In the 1980’s, there was a running joke about the NHL playoffs – with 21 teams in the league and 16 teams invited to the playoffs, it seemed as if the regular season was designed to eliminate the Winnipeg Jets from the postseason.
This is what is currently happening in the current iteration of the Elbo Room Trivia Tournament. With only a few weeks left in the tournament until the February 17, 2011 championship round, three of the teams with playoff points – Stern Fans, Street Academy and Team Schooled – are locked into the finals. That leaves six other teams fighting for five playoff spots. And that’s not even counting teams like Get That Poison Out or The Super Winners, who have not yet even put a mark on the playoff board.
So now we get into playoff positioning mathematics.
The Flabbies and the Sneaky Petes can lock themselves into the final round with a win – or if Stern Fans, Street Academy or Team Schooled pick up a win.
Meanwhile, the Skidmarks, Da Bears, Just the Tips and Woo Hoo a Go Go are fighting in a trivia game of musical chairs, hoping to be in the remaining three seats when the music stops.
Last night at the Elbo Room, my Street Academy trivia team was, for the first time in a while, fully stocked. And by the first quarter, we and Stern Fans were in the lead with a perfect 30 points (five questions answered correctly). Of course, since Street Academy and Stern Fans have both won the Trivia Bowl, that meant we were going to get the requisite chorus of boos and jeers from the Skidmarks. Ah, some things never change.
But by the twelfth question – an easy four-pointer – I made a bad goof. In trying to remember what “pedal-pushers” were, I thought they were a type of women’s fashion shoe. They were pants. But I wrote down shoes on the slip. Cost us four points. My bad.
But the team member who really moved to the forefront last night was Alexis Curry. She nailed at least five questions before anyone else on the Street Academy squad could come up with the answer – such as the name of the pet owned by Emily Elizabeth (Clifford the Big Red Dog), the name of the TV show with a theme song by Jane’s Addiction (Entourage), and the mixed drink that was first served in an Arizona nightclub in the 1930’s (a Tequila Sunrise). Not to be outdone, Andrew was able to secure 16 points for us in the double bonus, by naming the two Central American countries that possess only one coastline (Belize and El Salvador). Everybody else kicked in some correct answers through the night, and thanks to my knowing the comic actor that was born in Newmarket, Ontario in 1962 – Jim Carrey – by the end of 19 questions we were tied for second place with 136 points, just eight points off the lead.
Okay, it’s not 166 points like last Monday night, but we’ll take it.
The final category – South America.
If there’s a list of categories I completely detest , it would be “South America,” “Before They Were Stars,” “Guess The Age,” and the global category “Things Chuck Miller has absolutely no clue about.” That last one’s a very small category, but it does contain a few stumpers.
It was at that point that I said to my team, “We don’t have to bet it all. We’re locked into the finals. We can play a prevent defense if we want.”
So I wrote down a bet of 3½ points and handed it up.
“How many countries border Argentina?”
We had no clue. Maybe all of them border Argentina. We wrote down a few joke answers, and then figured we’d just cough up the 3½ points, and wrote down our final answer as “Who cares, it’s South America.”
Several teams went from three countries to five countries. The correct answer was five countries. Two teams got it right – the Sneaky Petes, who took first place, five playoff points and a lock into the final round – and Just the Tips, who had 102 points and bet absolutely nothing. NO POINTS FOR YOU!!
We were tied for the night, going into the final round with Stern Fans – but Stern Fans only bet two points, so their safety bet earned them second place and three more playoff-leading points. As for Street Academy? How cool is it that we can put down a goof answer and bet a couple of points – and we still walk out of Elbo Room with third place and a playoff point? Pretty dang good, if you ask me.
So here’s the standings after thirteen 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 | 28 | ★ |
| 2 | Street Academy | 1 | 19 | ★ |
| 3 | Sneaky Pete’s | 5 | 18 | ★ |
| 4 | Schooled | 17 | ★ | |
| 5 | Flabbies | 12 | ||
| 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 on February 17, 2011. 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.
Thirteen weeks down. Only seven more weeks to go.
Chuck The Writer 
Editor’s Note: The words “Street Academy” and “cool” should never be used together.
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