February was a bit of a brutal month for my trivia team! We only managed to win $55 in prizes for the whole month, as opposed to $110 in the month of January. We did, however, gain some real ground in the My Trivia Live league, and are now in a fairly comfortable first place at Powell’s Pub, leading the number two team by 36 points (we’re averaging 55.8 points per game here). Only one team from this bar can advance to semifinals, so we would like that team to be ours! If this happens, this will be the third bar in Ypsilanti, MI we can check off as having used as a “springboard” for regional tournaments. The other two include Arbor Brewing Company Microbrewery (aka “Corner Brewery”) from which we have advanced into several regional tournaments; and the Wurst Bar, from which we have advanced into three regional tournaments, winning first place at one of those). Powell’s certainly isn’t the most competitive trivia spot in which we’ve played, but we’ve handicapped ourselves a bit by only bringing a couple of players, on average, to each game. We wouldn’t be able to do that at the Corner Brewery or the Wurst Bar, which are both roughly a half mile away!

Speaking of the Corner Brewery…our average scores per night have dropped from 127 points per night on average to 116.1 here, thanks partially to being killed by some rough final questions (which the host has deliberately made harder at our bar). I’ve talked to the host about his doing this, and I honestly don’t have any complaints, considering how competitive of a spot this is. He said he does this because of how common it is for four teams to be tied for first, etc. A host has to adapt for the bar, which I totally understand. A host at a less competitive trivia spot might even use the “easier” option available to them for final questions, too. I’ve played in both types of trivia spots, so I can see both points of view.

We have just three “regular season” games to go at the Corner Brewery, and are still in fifth place in the standings. My goal was for my team to be in fifth place or higher going into the deciding venue tournament game, and I think we are still poised to do that! Last night Evan agreed to play with us in our Corner Brewery venue tournament April 4, and I think he will be a big help! He has been very solid in two regional tournaments playing with us, and has proven his mettle in many, many categories, some of which are weaker for others on my team. Not only that, he will help provide our team with the “young blood” it desperately needs! Our youngest player was born in 1975, and our oldest was born in 1961. I’ve already briefed one of our players Dave about Evan, and have assured him that he will like him better than our previous “millennial” player named Alex. I think Dave might get a little pouty at not being the youngest guy playing with us that day (if he even manages to show up…he is notorious for leaving me in the lurch for tournaments). I’ve already had to smack Dave’s hands with a Catholic school grade ruler for mistreating other people on my team, so I’m not afraid to do that again, lol! Funny thing was, it was a player from another team who pointed all of this out to me! A “loaner player” Scott C. played for us back in 2014, and he expressed concern to me  about how Dave was treating Brad during trivia games. Since I’d known Dave forever, I hadn’t really paid too much attention. But I did talk to Dave about it, and there haven’t been any problems ever since.

This expression has always amused me…I would probably hang a sign like this in my house, too!

My hope is obviously that we win our venue tournament at Corner, though I’m not TOO hopeful, I know we have a good chance. I’m also not too hopeful that we’ll win a qualifying game in our “backup” spot at Oscar’s, either. If we stay in the top 10 barhop teams, we COULD use the play-in game option. But I don’t plan to do that. If we can’t make it using two legitimate chances, then we’re just not going to finals! And that’s all I gotta say about that!