QUIZ RECAP

We had a wild night here at Petoskey's but nobody took the bait of commenting on my sandals and bright red cereal "I can't adult today" sock combo. That's okay, I'll see if I can pull something more outlandish out next week. We had five teams competing for glory: Any way you want it, Who do you think you are, Finley's Friends, NFC Ya Face, and If we lose it's homophobic.

General Knowledge Round 1 saw Finley's Friends take an early lead off the back of their successful Double or Nothing. It was a pretty straightforward warmup round though, so it wasn't necessarily commendation worthy. Although I enjoyed seeing multiple scribbled out wrong answers on answer sheets as people worked out the math by hand to solve the square root of 225 (15).

Picture Round 2 was about identifying films solely by a picture of a notable wrestler who was featured in it. So if you saw a picture of Andre the Giant holding a rock, you'd know it was The Princess Bride. To my surprise we didn't have very many teams identify The Predator (Jesse Ventura) or Rocky III (Mr. T) correctly, but recency bias makes it easier to identify X-Men (Tyler Mane) I guess.

Themed Round 3 was all about dragons. Some of them were real like a dragonfly (What insect is admired in poetry of Lord Tennyson?) but others were fictional friends of ours like Puff (What magic dragon is the focus of a Peter, Paul, and Mary song?). Unfortunately for one team they took a gamble on my initial error in saying Kimono instead of Komodo as meaning the answer was Japan instead of Indonesia and lost their Double or Nothing as a result. In their defense I did say it was a Freudian slip but I couldn't remember the technical term for that kind of letter-swap mispronunciation if there is one.

So let's check the scores at this point in the evening. First place was held by Finley's Friends at 20 points, closely followed by If we lose it's homophobic at 18 points. Third place was Any way you want it at 15 points, then NFC Ya Face in fourth with 14 points. Our caboose was Who do you think you are? with 7 points following that failed DBO.

Our Guess Who? Round 4 was supposed to be a sneaky trick, but I utterly failed to swindle our teams as they saw through the ruse immediately on the 8 point clue. I guess too many people saw the The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, as they immediately recognized the names Kovu and Kiara as belonging to the next generation of animated lions and not real people. I guess those direct-to-video sequels did pretty well for Disney after all if they stuck in the collective synaptic memory.

Unfortunately we bounced off a great Round 4 into an atrocious Find the Connection Round 5. Despite 10 questions not a single team was able to score more than 3 correct answers. But it wasn't the fault of our teams in my opinion, we've got a good and capable crowd so I'll lay the blame on the questions. After all, I'd argue you should lose a point if you actually knew YouTuber and all-around awful human being Logan Paul's debut single Help Me Help You.

Things turned right around in Handout Round 6 as every team got 8 or more questions correct. Since the questions were all about matching famous castles with their countries of origin, obviously we're all highly cultured world travelers who know their Chateau Gaillard's (France) from their Krak des Chevaliers (Syria).

So, what were the scores before we headed into our Final Round? Finley's Friends continued to hold onto their narrow first place lead with 39 points, but If we lose it's homophobic was still nipping at their tails with 38 points. Third place was Any way you want it at 33 points, closely followed by NFC Ya Face at 32. Who do you think you are had slowly fought their way back within shooting distance with 27 points.

So without further ado, the Final Round prompt this Tuesday was:

What are the 9 US State Capitals with multiple-word names?

This was a middle-America based questions so converts to the Best Coast were in an advantaged position to crank out answers like Des Moines, Saint Paul, or Jefferson City. When all else failed though, guessing a multiple word city was better than nothing though, as every single point in this game ended up being a difference maker.

With two successful Double or Nothings we had a major final second photo finish. Last place ended up being Any way you want it with 38 points while fourth place was taken by If we lose it's homophobic at 44 points (I swear it's not true though XD). Yes that means that Who do you think you are? managed to comeback all the way to third place with 45 points after their DBO, just a point away from matching Finley's Friends second place finish with 46 points. And so it was that NFC Ya Face ended up on top after their DBO, securing a first place finish with 50 points.

