As faithful readers of this stupid blog are keenly aware, I'm semi-retired from the grind that is the trivia circuit. There are enough locations that have team trivia here in the Gate City area that I could play 3 or 4 times a week. But I don't. In fact, I'm so semi-retired from the trivia drag, that I've only made it out twice all year to the weekly proceedings at Wing Joint (once in March & once again in April). 
Yesterday, I ventured out a 3rd time for trivia. Only this was no regular game. Yes, a championship game came to the Triad for the 1st time. I promised my team (Phil, Phil's wife, and the chick engaged to an Italian) that I would get there for the big game. And I kept my word. I waltzed into Wing Joint just before 2 and I knew immediately it was a big trivia game. Why? Because the bar was filled with a cast of freaks that never makes it out of the attics or basements of dear old mom's house in daylight hours. There were just over 20 teams playing for this "title," and more importantly $400. The game started a little late (as championship games always do) and I liked our chances at the outset. I was feeling really good because the 1st two questions were about The Tropic of Thunder and Yo Gabba Gabba - 2 of my all time favorite things in the history of western civilization (Downey Jr & Brobee...). We proceeded to coast trough the 1st half and got 12 of 15 on the halftime quiz (the only question I was clueless about was the store brand at Costco, & luckily Phil's wife shops there...). We were one point out of 1st to 2 teams at that juncture and then we got the next 3 right. Then, as will happen at these games, at least on teams I play on, things went haywire. The next question was who was the 1st receiver to gain 200 yards in a Super Bowl. Eventually I figured out the correct answer. The problem was that I wasn't super confident in the answer and the question was the 1st of round 5. We bet the lowest points we could. MISTAKE. The reason we bet the lowest points we could was because the next 2 questions were gonna be about US states & music lyrics. I liked our chances at both categories, particularly music lyrics. We had 4 folks there & I figured one of us would know whatever it was. We proceeded to bomb the question about US states. No one had any kind of decent guess. We did guess a state, so at least we had a 2% chance of being right. Alas, ...Then on the lyrics question, I had only a vague guess. The bad thing about that was that Phil came up with the same bad guess. We had to bet our highest point choice for the round (6 in this case) because it was all we had left to use. Our guess was wrong (we guessed an Elton john song & it was Ray Of Light by Madonna...embarrassing). At that point in the game, I knew we'd thrown away 4 vital points by using our 2 point answer for round 5 on the Jerry Rice question. And I knew we were most likely, no matter what, playing for 3rd. We managed to get all 3 correct for round 6. And sure enough, my feelings on where we stood after the round 5 debacle were dead on. We were down 5 from the 2 teams tied for 1st. And 7 ahead of 4th. If we'd just bet the max total on the Rice question, we'd have been 1 down and very much alive. The way they do the final question at these championship games is not an all in Jeopardy style wager. Team Trivia wants to reward strong play from the beginning of the game (do you hear that Brian from Showtime Trivia???). So what they did was give us 3 actors and told was to come up with the top 5 grossing films that each had appeared in (no cartoons). The actors were Sandy Bullock, Matt Damon, & Cameron Diaz. For each correct answer, you got a point. For each wrong guess, you lost a point. If you didn't guess 5 movies for each star, you didn't lose a point. My strategy was to go with between 9 and 11 films between the 3 that we were super confident in, and hope the 2 teams in front of us messed up and got like 9 right, 6 wrong for a net gain of 3 and we could get a net gain of 9 or more and swoop in for the victory. The only problem with my strategy was that we couldn't agree on the best answers for Matt Damon. That and I nixed an answer of The Proposal for Sandy Bullock (big mistake there...sorry ladies). We got a net 7 for the round. And ended up 1 point out of 2nd. Bitterly disappointing. I hate that feeling. Especially because, as always, the blame lies squarely on my shoulders. These folks only tolerate me sitting there with them because there is an expectation I will carry them to victory. It didn't happen. I will say one thing, I felt a whole lot better than I would have if we'd come in 4th. Because 4th got nothing. You might as well have missed every question on purpose and came in dead last. That's how valuable coming in 4th was. At least we got $100 for my very public shameful performance in round 5. Damn round 5. You suck...
