Trivia
This was Trivia Tour Week. The team I play with on Tuesdays at the Old Pequliar and I decided to try our hand at several other joints in the area. Here's a brief recap of the adventures.
Monday - Kate's Pub
Formerly O'Shea's Pub on 45th, this place was warm and inviting. And packed. I had been told to try the food here and try it I did getting the Build-a-Burger which was decent and satiated my hunger. I began downing Columbian Bloods like no one's business. Trivia was supposed to start at 8:30. Around 9:15 it finally began. Billy, the Scottish gentleman hosting the night, walked around and introduced himself, took our money ($5/team), took our team name ("Brrr, it's cold. Bring in the BBQ!") and valiantly tried to explain the rounds. I don't know if it was his accent or just a frustratingly complicated strucutre, but we had no idea what we were doing.
Here's how it works (luckily Seattlest James - one of our hosts at the Old Peq - was on hand to offer advice, though he was on his own team): The first two rounds are done separately. Round one is a picture round. We were given 10 pictures of random people, all of whom had played Santa at some point. We were to name the movie they played Santa in. I believe we got 9/10, but 8/10 might've happened too. The second round was pictograms. I hate pictograms. I've never been any good at them. Somehow we pulled out a 4 or 5/10 on that round.
The next 45 questions were completely random and one after another. Various questions were worth more than normal, and the rule seemed to be each question was worth two points. Why? I don't know.
We ended up scoring 94 points. The winning team (with Seattlest James!) got 100. There are no 2nd or 3rd places at this trivia, so I have no idea how far back we actually came. But within 6 points of first, and against Team Seattlest no less, was satisfying. But the host kept dropping pieces of our name so eventually we became Brrrrrrring in the BBQ. We noticed a team we play against at the Old Peq was in attendance. We made note of this.
Tuesday - Old Pequliar
Not willing to change our steady venue, we piled back in to the Ballard bar and got ready to face off against vaunted champions Husker Don't and our nemeses the Married Couple. 8 rounds, ten questions each, including two picture rounds. You can read the questions here. We shortened our name to It's Cold, Bring in the BBQ. As you can see we tied for 3rd. We lost the money that goes along with that however because we missed the tiebreaker - what's the square mileage of Washington state? 71,303 to be exact. Eric guessed 2 million. Oops.
The team we saw at Kate's was again at the Old Peq. We struck up a conversation and told them about our tour. One of the members of this two-man powerhouse (they challenge us pretty well) regaled us with stories about our prospective pub choices. So we had an educated plan for the next two nights.
Wednesday - Molly McGuires
This was a new bar for me... replete with Irish accessories as most of these pubs have. There were crusty old war vets sitting near us and just a real eclectic mix of patrons. Trivia was to start at 9 but unlike Kate's and the Old Peq, it didn't look like anyone would be playing. We were wrong and by 9:15 or so trivia had started. We didn't feel like we were doing so well but ended up tying for 1st place with none other than our pals from the previous two nights! The tie breaker question, the winner of which would take home the entire pot, was "how many times do they say fuck in Goodfellas?" We won with what we felt was an unreasonably high number (but apparently not high enough!). We took our $84 bucks and according to quiz night rules at Molly's bought 2nd place their tab (which was only $10). Go us! We liked the host, the questions were fair to middlin'. The third round we did horribly on but this is traditionally the most difficult. 4 rounds of 10 questions each.
Thursday - The Ould Triangle
This was the furthest away from our center. The place was empty and only a few of what could only be called regulars were at the bar. Around 9:20 or so trivia started with our host Ms. Titicaca. She got angry with anyone asking for repeats of questions and took a break after every 10 question round to go smoke (4 rounds). There were obvious trivia regulars though and everyone was very nice (we even got popcorn balls from one woman and cookies from the host!). We thought we were doing ok but ended up not even placing! Ack! Not sure what happened but we vowed not to go back there again... that place was just eerie. And I didn't like the host having smokes with the players who obviously all knew her well. She left her computer wide open and people would go over and check it out while she was gone. We didn't, and that probably contributed to our downfall.
