Recap: BQT goes to grad school

Yes, indeed: Thursday night marked the Big Quiz Thing's Boston-area debut, in Harvard Square's lovely Oberon, and the hit was of the tremendous variety. Hurray for the 130-plus trivia geeks who came out to see why trivia is worth paying a cover charge for; you nerds know your shit. (Though I still can't believe only one squad got this: What happened on TV in the following years: 1966, 1987, 1993, 1995, 2001?)

Since this was our debut in this new market, we whipped out some of the BQT's marquee games—Bipolar Movie Challenge was a delight as always, and Slooow Songs is especially gratifying; seeing the teams gradually come to a realization for each track fills me with a warm sensation. And yes, we did the big Three-Way Finale, though a tie for third-place necessitated a brief runoff. Thanks to everyone for not being fucking crybabies.

As for this specific venue, Oberon's an interesting place; more of a theater than Crash Mansion or (Le) Poisson Rouge, but still ideally suited for the BQT. In DJ role, EDP was way up in the booth on the balcony, on the mike as the voice of God, while I was on stage with our guest B-Cutie, the legendary Katie Vagnino. The stage had a ridiculously massive screen directly behind me. It all looked awesome. Extra props to Oberon's staff, who played the game as "Staff Infection"—yes, pretty much the same name as the staff team at Crash Mansion, though the Oberon people did considerably better (perfect score on the audio round!). And the standings; hopefully we'll see some of these people again:

1. Up in Your Grill: Harvard, reprezent! They won it on two during the finale with Who is the namesake of two state capitals, a country in South America, a Canadian province, and a major American university? and What 1989 hit romantic comedy film—along with its two sequels—starred two confirmed Scientologists?
2. Howard Zinn Kicks Ass!/All Your Junk Hanging Out (tie)
4. Dorkasm
5. Fire Walk with Me
6. Admiral Snackbar/Monstrous Humanoids (who vow, via Twitter, to come down to NYC and win the game on the BQT's home turf) (tie)
8. Ass to Ass
9. Unusual Suspects/Jersey Unshore (tie)

Stay tuned for when we return to MA…