Encore Question of November 29th, 2003.
Played at the Frog & Firkin in North York Ontario.
Answers:
Tonight I'm playing Playback at The Frog & Firkin and start with two boxes, ROCKET and LITBOX. My LITBOX box had conked out after I guided both through a perfect game of Retroactive. I switched boards between games and got some help from Nick to choose a frequency as this board didn't let me sign on. It was a big group with lots of board switching between the start of the game. Richard BERGIE and Dougie FLEX were on either side of me. Don MOLLY left and gave his board to Richard who changed names. Mike BIOSCI is a regular patron of the bar but I've never seen play NTN before got a board. Nick IAMINU left for another bar and I gave his board to Kim so he could play as MOLSON and VIKING with Chris KELLY. Kim and Chris were in our second row out of easy earshot.
My game so far had gone like this: TuneUp...ROCKET...4500/5000...1st/12...I co-win round with BERGIE and BIG D. A guy came over from a table and said I had the same frequency as his friend. "He's had his board longer so you'll have to change it", he said. "Do you know how do it?" I asked. "Yeah", so he grabbed my board and pressed a few buttons. Something seems wrong when he's doing this because won't I lose my score? He gives me the board back and the frequency is '841'. I can't sign in as anything. Dougie says the board can't be higher than '070' and anything higher than '045' will probably not be responsive. So there goes my LITBOX board. The bartender doesn't know what to do either. I don't want another board now the game has started. OnBeat...ROCKET...10500/14000...1st/12...FLEX wins round...I finish with 6 right and 3 wrong which isn't so hot. JukeBox...ROCKET...14353/20000...1st/11...VIKING wins round...We get the choices we want but some of these questions are tough. My 20000 preEncore standard looks unobtainable tonight. Triviaoke...ROCKET...19637/28000...1st/11...VIKING wins round. I take two -250 answers including the last question where I still had a chance to pass 20000.
Now the Encore answers come up. I don't know much about any of these groups. "Mike, I'll need your help" I say. I hadn't even noticed he had a board. He is a lifeguard at the swimming pool I go to and tonight asked me what radio station I like them to play. I said I knew they play the hockey games if the Maple Leafs are playing on Tuesdays but otherwise I wasn't sure what they played. The lifeguards like "The Edge" which supposedly isn't too popular with the old folks who usually are at the pool. "It's to keep the lifeguards awake" he said. Sure I agree with "The Edge". It doesn't bother me because I really can't hear the music or voices anyway while I'm in the water and the echos of the accoustics at the pool I can hear just a drone except in the whirlpool. I hadn't thought that the station wouldn't play these five groups, they used to be more 'Alternative'. "Watch this be some guy's name in the band", I say.
Encore Question:...Fans of this rock band were shocked in 2003 when guitarist Marcos Curiel left the group.
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I don't know this. Wait, I remember a guy in Creed left their band because one album has four guys on the cover and the next CD has only three. "Are you sure it's not them" I ask when I hear other suggestions. Mike says he thinks it's P.O.D. (I only knew what their initials stand for, they are from San Diego and had Christian tinged lyrics). Wait, I realize that last Creed album I bought was back in 2002 so I suddenly agree with Mike. They did have a band member change before their new album. "Yes, thank you Mike" I proclaim so noone will go with my initial idea.
Correct Answer:....2. P.O.D.
[NTN Extra Fact:...Band members were upset about Curiel's side project "The Accident Experiment".]
I think Maple Leaf sweater clad Mike was more pleased by the Leafs beating division rival Ottawa Senators 2-1 for their fourth win a row.
I'm right and win with 29455. I finish 715th in North America. I earn only 3000+ Players Plus points for meeting this week's standard which I hadn't noticed. The bar finishes 14th in North America with a 26354 average. We could have been a few positions higher if both my boards were still in the game. Chris KELLY's board conked out midway through the game. (ntn.com lists 1967 bars but moved us down to 15th).
Here's how the rest of the bar did: Player preEncore Final Rank ntn.com rank ROCKET 19637 29455 715 101 VIKING 17826 26789 1571 173 MOLSON 17533 26299 1710 195 FLEX 16541 24811 2179 245 BERGIE 16312 24468 2287 268 MASE 14017 x 7009 7790 3708 DOGGI 13826 x 6913 7820 3796 BIOSCI 13761 20641 3493 465 BIG D 11215 16823 4697 753 JCKASZ 11054 16581 ???? 775 GOSENS 9698 x 7758 ???? 3127 What? An Ottawa Senators hockey fan in here? (ntn.com listed 9747 players)
"Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy" I joke as the change-your-board guy missed the Encore question. Richard had changed his spare board to JAKASZ in his honour. [At home looking through my Creed CDs I see that it was bass player Brian Marshall who left the group].
Other games:...I'm start the evening with ROCKET at 2,773,000 and LITBOX at 591,500 P+ points.
8:00pm...Countdown...ROCKET...10708/15000...4th/10...1000+ points...I'm 2138th in North America.
..........LITBOX...10691/15000...5th/10...1000+ points...I'm 2151st in NA...IAMINU wins.
8:30pm...RetroTVCountdown...ROCKET...15000/15000...1st/13...1000+ points...I'm 1st in Canada with a perfect game (one of 16 shown on the Network Top 20)...bar is 3rd in Canada with a 14853 average.
..............LITBOX...15000/15000...1st/13...1000+ points...This was the board that was displayed on the Network. I had to baby this one through because I kept getting the signal "battery is low"...The 'change-your-board' guy had told me his problem in the 8pm game and seemed nice enough. That's why I went over and said between rounds "Don't get upset with our scores as they've had the same fifteen questions for the last eight weeks in a row".
This game was EXACTLY the same as the last two months now. Yeah question 7 and 9 exactly the same! Doesn't anybody complain?
9:00pm...Playback (see above).
10:00pm...Countdown...ROCKET...11318/15000...2nd/9...1000+ points...I'm 1914th in NA...the bar is 349th...BERGIE wins.
10:30pm...Countdown...ROCKET...13348/15000...1st/8...1000+ points...I'm 11th in North America...bar is 13th with an 11750 average...I must have got at least 2500 points of help from Richard and Dougie.
Yikes, miss a week around here and I find that they've raised their prices. My friends confirmed the portions of the food are smaller too.
Here's hoping we can get a turnout like this again.
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