Big crowd tonite! Once an afterthought, Facts in Five at WBC has grown considerably in recent years and threatens to outgrow the Hopewell room.	Technology in the form of projected questions and answers has sped up the process in recent years, but despite that the event has increased its length.

Double the Fun! ...

Thanks to everyone who came to participate in another overflowing Facts in Five tourney! The expanded two-hour schedule seemed to work much better, allowing us to review answers and keep the presentation more entertaining, while maintaining the recent inflated attendance of the previous two years.

Special thanks to Greg Crowe for being a great Assistant GM; Sceadeau D'Tela for acquiring and arranging seating; Don Greenwood for arranging backup when the projector wasn't immediately available; and again, to everyone who made it a great crowd.

Full player results (with names removed to protect the innocent) can be found here.

The full answer key can be found here.

Please note that the answer key was what I developed prior to the event; some answers may have been added during the game as people came up with answers that I had overlooked (for example, "Thigh Bone" should count as a valid "T" common name for a bone.)

Without further ado, here are the categories, letters, and top performers for each round:

Round 1:

Justices (current and past) of the U.S. Supreme Court

Properties of Monopoly

Main Ingredients in McCormick Brand Spices

Celebrity Contestants of Dancing With The Stars

Bones of the Human Body

Letters: C, P, R, S, T

Overall Average: 10 correct

Top performers: Jason Arvey took an early lead with 20 correct; Sarah Beach was second with 19, and Richard Irving and Jim Eliason tied at 18. Richard Meyer, Eric Brodius, and Roderick Lee rounded out the rest of the early contenders tied at 17.

Round 2:

Novels By Stephen King

U.S. cities west of the Mississippi with a population of over 250,000

Nobel Prize Winners for Physics

BBC Original Series

Drivers who won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Letters: E, F, L, P, T

Overall Average: 6 correct

Top Performers: Jason Arvey expanded his lead with 15 points over Mark Guttag, Chaka Benson, Gordon Rogers, Jarret Weintraub, and Brandon Bernard with 11 each.

Round 3:

Movies Directed By Woody Allen

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Guitarists of All Time

Capitals of European Countries

Television Manufacturers

Authors Nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel

Letters: D, M, V, W, Z

Overall Average: 7 correct

Top Performers: Two-time champ Richard Meyer and Roderick Lee tied at 14 points each, doubling the average correct score. Mark Guttag, Jim Eliason, Eric Brosius and Gordon Rogers led the trail pack with 13 points each.

Round 4:

Fortune 100 Companies

Winter Olympics Host Cities

SNL Cast Members

Counties in the State of California

U.S. Magazines with a circulation of over 1 million

Letters: C, G, L, N, O

Overall Average: 7 correct

Top Performers: Mark Guttag and Joseph Marriot tied for the lead with 14 points each; Richard Meyer and Roderick Lee tied again, but for second this time with 13 points; and John Riston rounded out the top five with 12.

Round 5:

Middle Names of U.S. Presidents

Coaches in the NFL Hall of Fame

Academy Award Winners for Best Actress

Childrens' Books Written by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

Countries and Territories touching the Caribbean Sea

Letters: A, B, H, M, S

Overall Average: 9 correct

Top Performers: The final round saw Richard Irving lead with 18 points; Mark Guttag came in second with 17; and Richard Meyer, John Riston, Winton Lemoine, and John Elliot tied at 16.

Final Results:

Despite lots of ties within each round, the end totals needed no tie breakers: Mark Guttag won with 71 points; Jason Arvey was second with 69; Richard Irving third at 68; Richard Meyer fourth at 67; Roderick Lee fifth at 65; and Jim Eliason in sixth at 64.

Questions, and comments are always appreciated; putting these together is a learning process. (One major piece of feedback I've received and will follow: less questions on U.S. politicians/geography next year to be fair to our foreign players.) Please reach out to me at johncorrado@hotmail.com if you have suggestions or if there was something you would like to see or something you'd like me to do differently.

My favorite moments this year? Hearing Winton Lemoine groan "My employer!" when we read out the names of Fortune 500 companies; and hearing Richard Meyer exclaim "Oh, this must be a trap!" when I set up the category that was, in fact, a trap. But best was having an engaged crowd who laughed at the right points and groaned at the right points! So thank you all again, and I'll see you next year!

GM John Corrado not only has to research his "puzzles" well in advance, he also augments the presentation with graphic displays of the answers.	A far cry from the old days when participants voted on whether an answer was acceptable or not. Huge improvement over the "Arguments R Us" days.