This summer, I was introduced to LearnedLeague by a coworker of mine who very kindly gave me a referral to join for the next season, LL102. The season starts on August 26th, 2024, and this is a daily log of my thoughts and the results.
Match Day 1 - Bad Defense
What went well
- Question 1: This one took me a while to figure out. I knew many of the languages from my friends but wasn’t sure about which ones were regions so I chose Tamil after an entire day of thought. I gave it 3 points.
- Question 2: I thought long and hard about this. Finally I remembered that AC/DC was an Australian band, and that the Bee Gees were brothers. So which had members who weren’t from Australia? I decided that the Bee Gees seemed more Australian to me.
- Question 3: Remoulades were the defining clue, and my love of cooking shows paid off. Mayo-based sauces I avoid in general.
- Question 4: I got this almost immediately. My high school robotics team was FRC 4048: Redshift! I participated in Imagery and was in charge of producing our informational videos at competitions. I gave this a 0.
- Question 6: Similarly, I researched Dwight D. Eisenhower for a final presentation in my 8th grade social studies class.
What didn’t go well
- Question 5: I had no idea of what the Scottish name could be referring to - I guessed a “Bernie” which was patently incorrect. However, Hitchcock is a popular enough director and my opponent was apparently Danish, which was enough to convince me that I should simply assign it 1 point.
- My defense was sorely lacking while my opponent played it fantastically. I dropped the match 6(5) - 8(4), which means I got everything except the 3 points, and my opponent only lost the 1 point on two incorrect!
- Regrettably, Christian Doppler is obviously not quite as popular in Europe as I thought he was.
- Ending up in 18th place after all the dust settled, even though I’d gotten the most raw questions correct out of everyone in the rundle. But the defensive scenarios are so silly (being the worst possible case for me and the best possible case for my opponent) that I’m wryly delighted, not mad.
Ending thoughts
Ah, how frustrating LearnedLeague can be! Only my first day and I’ve learned one reason why people say that it can be crushing. Next time, I won’t put geography as the category I term “most difficult,” just because I’m not so sharp at it! Turns out trivia nerds are pretty good at it. Evidently, I’ve also adopted a certain style of prose reminiscent of our Commissioner.
Match Day 2 - Good Defense
What went well
- Immediately the results swung to the other side of the table for me. I won this match up which put me in 10th place in the rundle (my highest ranking yet!).
- This was almost a direct result of my better defense this time. The score landed at 5(3) - 1(2), where a single correct answer difference became a four point split. We each got the 0 (question 6), which is how that happened.
- Question 1: Thank you to my high school for their spring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream my freshman year.
- Question 2: A hockey question! I was ecstatic to see it, and amazed that I was able to earn 3 points for it. This is where being a rookie without much question history comes in handy.
- Question 6: It was a gimme gimme gimme.
What didn’t go well
- Question 3: I have learned about Anzac Day now, but my best guess at the time of submission was “Rememberance Day”. I think I thought adding an “e” would make it more Oceanic.
- Question 4: I dared to try thinking that Birdman is a film about birds, so I answered with “We Fly.” It’s not.
- Question 5: Alkane and alkene might match but they certainly don’t fit “often.” I probably could’ve gotten this. My opponent did get this.
- Question 6: Personally, I don’t enjoy ASMR content and I do think it made for a rather easy question. 83% of all players in LearnedLeague answered correctly (quite high!) Both of us put it as 0 points and both of us were right.
- I spent a lot of time analyzing my defense today. It worked out, so it could have been worth it, but maybe not. I’m going to try to make faster decisions.
Ending thoughts
I’m glad to have a win under my belt! Here’s the list of statistics I now have populated on my player profile:
- Most consecutive wins: 1
- Most consecutive losses: 1
- Most consecutive non-losses: 1
- Most consecutive non-wins: 1
- Most consecutive matches without a forfeit: 2
- Most wins, season: 1
- Most losses, season: 1
- Most total match points, season: 11
- Most total correct answers, season: 8
- Most total points allowed, season: 9
- Most correct answers against, season: 6
- Highest defensive efficiency, season: .500
- Highest correct answer percentage, season: .667
- Most three-pointers, season: 1
We LLamas love data. All I need now is a tie and then I’ll have all the streaks and season records filled.
Match Day 3 - Huddle Up, It’s Go Time
What went well
- More good defense and more answered questions! I’m really pleased by the fact that I was able to get to another one point day for my opponent with them answering two questions correct. It’s a better showing than my first day which is all I need every other day.
