Week 15 of the $2,500 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

Last week, just as the game was about to end, Elbo Room trivia host General James mentioned that because the Elbo Room’s Thursday night games did not fall on Christmas or New Year’s Day – and because the bar would be open on those days for football games and drinking and eating, there would be two additional weeks of trivia qualifying rounds – so that the finals, which were scheduled for February 17, 2011, would remain on February 17, 2011.  This is good for me, schedule-wise.  I didn’t want to be away from Albany on a PBL road trip the night of the finals.

Of course, if we played in the finals the way we played last night… urgh…

Not to say that we didn’t start off strong.  We had the first seven questions correct, and Jeremy, Alexis and I were tearing up the joint.  Then came question eight.  “What TV show takes place in a town called Capeside?”

No clue.  We put down the Gilmore Girls.

It was Dawson’s Creek.  A show I’ve watched maybe NO episodes of.  It just did nothing for me.

We blew the double-chance on a ten-point question – thinking that Mt. Mitchell was either in Georgia or Tennessee; it was in North Carolina – and we missed another 10-pointer, not knowing that Vince Vaughn was the actor involved in a 2008 Wild West documentary of some sort.  By the time the final question arose, we had 50 points and were looking up at most teams – including a one-night squad called “I Have Pretty Feet.”  Hmm…

The final question was in the category of lesser-known actors.

We decided that since we were locked in the finals anyway, we’d bet one point and see how the chips fell.

“What James Bond actor also appeared in the film Hot Fuzz?”

Again, we were going to finish with either 49 or 51 points; we put down “Who cares, it’s James Freakin’ Bond,” and took the 49 points.

Most teams went with either Timothy Dalton or Roger Moore.

And the Skidmarks – who were in the lead, wire to wire all night, wrote down Timothy Dalton.

And then they crossed it out.

And they wrote Roger Moore.

And in that moment, they crossed out 5 playoff points.  The correct answer was Timothy Dalton.

And in getting that answer correct, the team called Get That Poison Out earned five playoff points.  They’re still on the outside looking in, because Just the Tips came in second place last night – and earned three playoff points, tying them with Da Bears for 7th place.  Team Schooled, who are already locked into the finals, got one playoff point for finishing third.  And the Sneaky Petes – by virtue of mathematics – are now locked into the finals as well.

So here’s the standings after fifteen 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.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 15

	Trivia Team	Points	Totals	FINALS
1	Stern Fans		31	★
2	Schooled	1	23	★
3	Street Academy		19	★
4	Sneaky Pete’s		18	★
5	Flabbies		12
6	Skidmarks		10
T-7	Just the Tips	3	8
T-7	Da Bears		8
THE CUT LINE
9	Get That Poison Out	5	5
10	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.

Fifteen weeks down. Only seven more weeks to go.