Week 14 of the 2010 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

If you go to Elbo Room to play trivia on a Thursday night, you learn something very quickly.

The host, General James, puts up with a lot of stuff every time he hosts.

The microphone works about 75% of the time.  The location in the bar where he hosts has the worst lighting imaginable, it’s like trying to see in a cave.

And if there’s an issue involving a question, he’s got to be the arbiter every time one of us trivia players has a dispute.  No, Skidmarks, I didn’t count people who wrote down that the letter “M” in HMO stood for Management, I simply made a mistake when I said the original answer.  No, Street Academy, I didn’t count your answer of “The Artist” as a recent Robert Downey Jr. movie when I know you meant to write the answer The Soloist.  No, Lisa from Da Bears, I know that – oh wait, Lisa from Da Bears wasn’t there Thursday night to gripe about a question or the answer.

Which came down to the answer for the final question Thursday night.  The category was “board games,” and the question involved the number of different states referenced on a Monopoly board.

Technically, the purchasable properties on which one can build a house or a hotel have ten different state names – Vermont, Connecticut, Virginia, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.  Pennsylvania is also represented by purchasing the Pennsylvania Railroad, while another railroad, the “B&O” Railroad, technically represents Ohio (the “O”).

Of course, half the teams have to go up and get rulings and clarifications from General James regarding this.  How the guy kept his cool through all that, I’ll never know.

We had the right answer – ten – but three teams ahead of us also had it, so no additional playoff points for Street Academy this week.

Oh, and by the way, a message to anyone who shows up at a bar when competitive team trivia is on the docket.

DO NOT SHOUT OUT THE ING ANSWER TO A QUESTION!

If you shout out an answer, whether you’re right or wrong, you cause other teams to either take that answer as if it’s right, or to subconsciously think that the answer is wrong because somebody is probably using Bud Light braincells and would answer anything!  If you really want to play competitive team trivia at a bar, grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down your answers to the questions and hand them to the host.  Don’t be “that guy.”  Because “that guy” shouted out a couple of answers last night – right or wrong – and it can either give teams who don’t know the answer a shot at getting it right, or it can make a team second-guess itself and write down a wrong answer.

I’m just saying, is all.  You’re like the person who goes to a poker game, stands behind someone as they’re checking out their hand, and then says, nice and loud, “Oh man, what are you going to do with that 2-7 off-suit?”

So after fourteen weeks, here are the standings. Twelve black stars (one star for each attendance) 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.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 14

	Trivia Team	Points	Totals	Attendance
1	Con-Fear-Acy	5	23	★
2	Da Bears		23	★
3	Skidmarks	1	19	★
4	Woo Hoo a Go Go	3	17	★
5	Stern Fans		16	★
6	Big Red Machine		14	★★★★★★★★★★
7	Street Academy		4	★

Two weeks left to go, with the championship game on June 10th. Good luck to all.