Week 4 of the $2,500 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

It was a tough three weeks in the tournament.  But not this week.

In the fourth week of the Elbo Room big money trivia tournament, my Street Academy team had a full compliment of trivia teammates – myself, Jeremy and Alexis.

I should also note that after a one-week hiatus from the bar, the team known as Da Bears returned to Elbo Room.  They’re playing under another team name, but I didn’t catch what that team was.  All I can say is, for a team that said they were never coming back, “never” is approximately two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Street Academy team had a rough go of it in the beginning – we burned our double-chance option by guessing that Andy Warhol died in either the 1980’s or the 1990’s – it was the 80’s, so we used our double-play option judiciously.  We skipped the next two questions – one involving the state that celebrates “Statehood Day” on the third Friday of August (Hawaii), and the sport that was banned in China for nearly 30 years (boxing).  We had 12 points in the first quarter – but that was actually enough to lead.

Then we turned on the afterburners.

We nailed the identity of the first cartoonist to win the Pulitzer Prize (Garry Trudeau), we knew the New York City building that has stone lions in its entranceway (the New York Public Library), the college football teams that meet in the Red River Rivalry (Texas and Oklahoma), and how many children George Washington actually fathered (none).

We had a dispute regarding a 10-point question – “What baseball team in 1998 became the first team to have a stadium with a retractable roof?”

Now that question’s a bit cloudy.  The Diamondbacks’ ballpark does have a retractable roof – but nine years earlier, Toronto’s SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) also was built with a retractable roof.  After much discussion, General James gave points to anyone who said Arizona or Toronto.  Fair enough.

At the final question, we had 124 points – while two other teams, Team Schooled and Stern Fans, each were tied with the lead at 130 points (we had a triple bonus question in which we had to name the three male stars of the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil; all we could come up with was Kevin Spacey, while two other teams correctly identified the other actors in the film).

The final category was video games.  We resolved to bet our entire amount – and if we got the question right, Street Academy would be guaranteed at least third place and at least one playoff point.

Now I should mention that the category of video games – especially in the Trivia Nights Live game – is extremely nebulous.  I’ve seen questions about the year in which the first Grand Theft Auto was released in America; I’ve seen a question as to what home video system was the first to have a Donkey Kong port (Colecovision); there was also a question about the first decade of operation of Nintendo (1880’s, it manufactured Japanese hanafuda cards).

We handed up our bet.

“To celebrate its anniversary, what game could be played on Google’s home page for two days in 2010?”

Two days?  Heck, you can still play it on Google’s homepage by clicking here!

Almost every team in the bar got Pac-Man as the correct answer, including us.  So we were guaranteed at least one playoff point.

General James read the scores.  “With 248 points, first place to Street Academy!”

Cheers from us.  Boos and catcalls from the rest of the bar.

“Oh wait, oh wait,” General James said. “I’ve made a mistake.  Sorry.  Team Schooled had 249 points, they have first place.  Street Academy came in second with 248 points, and the Sneaky Petes took third place.”

I went over to General James and gave him some good-natured ribbing on his math skills.  But the fact of the matter is – Street Academy picked up three playoff points, and we’re now on the board!

And we have a fifth teammate.  Steve asked after the game, “This is a lot of fun, do you think I could be part of the team?”

Hey… no problem here.  Welcome to Street Academy.  The new person has to bring cookies for the rest of the team. 🙂

So here’s the standings after four weeks. Remember, there is no “mandatory attendance” record, so it’s not necessary for me to list every team who played Thursday night – just the ones that earned playoff points.

	Trivia Team Name	Points
1	Schooled (+5)	10
2	Sneaky Pete’s (+1)	9
3	Kramer’s Flames	5
4	Stern Fans	4
T-5	Street Academy (+3)	3
T-5	Da Bears	3
T-7	Skidmarks	1
T-7	Just the Tips	1

And only the top eight teams will make it into the final tournament round.  Any team in ninth place or below will not make the cut.  So teams now have to keep playing and avoid the dreaded cut line.

So I’m driving back home, and I suddenly receive a text message.  I pull over, look at the message – it’s from General James.  I thought, heck, did his math screw up and we landed in third place?

“Chuck, someone found your class ring, Kramer the bouncer has it the next time you come back to Elbo Room.”

I quickly looked at my right hand.  Oh no.  My class ring must have fallen off at some point – and I never even noticed!

A quick U-turn and back to Elbo Room I went.

Apparently after the game, several of us went outside the bar to hang out.  Somewhere between then and when I got in my car, my ring must have slipped off my finger.  A customer found the ring and brought it back to the bar.  When I got back to Elbo Room, Kramer went to the cash register, opened the drawer, and pulled out the ring.

I went over and thanked the good Samaritan who found my ring.  Oh man.  My heart just went back into my chest cavity after that moment.

But all is good now.  My ring is back, and Street Academy’s on the board with playoff points.

Four weeks down. Sixteen more weeks to go.