I’m bringing a team to Tower Inn in Ypsilanti, MI tonight for its “venue tournament.” Under normal circumstances, venue tournaments usually mean “do or die” for the trivia teams involved. One team wins a spot in a regional tournament, and the others…well, better luck next time! There is usually quite a bit of sulking that occurs after failing to win tournament spots (Jesus – don’t I know THAT)!

I’ve been on both sides of the equation – being on the side of winning a venue tournament (or semifinal game) – and being on the “better luck next time” side. Barring seasons where my team “barhopped” its way to a tournament, I estimate that we’ve managed to advance from approximately twelve venue tournaments/semifinals since 2012. I haven’t kept count of how many we’ve failed to advance from – I dunno – five? This number doesn’t include times we used “second chance” trivia spots to get to tournaments. Most of those “failures” have been MTL semifinals (those are always 50/50 for us). So much shame on us for not knowing the name of that British female serial killer who killed five children in the British moors in the 1960s and was dubbed the “most evil woman in Britain!”

Myra Hindley and her boyfriend Ian Brady killed five children between the ages of 10 and 17 between July, 1963 and October, 1965 near Manchester, England. Some of the victims were also sexually assaulted. As is usually the case, she had quite a f—ed up life in the years leading up to these events. Her father threatened to “leather” her if she didn’t stand up for herself and beat up a neighbor boy who’d scratched her cheeks with his fingernails. She later tracked down the boy and beat the crap out of him – calling it her “first victory.” Now I’m not saying I didn’t have my share of violent incidents throughout MY childhood – but I’ve never killed anyone!

The venue tournament at Tower Inn tonight will be a bit…different than some of the very competitive ones we’ve attended in the past! My team is the only qualified team, so we’re pretty just showing up to play – and possibly win prizes. We already “won”  our tournament spot by playing more than half of the games (in this case – three of four games) without any competition.

The only other times we’ve played in semifinal/venue tourney games with nothing on the line were when we barhopped. But it still FELT more competitive because there were other teams in the room fighting for a spot! I’d be lying if I said that going to this game tonight doesn’t feel a bit…odd. It’s almost TOO easy. I’m going to guess that at least the questions won’t be too easy tonight! Should be a good test if nothing else. Stay tuned for a recap of this game which will be posted on Wednesday!