Belgium ‘Finnish Anarchy’ have fought their way to beat England ‘Expects’ for first place in the Aspirational Cup Final at the World Quizzing Championships.
Both teams endured 3 and a half mind-bending hours of qualifying rounds to reach the final where Belgium ultimately prevailed after 20 expert topics.
England and Belgium both previously finished tied on 58 points after the qualifying rounds – a comfortable 5 points clear of Third place.
As expected, the showdown which took place in Torremolinos was back and forth and was a match-up for the ages.
England starts strong
England had first pick for topics and chose ‘Drunk’, unsurprisingly England started off strong which put them in good stead.
Belgium were resolute and came back, evening-up the scorings at 14-14, but England were quick to regain their lead.
England were consistent in keeping their lead as, after more than a quarter of the matchup, England had not fallen behind once.
Belgium bounces back!
After England’s dominant start, Belgium’s expertise and knowledge of modern art and classical battles helped them take a healthy lead for the first time in the match.
However, England were not ruffled as they were quick to level things up.
The two were almost inseparable for a long period of time until one of the teams started to dominate.
Gold in sight
Belgium excelled when it came to the history of mathematics and ended the topic 40-30 (the biggest lead in the game so far!)
Although England were still winning points Belgium were swatting them away winning comfortably with topics like movies and American sports leaving them up 49-36.
After a late fight back from the England ‘Expects’, it was ultimately too little too late.
Belgium picked board games as the last topic which sealed their victory in triumphant fashion, with the final score at 52-45.
Post match reaction:
Ned Pendleton of England Expects commented about the match-up, he said: “We could’ve played better in the final we made a few mistakes. I think Belgiums quizzing culture got them over the line in the end, they have more experience playing with a group of four specialists.”
He added: “Where as our team haven’t really played that much together and I think that played a part in the game, but fair play to Belgium.”
Teams:
England Expects: Ned Pendleton, Toby Cox, Daoud Jackson, Matt Todd
Belgium Finnish Anarchy: Paul Arts, Tero Kalliolevo, Jens Everaerdt, Derk De Graaf
