We came, we saw, we…didn’t embarrass ourselves! Easily our best tournament showing thus far, final question notwithstanding. And we have had some embarrassing tournament scores in the past. Like the time 5/6 of our players went to beer fest the day before. Ugh…This time we wound up with 96 points before the final question, which put us in the 19th place at the end of round two. Congratulations to Beer Me Five for taking the top prize of $1,500! We were very excited to see a new “unknown” team take the big prize, being the big underdog fans that we are. We are sure the hearing loss from hearing them scream upon finding out that they won will not be permanent, lol. It was truly an exciting moment! Also congratulations to Brian Williams Reporting Live for winning the Toledo area tournament.
Seventy-three teams representing 73 different bars/restaurants/pubs wound up showing up for theSporcle Live regional “pub champions” trivia tournament on a lovely summer afternoon. Almost too lovely. Some of us began longingly looking out the windows like school kids on their last day of school. We knew the odds that we would be one of the three teams taking home cash prizes were not good. But we wouldn’t live up to our name if we didn’t go for it, would we? Special thanks to Mike, Brad, John, and Archie (Heather the re-cap writer is not going to thank herself) for being part of the “tournament five.” Every player wound up having their “a-ha” moment where they chimed in on important answers. Without further ado, here are the tournament questions:
Round One
1. Iconic Commercials: Who provided the music for the original “Bo Knows” Nike commercial campaign in 1989?
Brad tries gunning for game MVP award early.
2. Emmy Awards: Name one of the two shows that aired on Fox and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Nope. This is not something our team cares OR knows about, unfortunately.
3. National Parks: Of the 59 US national parks, name two of the three that begin with a vowel other than the letter A. For the purposes of the question, Y is not considered a vowel.
Heather would have been able to name all three, but to be safe, we went with the one in Florida and the one in Michigan.
4. Supreme Court: The landmark 1967 US Supreme Court decision that invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage was called “Loving v.” which state? Nice work, John L.
5. Stocks: CMG is the New York Stock Exchange symbol for which restaurant chain?
Made right guess here but with no confidence.
6. US History: Who succeeded Ulysses S. Grant as commanding general of the US Army in 1869 after Grant resigned to become president? And again we flunk a tournament history question…
7. Golfers: In 2004, which golfer became the oldest person to become the #1 ranked male golfer for the first time in his career, temporarily replacing Tiger Woods at the top spot, who had held the position for the previous 264 weeks?
And up until this point, Archie thought he wasn’t contributing to the game!
8. TV and Movies: Which of the following films did not feature a regular cast member of the TV show Friends: Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Dolphin Tale, Office Space, Lucky Numbers, or Lost in Space?
A very tough one for us, but we got it.
9. Solar System: As of 2015, the International Astronomical Union recognizes five dwarf planets in our solar system, including Pluto. Name one of the others. For a bonus point, name a second.
Spaceman Mike got both of these for us.
10. Best Sellers: Who wrote the 2006 New York Times bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell?
We don’t know how John knew this, but thankfully he did!
Mystery Round: Celebricities. Before and after using a city name and a celebrity name. Didn’t get the exact phrasing down, but enough to get the gist.
1. Clarissa explains it all in the insurance capital of the world.
2. The host of Between Two Ferns films from a location on the Bosphorous Strait
3. In a shocking plot twist, Danica McKellar’s most well-known character moves to the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory
4. A 74 time Jeopardy! champion goes to the site of the first baseball game, located in Hudson County, New Jersey.
Missed #3 and #4.
There were 73 teams playing in the tournament. Please forgive us for not writing down every single score and team name! More Beer Less Pants was in the lead after the end of game one. We were among the top 20 teams with 51 points heading into game two.
Round Two
1. Animals: What prehistoric animal gets its name from the ancient Greek meaning “nipple tooth” or “breast tooth?”
And Brad the zoologist again starts the game off strong.
2. TV Networks: Since 2007, the cable network launched as Pax TV in 1998 has been known by what scientific sounding name?
We went with Archie’s guess with success.
3. Numbers: Which two letters do not appear in the English spelling of any number?
Nope, missed this one.
4. Video Games: Since the year 2000, only one NFL player has won a Super Bowl after appearing on the cover of the Madden NFL video game series. Name him.
Not a freaking clue. Where was our “0” point answer slip? 🙂
5. Elements: Among the first 20 elements on the periodic table (atomic numbers 1 through 20), only three have chemical symbols that can also be Roman numerals (ignore capitalization). Name all three elements (element name, not chemical symbol).
Brad has been trying hard to become our periodic table expert. It paid off here.
6. Children’s Books: Name two of the three Dr. Seuss characters who appear as a title character of more than one book published during his lifetime. Bonus point for all three.
Like Meatloaf said, two out of three….
7. #1 Hits: What song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 13 consecutive weeks from January 17, 2015 until April 18, 2015? Miss.
8. Artistic Inspiration: Auguste Rodin’s famed sculpture The Thinker was inspired by a classic work of which poet who lived roughly six centuries before Rodin?
Obviously we weren’t “thinking” hard enough here, lol.
9. Presidents: Who was president of the US during the Mexican American War?
Brad and Heather teamed up here.
10. Academy Award Nominated Films: Actor John Cazale appeared in five movies during the 1970s that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, including both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. Name two of the other three films.
Heather was SO excited about this question. She has literally been waiting for Sporcle to ask about this obscure actor, whose trivial claim to fame is having every single one of his credited films be nominated for best picture. Plus, he dated Meryl Streep. It goes without saying that she would have known all three of the movies, but of course, no bonus point on this question!
Mystery Round: Second Place
1. The team that lost the 2010 World Series to the San Francisco Giants
2. The person who came in second to David Cook in the seventh season of American Idol in 2008.
3. A Bug’s Life was the highest grossing animated film at the domestic box office in 1998. Name which movie came second.
4. 1981 song by Foreigner that set a record for staying at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks without ever reaching #1.
And we blew this whole mystery round.
Final Category: Celebrity Deaths
Final Question: Circle the names of the celebrities from the following list who died before their 40th birthday. There are four correct answer; you must get all four.
Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee, Freddie Mercury, Andre the Giant, Princess Diana, Walter Payton, Corey Haim, Gary Coleman, Martin Luther King Jr, Jackson Pollock. Yeah, we had no idea MLK Jr. was that young….Until the next undetermined time we play trivia, Go Pods!
hebspeaks 