Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting this.
We were playing at Elbo Room last night – Jeremy, Alexis and I – and, after a poor start (we thought Muammar Gadhafi was in his 70’s when he died; apparently he was only 69, so that was a 2-point loss), we had charged up to about third place.
That’s when someone came over to our table. “Are you the team calling yourselves Street Academy?” the visitor asked.
Now mind you, after six years of playing competitive team trivia in the Capital District, when someone comes up to you and asks if your team name is Street Academy, it’s usually followed by, “How do you know all this stuff,” or “What, did you get an education on the street?”, or, “Why are all the teams booing you every time your name is mentioned?”
Not this time.
The woman came up to our table, and asked if we were the team Street Academy. We said yes, we were.
“Did any of you go there?”
I raised my hand.
“So did I!” she said.
Apparently she went to Street Academy for part of the 1989 school year, and she also plays trivia at several local bars and taverns, including the Recovery Room in Albany on Wednesday nights. We talked about some of the teachers and administrators that would have been at school between 1981 (my year) and 1989 (hers), and I invited her to join us at Brown’s on Monday nights for a game or two. She accepted.
That’s right. More Street Academy / Harriet Gibbons High School alumni are playing competitive bar trivia. Don’t try and stop us.
But back to the trivia game at hand. We roared back from a poor start, thanks to Alexis knowing that the first Dunkin’ Donuts opened in Massachusetts; and Jeremy knowing that the Microsoft stock ticker abbreviation is MSFT, while I knew that the Prudential Center was the home of the New Jersey Devils, and that the first two teams to play in a World Series were from Pittsburgh and Boston. We had third place after 19 questions, and the final category was “Soft Drinks.”
Word of warning. When we played at Brown’s on Monday night, the final question involved a soft drinks category, and we won that night by knowing the answer (correctly naming the soft drink that has a branded museum in Waco, Texas – Dr. Pepper).
“They wouldn’t ask the same question today, would they?” Jeremy wondered.
“I sure hope not,” I replied. Still, we bet enough points to at least guarantee third place.
“What soft drink incorporates the number ’23’ in their logo, because of the 23 ingredients used to make their soda?”
Well it wasn’t the same question, but it was the same answer. Dr. Pepper. We got it right, and we ensured third place. Team Fist picked up second place – and three playoff points, while Team Schooled became the first trivia team to lock up a finals spot in this year’s tournament.
So here’s the standings after seven 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 | Team Schooled | 5 | 23 | ★ |
| T-2 | Woo Hoo a Go Go | 13 | ||
| T-2 | Street Academy | 1 | 13 | |
| 4 | Team Fist | 3 | 10 | |
| T-5 | The Polanskis | 3 | ||
| T-5 | Get That Poison Out | 3 | ||
| 7 | Skidmarks | 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.
Seven weeks down. Thirteen weeks left to go.
Chuck The Writer 
Was she a teammate on Answers Please?
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