkward.  Regulars Shiner Bockers and Finkel is Einhorn showed face, and another new team “We’ll Think About It” (I named them that after I asked for a team name – be careful what you say!) joined late and made a go at it.  Tonight’s “Knight Rider” question left everyone scratching their heads when trying to remember “Super Pursuit” mode – which Knight & K.I.T.T. would use to get somewhere in a hurry.  The rest of the round went just fine, without another wager question missed.

Round 2 asked folks to name the sport whose Hall of Fame opened in NC in 1974 and moved to what FL city in 1998. One team was really kicking themselves after they scratched out golf and put something else instead.  Only Finkel is Einhorn answered correctly, and picked up a two-point bonus by also knowing St. Augustine.  I’m not sure I’ve seen EVERY team use all ten minutes of half time to complete their puzzle page, but tonight they needed it!  No team earned 20 points, as none of them caught on to the “common theme” announced in the directions.  All the TV shows pictured had TEN letter titles, including “Undeclared”, in which I got to share my personal fun fact of being a stand-in for Busy Phillips on the set of the show.  Ah memories!  Back to the game!

Round 3 featured another difficult question – you’ve got to be a real NFL and college football fan to name the last three Stanford quarterbacks who were also #1 overall draft picks. Once again, only Finkel is Einhorn named all three – Luck, Plunkett, and Elway.  Nobody was FEARLESS enough to try a guess at the 6-4-2 after the six-point question, but the majority identified Peru when given the countries it borders.  The “gotcha” question of the night HAD to be our A+B=C category asking to simply tell us the sum of the number of wings a butterfly has plus the number of body segments of an insect.  I’m guessing most thought butterflies only have two wings, as I got FIVE from the majority of players.  Only We’ll Think About It got it right.  Across the venues it seems our hosts and quiz masters worried the final question might be too tough – but one-third of our teams answered correctly, which ain’t so bad!  Your winners tonight were:

First Place:  Finkel is Einhorn

Second Place:  Slightly Awkward

Third Place:  Shiner Bockers

Next week’s first category:  “The Wedding Singer” Soundtrack

See You Next Tuesday!

~ Kate

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Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick, MD

It was just me and Molly Pitcher hosting tonight at Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick – Mrs. Chief, as well as some of our regular teams, was absent.  Mrs. Chief has grades to complete, but Mother Shuckers absence was rather odd, especially with the chance to clinch the House Championship!  Sad. Sad, sad, poor. (I’m channeling someone.)  Someone who may have fathered (the jury is out, and I just shuddered…) the answer to Round 2, Question 2:

“Actresses Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, and Emily Blunt have all hosted recent episodes of “Saturday Night Live”.  For your wager, which Washington, D.C. figure have ALL of these actresses portrayed (or parodied) during their stints as host?”

The answer: few of you realized it was Ivanka Trump. Yeah. You… know.

I’d like to say that everyone had fun tonight with my barbs and smart-a**ery.  But who can be sure?

THIS GUY:

Who is that guy? Jim Plunkett, the only two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback not elected to the NFL Hall of Fame.  And who did he play for? (We don’t recognize the Patriots who sat on him for a few years, like a festering hemorrhoid. He played for The. Great. Oakland. Raiders. Taking home two titles. And one of them was against the Washington Native Americans. Just ask Marcus Allen. ;))  He was part of the answer to Round 3, Question 3, making up my favorite-ever back-to-back questions.  And what would Jim Plunkett and his mentor and life-coach Mister Al Davis say? “JUST WIN, BABY.”

Who won, exactly? Well, it took a tie-breaker to determine that.  Neither of the teams going into the tie-breaker had a clue about the population of Peru, but one of them was luckier than the other, with a shamrock firmly planted in their… EARS.  Yes, ears.  Because this is a family-friendly blog.  Put your own word where it belongs: which is…

First Place:  Tequila Mockingbird

Second Place:  Buttered Balls

Third Place, and first-time players! : C&M

With the win (and a little help from a rival team), Tequila Mockingbird is our Season XV House Champion!

Next week’s first category: Female Anatomy. (I hope it’s not about ducks, because then it gets weird)

Until next week, you deviants, Fair Winds.

~ Chief

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Top Golf in Ashburn, VA

A crazy night to night at Top Golf in Ashburn!  A storm raged outside, but we were having a great game of Pour House Trivia inside!  Eight teams came out to play tonight, and we saw a back-and-forth game with teams trading first and second place all night!  While we had to pause for a light show – it was a fast paced game with a few great calls by teams!

The first two rounds went smoothly for most teams, but we closed the second round with a rather difficult question, asking about which sport’s Hall of Fame has been located in Pinehurst, North Carolina and is currently found in St. Augustine, Florida.  As if there weren’t enough hints EVERYWHERE, only three of our teams were able to come up with the correct response of GOLF!  Cue the facepalms…  Our rather difficult halftime puzzle page also set a few aside, but Taco Tuesday notched an impressive score of 18 points, giving them a strong lead at the end of the first half.