Congratulations to all our teams for a great night of competition despite the ping-ponging of perceived question quality. We kept it close, we kept it tight, but most of all, we kept it fun. Hope to see you all back again soon, next Tuesday will be here before you know it.

QUIZ RECAP

Ease your worries friends, your host has survived the cavalcade of human misery that was thrown at him this week. What originally started with needing to replace a burnt out light-bulb started a chain reaction of events that required replacing a flat tire and visiting urgent care over a displaced toe. But enough about me, how did things go for our trivia warriors this last Tuesday? We had four teams battling it out in Petoskey's: V Jay Jays, The Geminip Slips, LGBTBBQ, and It Looks Purple.

Things kicked off with our General Knowledge Round 1 where we had a bit of a fakeout sports question. Although the question technically asked for a NBA player's name, sports knowledge alone would not have helped you with identifying who was briefly married to Kim Kardashian (Kris Humphries). Picture Round 2 had teams identifying fictional 'little brothers'. We had some universal culture grabs like Luigi (Mario Bros.) and Loki (Thor), but it wasn't quite so easy to remember Michael Darling from Peter Pan.

Something sounded fishy with our Round 3 questions. Whether it was asking what food item Kanye West wanted to choke South Park writers with (Fish sticks) or the TV show that introduced Detective Phil Fish (Barney Miller), our teams had to hold their noses as they waded through the stank of thematically expired questions.

The scores at this point of the night were as follows. It Looks Purple were riding high with 1st place after their early first round Double or Nothing helped catapult them to 24 points. The Geminip Slips trailed behind in second place at 16 points, with LGBTBBQ close behind at 15 points and third place. V Jay Jays held fourth with 10 points.

Our Guess Who? Round 4 nearly led to a collective wipeout as our teams gambled on guessing the identity of our mystery musical icon early on. With hints about their attendance at Tuskegee Institute and their successive R&B groups, our teams jumped the gun a bit too fast after the 8 point clue. Had they waited for the 6-point reveal about their album Can't Slow Down, they might have joined It Looks Purple with a correct answer of Lionel Richie.

Find the Connection Round 5 had teams to trying to identify the clever through-line of things that go in a bottle. We had some classic answers like The Message (What grandmaster Flash song has the words 'don't push me I'm close to the edge') or Ketchup (what is added to mayonnaise to make American fry sauce), but we also had some historical anachronisms like Milk Duds (what caramel candy, packaged in a orange box, was introduced in 1926). And yes, a milk bottle is outmoded, you're thinking of baby bottles which can contain any kind of liquid.

Handout Round 6 challenged our teams to associate two word slogans with their corresponding corporations. So if I gave you Eat Fresh, you would give me Subway. Surprisingly, the slogans that gave our teams the most problems were Think Different and Think Small. I guess we're all Microsoft loyalists, because nearly all the teams mixed up Apple and Volkswagen.

Before I reveal the final round prompt, let's get a quick score recap. Despite their best efforts, nobody was able to catch up to It Looks Purple after they pulled even further ahead in Round 4. They were in first place with 43 points. Second place was held by The Geminip Slips at 30 points, but LGBTBBQ was in third place at 20 points after a valiant but failed Double or Nothing. V Jay Jays were a close fourth at 19 points.

Now, for the Final Round 7 prompt.

What are Hugh Jackman's 10 highest grossing domestic movies not adjusted for inflation.

And while I appreciate all of our team's deep cuts to the entire Jackman film catalogue, you'll always want to remember that highest grossing questions usually don't mean best. You'll find superhero and action movies tend to dominate these lists, and Jackman's list was no different, with 7 out of 10 belonging to the X-Men franchise. A little shoutout to the completely unguessed Happy Feet which beat Les Miserables and The Greatest Showman.

In the end, the standings did not change. It Looks Purple took first, second went to The Geminip Slips, third was LGBTBBQ, and fourth was V Jay Jays. Congratulations to all of our teams for a fun night of competition and friendship. I hope to see you all this coming Tuesday or one in the future.

