In something that has been more the exception than the rule in the history of the Tim “DINGO” Richardson Memorial Brainbuster Cup, the team leading after week four actually managed to win the tournament. You may remember that The Fellowship of BWW-Kent was hanging on to a 729-point lead over Teaser’s going into Tuesday night, with BWW-Crystal City and Danny K’s still having a mathematical shot at the championship, too. The Fellowship needed a score of 14,272 OR to finish no more than 728 points behind Teaser’s to clinch the win; while Teaser’s needed to thread the needle by scoring more than 13,608 AND staying 729 points ahead of The Fellowship. When the dust settled, Teaser’s did indeed crack the 13,608 threshold, but it wasn’t enough—The Fellowship effectively slammed the door shut with its best score of the tournament:
14,941 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH 14,893 Mad River, New York NY 14,462 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA 14,418 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC 14,057 BWW-Oklahoma City OK 13,974 Teaser's, Chicago IL 13,807 BWW-Tallahassee FL 13,766 BWW-Blacksburg VA 13,637 The Old Barn, Portland OR 13,440 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD 13,200 Tilted Kilt--Scottsdale AZ 13,127 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL 13,123 Danny K's, Orange CA 12,936 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM 12,465 West Park Station, Cleveland OH 12,422 Houlihan's-Westbury NY 11,622 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV 11,522 Tailgate, Minneapolis MN 11,379 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB 11,198 Moose McGuire's, Ottawa ON 10,712 Pineapple Grill and Saloon, Tustin CA 10,693 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI 9,874 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS 9,513 Stadium, Addison TX 6,712 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL
Adding these scores to those of the previous four weeks, the cumulative points standings stand as follows:
70278 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH 67902 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA 67520 Teaser's, Chicago IL 67260 Mad River, New York NY 65280 Danny K's, Orange CA 62299 BWW-Oklahoma City OK 61732 BWW-Tallahassee FL 61661 Tilted Kilt--Scottsdale AZ 61525 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC 61349 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD 59968 The Old Barn, Portland OR 59966 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI 59456 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM 59426 Tailgate, Minneapolis MN 58883 BWW-Blacksburg VA 57632 West Park Station, Cleveland OH 57562 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL 57487 Moose McGuire's, Ottawa ON 57452 Houlihan's-Westbury NY 56636 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV 54103 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL 53199 Pineapple Grill and Saloon, Tustin CA 50606 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS 48333 Stadium, Addison TX 47405 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
But of course, the only standings that matter are the ones after dropping low scores. As you can see, this created a bit of a shakeup toward the top:
57399 The Fellowship, BWW-Kent OH 55703 Teaser's, Chicago IL 55205 Mad River, New York NY 55113 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA 53682 Danny K's, Orange CA 51613 Stained Glass Pub, Elkridge MD 51448 BWW-Oklahoma City OK 51112 Four Corners, Chapel Hill NC 50857 Tilted Kilt--Scottsdale AZ 50287 BWW-Tallahassee FL 49729 The Old Barn, Portland OR 49664 Tailgate, Minneapolis MN 49273 K-zoo Krew, BWW-Kalamazoo MI 49194 BWW-Blacksburg VA 49021 The Ragged Rascals, BWW-Albuquerque NM 48296 Houlihan's-Westbury NY 48006 West Park Station, Cleveland OH 47683 Time Out West, Hanover Park IL 47640 Moose McGuire's, Ottawa ON 47405 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB 47391 Bilmar Station, Tampa FL 47360 Scooter's, Las Vegas NV 44309 Pineapple Grill and Saloon, Tustin CA 42071 Stadium, Addison TX 41300 Wallaby's, Lenexa KS
So The Fellowship once again claims the DINGO Cup in pretty emphatic fashion, posting the highest final score and second-highest margin of victory ever, but I think the more interesting stories of the tournament come from the rest of the field.
For example, the fight for silver and bronze was pretty intense among BWW-Crystal City, Teaser’s, Danny K’s, and Mad River. BWW-CC had the second-highest cumulative score, but was a bit TOO consistent for its own good: the “low” score it dropped was still pretty high, allowing other teams to leap ahead of it. Thus, when the dust settled, Teaser’s took the silver, and a hard-charging Mad River—which came within a whisker of beating out The Fellowship for the win in Tuesday’s game—sniped the bronze away from BWW-CC by 92 points.
