24Jan
By: Richard Bond On: January 24, 2018 In: Season 8 League Play Comments: 0

Wow. What other word could describe the events that took place at the Golden Eagle Ballroom on a chilly night at Cal State LA? Uh, how about, AWESOME? The weather was no match for the fire that filled the lungs of the elite King Trivia teams that turned up for the Season 8 Tournament of Champions.

King Trivia allowed me, your King, backed by Quizmaster Extraordinaire, David Gaelic (Gallic?) to lead the charge and award $10,000 in prizes to 6 lucky teams.

Registration and entry got off to a solid start, as we received more spectators than expected vying to assist their teams with all of the support and backup they could. Meanwhile, I was gracious enough to allow photos of myself to be taken. After all, an event like this only happens once a year. Hopefully all of my girlfriends were not jealous.

We began the evening by congratulating Team of Enchantment for their big win in Season 7 last year. Ignoring all the boo’s they received, the incumbent champions fought hard, but surprisingly did not place! Oh, what a cruel mistress King Trivia can be.

The game itself started with a bang, as 12 teams successfully doubled down in the first round. Our amped up team of scorekeepers, backed (literally) by their pit boss, performed like a well-oiled machine through all 7 rounds. Especially my favorite, the Guess Who round, where the subtle differences between the Mara sisters spelled doom for some of our intrepid teams. Rooney and Kate are frequent guests of the King’s table, but I digress…

Between rounds, I was honored to meet and greet so many wonderful and talented teams, all winners in their own right, and all proud and eager to take home a prize… Teams like Dan Mitchell A Team, with whom I had the honor of discussing the mysterious Dan Mitchell, how good they think they are, and how they thought they would finish. While shocked that they held the lead for so long, Dan Mitchell A Team remained confident that they were on the track to victory.

After the 5th Round, we had our Spirit Award Ceremony.  While the table top air guitar (a la Highway Stars) and hand drawn images of me riding Babar the elephant (thank you Team Hubris) were amazing, there could only be one winner:

Spirit Award: Our Combined IQ is…!

They still don’t know their IQ, but they nevertheless donned custom vests fit for royalty, an enthusiasm for King Trivia karaoke, and an overall fun and inviting personality to take home the Spirit Award for the second year in a row. Congrats!

Before we got to the end, I, your King, recognized all of the wonderful teams, the King Trivia staff, our Quizmaster (David G-something?), and, of course, our King of Kings, Josh Lieberthal for making this whole event possible.

But all good things must come to an end, and after 7 tough rounds, it was time to announce our winners!

Of course with so many awesome teams, we were bound to have a tie. To resolve it, teams were asked one final question. How many flights did the 273rd busiest airport in the United States get? Well, I don’t remember, but whose guess was closest!?

25th Place: Westeros Baptist Church!

Westeros Baptist Church came out on top of the 5 way tie to take home the $200 prize for 25th place. Finally, some good news out of the 7 Kingdoms!

And now our top 5 teams:

5th Place: Hi (Yes, “Hi” is their name) won $300 for their efforts

4th Place: Mr. No Poster Shop, King Trivia veterans with multiple TOC wins (and a pretty awesome video) under their belts, took home the $500 prize!

3rd Place: Penis Riot!* won the tie breaker to earn that $1500 3rd place check

When it came time to announce our first and second placed teams, the competitive energy was palpable. But there could only be one ultimate Champion at King Trivia’s Tournament of Champions.

2nd Place: Dan Mitchell A Team got their hands on that $2,500 prize

In the grand tradition of the Oscars and Steve Harvey, a brief (but heartbreaking) miscommunication caused Dan Mitchell A Team to be incorrectly pronounced the first place winners! The matter was quickly resolved, however, and the true Champion was crowned:

1st Place: Secular Healing Raked in the massive $5000 first place prize!

And wow, with only a 1 point difference between our top teams, it was a nail-biter! As Queen’s “We Are the Champions” blasted in the background, our teams graciously accepted their prizes and will forever be cemented in King Trivia lore. As for this King, I could not be more thankful for those who came out to enjoy the festivities. We’ll see you next time for Season 9!

Final Scores

Rank Team # Team Name Score
1 10348 Secular Healing 90
2 10355 Dan Mitchell A Team 89
3 10435 Penis Riot!* 87
4 10028 Mr. No Poster Shop 87
5 10808 Hi 82
6 10187 DaNile 72
7 10919 Zach Attack 71
8 10021 Benjamin Quizraeli 70
9 10481 Our Combined IQ is… 69
10 11138 Short Handed 69
11 10777 Multiple Scorgasms 67
12 10249 Pharrell and Elphaba 67
13 10033 Team of Enchantment 67
14 10032 Jury of Your Beers 65
15 10086 We Got Nothing 65
16 10325 The Wallets of El Segundo 62
17 10454 Kitten Mittens 61
18 10908 Like Winter, I’m Coming 60
19 10445 A Team Has No Name 59
20 10643 Because Jeopardy Won’t Let us Drink 59
21 10213 Dick City: Population Weiners 59
22 10015 Quiztopher Walken 59
23 10695 Spare Parts 59
24 10395 Hail Hydra! 58
25 10016 Westeros Baptist Church* 57
26 10073 Crippling Autism 57
27 10011 Eat Me, I’m a Danish 57
28 10794 Moose and Squirrel 57
29 10839 The Donner Party Train 57
30 10904 Bad Juju 56
31 10418 Bakshi Boys 56
32 10600 Better Late 56
33 10787 Schultilanos 54
34 11501 Ace Tomato Company 53
35 10074 Carpe Trivium 53
36 10773 Fartin’ Van Buren 53
37 10065 Gazpacho 53
38 10209 Good to Be a King 51
39 10554 The Fighting Mongooses, that’s a good team name… 51
40 10781 The Pen-Ultimates 51
41 10206 Black Dragon Society 50
42 10655 Murder 49
43 10775 Here For the Beer 48
44 10770 Order of Chaos 48
45 10645 The Bad Explainers 47
46 11764 Shave My Back 46
47 11696 Indifferent Penguins 44
48 10077 Team Porkchop 44
49 10064 Streets of Rage 43
50 10340 Beer Me, Bitch 42
51 11288 Ancient Geezers 40
52 10826 Sick Boyz 40
53 11102 Grace Under Fire 39
54 10879 survivors 37
55 10299 The Skeptics 37
56 10051 Tapped Out 36
57 10641 The Knights Who Say Ni 31
58 10785 They’re All Twix! 30
59 12107 Highway Stars 29
60 10752 Never Been Brissed 29
61 10155 Tequila Mockingbirds 28
62 10325 Pasadena Peeps 26
63 11023 The Four Eyes Quartet 26
64 10608 Trashley Wards 26
65 10774 ABC 123 24
66 11769 Awesome Sauced 23
67 10747 Nuns with Scissors 18
68 10265 Double Dat Doodie! 16