Not too long ago, I posted a “help wanted” blurb on my trivia team’s Facebook page, in which I advertised for a player to help us in a couple of tournament games in August. I got a “hit,” and as a means of “trying out” the player to see how well he would play with us, I asked him to join us in our venue tournament game at Original Gravity Brewing Co. in Milan Thursday night. Long story short, he drove up from Toledo and joined us…and we won! It was pretty  much a “team” effort, though he definitely helped contribute to our win!

I had a “hunch” that having two native Ohioans on our team would be a good thing. In July, 2017; Dave (who is a Cleveland native) and his brother Matt played in a game with us, which turned out to be our highest-scoring game of the season! Dave’s brother Matt was in town for the Michigan Brewer’s Guild Summer Beer Festival. You can read a synopsis of that game here.

 

A scene from the 2017 beer festival, this was also our team lineup in that 2017 game…it was very, very hot! This year, the festival opens today, and of course the weather is cool (because my husband and I decided to skip it this year, go figure).

Interesting note, the Toledo guy who joined us last night, well…his name is Matt, too! Dave picked up on that right away, and they hit it off quite well. You can’t create this kind of chemistry in a lab!

Dave almost wasn’t a part of this team for this game. I had originally planned to have Brad play and sub out Dave, and even told Dave that might be in the cards. The next day, I thought better of it, and decided I wanted Dave on the team instead of Brad (whom was all too happy to step aside). And in turn, Dave was elated he’d made the “cut!” He said he would bring his “A game.” And he did…(recap of that game coming soon)!

All of that said, I would not have had the same overall vibe had I just stuck with my regular roster for this game. Using Brad for this game instead of Dave would have made it a different game altogether…and most likely, a game we may not have won. And newcomer Matt made a big difference too!

So…I’m thinking maybe it’s good to always keep the fifth (or fourth, depending on the league) spot on my team open before tournaments. Why not try to get the best lineup you can – especially when there is money on the line? I brought in a different fourth player for our MTL tournament in July, 2017 and we won first place! I’d never even met the guy in person before, he was just one of the Facebook page followers I’d corresponded online with a bit. He offered to play with us out of the blue – and since I’d pretty much pegged him for being a good trivia player just based on our conversations alone, I figured “Why not?” I had to sub out Joel to do this, but it all worked out – he was happy to step aside, plus he got a little cut of the prize money (he did help us advance in our semifinal game). The “new” players also benefit from this, since they will get a cut of prize money if they help a team that wins it!

In August of 2017, I had another player message me asking if we needed players for an upcoming tournament. After a short conversation about knowledge areas, age, etc. , I said “Welcome aboard!” Since that time, he has become one of my vital tournament players, and also a big help in the regular season games. He also helped us in our game Thursday night, and will definitely be a part of our “finals” roster Aug. 5!

I’ll stick with the roster I have for the Aug. 5 finals for now… unless I get any better offers!