This game could have gone in so many different directions, not to the dismay of Thirsty Pretzels or Highway Stars.
Winner Winner, Where's Our Dinner? jumped ahead of three teams when they figured out Manchester United by the 8-point clue (Thirsty Pretzels knew it first and got free nosh out of it, of course). But the excitement caused Winner Winner to jump the shark a bit, leading to two failed double downs on Krewes and "K" countries.
The Church of Quizentology (who busted out a team name stamp like true bosses) and King Trivia virgins The Jackson Five both couldn't recover from a poor Guess What? score, and while Baby Cheeses could not figure out cartoon Cupids to save their lives, they missed out on an opportunity to double down on Mardi Gras parade Krewes.
Ava's Minions (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi oi oi!) could have had the chance to fight Highway Stars to the death for second place, but forgot to turn in their pen, so they had to settle for $10 instead. Tragic.
A couple teams went stag tonight -- meaning Baby Cheese got a free appetizer all to himself for being the first person to figure out Sting was our Guess Who? of the week. Home Team, on the other hand, was a little rusty without his majestically bearded other half.
The top prizes were awarded to those who dared to double down on their Greek alphabet -- a surprise come from behind for Dream Girls, and ALMOST a tie for first between Thirsty Pretzels and Ava's Minions, had the latter not remembered to their pen in at the last minute.
The Emotional Support Goblins were no match for the usual Recess Room hot shots, but Quizmaster-in-Training Sarah did a great job reading and scoring our cheesy themed round.
Tonight the Yang Gang disbanded, but the Recess Room trivia horde doubled in size!
Most everyone was knowledgeable of their Stephen King films, Japanese-themed tidbits, and all things Jon Favreau. But heaven help you if you doubled down on Round 5 -- Shameless may have been filmed in Chicago, but how soon we all forgot The L Word's connection to Chicago is their rapid-transit system. This faux pas allowed Car Ram Rod to surprisingly sneak into second place by correctly doubling down on Great Plains states (being from the midwest has SOME advantages, I guess!). That also meant Sara & Sean's Excellent Adventure had no chance of placing, but they still stuck around for the end results and had loads of fun. Newcomers Tots, Thots, & Shots (BEST TEAM NAME EVER) knew they'd have to knuckle down pretty hard if they had a chance against the heckling Highway Stars, but you'd best believe they didn't go down without a fight.
Thirsty Pretzels took a gamble on their Great Plains, not realizing that not doubling down would have meant beating (or at least tying with) Car Ram Rod and taking second place right out from underneath them. Alas, they went home salty -- though winning a free appetizer for being the first team to figure out Round 4 made it better. And we were happy to see Ava's Minions take third, despite the Aussie on the team not knowing that the hell a "great plain" is!
And Highway Stars, with a strong start doubling down on general knowledge, and Round 3 being just too Japan-easy, took home the $40 first place prize, and all the bragging rights. I should've gotten a nice big arigato! for giving them the right questions tonight!
