After  Trivia Classic , it was Fatty's Big Chance with the edge on the competition! Fatty's Big Chance of course were the continuing #TeenGirlSquadGoals of Smartly Pretty and/or Kissy Boots, also known as Matt & Pat! They were looking to bridge the thirty point gap between themselves and The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes, but both teams would also have to worry about the team two and a half points behind Fatty's Big Chance after the first round, our reigning Golden VCR winners the Fighting Mongooses! The Mongooses were looking to do the unprecedented, forty-nine points behind the Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes after the first leg of the 2018 Hitchens Cup, and win TWO annual event wins in a calendar year! The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes were themselves in fourth place, though still holding onto the overall lead, while in third place were It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To, who yes were celebrating a birthday, while also making their first appearance on the east end, having competed a nice handful of times at Cardinal Rule under such names as Lowered Expectations! A point and a half behind The Good Folks was Making Wookiee, our competition behind the bar who was also fast closing in on the all-time appearance record of the Trusty Rumpets at Hitch! Rounding out the field after the first round was The Sinking Ship, with points on the board but room to make up!

 Game Show Games  in round two then saw Fatty's Big Chance game play their way into the TOP TEN of Countdown Takedown! The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes still nabbed eight points, while Making Wookiee took six, and the Fighting Mongooses and The Sinking Ship each picked up four points! In Survey Says it was then The Sinking Ship who was left pointless, while the Fighting Mongooses nabbed the TOP TEN, and Making Wookiee took eight points for themselves! Finally in Combo Breakdown it was a head-to-head that rounded down to Fatty's Big Chance and the Fighting Mongooses, with both teams already having accrued fourteen points in the second round (as did Wookiee and Good Folks, in fact)! Fatty's Big Chance would be the team to fall however and get six points, while the Fighting Mongooses doubled up on their Combo for SIXTEEN POINTS in the Breakdown and thus took over the lead to head into the third round!

With the Fighting Mongooses in the lead, going into  Tri-Pardo , the reigning Trivia Club Grand Champs also got the chance to pick and roll on the first question, rolling for four points! Fatty's Big Chance would pick the second question and roll for a nat TWENTY on the first try! Well done, Pat! Finally, for his birthday, It's My Birthday and I'll Cry If I Want To rolled for eighteen on the third question! forty-two points were on the line in total! It's My Birthday would gain points on the first and third questions, as would Fatty's Big Chance... and both would make advances in the points! Both Wookiee and the Fighting Mongooses would only nab four points from the first question, thus seeing the Fighting Mongooses slip to third place before the Finale. Third place, because hitting for the triple and taking the lead in the standings by four points with one question to go? The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes!

So it came down to the  Trivia Finale ! With the category chosen by The Sinking Ship, The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes had to answer the last question correctly as they had put every less half a point on the line, and they would improve on their runner-up finish from last year! The Fighting Mongooses also could win the night, if they answered the Finale correctly while The Good Folks and Matt & Pat each answered incorrectly, and they would improve on their third place finish in 2017! Finally, Fatty's Big Chance knew that they could slip by The Good Folks but they needed both knowledge... and luck, and they would be able to make up for the 2014 result that saw the defending Golden VHS champ Electric Bastards featuring Matt & Pat, fall short against the Trusty Rumpets, which at the time featured The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes!

One team answered the Finale question correctly...

Your 2017/2018 GRAND CHAMPIONS at HITCH, winners of the Fall Classic, the CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS CUP V... SMARTLY PRETTY, KISSY BOOTS, FATTY'S BIG CHANCE... MATT & PAT! They would win the golden bottle of Johnny Walker Black, Hitchens' drink of choice with 270 combined points, while The Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes would finish as the runner-up with 139.5 aggregate points, a gap that at first glance won't truly tell just how close of a result it was! The Fighting Mongooses finished in third on aggregate for the second consecutive year, as well! Rounding out the month long Top Five (top five, top five) were Wookiee and The Sinking Ship!

 24/09/18 POINTS TABLE 

TEAM	CLASSIC	CT	SS	CB	PARDO	(WAGER)	FINALE
Fatty’s Big Chance	38.5	10	4	6	22	(80.5)	161
Fighting Mongooses	36	4	10	16	4	(70)	0
Making Wookiee	26	6	8	2	4	(46)	0
Good Folks from Laramie Cigarettes	27.5	8	6	1	42	(84)	0.5
It’s My Birthday and I’ll Cry If I Want To	31.5	0	2	1	22	(56.5)	0
The Sinking Ship	19	4	0	0	-18	(20)	-15

Matt & Pat also become the first TRIPLE CROWN GRAND CHAMPIONS! Both have won the Golden VCR, with Matthew first winning it in 2014 with Sexy Dumpster Teens before winning it in 2014 with Patrick as part of The Electric Bastards! They were then both on the 2015 Top Dawg Trophy winning team The Bastards, before completing this wild trio of annual wins together on this night!

Congrats once again to Smartly Pretty, Kissy Boots, Fatty's Big Chance, whatever you want to call Matt & Pat! Thank you once again to everyone who came out to compete not only during the Hitchens Cup V, this Monday, but also any time during our first FIVE YEARS on the east end! We'll see you again in TWO WEEKS on October 8th for first edition of Trivia Club in our eighth year!

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