New Scaratings

We were sad to learn last Tuesday that Punts and Pints will be closing this week. The owner was kind enough to give us a heads-up so we could start making other arrangements, and to have one last evening playing together there last night. In return, we did our best to get Punts and Pints up at the top of the boards as often as possible, and largely succeeded. We swept all of the Countdown games from 5:30-7:30 (Eastern), as well as Brainbuster, Showdown, and Glory Daze. The only blemish was a 500-point loss to Primetime in Sports, and coming in second to the fantastic Primetime crew in that game is never anything to hang one's head about.

I can't say enough in praise for the folks at Red Fox/Punts and Pints. They adopted us in 2019 when BWW-Kent announced it was dropping Buzztime, and they treated us royally the whole time we were there. We had our own section of the restaurant with the big screen tuned to trivia, and they would turn down the music in our section so we could hear each other well. They even kept the BT system going for us through the worst of the pandemic when we could not play there in person, and were always attentive to us every Tuesday. The Fellowship has played at a lot of places over the last 20 years, but our experience at Red Fox/Punts and Pints has been the best of them all.

We will be moving on to a new place in a few weeks, but for right now, I would like to take this opportunity to express The Fellowship's sincerest thanks and love to owner/manager Deanna and the wonderful Red Fox/Punts and Pints staff who have taken such very good care of us since we moved there in 2019. Special thanks must go to MONICA--Officially Buzztime's Best Bartender!--for somehow managing to handle our Chaocracy week-in and week-out for five years. She is an absolute gem. We were so very lucky to have a home there for so long.

I am attaching a picture from the bittersweet evening. MONICA is front and center, as she should be. Thank you, Red Fox/Punts and Pints, for being an ideal home to a Buzztime Trivia Team. We will miss you.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

On the move again? At least you seem to have some options. That can’t be said for some former teams that faded after not being able to come up with a central location.

Hope you find a decent place. I might guess it will be hard to match the set up you had at Punts and Pints. You might have to go back to dealing with the regular bar customers and scrambling for tables and Buzztime TVs like the rest of us.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles!!!!

Indeed. This is now the fifth time we have been forced to move and it is always inconvenient, but we recognize that some teams have had it worse. The Ragged Rascals in Albuquerque, for example, have been even more peripatetic than us, and finally stopped playing after their Alien Bar residency.

I will say that I have been pleasantly surprised at how receptive the managers of potential new locations have been to the pitch we've been making. I asked the team to suggest a list of places to approach, and then I went to those places to ask if they were interested. Only one turned me down flat, and that was mostly because they already do Sporcle trivia there on Tuesday nights. Interestingly, another place also had Sporcle on Tuesdays, but the shift manager there said they might be open to dumping it if we relocated there, and that she would consult with the GM about it. One place wanted to commit on the spot, but I had to tell him that I needed to get the approval of the team first. I think it helps that the system is only about $5/day now and they don't have to mess with boxes and chargers anymore. From what I understand, Sporcle costs more per week than Buzztime does for the whole month.

We hope to know pretty soon where we will be landing, but I'm thinking it will probably be at least a couple of weeks. I hope to know a lot more at the end of this week.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Getting Showdown at a new install will not happen for many months at best. You will need to find an established box or tablet bar till Showdown is in the app.

Maybe Chuggers or Jerzees or Johnny Malloys if they are box instead of app only.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles!!!!

Yes, this is an unfortunate consequence of being forced to move, but we realized there was not much to be done about it. Johnny Malloy's does not have boxes, and although Jerzee's does, they have too few functioning boards and a group of regulars who often use most of the ones that work (it's also a solo bar, and they are not keen on team play). Chugger's also has a minimum of working boxes, and we have some experience with the location--it was the original site of Stringz and Wingz, and the layout and noise was not particularly conducive to our team's needs. Most of the team did not feel like traveling that far in those conditions for only a handful to play.

On the other hand, the manager of our first choice among the new places we scouted was excited to have us and said he would be happy to install the system for us. He said he will also reserve the back part of the restaurant for us every Tuesday, will turn down the music in our section, and have at least one of the big TVs back there tuned to trivia. Provided things work out there, this will at least give us all a chance to play all the games through Brainbuster every week until Showdown is finally on the app. Given our choices, the broad consensus of the Chaocracy on Tuesday was to take their offer. I am still waiting to hear that it is definitely a go there, but I am optimistic. If not, we at least have some other leads to follow.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

Sic transit gloria.

Teasers hopes you will be back on the board asap.

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Merkin