Wave the White (and Red) Flag for World Series XV!
The 15th edition of the Pour House Trivia World Series featured 89 of the finest trivia teams in the region, each of which was hoping to snag its share of the $5,000 prize pool. Once again, Hager Hall in Hagerstown, Maryland was the site of semi-annual trivia throwdown. With more than 60 trivia venues represented, perhaps we would see a team win its first championship. However, our field also contained five teams that had previously won at least one PHT title. In addition to months of bragging rights, our winning team would take home the top prize of $2,000 in cash for their efforts. As usual, the Pour House Trivia family is thankful for all of the teams that came out to play our game. So how did the game unfold? Let’s find out…
ROUND 1:
The toughest question of the night was waiting for our teams right out of the gate, and it involved this advertising mascot:
While nearly every team earned its wager by knowing which BRAND introduced this character, there were NO TEAMS which were able to earn a two-point bonus by knowing his actual name: LEFTY! We continued the first round with questions on Venus de Milo and the recent re-appearance of Goldie Hawn in the film “Snatched”. Once again, a difficult bonus question helped some teams distance themselves from the pack, as only 17% of our teams knew that Ms. Hawn won an Oscar for her role in “Cactus Flower”:
The round concluded with questions on the Adirondack chair and great American war novels, which were a breeze for most of our teams. We’re glad to see that everybody remembers their high school reading requirements! About two-thirds of our teams answered all five wagering questions correctly. The first round ended with eight teams tied for first place at 34 points.
ROUND 2:
Our audio question involved our teams attempting to find a specific connection between three different songs. Our selections varied widely this afternoon, but most teams were successful in determining that the tunes all included the names of rivers in their titles. Once again, earning the bonus points proved to be a bit of a challenge, as 27% of our teams earned another hard-fought two points by naming “Ferry Cross the Mersey” (by Gerry and the Pacemakers), “Orinoco Flow” (by Enya), and “The Blue Danube” (by Johann Strauss II). Who doesn’t love a little classical music thrown into their pub trivia? OK, maybe not… After a question on international currency, we came upon our Three Clues question, which tonight dealt with a trio of facts concerning New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony:
The two facts which would have lead to a two-point bonus on this question were that Carmelo led the NBA in scoring during the 2012-13 season, but more importantly, he is the ONLY male player to have won three Olympic gold medals in basketball. Any team that knew these facts earned a two-point bonus. As it turns out, that was good enough for about one-third of our teams to earn that bonus. We closed the second round with a question on the TV cartoon series “Chip ‘N’ Dale: Rescue Rangers”. While many of you might have watched this show as a child (or an adult), just how closely were you watching? Did you know that the two title characters were given outfits designed to mimic those of other fictional characters? Of course, this question would be easier if our teams had been given a picture, but they had to work it out from memory.
It seems obvious now, but those outfits pay homage to Indiana Jones and Thomas Magnum (P. I.). Six teams ran the table during the second round with a perfect score of 36 points, leading to a tightly-packed leaderboard as we headed to halftime.
HALFTIME:
Our halftime page dealt with films that topped the box office over the years on Memorial Day weekend, as well as ten-letters words whose first letters spell out the word “summertime”. The average score on the halftime sheet reached 15.8, with four teams notching a perfect score of 20 points: PC Principals, Kobe Buffalo Meat, Comfortably Dum, and Sexual Chocolate. This set up our first leaderboard as follows:
| 1) PC Principals | 90 |
| 2) Jeff King Experience | 89 |
| 3) Comfortably Dum | 86 |
| 4) Satan’s School for Girls | 85 |
In addition to these scores, six teams sat tied for fifth place with 84 points, and 12 other teams scored within ten points of the lead as we began the second half.
