Episode 20: January 14, 2003 - Templeton 330 Vanier 630

"Pressure...pushing down on me..."

Queen and David Bowie sang it quite well.

Pressure. The pressure of the lights. The cameras. The action of Smart Ask. It can certainly unravel a team. And that's how Templeton looked tonight. Unravelled. Templeton is definitely a smarter team than what they showed tonight; it seemed like Brittany and Catherine were definitely frazzled by the pressure of the show.

That pressure and nervousness probably explain the use of the Classic Athenian strategy by Templeton; unfortunately for Templeton, Brittany and Catherine were blanking too much, and Tyler alone couldn't save them.

I also feel badly for Brittany for her confusion during Dawg Eat Dawg and accidentally giving the answer verbally. It was definitely a textbook example of Murphy's Law for Templeton tonight. Could they buy a break?

That being said, I was very impressed by Vanier. They are an intelligent team that played a smart, conservative, and intelligent game, taking advantage of the mistakes made by Templeton, and they completely deserve to go on to Round 2. They have represented the Yukon very well and it's very nice to see the teams from the Territories be competitive and win matches. 1