MBLP spent the afternoon at Alberts on the Alley to battle in the My Trivia Live tournament finals. We were up against some powerhouse teams like The Moops, so you can guess who won… NOT the Moops! ☺

MBLP was victorious after a nearly flawless game, only missing 3 questions. Also, since not all of us had our team shirts available, we decided to wear our Sporcle Live More Beer Less Pants sweatshirts that we earned a few years back. We were known by all of the hosts/monitors as “Team Sporcle”.

1) What dish soap brand used the advertising tagline “takes grease out of your way”? Dawn. 

2) John Aniston, father of Jennifer, has played Victor Kiriakis for more than 30 years on what daytime soap? Days of Our Lives. 

3) In regards to testing, what does “A.C.T.” stand for? American College Test? 

4) In 1988, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, was notified by Nintendo Power Magazine that they would no longer print his name on the “Power List” for what Gameboy game? Uh…

5) Since 1954, what African country’s flag is a single white star on a light blue background?
-Our first miss of the day, but only for 1pt. Just too many African flags to really memorize. Not a lot of teams cheering after this one.

We would lean on vexillologist Brad for this…nope from me. 

6) In the 1800’s, who got the US presidency due to the “corrupt bargain”?
-We were wishing to have this one back. The correct answer was discussed, but after much debate, we went with the President that followed. After some teams questioned the accepted answer, they also allowed an answer for a president from much later in the 1800’s. MTL probably should have done a little better job validating their answers… I know, shocking!

Oy…Grant? No idea. 

7) Most likely due to the original color, what flower takes its name from the Latin root word for flesh?
-Back on track!

Not it…

8) What was the first name of the character “coach” on the TV show Cheers, portrayed by Nicholas Colasanto?
-This was a question that one member of the team (me) has been waiting for since we started playing pub trivia in 2009. BAM!

George? No idea. I have not been waiting patiently for this question, though I did like his character!

9) Who is the only Red Wing to win the Hart Trophy, for NHL MVP, in the last 50 years? I’m going to guess Hasek. No idea. Not my category. 

Halftime – Hollywood Chris’
Given the character name, year and movie title, answer the last name for these famous actors name Chris/Christopher:
a)Smokey, 1995, “Friday” Chris Rock? 
b)Steve Rogers, 2011, “Captain America” Chris Evans? 
c)Dom “Woogie” Woganowski , 1998, “There’s Something About Mary” Chris…that guy in that show where he lived with his parents….Elliott
d)Captain Von Trapp, 1965, “Sound of Music” Plummer
e)Abraham Whistler, 1998, “Blade” Kris Kristofferson
f)John “Mr. Big” Present, 2008, “Sex and the City” That guy from Deadwood…no…that’s Timothy Olyphant. Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a Sex and the City expert! 
g)Willard Hewitt, 1984, “Footloose” Chris Penn
h)Chris “Oz” Ostreicher, 1999, “American Pie” Chris Klein

Got all 8, for 1pt each plus the 2pt bonus. At halftime, we were sitting in 3rd place, after the scoring change due to the additional president answer that was accepted. But only being down by 3 points, we were feeling confident.

10) Stevie Wonder’s song “I Just Called to Say I Love You” won an Oscar for Best Original Song for what 1984 Gene Wilder movie?

The Woman in Red. 

11) According to the US Geologic Survey website, what is the name of the branch of science that studies the occurrence, distribution, movement and properties of the waters of the earth?

Seismology.

12) In 1987, a Reno beer distributor was the source of a rumor that said what brand of imported beer was intentionally contaminated with urine of its brewery employees?
– We had always thought this beer tasted like cold urine, but didn’t realize that it was an urban legend from the 80’s. Kinda makes sense though.

Since they used the word “foreign,” I’ll guess Heineken. Which is not correct. 

A scene from Blue Velvet where Dennis Hopper is displeased when Kyle McLachlan’s character says he drinks Heineken. I try not to be as judgmental about people’s choices in beer, but seriously…my body cannot handle PBR. My insides felt like they were tied in knots a day after drinking three tallboys of PBR at Woodruff’s almost 10 years ago.

 

13) Before starting Wendy’s, Dave Thomas was a franchisee of what other restaurant chain? I’ll guess Burger King. No idea. Shame on me for not having memorized that biography of Dave Thomas I just read last week (LOL)! All I know about him besides being pitchman and founder of Wendy’s is that it was founded in Ohio. 

14) As the “Land of 10,000 lakes”, appropriately what is Minnesota’s state bird?
-At this point we started to tense up and actually debated this answer for a minute, wavering between the correct answer and another, similar bird. I’m going to guess loon. I’ve camped in areas with these birds, and they sound…AWESOME! 

15) Meaning “St. John the Baptist”, what did Columbus name the island that is now known as Puerto Rico?
-A basic knowledge of Spanish was helpful here.

My guess is San Juan. 

16) Traditionally a name given to dogs, on Star Trek: The Next Generation what did Commander Data name his cat?
– Again we were really thinking a lot about this one and were hesitant on our wager. Luckily we were correct and took the higher bet.

Spot. Actor Brent Spiner was NOT a cat person. 

17) According to the Michigan DNR, 61 lbs is the record weight for a fish caught by spear for what species?
-It may have not been phrased this way, but we didn’t now it and didn’t care to really debate it. So we burned our 2pt wager on this and moved on.

Rainbow trout? 

18) State Senate resolution #5, established what brand name product, whose name is spelled out in it’s jingle, is the state snack food of Utah? Potato chips? No idea. 

Before the final question, we were sitting at the top of the heap with a 2 point lead over the second place team. In MTL, this can be considered the “First Curse”, as teams that are sitting down at the bottom of the standings can wager all of their points (after hearing the question) and get lucky on the final answer that isn’t 100% certain. Those sitting in first have to decide to wager or not, hoping that one of those teams doesn’t get lucky on a blind guess.

Final Question – Voice Actor
William Woodson narrated the first episode of “Get Smart” in the 1960’s, the first two seasons of “The Odd Couple” in the 1970’s and which 1980’s cartoon?
It was later clarified that the cartoon started in the 1970’s and continued into the 1980’s.

We came up with a number of answers, one of which was the correct answer that we originally threw out until the clarification was made, since we associate it with the 70’s. The real issue came up in the wager. Did we want to go “all in” on an answer that we weren’t 100% positive on? Luckily the person in charge of the answer slips made an executive decision to wager everything. At least 15 of the 40+ teams got this one right.

My husband’s guess is Justice League. Close, but no cigar…

After 5+ years of off and on playing this league, we were finally able to establish “Fear of the Beer”. Since we aren’t complete dicks, we did take off our sweatshirts for the team pics at the end. Hey, it was the least we could do for the $2500 check that was being written.

Sporcle brass, please note – The top 3 teams walked away with checks in hand. Also, we get our name engraved on a “League Champs” plaque that will be hanging at Powell’s Pub until the next tournament. This was a nice touch.

Well, on to the new Sporcle Pub Champions League starting next week. We’ll be at MAIZ Mexican Cantina again this season. Does your team have the nerve to challenge us? Or do you FEAR THE BEER?!?

My team tried challenging them at Maiz…but failed. Oh well…it made us a bit “tougher” for the experience! Getting beaten up builds character! Just ask James Kirk!