Week 8 of the 2010 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

I arrived at Elbo Room.  I got the customary “BOOOOO” from the Skidmarks, and some jeers from Woo Hoo a Go Go.  General James handed me my answer slips.

Oh… did I mention that he had already asked Question 12, and that if I hadn’t arrived within the next three questions, I would not have been able to play that week?

Yep.  The Street Academy team (which on Thursdays is just little old me) arrived at Elbo Room an hour late.

What you don’t know is that I spent the better part of the day trying to get a decent price to replace my water heater, which died that day.  I went through several different companies until I found one with a reasonable price for a new water heater, installation and removal of the old tank, as well as a warranty that lasted a decent length of time.

But I had to make sure all that was taken care of before I went to trivia.

See, sometimes outside forces can mess with my plans for competitive team trivia.

Case in point.

About a year ago, I wanted to surprise my wife Vicki on her birthday.  The plan was to play competitive team trivia that evening at Broadway Joe’s on South Pearl Street, where Kevin Baker hosted a trivia game.  I asked Baker ahead of time if he could throw in some questions that were based on things my wife knew and appreciated – i.e., panda bears, Norman Rockwell, Barry Manilow, Larry Bird, postage stamps, etc.

He agreed and said he would come up with some for that night.

I told Vicki to meet me there after work and we would have dinner and play trivia.

My plan worked perfectly.  All the pieces were falling into place.

Except one.  One of my writing clients called me and said that one of his freelancers dropped the ball and didn’t get a story sent to him in time for deadline.  He asked if there was any way I could take care of it.

So I spent the better part of the afternoon interviewing people, typing up the story, getting photos from the client involved, and e-mailing everything to my editor, who was very appreciative of my hard work, dedication and expediency.  And the extra chunk of change in my check didn’t hurt either.

But when I finished, it was 6:30.  Trivia at Broadway Joe’s had already gone on for an hour.  I raced as fast as I could to Broadway Joe’s, where Vicki was sitting there, writing down the answers on the little slips of paper and handing them in to Baker, who hosted the game.

I apologized like crazy.  She understood.  I handed up the next slip to Baker.

“Where were you, man?”

“Got jammed up with a wirting assignment,” I said.  “How’s Vicki doing with he questions?”

“She did okay, you’re not in the lead, but she did get a 10-pointer about where the NCAA Final Four will be played next year that I didn’t think she’d get.”

In the end, Vicki did have a good birthday dinner, and there was a fun trivia night in it despite my late arrival.

But back to Elbo Room.  I finished the night by getting the final question, involving the film Sideways, but so did most of the bar.  About the only thing I did get was another attendance point.  Skidmarks and Con-Fear-Acy (the merging of the “Mayhem” and “Brown Van Experience” teams) picked up standings points, as did Big Red Machine, who moved into the point totals, moving me down to eighth place.

Of course, this does bring up an interesting variable.  The top eight teams get to play for the money.  But right now there are nine teams that have met the attendance requirements, including a team called ‘The Super Winners,” who haven’t shown up in the past four weeks.  If they drop out, then it’s looking like the eight teams that actually have points – Con-Fear-Acy, Skidmarks, Stern Fans, Woo Hoo a Go Go, Big Red Machine, Da Bears, Touched by an Uncle and Street Academy – would qualify for the tournament automatically.  And then it’s just playing and playing and playing until the end.

Which is why I ran like Meat Loaf’s debut album to get to Elbo Room last night.  Even if I didn’t make much of a splash in the tournament that week, at least I showed up.

So after eight weeks, here are the standings. There’s a new column called “attendance,” in which teams that show up each week receive a black star. Twelve black stars earn you a green star, meaning you have fulfilled attendance requirements (to be in the finals, you must attend 75% of the qualifying weeks). If your team has a “red star” next to your name, you are in danger of being disqualified for not showing up for the requisite 12 out of 16 weeks to qualify for the tournament. Teams with names struck through means that they have missed too many weeks and are no longer eligible to play in the tournament.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 8

	Trivia Team	Points	Totals	Attendance
1	Skidmarks	1	18	★★★★★★★★
2	Con-Fear-Acy	5	14	★★★★★★★★
3	Da Bears		11	★★★★★★★
4	Stern Fans		10	★★★★★★
5	Woo Hoo a Go Go		9	★★★★★★★★
T-6	Big Red Machine	3	3	★★★★★
T-6	Touched by an Uncle		3	★★★★★
8	Street Academy		2	★★★★★★★★
9	Tres Hombres		1	X
T-10	The Super Winners			★★★★
T-10	The Nature of Play			X
T-10	The Wrong Guy			X
T-10	The Elbow			X
T-10	The Know-Nothings			X
T-10	Team Liz			X
T-10	The Irish Rovers			X
T-10	The Soloist			X
T-10	TNT			X
T-10	The Tex-Cal Connection			X
T-10	Jesse James’ Rejects			X
T-10	The Bruisers			X
T-10	Glenmont			X
T-10	REO			X
T-10	Powder Blue Productions			X

Remember, you have to play at least 75% of the weeks in the tournament to qualify for the final money round. 8 weeks left to go.