In OQL USA Season 16 Week 4, nine players got full houses, a high number indeed.
I caught up with Smarter How’s Dan Blim after he achieved a 21(8) full house against Sunday in the Park With George Costanza.
Tim: Is this the greatest individual performance in your Trivia career?
Dan: It’s definitely up there, particularly in terms of individual performance! There’ve been some memorable wild guesses, like randomly picking the name Kevin as a given member of the Pentatonix (just seemed like the name of a kid in the 90s who’d join an a capella group?), some deep cut knowledge I’m really proud of pulling, but on a larger scale it’s pretty high. But I also like the team aspects of OQL, and my Smarter How? colleagues have all had amazing games, impressive pulls, and as the 3rd member to get a full house, I’m now pulling for the other two!
Tim: During the game, did it cross your mind that you were headed towards perfection? How much pressure were you feeling during round 8?
Dan: It did not occur to me until like round 6 that I hadn’t missed anything. When we reached round 8 I honestly thought “well this has been fun but I don’t think I’ve had my L4 this round, so oh well.” And then when it came up and I was pretty sure I had the right answer, it was very exciting. It was a long question too, so it drew out the excitement.
Tim: Have you ever went 15/15 in a mimir type game? Have you ever flirted with getting a full house in the past in OQL?
Dan: I have not! I’ve gone 14/15 in some friendlies on film and musical theater, which is kind of stacking the deck for me. I think for a regular pop solos I maxed out around maybe 12. But with a shout out to teammate Adam Hancock—we never went 15/15 but we finished 4th in my first ever season of Smashdown this fall, which also felt really gratifying!
I honestly thought a full house was nearly impossible! I’ve only once gotten 7, and I must rank among the small handful of players to have both a full house and a game where I only got 1 direct. I’m not a flashcarder or studier, so my performance is pretty variable depending on the set. But hopefully for others who find themselves regularly in sort of the middle of things, the lesson is it can happen!
Tim: Were any of your answers total guesses? Were the level fours easy for you? Did you get all your one point questions right?
Dan: Surprisingly I felt pretty confident in all 8 of my questions! Not entirely sure what levels everything was at, but I’ll take a stab at what I think were the L4s. Fancy Dance: this pair of powwow dances has come up before. I’m not always great at pulling things (I often am like “I missed this before, and at least it’s familiar but I do not remember), but in this case, since I teach a little mini-unit in my intro class on Native American music, I made an extra effort to learn about this (and have since encountered descriptions of Fancy Dance in my course prep). Ted Olson: well, the 2000 election was my first time voting and a very memorable few weeks in college, so I was pretty riveted following the news. And then the opposing counsels teamed up for a challenge to same-sex marriage bans, it’s, uh, safe to say that I took a vested interest. And his name came up again when doing dissertation research on 9/11 music, since his wife was one of the most notable people who died in the attacks.
Maybe cold fusion was the one I felt least confident in? Because at least in my house, room temperature is not cold (except when I sleep), but for fusion I suppose it seems cold. And I cannot name another nuclear process phrase with temperature.
Tim: What are your other trivia goals for 2026?
Dan: Great question! I don’t have really specific goals. It’s exciting when I do well in a quiz, and when I don’t…it’s fine! It’s all fun. So I guess I’ll say my goals are largely to make new friends, enjoy the moments when something I love a lot comes up, challenge myself to learn from missed questions (honestly, missing something is the best way I learn something), go to in person trivia cons and other live events and hang out with the many dear people I love from this community. And get everyone to play the classical music mini-league on LL I’m editing next summer with some great writers, and hope everyone comes away learning to love some music in new ways!
I also caught up in the locker room with Spare Parts' Benny Meyers who got a 20(8) against Something Wicked This Way Tecumseh.
In that game, Jason Hess also had a 24(8)!
Tim: Was the full house your first one ever in OQL?
Benny: Yeah, first ever in a competitive set. Done it twice in UK friendlies. One of those I was playing while picking my youngest up from school, and no one said anything., so I didn't even realize it happened until I got home and checked on the site, lol.
Tim: Was this the greatest trivia moment ever for you?
Benny: lol probably. I kinda wish it'd felt harder? Two others also FH'd the same seat. But then again lots didn't. Took a weird bit of knowledge overlap.
Oh, I made the cut in my first ever LLRC this year ( and could finished quite higher if I'd monied more ambitiously), and won the Venetian Quiz League's International Championship ( shoutout to Owen Riley!) about a month ago, so it's actually tough to say- let's just call it a tie .
Tim: No lucky guesses? ( i am implying Lucky Johnson)
Benny: Nah. Closest was Ron Jon- I think I was 80% on that. If I were in D1/ no free guess, I might've passed to a teammate with a fist. Everything else was 100 %.
Tim: Did you realize Jason was getting a full house in the same match and did anyone bring it up at the time?
Benny: Yes and no, heh. Don't think anyone wanted to jinx either of us. Er, it was mentioned at the time each happened. Andy Greeley was reading and congratulated me, and then Jason- he said it was the first time he'd ever been part of a game with two FHs.
Tim: Jason's team was playing mine ( The Orphans) one time and both he and Jennifer Blanton were both on their way to full houses. I think I did mention it towards the 6th round or so and I feel bad if I jinxed them. Thanks for chatting and is there any other comments you want to say about the set or season?
Benny: I had 53/64, so pretty sure that's the best OQL set for me that's ever been written.- there's actually been lots of wheelhouse content for me this whole season, so uh thanks Rose + team, keep it up!
Comments
Post a Comment