Anyway, there ya go. We probably won't be switching venues any time soon. If I go to another trivia night it'll be at Molly's. How can i not go back to the only place I've won 1st place?! Fun times.
Monday - Kate's Pub
Formerly O'Shea's Pub on 45th, this place was warm and inviting. And packed. I had been told to try the food here and try it I did getting the Build-a-Burger which was decent and satiated my hunger. I began downing Columbian Bloods like no one's business. Trivia was supposed to start at 8:30. Around 9:15 it finally began. Billy, the Scottish gentleman hosting the night, walked around and introduced himself, took our money ($5/team), took our team name ("Brrr, it's cold. Bring in the BBQ!") and valiantly tried to explain the rounds. I don't know if it was his accent or just a frustratingly complicated strucutre, but we had no idea what we were doing.
Here's how it works (luckily Seattlest James - one of our hosts at the Old Peq - was on hand to offer advice, though he was on his own team): The first two rounds are done separately. Round one is a picture round. We were given 10 pictures of random people, all of whom had played Santa at some point. We were to name the movie they played Santa in. I believe we got 9/10, but 8/10 might've happened too. The second round was pictograms. I hate pictograms. I've never been any good at them. Somehow we pulled out a 4 or 5/10 on that round.
The next 45 questions were completely random and one after another. Various questions were worth more than normal, and the rule seemed to be each question was worth two points. Why? I don't know.
We ended up scoring 94 points. The winning team (with Seattlest James!) got 100. There are no 2nd or 3rd places at this trivia, so I have no idea how far back we actually came. But within 6 points of first, and against Team Seattlest no less, was satisfying. But the host kept dropping pieces of our name so eventually we became Brrrrrrring in the BBQ. We noticed a team we play against at the Old Peq was in attendance. We made note of this.
Tuesday - Old Pequliar
Not willing to change our steady venue, we piled back in to the Ballard bar and got ready to face off against vaunted champions Husker Don't and our nemeses the Married Couple. 8 rounds, ten questions each, including two picture rounds. You can read the questions here. We shortened our name to It's Cold, Bring in the BBQ. As you can see we tied for 3rd. We lost the money that goes along with that however because we missed the tiebreaker - what's the square mileage of Washington state? 71,303 to be exact. Eric guessed 2 million. Oops.
The team we saw at Kate's was again at the Old Peq. We struck up a conversation and told them about our tour. One of the members of this two-man powerhouse (they challenge us pretty well) regaled us with stories about our prospective pub choices. So we had an educated plan for the next two nights.
Wednesday - Molly McGuires
This was a new bar for me... replete with Irish accessories as most of these pubs have. There were crusty old war vets sitting near us and just a real eclectic mix of patrons. Trivia was to start at 9 but unlike Kate's and the Old Peq, it didn't look like anyone would be playing. We were wrong and by 9:15 or so trivia had started. We didn't feel like we were doing so well but ended up tying for 1st place with none other than our pals from the previous two nights! The tie breaker question, the winner of which would take home the entire pot, was "how many times do they say fuck in Goodfellas?" We won with what we felt was an unreasonably high number (but apparently not high enough!). We took our $84 bucks and according to quiz night rules at Molly's bought 2nd place their tab (which was only $10). Go us! We liked the host, the questions were fair to middlin'. The third round we did horribly on but this is traditionally the most difficult. 4 rounds of 10 questions each.
Thursday - The Ould Triangle
This was the furthest away from our center. The place was empty and only a few of what could only be called regulars were at the bar. Around 9:20 or so trivia started with our host Ms. Titicaca. She got angry with anyone asking for repeats of questions and took a break after every 10 question round to go smoke (4 rounds). There were obvious trivia regulars though and everyone was very nice (we even got popcorn balls from one woman and cookies from the host!). We thought we were doing ok but ended up not even placing! Ack! Not sure what happened but we vowed not to go back there again... that place was just eerie. And I didn't like the host having smokes with the players who obviously all knew her well. She left her computer wide open and people would go over and check it out while she was gone. We didn't, and that probably contributed to our downfall.
Anyway, there ya go. We probably won't be switching venues any time soon. If I go to another trivia night it'll be at Molly's. How can i not go back to the only place I've won 1st place?! Fun times.