QUIZ RECAP

What a boisterous night we had this last Tuesday; 7 teams and 24 players, my goodness. Our seven mental magicians were Looky Lous, Westertoast, I can't pronounce this, Cornstache, NFC Ya Face, The bells are ringing!, and Sucks to Suck. That was a far cry from last week's two-team duel. And all of that just to recognize the plainest of holidays: National Buttermilk Biscuit Day. Well, grab yourself a cup of tea and crumpets and read on to see how things shaked out.

Round 1 had our teams facing a bevy of questions from a variety of categories like cooking (What organ is beef pate made from? Liver) and pop culture (Nicholas Holt plays what author in this 2019 biopic? JRR Tolkien). But it was the question about the first leader of the Soviet Union that left your host the most disappointed. You see, Petoskey's is located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, which is famous for two things: A huge troll sculpture under a bridge, and an imported USSR-era statue of Vladimir Lenin. I mean come on people, it's literally down the street.

Round 2 is our picture round and this one was for the STEM majors as we asked teams to identify and name various pieces of chemistry equipment; think Erlenmeyer Flasks and Graduated Cylinders. But based on our team's collective accuracy of 40%, I can safely say that we have the honor of representing old Seattle and the traditional liberal arts.

Round 3 was our theme round and this one was quite difficult: Greek Mythology (or the initials IL; don't ask, it's a whole thing). Even if you didn't know the abyss where Zeus imprisoned the titans (Tartarus) or the name of the centaur who trained Achilles (Chiron), maybe you could have identified I Love Rock and Roll as the 1982 hit by Joan Jett that was originally released by The Arrows.

Alright time for a score recap. This was a low scoring night due to the increased difficulty of the questions, which is something I tend to enjoy as the host because it makes me look way smarter than you. First place was held by Westertoast with 16 points, second place was Cornstache with 13 points, third place was NFC Ya Face with 12 points, and fourth place was I can't pronounce this with 11. Fifth was tied between The bells are ringing! and Sucks to Suck at 10 points, and sixth was held by Looky Lous at 8.

Round 4 was a Guess Where? round. Teams had to strategically decide when they had enough information from clues to submit a guess, or whether they needed to wait out for another hit of associated factoids. This was a 'groaning' answer, as teams looked amongst themselves with bewilderment over what city's name could possibly mean 'safe place for goats'. Hearing it was associated with organized crime didn't help, nor its placement on an archipelago. But once they heard some of its notable professors like Barbara Gordon and Jonathan Crane, every team quickly realized they weren't dealing with a real city, but a fictional one. With the Batman as its most famous denizen, we were talking about Gotham City.

Round 5 is our Find the Connection Round. Teams get to sort through a bunch of unrelated questions whose answers have something in common with one another. Some asked for holidays (what is celebrated on February 2nd? Groundhog Day), some asked for aliases (what super-villain name does Wilson Fisk go by? Kingpin), and some asked for music ("To the window! To the wall!" is a lyric in what Lil Jon song? Get Low). Teams that recognized movie titles in these answers were only halfway correct, because these are not just movies, they're all Bill Murray movies.

Round 6 is our handout round that allows your host some breathing room to catch up on bookkeeping and water intake. Unlike Round 2 where teams struggled to identify chemistry equipment, teams didn't have a problem matching colors with their associated video game titles as they put up an impressive collective accuracy of 70%. I guess we know why you all failed chemistry now. Whether Red Dead Redemption or Call of Duty: Black Ops, our teams had no problems dispatching our attempts to confuse and confuddle.

One last score recap before the end. Looky Lous decided to end the night early and finished last with 15 points. Sixth place was held by Sucks to Suck with 26 points, while fifth and fourth were taken by I can't pronounce this and NFC Ya Face at 28 and 30 points. Third place was held by Cornstache at 31 points, while second place belonged to The bells are ringing! at 33 points. But first place still belonged to Westertoast at 36 points.

Our Final Round had a slightly different spin. Normally we have one prompt and 10 answers, but this week we had two prompts. They were:

What were the Final Four men's basketball teams?

What are the five parts of the human spine?

Basically you get an easy mode question and then we jump straight to super-expert. Anyone without passing sports knowledge probably cursed their misfortune at nearly being able to make it through a complete game without any questions in the category, which is a reminder to recruit someone to your gang who can help you out. Unsurprisingly though, while the Final Four was well-known, almost no one could name any spinal body part other than the lumbar (like the sacrum or thoracic).

So, after this big final round showdown who came out on top and who fell just short of glory? Sixth place was taken by Sucks to Suck with 30 points, and fifth place belonged to I can't pronounce this with 32 points. A podium finish was just narrowly missed by NFC Ya Face with 35 points and fourth place.

That means our top three finishers were as follows. Third place was taken by The bells are ringing! at 38 points. Second place was Cornstache at 41 points. And Westertoast kept the heat on the whole night finishing first with 43 points.

It was a very tough night of questions no doubt, so don't worry about the lower point totals you may have accrued, everyone was keeping it quite competitive in terms of the general scoring range of all our teams being within 13 points of one another. That means that next week just might be your week, no one is untouchable. Come on down and let's duke it out together!