I’m not expecting much, but I’m excited that my Pods trivia team will be among the teams vying for a finals spot Saturday August 3! It has been a minute. The last time my team played a MTL semis was in 2019 at Tower Inn in Ypsilanti, which is now a Thai food joint. It’s a couple of doors down from another previous trivia spot – The Wurst Bar – which recently divided its space, making it half weed dispensary, half gastropub. Dispensopub?Gastrosary? I guess look no further if you’re baked, picking up weed, and are craving handcrafted sausage and tots. Honestly, I have no idea…

When I searched my email for the last time I RSVPd for a semis for MTL, it was late 2021, and I did the RSVP on behalf of some “stunt doubles” who played under our league number. They did not advance to finals, but I think most of those players ended up at finals anyway! I seem to recall that they played the semifinals at Oscars and were laid low by a high grossing films question.

If I said that was the first time that a whole other set of people played under our league number, I’d be lying! I had four “stunt doubles” play as us in 2016 at a Sporcle finals when me and my team happened to have to play a MTL semis the same day. Those clever bastards won some prize money, and got to keep 80 percent of it! Ain’t I generous?

I brought my own posse and played under another team’s number at a MTL finals in 2016. It was our first ever MTL finals, and we finished 10th.

I’ll have a lineup I’ve never used before at semis August 3. I’m expecting nothing but fierce competition and a tough, tough final question.

Bring it!