I mentioned in my game recap Tuesday that a longtime solo trivia player paired up with a new trivia “partner” in Monday night’s game. Well, you can take a journalist out of the newsroom, but you can’t take the newsroom out of the journalist! I had to do a little “investigating,” if you will. I had a conversation with a trivia host about this, and she told me that this “solo” player had also paired up with this other player in a few games last week (and had done quite well).

In addition to being a former journalist, I also like to fancy myself a chess grandmaster. Just kidding! I’m not even close to being a chess grandmaster! All of that said, I still like to try seeing several moves ahead in this great pub trivia game. And I am wondering what this will do to the lineup that this solo player typically uses for tournaments.  It has been a fairly successful lineup, with them having taken the top prize in at least two tournaments in the past year. He is taking the “barhop” route, so gets an automatic “pass” to finals. For the past couple of years (at least), he has used the same lineup – featuring a “Lennon/McCartney” duo from another longtime league team (I describe them as such because of the unbeatable chemistry they have while playing as a duo, not because of their singing abilities, lol) and another solo player, whom is known for being quite…quirky, if you will! Let’s see…bringing books to a strip club, regularly wearing tweed blazers with elbow pads, and beating percussively with pens on table tops during games barely scratches the surface describing this guy’s “quirks!”

I’ve always been kind of fascinated with chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer. But that’s probably because of the song “One Night in Bangkok,” lol…here he is battling Russian Boris Spassky.

My question is…will he be using this “new” trivia partner in his finals lineup? If so, that would mean another one of his “regulars” would have to get the pink slip. If I had to choose which one of them would have to go, well, I wouldn’t choose ANY Of them! They’re all good! But if push came to shove and he had to choose one, I would pick the “odd man out.” The other “solo” player. Though it is a tough call – he is very good! My reasoning is that it would be folly to separate the other two since they’ve played together so long. But it’s not my call to make – and may be a moot point anyway. Maybe he has no plans to use this new “partner” in his lineup, but if he did, this might have its OWN complications! For one, she might not get along with all of this guy’s other “regulars,” which would throw off the chemistry.

If he does wind up pink slipping any of these guys, I would happily take either player from the “Lennon/McCartney duo” to help my team in semifinals and play with us in finals. Unfortunately, I would probably only be able to take one (unless Brad had to bail out of playing for some reason). But I wouldn’t take the “odd man out,” simply because my husband can’t stand him! Who says pub trivia doesn’t have its own drama? Lord, I could write a script for a sitcom!

Another possible move I see is this…one of the “duo” players could bring in the other guy, and two other players from his team and just play the semis and if they win a spot, advance to finals. This would mean saying “See ya!” to the guy they’ve joined at tournaments for the past couple of years. This would make me a bit nervous, of course – because that would mean having to contend with THEIR team in semifinals!

I don’t know how all of this will shake out, of course. I’m definitely not a stranger to having to make tough decisions about which players to use in tournaments, etc. Just recently I lost a longtime player who was “butt hurt,” if you will, about me having excluded him from a venue tournament game. Nothing happens in a vacuum, and sometimes people do things for the sake of winning that don’t wind up winning them any friends. I guess it’s a good way to find out who your “true” friends are. A real friend will understand that sometimes you gotta do…what you gotta do!