ROUND 3:
On any given night of Pour House Trivia, it is the third round that separates the cream of the crop from the rest of the trivia world. Not surprisingly, World Series XV was no different. Right off the bat, we asked teams to identify the letters which correspond to a single dot in both the Braille and Morse alphabets. Respectively, those letters are A and E. While most teams knew one of the two, only about one-third of our teams knew both to earn a two-point bonus. We followed with our Last Word / First Word question, in which we managed to string together two phrases into “Grand Theft Auto Five Pillars of Islam”. Some teams may have been lulled into a false sense of security, as the Last Word / First Word question tends to be on the easier side in our nightly games. Tonight was exactly the opposite! This was the most difficult wagering question of the entire game, as only 12% of our teams came up with this elusive seven-word phrase. We then included another picture question, asking about this gentleman who dominated headlines in 2001:
He was much more recognizable in 2001… 
Yes, it was former Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. We concluded the third round by asking for either one of the two California venues to have hosted the Super Bowl this century. Surprisingly, it has NOT been held at the Rose Bowl in almost 25 years (probably due to a lack of luxury suites and giant scoreboard), so the correct answers were actually Qualcomm Stadium (in San Diego) and Levi’s Stadium (in Santa Clara). At the end of the third round, we were happy to announce a new leader on the afternoon, one who was hoping to avenge a devastating loss from last season’s championship:
| 1) Jeff King Experience | 121 |
| 2) Dusty Baker School of Management | 118 |
| 3) High School Prom | 117 |
| 4) Satan’s School for Girls | 116 |
Our 6-4-2 question was rather straightforward, as the six-point clue simply asked for the number of people who have served as Secretary-General in the history of the United Nations. With some teams needing a spark to gain ground in the standings, about one-quarter of our teams ventured a guess after this first clue, but only TWO TEAMS knew the correct response of nine people. Not surprisingly, the two teams which earned six points were the two teams currently at the top of the leaderboard.
ROUND 4:
We began the final round asking about the one-hit wonder music group which included Scottish twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reed. While you might not recognize their names, you would certainly recognize their voices, as they were known as The Proclaimers in their heyday:
About two-thirds of our teams earned their wager here, while half of those also earned the two-point bonus by knowing their hit song “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” gained popularity after being featured in the film “Benny & Joon”. The second question of the final round was by far our most difficult question of the round. This was our last picture question of the day. The schematic seen below is a representation of the various locations of the title character in which seven-part children’s book series?
It appears that many teams heard “seven-part series” and went immediately to Harry Potter. But alas, these are the locations at which you will find Waldo in his original series of books (the dotted line in the center represents the page fold). Only 15% of our teams answered this question correctly, and with many teams tossing in a high wager, their overconfidence had quite an impact on the final standings. Later in the fourth round, we learned that Carroll O’Connor is the only male performer to have won lead acting Emmy Awards in both the Comedy and Drama categories (for “All in the Family” and “In the Heat of the Night”).
After four rounds, a new leader emerged from the pack:
| 1) Dusty Baker School of Management | 159 |
| 2) Jeff King Experience | 157 |
| 3) High School Prom | 155 |
| 4) Wiseacres | 153 |
| 5) PC Principals | 152 |
| 6) Arrondissements of Ouagadougou | 150 |
| 7) High Water Mark | 148 |
It had been several years since we had asked a World Series final question in the category of World Geography, but that’s what our teams dealt with today:
Among the U.N. members whose national flags are comprised of ONLY red and white, which two countries are the most populous?
About 75% of our teams were able to come up with Japan (the tenth most populous country on Earth) as one of the two correct answers. The second country actually has many more people than Japan, but perhaps its flag is not as well known to Americans:
The trivia elite proved their mettle, as this is the flag of the fourth most populous nation on Earth: Indonesia! Our final question was answered correctly by 12 teams out of our entire field of 89 teams, but half of those correct answers came from teams that were already in the top ten (including five of the top seven teams), so there was very little movement in the final standings. In the end, Dusty Baker School of Management hung on to claim its second Pour House Trivia World Series title!
