QUIZ RECAP

Petoskey's second night of trivia for 2019 wasn't quite as rambunctious as our first, but sometimes a calmer and more intimate affair is exactly what the doctor ordered. We had only three teams competing tonight: Space Whole Foods, Team Dental, and the Bingo Wing Superstarz. We also had a late entrant who joined up for our final few rounds in Mother's Day with 2 Dads who put up an impressive 70% accuracy for the rounds they were able to join in for.

But what of our other competitors? How did they fare throughout the night's affair? Things started off with a bang or a whimper depending on your point of view; every team destroyed our General Knowledge Round 1 with 100% accuracy. With layup questions like "What eating utensil made of bamboo was invented in China?" or "What is the capital of Washington", this may have been my fastest round of trivia ever. But in the end only Space Whole Foods was gutsy enough to Double or Nothing and get 12 points as opposed to 6. That's a good reminder that game strategy can sometimes matter just as much as your actual knowledge.

Our Visual Round 2 had our contestants matching pictures of famous TV hosts with their names, and this ended up being another easy round with an average accuracy of 80% among all our teams. But it was Round 3 where things really got interesting, with two teams opting to Double or Nothing. This was a fun Theme Round titled "Second is the best", where every answer had "to, too, two, 2, or tu" in it. From Toucans to Desmond Tutu, our players had no problem dispatching answers left and right. But it came down to our question about an Alabama college basketball playing rapper to determine the arc of this episode's plot. The answer we were looking for was not Tupac but 2 Chainz. While Dental suffered the sting of a 1-wrong answer Double or Nothing and zero points, Space Whole Foods capitalized on their early lead with yet another Double or Nothing.

This put our standings at the following: Space Whole Foods was way out in first with 32 points, Bingo Win Superstars in second at 17, and Dental back in third with 11. Was the night's contest looking to be all wrapped up before it even got started? Well, maybe not, for it was in our Guess Who? Round 4 that we had a sudden reversal of fortunes. Dental successfully guessed Sarah Silverman almost immediately after the 10-point clue, but Space Whole Foods mistakenly guessed Janeane Garofalo which cost them a point. This cut Space Whole Foods to only a 10 point lead, as the remaining teams were both tied at 21.

Things continued with a Shoe-Brand focused "Find the Connection" Round where the teams all managed to score an average accuracy of 70%. Unfortunately we then had a bit of a uninteresting Handout Round 6 in comparison to last week's fan favorite ("TV shows within TV shows"). Here teams were tasked with were merely guessing the missing initial from Celebrity Names, which was both straightforward and somewhat easy, as our teams posted 70% accuracy yet again, and they finished answering in just a few minutes.

Closing out the night was a much more entertaining Final Round titled "Ferrell Creatures". Our final question was:

What are 10 of the 12 highest grossing (US) Will Ferrell films, not adjusted for inflation?

We some surprisingly well-versed fans in the audience pulling up deep cuts like Everything Must Go and Stranger Than Fiction but alas, those admittedly much better films were beaten out by the likes of the Daddy's Home franchise. Of course we had some classics like Elf, Step Brothers, and Talladega Nights, but we also had some lesser known flicks like Megamind or The Other Guys. There were even some cameo only films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.

In the end, Space Whole Foods held onto their lead and ended up in First Place with a strong 54 point finish. Bingo Wing Superstarz stayed on their tail all the way from Round 4 onwards, ending up just 10 points away in Second Place with 44 points. And Team Dental closed things out in Third Place at 36 points.

Thanks to all our competitors for helping to make our intimate little dinner together a fun contest of wits. I'll be here next week with a fresh batch of questions!