Week 15 of the Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

Man, it’s been a while. It’s almost as if I hadn’t played team trivia at Elbo Room for the last three weeks.

Oh wait… I haven’t played trivia at Elbo Room in the past three weeks.

Well, it’s good to be back in the mix.

Last night’s game was a close battle, as several trivia teams – including Mayhem, Brown Van Experience and Clay Aiken’s Skid Marks, along with my Street Academy Team – stayed in the lead through most of the night.  We nailed questions about what rock star was buried in a KISS-branded coffin (Dimebag Darrell), what Disney-themed Broadway show earned two Tony awards for director Julie Taymor (The Lion King), and what Patrick Swayze movie was the first to earn a PG-13 rating (Red Dawn).

Still at the end of 19 questions, I was in fourth place and looking up at three other teams.  Category at the end was Natural Disasters.  Figuring the question wouldn’t have anything to do with New York State’s budget crisis, I bet all of my 116 points and hoped for the best.

“What country suffered a flood in 1931 that killed over 4 million people?”

Hmm… Holland is below sea level, and maybe one of their dikes cracked open and flooded… sure, I’ll write Holl – – wait wait wait, four million people, I don’t think Holland HAD four million people back then.  I don’t think India had any sort of a flood of that magnitude, and the Johnstown flood in the United States wouldn’t have killed the entire population of the East Coast… let’s hedge a bet and go with China.

The answer was China, and the four top teams – including me – got it right.  One of those teams, Stern Fans, bet only a couple of points, so I was able to leapfrog them into third place and get another playoff trivia point.

The Brown Van Experience nailed three points, and Clay Aiken’s Skid Marks – whose team had grown to about 15 members last night – took five points for another trivia win.

And that team was feeling its oats.  Any time Street Academy or Stern Fans’ name were even mentioned, they booed and jeered like we were the ones who tied Pearl White to the railroad tracks.  At one point, myself and another team – Mayhem – were tied for second place, and once Street Academy’s name was mentioned, there were a chorus of boos and catcalls and raspberries from the Skid Marks’ table.

I deadpanned a response.  “Why are you booing Mayhem like that?  They did nothing to you!”

Meanwhile, in terms of scoring, the Brown Van Experience becomes the sixth team to be “locked in” for the money tournament, as the three points they nabbed gave them a mathematical confirmed spot for the January 28 finals.  They actually pole vaulted over the “Touched by by an Uncle” team, who hasn’t shown up in a while.

So after fifteen weeks, here are the standings, and remember – only the top eight squads get into the final round. Teams listed in green have guaranteed themselves a spot in the final “money week” round.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 15

	Trivia Team	Points	Totals
1	Mayhem		23.3
2	Stern Fans		23
3	Big Red Machine		22.3
4	Street Academy	1	19.5
5	Clay Aiken’s Skid Marks	5	15
6	Brown Van Experience	3	8
7	Touched by an Uncle		7
8	Woo Hoo a Go Go		4.5
THE CUT LINE
T-9	The Wrong Guy		3
T-9	The Third Wheel		3
11	Monkey Knife Fights		2.3
12	Dr. Occam’s Razor		2
T-13	Nasty Nate		1
T-13	Overqualified and Unemployed		1

Two weeks left.  Two weeks left for teams like The Wrong Guy, The Third Wheel and Monkey Knife FIghts to squeeze their way into the tournament; or two weeks left for Touched by an Uncle or Woo Hoo a Go Go to hold onto those final spots.  Then comes the big money finals on the 28th.  Bring it on.