- I got seven points today which is amazing and I’m proud of myself.
- Question 1: I was reminded of algebra class, which was not that bad! I also liked being able to tell myself that I still know what a complex number is. They aren’t simple.
- Question 2: Lewis Carroll coined a lot of literary terms and phrases which are also known for other reasons. I’m fortunate to have remembered the right one.
- Question 4: It was a bit difficult deciding point value for this one because I felt it was niche but also obvious if you knew/deduced about the academies! A true trivia question.
- Question 5: Gare is train station in French, which Monet certainly was. Trains are found at train stations. The second part of the clue can be misleading, but it’s the second segment tacked onto the end that’s important. My six years of study in school paid off!
- Question 6: In January, February, and March I tune into awards shows when there’s no episodes of cooking competitions or Shark Tank that I haven’t already watched. The CMAs have been added to Hulu for a few years going.
What didn’t go well
- Question 3: I didn’t know a single one of the characters and was unable to identify their actors. “The letter A” was a safe guess, but obviously incorrect. After I saw the answer and started looking things up, I thought ah! to Raven-Symoné. The only other bird I knew was Jay Leno.
- I’m still taking a really long time to decide on what point values to assign. Hopefully as there’s more question history for my opponents I can shorten that up.
- Question 5: Is it wrong to question the adoptation of locomotive as a correct answer? It’s a slight thing haha.
Ending thoughts
I’m not sure if I can be doing better on the question-answer front! I’m currently in 6th place and all my boxcars look good xD. I’m having a lot of fun playing and the variety of these questions are great! The design of the rundles is nice because I can anticipate having matchups with people I know, which is super cool for a trivia league with many many players. I also like the website. It’s tempting to try out some php for myself, now. I’m hoping to continue my streak of wins. In all likelihood it’ll hinge on the questions being in my wheelhouse rather than my defensive ability.
Match Day 4: False Start
What went well
- I’m still able to answer a lot of questions correctly. Also, hit my best number of questions answered again - 5!
- Question 1: I read “Anna” and thought Anna Karenina, but then read the rest of the question and got to Tolstoy’s epic, War and Peace. Who could forget the fact it’s over 1,200 pages long?
- Question 2: I love space! And I thought Voyager made for an easy answer. I give thanks to Astronomy Club. Shoutout to Interstellar, the movie.
- Question 3: My first thought for deer was buck, and hart. It took me a little bit to come up with, but I remembered nubuck leather and thought it would be fitting for “new buck” to be the young deer. I didn’t think it was very difficult, but this question is the only one that my opponent got wrong.
- Question 5: Very nicely worded today.
- Question 6: With kingdom, my mind leapt to Saudi Arabia (the most common wrong answer). But Morocco is far more west. Really neat that I only knew where it was because I started my work with a coworker originally from Morocco.
What didn’t go well
- Question 3: Actually, only 17% of all players in LL102 answered correctly, making it the most difficult question up to this point. I should have made it my 3 pointer!
- Question 4: My apparently appalling knowledge of television and films is clear. This was the only one I didn’t get, and my opponent gave it a 3.
- During my last semester of high school, I took Film in Society. I watched a lot of movies for that class and the written reflections, but we covered the period from the start of film to about the 2000s. In about 4 months. That makes for a knowledge base shaped like swiss cheese. But I can tell you lots of trivial things about Buster Keaton, The Band Concert, Juno, and My Neighbor Totoro, just to name a few of the specific topics we did cover.
- Dropped all the way to 11th place today! Got to get ready to buckle in. Or be relegated.
Ending thoughts
Yesterday I wrote that how well I do largely depends on the subject matter falling into my specific niche. Today was just an example where many people got the answer to that Question 4 (73% of all LLamas!) and I had no clue because I simply haven’t been interested in watching movies or following buzz. I know who Adam Sandler is but no roles apart from Happy Gilmore! What’s fun about trivia is that now I know some of his roles for the next time it comes in handy. And take pride in my knowledge of deer and types of leather.
Match Day 5: First Down
What went well
- Defense worked out again today, with my opponent scoring 1(2). Funnily enough, the questions I marked easiest for my opponent were both ones that I missed (Question 1 and Question 6).
- Moved back up to 7th!
