Thursday Trivia is Ideal!

What a night for Pour House Trivia! We welcomed 224 teams across 21 area venues, including our newest spot: Michaux Brew in Waynesboro, PA. On top of that, three locations each played host to at least 20 squads: Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA (20 teams), Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD (21 teams), and a full 24-teamer at Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA!

FIRST ROUND:

Teams cleared through the first round on Thursday, dealing with subjects such as tropical depressions and the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers. The only bit of trouble that was had in this round came on the bonus portion of the last question:

• The ABC sitcom Black-ish had which two spinoff series? Both shows included the letters ish in their titles as well.

Just under one third of our teams were able to name both of those spinoffs, Grown-ish and Mixed-ish, for two extra points. However, there were still 26 teams that went perfect in this round.

SECOND ROUND:

An audio question about bizarre cover songs began the second round, followed by a question about canoes. A tricky bonus chance came next, in which 36% of teams named both authors of The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The last question of this round contained the most difficult bonus question in Thursday’s first half, on this wagering query:

• Situated in northeastern India, which city is the namesake for a popular variety of tea and is also found in the title of a film directed by Wes Anderson?

That Wes Anderson film was The Darjeeling Limited. While most teams named that city for their wager, just 29% also named that film’s star, Adrian Brody, for extra credit. We still had double-digit perfectos in this round, as 17 teams recorded all 36 points.

HALFTIME:

Altered band logos and fictional mailing addresses were the topics in question on Thursday’s halftime page. Nineteen teams scored all 20 points here, while the average score was 16.1 points. We reached the halftime break with two teams at a perfect 92 points and a few teams not far behind:

• Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown): 92
• Mad Facts: Query Road (Solace Brewing): 92
• We Drink and We Know Things (Smoketown): 91
• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 91
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 90

THIRD ROUND:

The second half of Thursday’s game kicked off with a three-parter on U.S. presidential election runners-up, in which 45% of teams earned wagering points. Halfway through this round, we reached the night’s hardest bonus question; we asked teams to fill in the blank on the literary quote hope springs eternal in the human breast, but just 8% of teams could identify its author, Alexander Pope. The toughest wagering question in this round came at the end:

• After hosting the 1976 Summer Olympics, which city’s Olympic Stadium became the home stadium for a Major League Baseball team?

While they eventually switched cities (and countries), that team was Montreal‘s own Expos; about 42% of the field had the right answer there. There were two perfect scores in this round, by Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown) and Legalized Gambling (Aslin).

FOURTH ROUND:

Ohio was the 6-4-2 topic in this game, and 37 teams named the state after the first clue to earn the maximum six points. The final round began with an episode of the game show Minute to Win It, where one-eighth of teams knew former Olympic athlete Apolo Ohno was its host in 2013. The most difficult wagering query came next, on an A+B=C question that asked teams to add these things together:

• A: The total number of days and nights mentioned in the title of a 1998 film starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche.

• B: The number of heads in a duffel bag, according to the title of a 1997 Joe Pesci comedy.

With the film titles Six Days, Seven Nights and 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, the correct sum of 21 was given by just over a quarter of the field. Directly following that one, we gave Three Clues about the musical Hello, Dolly!; 26% of teams received wagering points, while 12% had it early for bonus credit. Finally, a question about the African nation of Ghana saw 14% of our teams get extra points with the correct capital city of Accra. We got perfect scores in this round from Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen), Thoroughly Screwed (Loudoun Kitchen), Great Heathen Army (Brewery Fire), and Fosbury Floppers (Mark’s). Before the final question, this is how the top of the scoreboard shook out:

• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 163
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 159
• We Drink and We Know Things (Smoketown): 158
• Great Heathen Army (Brewery Fire): 158
• Fosbury Floppers (Mark’s): 156
• YOLO Swaggins (Crooked Run): 156

FINAL QUESTION (36.2% success rate):

• Which eight-letter adjective can describe a type of polyhedron or a type of relationship between two people?

Thursday’s final vocabulary lesson was about the word platonic. The same quartet that recorded perfect scores in the fourth round finished up with a Perfect 21 on Thursday: Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen), Thoroughly Screwed (Loudoun Kitchen), Great Heathen Army (Brewery Fire), and Fosbury Floppers (Mark’s). At the end of the game, these were the highest-scoring squads:

• We Drink and We Know Things (Smoketown): 167
• Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown): 166
• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 166
• Thoroughly Screwed (Loudoun Kitchen): 165
• YOLO Swaggins (Crooked Run): 163
• Purr and the Kitty Kats (Solace Outpost): 161
• Game Time Decisions (Loudoun Kitchen): 161
• Just Us (Loudoun Kitchen): 161
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 160
• Suspect Tuna (Michaux): 160

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: We Drink and We Know Things  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: A “Great” Question)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Crabcakes  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Coins)

Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Washington Foreskins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Star Wars (original trilogy))

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: The Gang Plays Bar Trivia  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Dune (novel))

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Pho Q  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Seinfeld)

Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Mad Facts: Query Road  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Great British Bake-Off)

Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Great Heathen Army  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Summer Olympic Host Cities)

Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Lucky Number Seven  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: AC/DC (audio))

Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: YOLO Swaggins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Boer Wars)

Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Purr and the Kitty Kats  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hocus Pocus)

Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: No Brainers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Urban Legends)

Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Samurai Trivia Players  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: M*A*S*H (TV series))

Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: Bazinga  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Potent Potables)

Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: I Don’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Originals (TV series))

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Bad Rhino  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Cocomelon)

Two Story Chimney Ciderworks in Gaithersburg, MD: E=MC Hammer  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: A Christmas Story)

Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: Just Good Enough  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Nine Perfect Strangers)

Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA: Stressed  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 16th-Century Poetry)

Comus Inn in Dickerson, MD: Birds  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: British Monarchs After 1800)

Michaux Brew in Waynesboro, PA: Suspect Tuna  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Derry Girls)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fosbury Floppers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 8-Bit Computers)