But the third and forth rounds came, with many teams struggling on the Three Clues / One Word question to begin the round.  This format tends to lean towards slightly easier questions (I mean, you’re getting three clues for one word…), meaning that many teams choose this as their bonus category without much debate.  However, tonight’s edition proved to be the toughest question of the night, as only two teams surmised that the correct response we were looking for was the word FEARLESS.

Another question which separated our teams involved Military Matters, asking about the state in which you would find Edwards Air Force Base.  About half of our field answered correctly with California.  The final question dealing with American Companies changed everything!  Our top two teams after the final round answered incorrectly, meaning that some teams reached the top three coming from way behind!  Here are tonight’s winners:

First Place:  Kelly’s Heroes

Second Place:  Victorious Secret

Third Place:  Liquid Almonds

Next week’s first category:  2000s Metal

~ Zach

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Primanti Brothers in Hagerstown, MD

These lovely spring nights bring all the trivia teams out to play.  We hosted six teams tonight at Primanti Brothers at the Valley Mall in Hagerstown.  This place is really hopping.  Some veteran PHT teams came out for the first time to Primanti’s: welcome to The Bends and Hoboken Squat Cobblers.  The first round was tougher than usual: only two teams answered all five questions correctly: We Don’t Even Know and Hadoken Squid Coolers!  By the time we finished the halftime puzzle page, he collective ego of our teams was feeling pretty bruised.  Tonight’s high score on the halftime page was just 16 points.

As the second half progressed, it seemed that first and second place were something of a lock, but third place changed hands several times between We Don’t Even Know and Shirts and Skins.  In an odd occurrence, each of our top three teams answered incorrectly on the final question, giving us a surprise winner for third place: Hobgoblin Squad Coppers!  Last week’s first timers, the Shirts and Skins had one of the two correct answers to snatch second place (Bosom Buddies being the other team to know that Disney is the second largest consumer of explosives in the US).  It was our other first time team that took down first place tonight: The Bends only wagered a few points, and though they lost those points, their lead was enough of a cushion to keep them in first place!

Next week, our first question is going to be all about everyone’s favorite sitcom: “Three’s Company“.

See you in a week!

~ Sean

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The Block in Annandale, VA

The Block in Annandale was really chill and fun this Tuesday, with a slightly quieter atmosphere than we had seen the last couple of weeks.  Don’t get me wrong though, it was still lively!  We started tonight’s game with seven enthusiastic teams, a few of which were returning teams (shout out to Time to Get Schwifty, and the ColumBAES).

It was a bit of a tougher set this week, but the teams seemed to love the challenge, you could tell that all of the right answers were satisfying because they really worked for them!  As we moved towards the end of the second round, a couple of teams had to depart due to time constraints, but liked playing as much as they could.  There were another few groups that stayed as long as they could before leaving,  but I talked to all of them and hope to see them again soon (I’m looking at you Shanis and Cam-Man)!

Halfway through the third round, we were down to three teams, Scwifty and the ColumBAES, and a new team, Kappa Crabs.  For all of round three and most of round four, these three teams were within three points of each other consistently, which amped up the competition.  As we neared the end of the game, you could tell that they were pulling out all the stops to jump ahead and secure their places.

The final this week was a doozy, but the added challenge made the success that much more exciting.  Teams placed their bets and went all in, and while two of the teams were close, Kappa Crabs secured the win with the correct answer: The Walt Disney Corporation.  Kappa Crabs were in first place, but now Schwifty and the ColumBAES were tied for second place, so after a tiebreaker, we had Schwifty in third place and ColumBAES in second place (which also secured them the House Championship this season!).  It was an exciting game all around and I’m hoping to see them back next week!

~ Geraden

Next week’s first category:  NHL Mascots

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Blue Parrott in St. Petersburg, FL

Six teams competed Tuesday night in a heated game of trivia at the Blue Parrott in St. Petersburg.  There was an extra level of competition tonight as our lovely, part-time host, Brittany, took a turn at playing while C.J. hosted this week.  Her team, Getting Lucky, even lead the pack at half time!

The first round was a strong start for our teams, with almost all of them answering every question correctly.  The second round proved to be a little rougher for some, as several teams missed their bonus categories, costing them those precious five points.  Many of our teams correctly identified that actresses Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, and Emily Blunt have all portrayed a member of the Trump family recently on “Saturday Night Live,” but only a few correctly identified her as Ivanka Trump.  And while almost all of our teams knew that the Ganges River flows through India, they did not know it flows through Bangladesh as well.