- Question 2: Figured it out with the name of death - Thanatos. I didn’t think any Greek letter held a strong resemblance to a human skull.
- Question 3: Pulcinella tied it together for me. I’m an annual holder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra College Card, so I was super excited to see a classical music question with a composer I knew! It’s lovely to be so close to Symphony Hall when I’m on campus and I collect the program of every show I’ve ever attended.
- Question 5: This question really brought back memories. In one of my classes at university, I worked on building a blockchain and mining “Accelcoin.” I found it near incomprehensible to start and resolved it by reading lots of articles on crypto that ultimately didn’t address the topic very comprehensively. One interesting reading topic is digests. They’re kind of like food but not at all really.
What didn’t go well
- Question 1: I’ve definitely heard of the Apollo. It just didn’t ring a bell with that series or the artists that were featured on the show.
- Question 4: I had no clue but it wasn’t too bad all around. Not only did I not answer this question correctly, not one person in my rundle got it right. It also lands as the hardest question of the season so far with a measly 6% CA.
- My knowledge of Kenyan presidents is woefully underdeveloped. I tried guessing based off of the last names of the few Kenyan runners I knew - ending up with “iyot.” Not even close to getting “arap.”
- I also realized how few Greek letters I actually know.
Ending thoughts
Finished up the first fifth of the season with this match day! It’s been a great experience playing and I feel like I’ve already learned a ton about topics I didn’t know and ones that I thought I did.
Adding a snap of the standings here (click to enlarge):
Some analysis:
- I’m currently in 7th with a 3-2-0 record and 6 points from three wins.
- I have answered 21 questions correctly (out of 30 total) which is four more than anyone else.
- I have a match point differential of 11. This is the second highest overall (but trailing 1st place by 10!) and has been largely due to my improved defense.
- My defensive efficiency ranks in the top third.
- My correct answers against (the truest measure of strength of schedule) is second.
It’s right around the best metrics that I could have hoped for!
Match Day 6: Moving the Chains
What went well
- A lot of these questions were pretty simple for me to answer!
- Question 1: One of the songs of the summer. I also enjoyed that there was a Beatles reference for those of us who don’t listen to Top 40.
- Question 2: This also brought me back to my FIRST days! Dean Kamen invented that along with the Segway.
- Question 3: I’m very familiar with this musical and really wanted to see this live when I was in New York earlier this year. The first time, I got to the TKTS booth about three minutes too late to catch tickets and the second time, it was Six’s off day. Highly recommend their Tiny Desk concert and Jasmine Forsberg’s rendition of Heart of Stone.
- Question 4: Sixth grade environmental science came in handy, I got confused between cinder cone but the specific volcanoes helped. This was a really long question.
- Question 5: What helped me here was the Titanic series by Gordon Korman! I picked it up at a second grade Scholastic book fair along with random things like notebooks and erasers and my mom wasn’t very happy I spent 20 dollars but they’re good books for kids obsessed with the Titanic. I came up with White Star Line/Cunard, and put together the answer based on what I knew of American history and Marcus Garvey’s exploits.
What didn’t go well
- Question 6: I have literally never heard of this movie haha. The Wikipedia page makes it seem pretty popular, and a lot of people playing got it right!
- My opponent got 0, 1, 1, and 3 points (from Reefer Madness, which I will not forget any time soon).
Ending thoughts
Still figuring out the answers to questions, which is good! I think the questions have still been figure-out-able. In fourth place now, so steadily moving up!
Match Day 7: Field Goal
What went well
- Got a lot of these right!
- Question 3: Baseball!! Not only baseball, but a topic directly related to what I worked on at my internship this summer :) It really felt amazing to get this question, even though I got 0 points for it (the question histories are solidifying a little now).
- Question 4: I got 3 points for this question about television, which happened to be about journalism. I rarely watch shows, but I do tune into news broadcasts. Though I actually don’t like watching the late-night investigative broadcasts because they creep me out.
- Question 6: A really well known piece by Mozart, so even though I didn’t know the full title off of the top of my head there were enough clues there to get it.
What didn’t go well
- Question 5: I’ve heard of Perry Mason as a lawyer but didn’t know enough about his origins. I’ll remember this question-answer pairing too.
- My indecisiveness about defense!
- Also starting to run out of capacity to look at the questions before I head to work for the day.
Ending thoughts
In third place today, and I’m settling into a bit of a rhythm here. I’m learning a lot of interesting things :)