By: Chuck Miller
trivia, Uncategorized

Week 10 of the $2,000 2012-13 Elbo Room Trivia Tournament

There are basic verbal terms and phrases that one can use in describing your basic trivia event.  There’s the “murder question,” in which the final answer is so tough that it stumps everybody.  There’s the “Baker Triple,” so named after Trivia Nights Live host Kevin Baker’s proclivity to have the answer for a multiple-bonus question be the same answer for each of the bonus questions (example: In what decade did Topps first print football cards, baseball cards and basketball cards?  Answer – the 1950’s, 1950’s and 1950’s).

I will now add a brand new term to the Capital District trivia lexicon – the “cold call final.”

The “cold call final,” as evidenced when my buddy Dan stopped by for a while to play last night, is when you hear the final category for the final question, and you automatically figure out what the final question will be.  There’s precedent in this – sometimes when the final question involves state capitals, the question is invariably “What state capital comes last alphabetically?”  That’s not being prescient, that’s just the Trivia Nights Live team recycling old questions.

Well, last night the final category was “Horror Movies.”

Dan said to me, “Watch, it’ll be how many Saw movies have there been?”

Right.  Sure.  I’m thinking this is a trick question, like “In what decade did the first Frankenstein movie come out?” or “What Australian rock band had a hit with a song called “Horror Movies”?  (It’s Skyhooks, I’ll post it as a K-Chuck Radio post at some point in time).

And sure enough, the question was: “How many movies are in the Saw franchise of films?”

Dan hit a cold call final.

At the time, Street Academy had a nice lead among the five teams that actually were left in the final round.  All five teams wrote down “7” as the answer.  And yes, it was “7” as the final answer.  But I hedged a safe bet, and Woo Hoo a Go Go snagged the 5 playoff points and the win, while Street Academy took second place and three bonus points.  Sighed, Bush! finished with one playoff point for third place, while Team Fist bet zero points (which of course brings out another trivia chant of “Noballz,” as made famous by Pete Lynch of the legendary Capital District trivia team Lynch’s Mob).  Zero bet.  Zero playoff points.

So here’s the standings after ten weeks of qualifying. The top eight teams after 20 weeks will appear in the final game for all the money.

Elbo Room Trivia Standings – Week 10 of 20
Trivia Team Points Totals FINALS
1 Street Academy 3 34
2 Woo Hoo a Go Go 5 17
3 Team Fist 16
4 Sighed, Bush! 1 15
5 The Haterzz 3
6 Team Longhammer 2
7 The Little White Monkey 2
8
THE DREADED CUT LINE
9
10
11
12

We are at the halfway point of this tournament, and for all intents and purposes, the top four teams have earned a berth in the final round.  There’s still an opportunity for a new team to come in and qualify for the finals, so if you think you’ve got enough mad trivia skills and can actually program a GPS to find the intersections of Delaware, Morton and Holland Avenues, then you might find the Elbo Room.