A new definition for SRO: Sitting Room Only.	The CABs GM team introduces technology to Facts In Five.

The 2011 tournament saw the CABS folks take temporary control of the event. Despite, or perhaps because of, our spreading rumors that we would have categories like "Tatoo parlors where Ohio State football players hang out", "Organs lost by Pete Stein", and "WBC Events Bruce Reiff has won a plaque in", a record SRO field appeared on Saturday night to test their wits. There were many first-time players, which was great to see, but stretched our ability to handle everything. The patience of the players was much appreciated.

The first round categories were: Harvard Courses of Study, Kings of France, Shakespeare Plays. Jennifer Aniston movies/TV shows, and Constellation names with the letters C, H, M, O, and R. 23 players got 12 or more correct, led by Paul Bean who got an incredible 18 right, made even more incredible by the fact that he left three of the Jennifer Aniston boxes blank. Special credit to Mark Guttag for getting "Odo" for French Kings (while missing "Robert"). The "Brain working in mysterious ways" award for Round 1 went to Eric Brosius for (correctly) choosing "Octans" as his "O" constellation rather than the more well-known Orion.

The second round had categories by our first CABS guest puzzle-maker, Bruce Reiff. Bruce's categories reflected his passions well: Allied Ship Names in Victory in the Pacific, Cities on the TransAmerica game board, Current NHL Franchise nicknames, Names of cards in the game Dominion, and Kentucky Derby winners, with the letters A, C, O, S and W. Breathing a sigh of relief that Bruce didn't choose a category like "Wide receivers for Ohio State in the 1980's", the players settled in to turn in the highest-scoring round of the night which sez a frightening lot about how many Bruce Reiff wanna-be's there are out there. 17 players scored 14 or higher, led by Eric Brosius's 19, the highest score for any player in any round. Common answers that a surprising number of people forgot in the round included the Edmonton Oilers (yes, they still exist), and the Silver card in Dominion - it seems that lots of people were thinking of action cards only.

After the relatively high-scoring Reiff round, first minion Jeff Mullet stepped in with a new batch of categories that sent everyone's scores plummeting. The categories were: Empire names in History of the World, American Idol winners or Runner-ups, Top 25 BPA Laurelists, NBA Slam Dunk Contest winners, and 2011 WBC Junior's events. The letters were B, C, G, H, and M. In this round, only 12 players scored 10 or higher. The high score was Jason Levine's 14, despite his whining that he would have been his own answer in the Laurelist category if we had chosen different letters. On the low end, 17 people scored four or less points in the round. Nobody was shut out, but one point was scored by Jodie Rosenblum (with Germany) and Chaka Benson (with Kobe Bryant).

With the crowd still reeling from Round 3, Pete Stein stepped in with his set of Cabbies World categories. He chose: Top 100 boy baby names in 2010, published Rio Grande Games, Artists of top100 auctioned paintings (by price), schools that have played in the Fiesta Bowl, and Performers who have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the letters C, L, M, P, and S. There were some tricky boxes in this round. For example, "Parker" was the only baby name starting with P, to the dismay of lots of people who chose names like "Peter" or "Paul". Nobody guessed Parker correctly. Also, despite some arguments about their names, neither Michelangelo nor Leonardo da Vinci had any paintings in the top 100 sold at auction. Patrick Gorman's 15 led the scoring in this round, where 20 players scored 11 or higher. This round's "unusual correct answer" award goes to Debbie Anderson, who for Rio Grande games, letter C, ignored WBC events Carcassone and Caylus, choosing Cuba instead. Joining her is Charles Drozd, whose panicked brain spat out "Cartagena".

The last round would decide it all. I completed the Cabbie experience by trying for a range of categories, choosing Capitals of African countries, Players in the 2011 MLB All-Star game (who actually played in the game), Top 50 Traffic web sites, Individual Nobel Peace Prize Winners, and Chemical Elements. Jason Arvey led the way with 15 points in the round, including an impressive sweep of the African Capitals category. Only nine players got an 11 or higher in this round. My favorite incorrect answer in this round came from Kevin Wojtaszcyk who only attempted five of the 25 possible questions. He only got three points, though, since "Terrium" and "Yellostonium" are not elements in this universe.

When the totals were tallied, we had a mild surprise - Matthew Beach turned in the top score with a total of 62 points. As the table of laurelist scores shows, Matthew never had a top score in a round, but was always close, while avoiding a bad round that would have damaged his chances. In a game as close as this, even being a couple of points off the pace was a bad enough round to ruin many people's chances:

Name	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Total
Beach	12	18	11	13	12	66
Bean	18	16	9	8	13	64
Brosius	13	19	10	12	10	64
Lewis	14	17	8	14	10	63
Drozd	13	15	13	8	12	61
Irving	14	18	7	12	10	61

Since there was a chant of "Bring back Arthur!" heard as people were filing out of the room, I do want to remind everyone that this was a temporary replacement while Arthur Field couldn't make it to WBC in 2011. If and when he returns next year, and can find time in his plaque-driven schedule to run this, he is expected to be in charge again. We again would like to apologize for any stress or disorganization encountered by a new GM getting lots more players than was expected.

The use of Powerpoint to show the answers on a screen seemed to be a popular change that may be incorporated in future years, and a big "Thank you" goes out to Kaarin Engelmann for setting up the projector equipment. Also the use of guest questioners was a big help, and I would like to give special thanks to fellow Cabbies Bruce Reiff, Jeff Mullet, and Pete Stein for coming up with three of the five rounds of questions.