There was a surprise return this week at the Elbo Room Tournament.
The Stern Fans – winners of Trivia Bowl IV a few years ago, and a force to be reckoned with at the Elbo Room tournament – returned for the holidays.
Well, not all of the Stern Fans. Their captain, Sim Morrell, is currently un Ukraine on a volunteer stint with the Peace Corps, helping to build libraries in impoverished areas. God bless him for doing good work in areas that can use good work.
Still, that didn’t mean that Stern Fans were just making a token appearance. They’re pretty good in and of themselves.
Meanwhile, the rest of the trivia teams settled in.
This game must have been “backwards trivia day,” in that my Street Academy team were getting tough answers right – we knew the year that Beverly Hills, 90210 debuted (1990), we knew the TV competition show whose most recent winner was New York restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian (The Next Iron Chef), and the name of the all-star 1985 charity fundraising Christmas 45 (“Do They Know It’s Christmas?”). But we whiffed on the 1990 Christmas-themed movie starring Bruce Willis (apparently it’s not Die Hard, it’s Die Hard II), and we didn’t know who was on the cover of Star Magazine being touted as having twins (we thought it was Beyonce, it was Jennifer Aniston). GRRRR
After 19 questions, we were in fourth place with 108 points. Three teams were ahead of us – a new squad called Trivia Newton-John had 110, Get That Poison Out had 112, and Team Fist had 114.
The final question category involved holidays.
“Should we bet safe?” I asked.
“No,” said Jeremy. “It’s probably one of those questions that everyone will get. If we get it right and at least one team misses, we’ll still be guaranteed points.”
Fair enough. We handed in our slip.
“In what decade was Kwanzaa first observed?”
Wow. I remember some of my high school classmates mentioning that they were celebrating Kwanzaa at home, and that would have been in the 1970’s. But I figured that something like that might have evolved over time, so I added at least one decade to its origins and put down the 1960’s as our answer.
We were right, it was the 1960’s. And Jeremy was right on the strategy – since Get That Poison Out said the 1950’s, they dropped from second place to out of the top 3, while Trivia Newton-John and Team Fist got it right and, like Street Academy, earned playoff points.
With their second-place triumph, Trivia Newton-John moves into a three-way tie for seventh place, and if any of those teams – Trivia Newton-John, Quiz and the Pants or The Polanskis – can earn some points in the next five weeks, someone’s going to get shoved down below the dreaded cut line. And although Woo Hoo a Go Go and Get That Poison Out didn’t have the right final answer, they got locked into the finals anyways. So five teams are locked, and there are three spots left.
After the game, I went over to the Team Fist table and chatted with that trivia team.
“Hey Chuck,” said John, their team captain, “You should put in your blog about how Team Fist is surging at the right time.”
“Maybe if you read the blog more often,” I joked, “I might do that.”
“We read the blog all the time,” said another team member. “What time do you post the Elbo Room results?”
“He posts at around 3 a.m.,” said another team member. “Maybe 4 a.m.”
Well, in this case, I kinda slept late, so it got posted at 6:00 a.m. Such is life.
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.
| Trivia Team | Points | Totals | FINALS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team Schooled | 33 | ★ | |
| T-2 | Team Fist | 5 | 27 | ★ |
| T-2 | Street Academy | 1 | 27 | ★ |
| 4 | Woo Hoo a Go Go | 16 | ★ | |
| 5 | Get That Poison Out | 15 | ★ | |
| 6 | The Haterzz | 10 | ||
| T-7 | Trivia Newton-John | 3 | 3 | |
| T-7 | Quiz and the Pants | 3 | ||
| T-7 | The Polanskis | 3 | ||
| THE DREADED CUT LINE | ||||
| 10 | 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.
Fifteen weeks down. Five weeks left to go.
Chuck The Writer 
Chuck! The Fist is reading.
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Just want to say that we had 118 points going in at On Tap, AND got the final question right. We would be in if we played at Elbo Room. If the tournament wasn’t a three month joke of qualifying, maybe we’d make an appearance.
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Background: Meh. I could use some new material…so if anyone could go the last week and qualify and then go back and win I’d appreciate it. Good stuff.
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What’s stopping you, Dan? Get your team together and qualify already!!
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The skidmarks will be making a appearance… Dont count us out..
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@Ed —Correction: It’s FIVE months, not three.
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We smoke on the mic like smoking Joe Frazier. The hell raisers, raising hell with the flavor.
Terrorize the jam like troops in Pakistan. Swinging through your town like your neighborhood Spiderman.
So uhh, tic toc and keep ticking. While we get you flipping off the fist I’m kicking.
The Lone Rangers, code red, danger!
Deep in the dark with the art to rip charts apart.
The vandals, too hot to handle.
you battle, you’re saying “Goodbye” like Tevin Campbell.
Roughneck, THE FIST on the set
The rebels, we make more noise than heavy metal…
,–.–._
——” _, ___)
/ _/____) LOVE TEAM FIST
//(____)
—— (__)
`—–“
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Great. Now I’ve got people ripping off Wu-Tang Clan for blog comments. What’s next? Get That Poison Out referencing Public Enemy? Woo Hoo a Go Go copping the Beastie Boys? Street Academy strapping on the leather and the adidas and doing their best Run-D.M.C.?
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