There was also an intense fight going on further down as well. Five teams—Time Out West, Moose McGuire’s, Big Guys, Bilmar Station, and Scooter’s—all finished within 300 points of each other. That’s the equivalent of just a couple of seconds’ difference on a single question over the course of five weeks.
Another quite interesting story (if a bit frustrating, too, for the party concerned) is MERKIN’s perpetual bridesmaid status in this tournament. The Chicago-area teams of Diamond Lil’s, Brewstir’s/Teddy B’s, and Teaser’s for which he has played since this tournament began finished #2 in four of the six editions of this tournament, and #3 in another. Although he has never won the Cup, if you apply a modified place-points formula to the top five of all the tournaments (1st=5 pts., 2nd=4 pts., 3rd=3 pts., etc.). MERKIN’s teams come out with a score of 19, second all-time behind The Fellowship’s 26, and ahead of Danny K’s and BWW-CC, which have both won the cup. The lovely parting-gift home editions of the game must be stacking up in his closet by now. He is overdue to win one of these things—and if the Cubs could do it, then so can Teaser’s. We expect to see them vie for it again next year.
In looking up these things, another story presented itself, too—the mixture of teams that have finished in the top five shows some variety, with at least one new team making the top-five club each year until this year. Furthermore, Henry Hudson’s/BWW-OKC has the distinction of having held the lead for at least a week in both the first tournament and the most recent one. Here are the top five in each tournament
1st, 2013 51,434 The Fellowship (Stringz & Wingz, Streetsboro OH) 50,708 Diamond Lil’s, Chicago
49,219 BWW-Crystal City
48,971 Henry Hudson’s, OKC 48,867 Touch of Class, Edmonton, AB
2nd, 2014 52237 The Fellowship (BWW-Kent OH)
52156 BWW-Crystal City VA
50291 Mad River, New York NY
49959 Fletcher's, Kalamazoo MI
48713 Henry Hudson's, Oklahoma City OK
3rd, 2015 51103 BWW- Crystal City VA
50686 The Fellowship (BWW-Kent OH)
49454 Teddy B's, Roselle, IL
49019 Mad River, New York, NY
47361 Four Corners, Chapel Hill, NC
4th, 2016 49557 The Fellowship (BWW-Kent OH)
47255 Teaser's, Chicago IL
46383 Big Guys, Winnipeg MB
46353 BWW-Arlington VA
45734 Houlihan's/BWW-Westbury NY
5th, 2017 56129 Danny K's (Orange CA)
55538 Teaser's (Chicago IL)
52949 Moose McGuires (Ottawa ON)
52917 The Fellowship (BWW-Kent OH)
51442 Mad River (New York NY)
6th, 2018 57399 The Fellowship (BWW-Kent OH) 55703 Teaser's, Chicago IL 55205 Mad River, New York NY 55113 BWW-Crystal City, Arlington VA 53682 Danny K's, Orange CA
To have finished in the top five of a cumulative-points tournament in what is arguably Buzztime's toughest game speaks volumes about the quality of the team. Congrats to all the top teams in Buzztime's toughest field.
Before wrapping things up for another year, I need to thank a number of people. First, I would like to thank the team at Danny K's for graciously entrusting the commissionership of the tournament to me this year. It was an honor.
Second, I want to thank each and every team that participated in this year's tournament. As mentioned earlier, this is arguably Buzztime's most challenging game, and you have proved yourselves to be among the best of the best at it, week in and week out. I sincerely hope you will sign up for the seventh edition of the tournament next April.
Third: Although few of them check into these boards, I want to express my sincerest thanks to everyone who played at BWW-Kent during the tournament. It continues to be a privilege to play and be friends with such a great bunch of smart and funny people, and I continue to be in awe of all of my teammates. As I always like to say: The Fellowship is the Greatest Team in the World, and it's pretty good at trivia, too.
Last, but certainly not least, I would like to make a special note of remembrance to the person who is the reason for the trophy: Tim (DINGO) Richardson. His presence in the trivia forums is still deeply missed, and I would like to think he would approve of all of us remembering him in this way every year. We hoisted our glasses to him on Tuesday night, and hope other teams will remember him, too.
So that officially wraps up this year's tournament. Thanks again to all who participated, and we hope to see you in the seventh edition of the DINGO Cup next year.
_________________ Anon "He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."
Last edited by ANON on Thu May 03, 2018 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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