QUIZ RECAP

I hope everyone left a good tip this last Tuesday because unbeknownst to you it was National Waitstaff Day and we were all secretly judging you. We had four teams of trivia fiends duking it out among themselves: Cunning Stunts, NFC Ya Face, Ayo River, and The Diosuri, not Castor + Poilux, but Ashley + Mary Kate Olsen featuring Elizabeth in the role of the younger sister. I'm just going to abbreviate that last one to the Diosuri if you don't mind.

Round 1 had the teams battling over trivia from a variety of categories. Were they smarter than a fifth grader who can identify the scientific names of certain clouds (cumulus)? Or maybe this was the time for them to get over their Game of Thrones finale depression and remember which cast member married Joe Jonas (Sophie Turner).

Either way, we quickly moved into our Picture Round 2 as teams identified screenshots from critically acclaimed films that all won at the Cannes film festival. We had some mass-culture picks like the picture of Samuel Jackson in a suit holding a gun (Pulp Fiction), but many of the others were extremely difficult to guess and showed only the character's upper body and head. Do you really think you could recognize The Piano or Dancer in the Dark just from the actor's headshots?

Well some of our teams actually managed to pull that off which you'll see in this Score Recap. First place was The Diosuri with 11 points, second place was NFC Ya Face with 9 points, Ayo River had third with 8 points, and Cunning Stunts was in fourth with 6 points.

Round 3 is our Theme Round and this Tuesday the theme was 'Spring'. A bit straightforward yes, but that doesn't mean every question was easy to guess. For example, even with the 'spring' clue, could you tell me what town did Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman takes place in (Colorado Springs). Or perhaps you could have identified the Astro's MVP from the 2017 World Series (George Springer).

Guess Who? Round 4 saw our denizens guessing the identity of a famous writer. Our first clues were pretty vague, referencing their Minnesota birthplace and their first book, The Romantic Egotist. But later clues quickly gave up the plot, revealing their WWI era time period and his wife Zelda. Actual book readers rejoice, for yes it was F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Round 5 is our Find the Connection round which is always a fun round to play. Even if you never identify the connection you can still rack up 90% of the points from traditional trivia questions. So if you're just finishing up escrow (Quicken Loans is what kind of lending company? Mortgage) or have a weak spot for chocolate (What state is headquarters to Hershey? Pennsylvannia), or are simply a child of the 70s (Morgan Freeman regularly starred in what educational TV show? The Electric Company) you could have helped contribute to your team's own success. If you wanted to go that last tenth of a mile though, you would need to have recognized the Monopoly connection between all of these answers.

Round 6 is our handout round that gives your host a little brreathing room to catch up on note-taking and bookkeeping. Unfortunately for me though, you guys are so fast at answering the questions that you end up turning in the answers before I'm ready to hit the hosting track again. This week you powered through musical association, as you matched Jukebox Musicals with the artists associated with them. Think Escape to Margaritaville / Jimmy Buffett or Movin' Out / Billy Joel.

Before we head into the Final Round, let's get a score recap. The Diosuri had taken a very strong lead off the back of a Round 5 Double or Nothing with 49 points and first place. 2nd place was over ten points back at 37, belonging to Ayo River. NFC Ya Face was close behind at 35 points, and Cunning Stunts was our stalwart caboose at 21.

Still, anything can happen in a 10-point Final Round if you can pull off a Double or Nothing. And this week's final round prompt was:

What are 10 of the 12 NFL teams that reached the Superbowl in the time period of 1980-1989?

If you needed another reminder that King Trivia samples evenly from all categories, this was it. Those teams who remember to bring a sports person to complement their science person perform best. That's not to say a layperson couldn't get a good number of points here, but intuition would say the Packers would show up on this list but surprisingly, they weren't.

At the end of the day, the winners were as follows:

1. The Diosuri

2. Ayo River

3. NFC Ya Face

4. Cunning Stunts

Thanks to everybody for coming out and hopefully my allergies will have adjusted to our new pollen ridden atmosphere by next Tuesday.