I could not be more proud to say that all of our teams correctly identified all 11 liquor origins on the half-time sheet. We might not be as familiar with TV shows, but we know our booze here at the Blue Parrott!  Our teams were all over questions about United Airlines, NFL quarterbacks from Stanford, and Adele.  Round four was similarly strong, as almost all of our teams had nearly perfect scores.  But it was the final question that cost most of our teams some big points.  Unfortunately, teams were trying to name the biggest producers of explosives, and not thinking in terms of consumers.  But two teams correctly realized that Disney and all of their fireworks shows made them the second largest consumers of explosives in the U.S.  Congrats to all who played, and we look forward to seeing you next week!

First Place:  Freebirds

Second Place:  Parrotheads

Third Place:  Getting Lucky

Next week’s first category: 1990s R&B

~ C.J.

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Monkey La La in Frederick, MD

A somewhat low-scoring night of trivia occurred at Monkey La La in Frederick on Tuesday night.  The game was about protecting your bonuses and not losing too many nine-point wagers.  Here are the highlights (and lowlights):

• Our Winner’s Choice question on British Monarchs decimated two five-point category bonuses, as only one team answered this question correctly!  We asked our teams to name the British king who abdicated the throne in 1936 in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.  We were looking for King Edward VIII, and while most of the teams knew it was Edward, some had the wrong number!
• In the first half, the field collectively earned about half of the potential five-point category bonuses.
• Friends Without Benefits answered all five questions correctly in the second round, and recorded the highest score on the halftime puzzle page with 17 points, giving them a slight lead at the halftime break.
• While five teams missed each of the first three questions in the third round, Sloppy Seconds went five-for-five to take a ten-point lead into the final round.
• On our A+B=C question, about half of the teams thought a butterfly had just two wings (the answer is four).
• The game was completely up in the air with the final question. “After the U.S. Department of Defense, which company is the largest consumer of explosives in the United States?” Some teams went with bullet manufacturers.  Some teams went construction companies, but the answer was the Walt Disney Corporation – thanks to the enormous amount of fireworks it shoots off every day!
• Our top two teams missed the last question, which means we needed yet another tiebreaker to decide our second and third place spots.  Here is what our medal stand looked like tonight:

First Place:  Friends Without Benefits

Second Place:  Southpaw Fish (as a solo player!)

Third Place:  Sloppy Seconds

Next week’s first category:  1980s MTV

~ Scott

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Quincy’s South in Rockville, MD

A great night back at Quincy’s after a three-week hiatus.  Jon Jeffries (the Legend) had been filling in for me while I was out training a new host, but tonight I made the triumphant return!  I’m glad to see everyone one last time before the post-season and was happy to host the game for you all tonight!  We had our usual crowd in tonight, seeing Sofa King Smart, Screaming Death Monkey, well, pretty much everyone, too many to name!  Happy that you all made it out!

Going into the game, Uncle Jack looked real good, sporting a full squad and breezing through a nearly perfect first half!  Two points on the halftime page kept them from having a completely ridiculous score, but their score still had them sitting alone and pretty in 1st going into the third round.  Lots of teams were hoping to make up some ground with the next five questions.

Wingardium Triviosa definitely came out strongly as well, nailing the Three Clues / One Word question for the bonus, picking up 11 points!  Uncle Jack didn’t know it and had to resort to tossing out their one-point wager here.  A Word Origins clue asking for the capital of Hell in Milton’s “Paradise Lost” tempted a LOT of early guesses and cost some teams big wagers.  Uncle Jack dropped seven points here, and they fell back quite substantially.

Going into the 6-4-2 question, Wingardium Triviosa held a very small lead.  Round 4 was kind to them as well, keeping the other teams away and letting them walk into the final question with a 12 point lead, not QUITE a runaway but surely a very good position.  American Companies was our final category and it was a toughie!  Only three teams were able to determine that the firework shows of Disney World accounted for the largest consumed explosives in the country; those teams would finish in the $$ tonight!

A correct response propelled Oh God Bees! into the money, notching a third place finish!  Good solve and great finish!  Second place went to a new team calling themselves Boomerangs – they answered correctly on the final and had a very excited reaction to go along with it!  Happy to see a new team succeed in such a tough field of competitors. And your winners, they were up big, they got the final, they took it down. Wingardium Triviosa completes the comeback and snags another W!

Thanks a bunch all! Good luck at the playoffs, we’ll see you in a week!

~ Bill

Next week’s  first category:  2017 Tony Award nominees

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Black Eyed Suzie’s in Bel Air, MD

At Black Eyed Suzie’s in Bel Air, we hosted a trivia battle of our most skilled teams tonight.  Backstreet Boyz faced off against Boogie Friends, their brother team.  Yes, there was a lot of smack talk at Black Eyed Susie’s.  Team Natty Bo put up a good show for their first time at trivia.  At one point, Team Dammit was having so much fun, that they forgot the answers!