CHAMPIONS! Dusty Baker School of Management (from Bennigan’s – Clarksburg)
SECOND PLACE – Jeff King Experience (from Il Forno)
THIRD PLACE – High School Prom (from Basic Burger)
FOURTH PLACE – Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (from Captain Benders)
FIFTH PLACE – High Water Mark (from Woodside Deli)
SIXTH PLACE (Tie) – Breadsticks (from Quincy’s)
SIXTH PLACE (Tie) – Flight Level Awesome (from Belles’ – Wednesday)
EIGHTH PLACE – Satan’s School for Girls (from Memories)
NINTH PLACE – Wiseacres (from Champion Billiards – Tuesday)
TENTH PLACE – PC Principals (from Basic Burger)
OVERALL FINAL STANDINGS:
| 1) Dusty Baker School of Management | 170 |
| 2) Jeff King Experience | 168 |
| 3) High School Prom | 166 |
| 4) Arrondissements of Ouagadougou | 162 |
| 5) High Water Mark | 160 |
| T-6) Breadsticks | 158 |
| T-6) Flight Level Awesome | 158 |
| 8) Satan’s School for Girls | 147 |
| 9) Wiseacres | 141 |
| 10) PC Principals | 140 |
| T-11) H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff | 137 |
| T-11) Heavy Metal Parking Lot | 137 |
| T-13) Roaming Gnomes | 135 |
| T-13) Alternative Answers (Bernie’s) | 135 |
| T-15) Poovey Farms | 134 |
| T-15) Smarty Pants | 134 |
| T-15) Sexual Chocolate | 134 |
| 18) Stink Floyd | 133 |
| 19) Scoundrels | 132 |
| T-20) Hoboken Squat Cobbler | 131 |
| T-20) No Clue | 131 |
| T-22) Morgan Station | 130 |
| T-22) Einhorn is Finkle, Finkle is Einhorn | 130 |
| T-22) Southpaw Fish | 130 |
| T-22) Kobe Buffalo Meat | 130 |
| 26) Alternative Facts (Monkey La La) | 129 |
| T-27) Uncle Jack | 128 |
| T-27) Blue Collar | 128 |
| T-29) Crystal Methodists | 126 |
| T-29) Stupider Sexier Flanders | 126 |
| T-31) Your Mom | 125 |
| T-31) Give Us Your Beer Money | 125 |
| T-33) Sofa King Smart | 124 |
| T-33) Demented and Sad but Social | 124 |
| T-33) Power Vacuum | 124 |
| T-33) Comfortably Dum | 124 |
| T-37) Victorious Secret | 120 |
| T-37) Kelly’s Heroes | 120 |
| 39) Witioits | 119 |
| 40) Quality Guesswork | 118 |
| 41) Donner Party | 117 |
| 42) Tequila Mockingbird | 116 |
| 43) Suck it Trebek | 115 |
| T-44) Time to Get Schwifty | 114 |
| T-44) Hail Mary | 114 |
| 46) Maybe Babies | 113 |
| 47) Ya Donkey | 112 |
| 48) Salt & Pepper | 111 |
| 49) Sloppy Seconds | 109 |
| 50) We Need an Adult | 108 |
| T-51) Rock Lobsters | 107 |
| T-51) Pookie and the Bwain | 107 |
| T-51) Fan Club | 107 |
| T-51) Momentary Lapse of Reason | 107 |
| 55) Other Sarah | 106 |
| 56) Menace 2 Sobriety | 104 |
| 57) Jackie’s Team | 103 |
| T-58) Book Club Babes | 102 |
| T-58) Quiz in My Pants | 102 |
| T-60) Screaming Death Monkey | 101 |
| T-60) Vitrifers | 101 |
| 62) No Reservations | 100 |
| 63) FNQ | 99 |
| 64) Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap | 98 |
| 65) Beer Makes Smart | 96 |
| 66) Poe Pouree | 95 |
| 67) Literally Anything | 94 |
| 68) Schniggles | 93 |
| T-69) Bosom Buddies | 89 |
| T-69) Beer Pressure | 89 |
| T-71) Breakfast for Dinner | 88 |
| T-71) Yinz Winz | 88 |
| 73) Wingin’ It | 85 |
| 74) Off Beats | 84 |
| T-75) Voltron | 83 |
| T-75) Mischief Managed | 83 |
| 77) Dukes of Knowledge | 82 |
| T-78) Alternative Facts (Il Forno) | 81 |
| T-78) Goobers | 81 |
| 80) Suck It Trebek (Valley Grill) | 78 |
| 81) Potent Potables | 73 |
| 82) Blank Space | 70 |
| 83) Multiple Scorgasms | 69 |
| T-84) Die Dan Die | 67 |
| T-84) Pugalicious | 67 |
| 86) Incognido’s | 65 |
| 87) Fellowship | 62 |
| 88) Shakeweight | 57 |
| 89) Lone Strangers | 47 |