T he Fifth Annual Grand Championship Grand Prix began on Monday, April 3rd, at Hitch. Immediately two things became evident. Their was potential for a two team race, even with five events still to go, when the Cunning Stunts and The Electric Bastards both put up impressive numbers on night one. Their was was also potential for a dark horse to take it from them both, just as David Bowie's Corporate Whores did last year. Petite Pierre's... held up under the pressure of a tough Tri-Pardo, though wagered less then the top two teams on the night and finished with 147 points. Still, this team was an alum of 2015 much like a fellow-debuting team of that year in David Bowie's Corporate Whores... and though they Tiny Tim's... nee Petite Pierre's had debuted at Cardinal Rule, they had made Hitch their home and were the reigning Hitchens Cup winners! The Electric Bastards were looking ahead however, and wanted to be two-time Golden VCR winners as a team, with some members of the team wanting their name on the Grand Championship for a third time, and with 163 points on night one they were one of two teams to cross the Sesquicentennial Mark. The other, was the first night's Golden VHS winner, a team that also notched the fifth highest score in the history of Hitch with 188 points, the Cunning Stunts! When these teams were only able to keep one Hitch score, this was certainly a good start.

Our GCGP 2017 then began in earnest at Cardinal Rule, on April 5th, as the Cunning Stunts once again won the night after a difficult Finale question that left the team with 65 points! It was a stunning turn of events on the night, as six teams could have won, and The Electric Bastards were in line for 157 points... but as was noted, it was truly a difficult Finale question, so the Stunts added to their initial lead while also winning their THIRD Golden VHS in a single week. The month had just begun, however, and on our Fifth Anniversary Spectacular on April the 12th at our Original Home of Cardinal, The Electric Bastards won the night with 138 points! The Cunning Stunts finished in third, fifty-five points behind... shortening the distance between the two teams.

Just as the Cunning Stunts had won twice in five days, the week before, The Electric Bastards followed up their win at Cardinal Rule with a win at Hitch on April 17th! Now, because the Grand Prix for 2017 combined a teams top score at Hitch with all scores at Cardinal Rule, the Electric Bastards would have had to top 163 points... which they did not, but on a difficult end to the night at our Limited Edition event at Hitch, they were continuing their momentum from the middle of the month into our penultimate event! It should be noted as well that the Shaym-Aliens were a Finale away at Hitch on that night, from 163 points... it just was not to be. As much as teams such as Petite Pierre's... and Last Place Team and the M. Night Shaym-Aliens were fighting to win their first Golden VCR, this had turned into a two team race in the final events of our fifth season!

Our penultimate event brought the top five teams in the GCGP for 2017 back to Cardinal Rule on April 19th! After the initial lead, and a strong Game Show Game round, The Electric Bastards were unable to win the Combo Breakdown against the M. Night Shaym-Aliens, who themselves were tripped up in the Tri-Pardo round on that night. Taking advantage of the shifting points, the Cunning Stunts took the lead heading into the Finale, tied as it were with Petite Pierre's... though potentially wary of the up and down nature of the month's Finales, Pierre underwagered... leaving the Stunts to run away with the win on the night! With 134 points to the 111 points from the Electric Bastards, the Cunning Stuns added to their overall lead going into the Finale night but with Trivia Club... anything is possible (well, anything within reason).

On our Grand Championship Grand Prix Finale, the top eight teams had just eight and a half points between them after the first round. Petite Pierre's... was even able to jump from fourth to first after the first Game Show Game of the night, on April 26th at Cardinal Rule, but The Electric Bastards retook the lead with Survey Says. With 58 points to make up for on the night, every Game mattered for The Electric Bastards, and with the potential to double up on their winnings in the Finale, their fourteen points in round two compared to the Cunning Stunts two points, heading into the Combo Breakdown, was looking better and better. When the Cunning Stunts were only able to attain one point in the Breakdown, the Electric Bastards won Combo'd four, five, six points. The only thing though, was that they were being matched answer for answer by an unexpected saving grace for the Cunning Stunts... the team that held them off in last year's Grand Championship Grand Prix, returning just in time for the Finale event at Cardinal Rule, David Bowie's Corporate Whores! Wouldn't you know it, the Corporate Whores were the last team standing, taking the sixTEEN points for themselves, and leaving the Cunning Stunts and The Electric Bastards to battle it out for the Golden VCR in Tri-Pardo!

In a Tri-Pardo that would see the night's Golden VHS winning team and runner-up hitting for the triple, the Cunning Stunts and The Electric Bastards were left to battle neck and neck in the Finale. That Finale... was Winner Winner... and it was chosen, by the Cunning Stunts themselves.

See, the Cunning Stunts have been here before... one question, one night away from potentially putting their name on the Golden VCR. In our first year, during the 2012/2013 Grand Championship at Cardinal Rule they had won the first night of a two-parter... but saw their chances slip away during night two, only for the unheralded Sam Rockwell to take home the first Golden VCR. During 2013/2014, an early lead slipped away from the Cunning Stunts and they had to settle for the runner-up spot as the Sexy Dumpster Teens, a veritable Saturday Night Live Fantasy League troupe featuring the Electric Mayhem, took the second Golden VCR! When the Golden VCR became a double decker, we also brought together the biggest competition yet, with eleven nights of Trivia Club up for grabs in 2014/2015, and we also saw the Sexy Dumpster Teens become something longer lasting in the combination of two legacy teams, one from Cardinal Rule and one from Lou Dawgs... inevitably the winningest teams at both locations to this day... when the Electric Mayhem teamed with The Bastards to become The Electric Bastards. You're familiar with them if you've read this far. Heck, even before you started reading this... because their is no other reason why you're here. The Electric Bastards would win the third Golden VCR, appearing at ten events that April, and the Cunning Stunts... would finish as runners-up. In 2015-2016, things would look different, not only because the Grand Championship Grand Prix would offer something of a Choose Your Own Adventure path, but also because a new challenger to the Grand Championship would rise to the forefront, and leave the established teams to catch up. David Bowie's Corporate Whores would lead from the first night to the last... but not without the Cunning Stunts battling back to come within not just an answer, but a word, from winning by one point... for the third year in a row however, the winningest team in the history of Trivia Club would have to settle for runner-up as David Bowie's Corporate Whores would win the fourth Golden VCR!

And so, the GCGP 2017... celebrating the season of Trivia Club that stretched from April 2016 to April 2017. Ultimately the top two teams would amass more then eleven hundred points together. Ultimately only nine points would separate those same two teams. It was the closest finish for the Golden VHS, closer then even our first year, which ended with just eleven points between the top two teams... and remember, that only took place over two nights. It was a closer finish then ANY Annual Event.

After five years, after 164 events, your GRAND CHAMPIONS of 2017...

THE CUNNING STUNTS!