Yesterday, I ventured out a 3rd time for trivia. Only this was no regular game. Yes, a championship game came to the Triad for the 1st time. I promised my team (Phil, Phil's wife, and the chick engaged to an Italian) that I would get there for the big game. And I kept my word. I waltzed into Wing Joint just before 2 and I knew immediately it was a big trivia game. Why? Because the bar was filled with a cast of freaks that never makes it out of the attics or basements of dear old mom's house in daylight hours. There were just over 20 teams playing for this "title," and more importantly $400. The game started a little late (as championship games always do) and I liked our chances at the outset. I was feeling really good because the 1st two questions were about The Tropic of Thunder and Yo Gabba Gabba - 2 of my all time favorite things in the history of western civilization (Downey Jr & Brobee...). We proceeded to coast trough the 1st half and got 12 of 15 on the halftime quiz (the only question I was clueless about was the store brand at Costco, & luckily Phil's wife shops there...). We were one point out of 1st to 2 teams at that juncture and then we got the next 3 right. Then, as will happen at these games, at least on teams I play on, things went haywire. The next question was who was the 1st receiver to gain 200 yards in a Super Bowl. Eventually I figured out the correct answer. The problem was that I wasn't super confident in the answer and the question was the 1st of round 5. We bet the lowest points we could. MISTAKE. The reason we bet the lowest points we could was because the next 2 questions were gonna be about US states & music lyrics. I liked our chances at both categories, particularly music lyrics. We had 4 folks there & I figured one of us would know whatever it was. We proceeded to bomb the question about US states. No one had any kind of decent guess. We did guess a state, so at least we had a 2% chance of being right. Alas, ...Then on the lyrics question, I had only a vague guess. The bad thing about that was that Phil came up with the same bad guess. We had to bet our highest point choice for the round (6 in this case) because it was all we had left to use. Our guess was wrong (we guessed an Elton john song & it was Ray Of Light by Madonna...embarrassing). At that point in the game, I knew we'd thrown away 4 vital points by using our 2 point answer for round 5 on the Jerry Rice question. And I knew we were most likely, no matter what, playing for 3rd. We managed to get all 3 correct for round 6. And sure enough, my feelings on where we stood after the round 5 debacle were dead on. We were down 5 from the 2 teams tied for 1st. And 7 ahead of 4th. If we'd just bet the max total on the Rice question, we'd have been 1 down and very much alive. The way they do the final question at these championship games is not an all in Jeopardy style wager. Team Trivia wants to reward strong play from the beginning of the game (do you hear that Brian from Showtime Trivia???). So what they did was give us 3 actors and told was to come up with the top 5 grossing films that each had appeared in (no cartoons). The actors were Sandy Bullock, Matt Damon, & Cameron Diaz. For each correct answer, you got a point. For each wrong guess, you lost a point. If you didn't guess 5 movies for each star, you didn't lose a point. My strategy was to go with between 9 and 11 films between the 3 that we were super confident in, and hope the 2 teams in front of us messed up and got like 9 right, 6 wrong for a net gain of 3 and we could get a net gain of 9 or more and swoop in for the victory. The only problem with my strategy was that we couldn't agree on the best answers for Matt Damon. That and I nixed an answer of The Proposal for Sandy Bullock (big mistake there...sorry ladies). We got a net 7 for the round. And ended up 1 point out of 2nd. Bitterly disappointing. I hate that feeling. Especially because, as always, the blame lies squarely on my shoulders. These folks only tolerate me sitting there with them because there is an expectation I will carry them to victory. It didn't happen. I will say one thing, I felt a whole lot better than I would have if we'd come in 4th. Because 4th got nothing. You might as well have missed every question on purpose and came in dead last. That's how valuable coming in 4th was. At least we got $100 for my very public shameful performance in round 5. Damn round 5. You suck...I should very quickly here congratulate the winners of the game. It was a team of 6 fat guys who I'm guessing don't have too much luck with the ladies. I have no idea what their team name was. I pay no attention to any of that stuff. Hell, I couldn't even tell you what our team name was. I'm in my own little world. Anyway, congratulations to the 6 lonely fat guys who won the game yesterday. They kicked my ass and deserved the victory. Well done, fellas.
1 comment:
The girl in the picture could catch it.
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