We are now at the halfway point of the $2,500 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament. One team, Stern Fans, has already claimed their berth in the finals. There are still seven spots available.
Now does this mean that there are only eight teams eligible to play? Not really.
See, the best way to get involved in the tournament is to come to Elbo Room every Thursday night with your friends, think up a good team trivia nickname, and play the game. You don’t have to win; even coming in third place can earn a team a playoff point.
And just remember that in the final week, there is one big game to play. The winning team takes home $2,000. The second place team snags $500. That’s a lot of money. This ain’t just wings and beer money. Well, yeah, you can get lots of wings and beer with this kind of money, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Although there are nine playoff points available each week (five points for first, three points for second and one point for third), no team can earn more than five playoff points in a week. So there are 55 first-place playoff points up for grabs, prior to last night’s game. Those second-place and third-place points are important too, they can keep you from falling below the cut line.
I arrived early and got a table for my teammates. Unfortunately, my teammates were jammed up with other projects and couldn’t get to trivia. This happens. It just means I have to play as a solo team. Not like that hasn’t happened before.
Meanwhile, I look across the bar at the Skidmarks team, who have cobbled together four tables and enough chairs to start their own tabernacle choir. “Where’s your team?” Ryan from the Skidmarks chided at me.
“Where’s yours?” I asked back.
I actually did well for the first half, nailing questions involving how many seasons How I Met Your Mother has been on the air (6), the location of NCAA headquarters (Indiana), and the sign for those born on New Year’s Day (Capricorn). I flopped on the double bonus, not realizing that the two countries who fought in the Battle of Port Arthur were NOT America and Mexico; it was actually Japan and Russia.
At that point, I ended up with a temporary teammate. Michele Poole, who plays on a team called The Wrong Guy, arrived at halftime and I invited her to join me for the second half of the game. We did well, even to the point where I nailed the quadruple bonus – the four comic strip creations of Jim Davis, Scott Adams, Mort Walker and Johnny Hart (Garfield, Dilbert, Beetle Bailey and B.C.). I even nailed a tough six pointer, as to the more familiar identity of one Edward Bear (yes, it’s Winnie the Pooh).
As the final question rolled in, Street Academy had 100 points, only 16 behind the leaders, which at that time was Woo Hoo a Go Go. Would this be the night that Woo Hoo got on the board?
The final category was “International Harbors.”
I didn’t like this question, but there wasn’t much of a choice. If I bet a few points, teams could jump over me with a correct answer. If I bet the farm, I could get the answer wrong. I decided to go with 21 points – if for no other reason than if I did get the answer right, it would at least lock out some of the other teams from getting major points.
“In what country will you find Port Jackson?”
“I think it might be Australia,” Michele said to me.
“Nah, it can’t be Australia,” I replied. “It’s probably somewhere in Canada or New Zealand or South America or something.” And I wrote down Canada.
Feel free to add the sound effect of the sad trombone. Wah-waaaahhh.
It was indeed Australia – and Michele Poole now joins my daughter Cassaundra as the two guests of Street Academy who had the right answers and I talked them out of the right answers. D’oh!!
Now as for points.
Stern Fans increased their lead by finishing second; Team Schooled picked up a point, and the Flabbies – which were Kramer’s Flames – hit five big points and are now in a three-way tie with Street Academy and the Sneaky Petes for second place.
So here’s the standings after ten weeks. The top eight teams are listed above the “CUT LINE”; if the tournament ended today, those would be the eight teams that can play in the championship round. Any team with a star in the box marked “Finals” has mathematically qualified for the money round, no matter how they do for the rest of the tournament.
| Trivia Team | Points | Totals | FINALS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stern Fans | 3 | 20 | ★ |
| T-2 | Flabbies | 5 | 12 | |
| T-2 | Street Academy | 12 | ||
| T-2 | Sneaky Pete’s | 12 | ||
| 5 | Schooled | 1 | 11 | |
| 6 | Skidmarks | 9 | ||
| 7 | Da Bears | 8 | ||
| 8 | Just the Tips | 5 | ||
| THE CUT LINE | ||||
| 9 | Woo Hoo a Go Go | 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.
Ten weeks down. Ten more weeks to go.
Chuck The Writer 