The Backstreet Boyz jumped out to an early lead in the second round.  They were the only team to earn a two-point bonus on our audio question, which dealt with three different songs all entitled “Burn”.   They followed that up by being the only team to earn any points on the “Saturday Night Live” question!  Later on, it was Boogie Friends who took the lead by posting the high score of 17 points on the halftime page.  That lead grew considerably as we began the second half.  Boogie Friends was the only team to know FEARLESS was the one word we were looking for in our Three Clues question.  Since every team chose this as their third round bonus category, there were a lot of five-point bonuses missed.

The fourth round proved to be just as strong for Boogie Friends, as they once again were the only team to earn points on a question, this one dealing with homophones.  We asked which word could be a zodiac sign (Taurus) or a circular three-dimensional shape (Torus).  At the end of the final round, the lead for Boogie Friends had stretched to 15 points, meaning that they could not be caught on the final question.  After seven straight wins, Team Dammit was dethroned as our weekly winner.  It’s OK though, Team Dammit took second place, while Backstreet Boyz took third.

Next week we’ll be starting off with a question on the animated series “Samurai Jack”.

~ Natalie

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Casa Tequila in Purcellville, VA

Casa Tequila fue tan divertido esta noche!  It’s always good to see the crowd out there, as well as welcome some new teams to the house.

Round one started us with a little “Friends” knowledge, then brought it back to our recently celebrated holiday of Memorial Day.  Though more could remember Silk than could Boris Becker, everyone knew about déjà vu. I guess maybe they’ve heard that one somewhere before…  We finished the first round with teams True Wit and Just Us tied for the lead.

Our teams didn’t seem as confident with our audio question the start round two even though most knew the songs were titled “Burn”, and only a few must have watched “Saturday Night Live” recently, but most knew about the Ganges River.  It was our baby question the had everybody pulling themselves back up by their bootstraps with the majority knowing about the golf Hall of Fame.  The halftime puzzle page paired TV shows with booze origins.  While most of our crowd seems to know their alcohol, the shows proved to be pretty tough.  Just Us kept their lead and our newcomers, Thundercats were able to claw their way into second place after recording our high score on the puzzle page.

The third round gave us a handful of differing questions from the Air Force to the NFL, and even a little James Bond sprinkled in.  These turned out to be some toughies.  But for our top teams, it was their chance to get some separation from the pack.  After a not-so-hot 6-4-2 question for most-our-teams, the Thundercats caught up to Just Us, and were neck and neck after the third.

Round number four seemed to be successful for most of our teams, as they all did pretty well.  Though, and this is where every question counts, the Thundercats were able to take the first place spot from Just us… by one question. But after being the only team to know that Disney was the second highest consumer of explosives, Just Us was able to claim their victory for the second week in a row!  Second place went to True Wit and third to Thundercats.

Next week’s first category will be Sean Connery Movies.  Thanks to everyone who came out tonight!  See ya next week!

~ Aaron

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Outta the Way Cafe in Derwood, MD

Lots of fun here at Outta the Way Café in Derwood tonight!  We had a full house and lots of new and enthusiastic teams!  We also hosted veteran PHT teams from other venues.  All in all, seven teams packed the restaurant as the trivia throwdown began.

Our teams breezed through the first round, but hit a couple of speed bumps during the second round, most notably on a question dealing with recent episodes of “Saturday Night Live”.  Only ONE TEAM knew that Margot Robbie, Emily Blunt and Scarlett Johansson have each parodied Ivanka Trump this season.  Congratulations to Goddammit Irene, who not only was the only team to earn points on this question, but picked up their maximum wager of NINE points!  Talk about being confident in your answer!  The scores were close at the end of the second round, but High Water Mark (a house champion from a nearby venue) topped the field with 16 points on the halftime page, giviing them a comfortable lead at the break.

High Water Mark increased their lead as they turned in the only correct response on our Three Clues / One Word question.  On top of that, they also earned a two-point bonus by answering after just two clues had been read.  I guess they are huge fans of Jeff Bridges films (or maybe Wall Street sculptures).  needless to say that one question set the tone for the remainder of the second half, as our leaders racked up an insurmountable 19-point lead by the end of the fourth round.  On another night, it might have made a big difference that they were the ONLY team to answer correctly on the final question, but not tonight!  The Steamboat Willies earned tonight’s second place prize, while we needed a tiebreaker to determine our third place team.  In the end, it was the A.B. Battlers who rounded out our medal stand tonight.

What a great game!  We’ll be back here next Tuesday at 8:00p.  Good luck to those teams participating in the Pour House Trivia Playoffs this weekend!

~ Lindsay