Warning: This will contain spoilers for the Star Wars Number 1 Contender match at the 2nd Live Event while also looking back on previous Star Wars matches
As a Star Wars fan, one certainty of my week is that I will be watching the latest episode of Collider’s Jedi Council. From watching this I found one of the other great loves of my life now: the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. For those who want more of an idea about the show, check out a post I did on my other blog about the show and their YouTube channel here which contains all seasons.
Every now and then, 2 of my great loves collide in the form of a match in the Star Wars Division! This division started after a team match between the Council (Jedi Council members Ken Napzok and John Campea) and the Force Bros (Rebels actors Freddie Prinze Jr and Sam Witwer). The Force Bros won but in controversial circumstances as they were awarded a point in Round 1 despite Freddie answering incorrect, and this lead to a Fatal Fiveway at Star Wars Celebration between Campea, Napzok, Witwer, Jeremy Jahns and Jenny Nicholson. Napzok won and became the inaugural Star Wars Champion, earning a title belt.
Following this, Napzok took a turn towards the Dark side, with “The Pitboss” joining the evil Lion’s Den following Witwer’s victory in a Fatal Fiveway to earn a shot at the title. That title shot was in the form of a 30 minute Iron Man match and was won on the final question by “The Warrior”, though since then Napzok has argued that he was cheated by the system (typical Lion’s Den conspiracy theories) as the buzzer sound while the winning question was being asked. And that brings us up to date on the history of the Star Wars Division.
The Schmoedown has been growing with the introduction of the Patreon and has also begun to include some Live Events, with the last week seeing the second Live Event in Los Angeles. At this latest event, fans were treated to 2 matches: a Team match between Team Action and a Number 1 Contender match in the Star Wars Division between Napzok, Alex “The Demon” Damon of Star Wars Explained and Joseph “The Jedi Master” Scrimshaw of the ForceCenter Podcast. I am a big fan of Alex’s channel and also of Ken on Jedi Council, while I have also started listening to the ForceCenter Podcast having seen Joseph guest on Jedi Council a couple of times. All 3 of these guys eat, sleep and breathe Star Wars and I will happily admit that next to them I am merely an apprentice!
“May the best nerd win” – Alex Damon
Ken clearly has the most experience, having featured in 3 matches in the division as well as competing in the Singles and Teams Divisions over the last couple of years. Alex and Joseph are by comparisons Schmoedown rookies, having only competed in the last Number 1 Contender match, though they both pushed Sam Witwer to the last question in hugely impressive showing. Having had careers in comedy, I predicted Scrimshaw and Napzok to have a slight advantage over Alex due to the 300 people in the crowd, and while I felt Joseph would have enough to win, I would never count out Ken’s extra familiarity with the rules and the format.
The entrances for each competitor were wonderful, Scrimshaw coming out to “The Duel of the Fates” and using the Force to summon a bottle of Stella Artois from the crowd – he’s a classy Jedi! Alex and Ken both came out to music from recent movie trailers, Alex coming out to the music from the Solo teaser trailer accompanied by his wife Molly and Ken coming out along with the majority of the Lion’s Den to the trailer music from The Last Jedi.
Going into Round 1 and as Scrimshaw had predicted in his pre-match promo, it was a case of seeing “who forgets one dumb thing”. Unfortunately for The Jedi Master, it was his brain that farted first, missing Chancellor Valorum’s first name, while Alex and Ken both managed perfect rounds and were successful with their bonus question.
“I am Death and every one of your dreams will die” – Ken Napzok
Round 2 saw The Pitboss defer his spin on the wheel, allowing Alex to go first and spin A New Hope. He got off to a wonderful start, answering his first 3 questions for 2 point with barley any hesitation, but he had to check down to multiple choice for question 4, answering correctly but only for 1 point, before finishing on a high with another 2 point answer. 100% correct through 2 rounds, but against such quality opposition would that check to multiple choice prove fatal. After Ken deferred his spin again, it was Scrimshaw’s turn at the wheel and it was the will of the Force that gave him The Force Awakens. Like Alex before him, he was successful on four 2-point answers and had to check to multiple choice for one question, however he got his multiple choice wrong on possibly the hardest question to have ever appeared in the division (successfully stolen by both opponents). Finally, the Pitboss stepped up to the wheel and his spins were pure poetry as he initially landed on Heroes but chose to spin again and instead landed on Villains. As one of the most evil heels in the league I may have been expected that he would excel in this category, but he struggled through, going to multiple choice for the first and final questions and missing on a 2 point attempt on Question 4, though both opponents missed their steal attempt to keep things close.
Going into Round 3 and as the leader Alex was allowed to pick his numbers first. He took inspiration from the pilots at the Battle of Yavin, going for 2, 5 and 3 in honour of Wedge, Luke and Biggs. Napzok selected 8, 10 and 13 and Scrimshaw (after figuring out what numbers were left) selected 1, 4 and 18. Alex’s lead meant that this started as a battle between the ForceCenter co-hosts as both Scrimshaw and Napzok landed their 2-point questions. Scrimshaw landed his 3-point question, but Napzok missed, leaving him needing to hit his 5-point question to stay in the game. Unfortunately movie quotes are not the Pitboss’ strength and he could not pull the correct answer, though it looked like both of his opponents may have thought along the same lines. The former Champion was out! Alex was finally required in the round and correctly answered his 2-point question, leaving Scrimshaw needing a correct answer on his 5-pointer to remain in the game. Unlike his co-host, the Jedi Master was able to correctly guess the answer, leaving Alex needing 4 points and making his 3 point question (which he got wrong) irrelevant. And that meant that it came down to the final question: category number 3, in honour of Alex’s favourite character Red 3 Biggs Darklighter. And much like he did for Luke in the Battle of Yavin, Biggs came through for Alex and he got the correct answer to win the match, going 1-1 and earning a TKO over Napzok on the way to earning a title shot against the Warrior at Collider Collision – an event not to be missed!
And how did I do? Well as with all the Star Wars matches I tried to play along at home as I consider my knowledge to be of a pretty decent standard. I went 9/10 in the 1st Round and though I did get the bonus question correct I have not counted it due to missing out on the perfect round. I calculated that I would have finished on 25 points with Alex’s questions, 26 points with Ken’s questions and 20 points with Joseph’s. Not bad, but clearly I have some way to go still to become a master.
I’ll be interested to see where things go moving forward in this division. The questions have got steadily harder as the matches have gone on due purely to the amount of questions available. On the Schmoedown Rundown, Kristian Harloff was saying how they will probably look to remove the behind-the-scenes questions moving forward, so I wonder if they will open the Star Wars Division up to canon as a whole rather than just the movies, especially considering it already feels like some of the questions already need more knowledge than what is shown in the films. And as for future competitors, who could stick with Sam and these 3 competitors? Ken’s teammate in the Lion’s Den Mark “The Enforcer” Donica, “The Golden Mic” Emma Fyffe, “The Outlaw” John Rocha and Mark “Yodi” Reilly – returning from retirement – are all established competitors who know their Star Wars trivia, while I would love to see other Jedi Council guests like Ash Crossan or ForceCenter’s Jennifer Landa make an appearance. More than anything though, I want to see the man with a planet named after him Darth Harloff himself in the next set of competitors. A Ken v Kristian match would be great for not just the trivia but also the storyline potential. He may have taken a step back from competing, but I’d love him to make an exception for Star Wars!
What did you guys think of the match? How did you do if you played along? Who would you love to see enter the Division? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading and May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 