We Had a Whale of a Time at Weekend Trivia!
Each of our four Friday night games welcomed at least ten teams last weekend, including a massive 23-team field at Vanish Brewery in Loudoun County. Across the board, we saw 74 teams take in a game of weekend trivia at one of six venues.
FIRST ROUND:
Opening round topics from last weekend included Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Ohio River, musical bandmates, the city of Berlin, and the film “Driving Miss Daisy”. Our Saturday teams were given the most difficult bonus question of the first round, as none of those 14 teams knew that China produces the most grapefruit worldwide. As a result, all of the perfect scores from the opening round were posted on Friday, as nine teams broke out of the gate with 36 points.
SECOND ROUND:
After breezing through the first few questions, our Friday teams were forced to run the gauntlet in the second round, as four of the five wagering questions yielded success rates of less than 40%. Difficult second round topics included TV talk show theme songs, Baseball Hall of Famers, and the death of John Dillinger. The most difficult wagering question of the first half was asked on the topic of anagrams:
–> Anagrams of each other, one of these words is a synonym for home, while the other is a material that it might be made from. For your wager, name BOTH of these words.
Only 19% of Friday’s field responded correctly with abode and adobe. Meanwhile, our Saturday teams faced an easier slate of wagering questions, dealing with topics such as Jennifer Lopez and the U.S. Civil War, but once again a single bonus question kept the perfect scores off the board. None of our Saturday squads knew that Eric Blair was the real name of author George Orwell. The only perfect score of the second round was posted by Killer Snails (P. B. Dye).
HALFTIME:
Topics from the weekend halftime pages included ubiquitous brand names, TV character nicknames, breakfast foods, and songs whose titles include the word “Stop”. Six teams notched a perfect score of 20 points, while the overall average reached 14.9 points. Here is your weekend leaderboard after one half of play:
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 89
- Killer Snails (P. B. Dye): 89
- Irish Beer Mafia (Pretzel & Pizza): 88
- Barking Bad (Pretzel & Pizza): 87
- Slightly Agitated (P. B. Dye): 87
- No Ma’am (P. B. Dye): 87
THIRD ROUND:
For the third round in a row, a single bonus question prevented all of our Saturday teams from recording a perfect round:
–> During the decade of the 2000s, two films won the Academy Award for Best Picture without receiving ANY nominations for acting. Identify either one of these two films.
Only two of our Saturday squads gave us either correct answer of “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”or “Slumdog Millionaire”, with neither of those teams scoring bonus points by giving us both films. Other third round topics included the Garden of Eden, the life of Anne Boleyn, the reality TV show “Wahlburgers”, and Death Row Records. Two of our Friday teams ran the table in the third round by posting 36 points: Mad Facts: Query Road (Vanish) and Megatrons (Springfield).
FOURTH ROUND:
Final round topics from last weekend included X-Men characters, the hard rock band Linkin Park, actress Meg Ryan, the John Deere company, the TV sitcom “Silver Spoons”, and the Kansas City Chiefs. On both Friday and Saturday night, three teams swept the final round with a perfect score of 36 points. These were your highest scoring weekend teams after four rounds of play:
- Killer Snails (P. B. Dye): 163
- Slightly Agitated (P. B. Dye): 157
- Irish Beer Mafia (Pretzel & Pizza): 157
- Mad Facts: Query Road (Vanish): 156
- No Ma’am (P. B. Dye): 154
- Fan Club (P. B. Dye): 154
- You Had Me at Trivia (P. B. Dye): 154
FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (37.9% success rate):
–> The title character of which 1851 novel doesn’t appear until the final two chapters?
SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (21.4% success rate):
–> Identify the two U.S. state capitals located on the Mississippi River.
Friday’s correct response was “Moby-Dick”, while only three of our Saturday teams gave us both correct answers of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and St. Paul, Minnesota. Congratulations to Titanic Swim Team (Vanish), who recorded the only Perfect 21 last weekend by answering every wagering question correctly. Here is your final weekend leaderboard:
- Fan Club (P. B. Dye): 166
- You Had Me at Trivia (P. B. Dye): 166
- Irish Beer Mafia (Pretzel & Pizza): 163
- Titanic Swim Team (Vanish): 159
- Anything But Sports (Vanish): 158
- Raspberry (Vanish): 158
- Four Pours and Seven Beers Ago (P. B. Dye): 158
- Megatrons (Springfield): 158
- Who Do You Axe (Dragon): 157
- FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 156 POINTS
LAST WEEKEND’S WINNERS:
Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Megatrons (Next week’s first category: Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Vanish Brewery in Leesburg, VA: Titanic Swim Team (Next week’s first category: “Psych”)
Black Walnut at P. B. Dye in Ijamsville, MD: Fan Club (Next week’s first category: 2020 Grammy Awards)
Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD: Who Do You Axe (Next week’s first category: Southern Rock – AUDIO)
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Smarty Pants (Next week’s first category: Derek Jeter’s MLB Career)
Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Irish Beer Mafia (Next week’s first category: Super Bowl Potpourri)