Friday afternoon, I got a Facebook Messenger message from one of my trivia “comrades.” He’s a guy who played as our fourth in the July, 2017 finals where we won first place. He said that he knew of a trivia spot that the players couldn’t use – and was I interested in using it?

Well, yes! So I assembled my two MTL guys (Mike and Brad), and hustled a fourth player – whom has never played with our team before. I really only have a couple of other players on my team whom are good in MTL games (the other two guys I have are better used in Sporcle Live games). This means I almost always have to “shop around” for a fourth MTL player when tournaments roll around. So I assembled my “army.”  All I needed was the league number and semifinals location where we would play.

My contact didn’t know that information, so he sent me the e-mail address of a guy who would know that information. Turns out he DIDN’T know that information, per his e-mail that clocked in at 1:30 a.m. (I happened to get up to use the bathroom a short time later so I saw the message). He said I should call ANOTHER guy in Phoenix who might know the league number.

At that point? Yeah…I don’t really want the spot THAT badly! And a couple of “clues” from his e-mail hinted I might not be able to use my full team at both games. Not…interested. Sharing a cut of prize money, that’s fair. But if I’m using another team’s spot I would rather use “my” players.

And so it was we almost had a shot at the MTL semis/finals. Unless I change my mind in the next hour and a half or so… I plan to “sit in” on the semifinal going on in Belleville. The host there said that if one of the teams there qualifies they MIGHT need a player for finals. I initially thought we wouldn’t be able to play finals this time, but circumstances have changed.

If I play today, this will be the 10th time I’ve played in a MTL semifinal game (IKR)? Doesn’t time fly? The first time I did so was also in just a “sitting in” capacity. So I went to this game – it was a nice spring day, so I walked all the way there (about a 2 mile walk), and my husband was going to meet me later at another bar to drive me home. A player from another team who had planned to play at that semifinal was sick and couldn’t go out (this is a player whom, at the time, was writing recaps of games he had played in). His trivia “pardner” showed up to play solo and wound up winning a finals spot by himself. I’ll never forget the trivia host referring to him as an “assassin” for having done that. Indeed! Can’t disagree there. I did well enough on the questions by myself to have most likely advanced that day too, had I been playing for “reals.” Read a recap of that game here.

A few days later that guy’s finals spot was offered to me to use and he asked me if I could assemble a team? The player who had won the spot already had a date for the “big dance” and did not actually need the spot. So I answered: “Yes, yes yes!” Me, Mike, Angie (my women’s night trivia partner) and Archie wound up finishing in the top 10, and got some MTL coffee mugs (which we still use regularly). I use ’em for booze more often than coffee (they’re a little small to use for coffee, at least for the amounts I ingest on most mornings – but they are perfect for cocktails). One of these days I’ll pony up for those fancy Moscow mule mugs! Maybe that will be a Christmas present for my husband and I. Read a recap of that game here.

Angie (to my right) was SO cute in how fired up she got to be playing on a team against a team that her husband was playing on! For the record, we did finish ahead of them that day (but I’m way too classy to brag about that or anything…I’m just stating this as a “for the record” thing). I am not pretending that we beat them because we’re awesome or anything (that is not how I roll).

I’m not hoping for too much. If nothing else I’ll be able to hear what questions MTL has up their sleeves today to thin the herds! And of course I will be curious to see which “local” teams advance. Especially THAT team whose name I will not utter here (ahem)!