The 2009 Quiznight Finals marked the seventh time FM won either one of the "big two" in Dutch quizzing. Or, as our nemesis Hawkeye Canoe put it recently: "you guys are the Roger Federer's of quizzing". I don't think anyone can summarize it better than that. No other team has ever won more than one big title. And though some of the team members have changed, success has sticked with the team. And then one might say, it makes us the New York Yankees, the FC Hollywood or indeed, the Rogers Federer of quizzing.

Both annual finals are organized by Spacejunk Entertainment and sponsored by Murphy's. They are known for their fierce competition, tough questions and strict rules (there is very limited time to answer, helpers are policing the area to check for cheaters, and there's no arguing with the quizmaster to name a few). It's not without pride we say we are extremely happy with our victory record!

Victories and other results by year:

2003
The year 2003 was a good one for the team. Apart from winning our share of quizzes at the home bar, O'Caseys bar in The Hague, we also won two big quizzes: the Jameson Quiznight Final in February, and the Dutch Open in November.

2004
In 2004 we succesfully defended our Jameson Quiznight Final crown, winning by a 10-point margin. Later that year at the Dutch Open, we were defeated in a big quiz for the first time. Obviously, we're not going to waste any words about that.

2005
In March 2005 we also were defeated in the (3rd) Jameson Quiznight Final, which was held in club Paard van Troje in The Hague. Notably in our home town, team Shagadelics took over our crown. FM ended 4th, with only a 1,5 point difference with the winners.

It was about time for us to strike back. And we did: in October '05 we regained the Dutch Open title in bar O'Shea's in Vlaardingen, beating TOFKOP by one point.

2006
On the 11th of March, 2006 in Vlaardingen we beat over 1000 players to win the (renamed) Murphy's Quiznight Final for the third time. Click here for the PDF of the results. . Unfortunately we had to give up our Dutch Open crown in November of that year in Rotterdam, losing it by a one point margin. Still, this second place gave us  another top-5 score.

2007
The biggest and toughest punch in the face we had to endure up until then was at the '06 Murphy's Quiznight final, held in the Heineken Music Hall in April of 2007. Our final ranking was so appaling we don't even think about mentioning it here, just the difference in score with the winners will have to do: 12 points. Clearly Flaming Moose is the team everybody loves to hate (in a sportsmanship way, that is). The crowd went bezerk when they found out that, for the first time since Bob Dylan went electric, we were kicked out of the top-10.

Apart from that, the Moose went 'on tour' by competing in, and winning the two quizzes the Ministerie van VWS organizes for their own employees. Both the Music and the Movie quiz were won by a slightly different configured Flaming Moose team (a core of regular FM players with added help from talented VWS employees). Both of them quizzes are tough mofo's, and winning them *both* is not a small feat.

November 2007 put everything right again because it brought us another win in the NK Quiz a.k.a. Dutch Open. The difference in points was more than 10 with the runners-up. We did it b.t.w. with the very same team members that lost so painfully earlier that year. This makes Flaming Moose an enduring success team, winning in any of the two "big ones" every year since 2003.

2008
This year will go down in history as our worst year. Only one of the two big tournaments was held, and that was not an easy one to swallow. In April we went into the finals with realistic hopes. Not to end in the top-5, because that is virtually impossible with so few players on the team. Having won the majority of weekly quiznights in our home bar we hoped to do OK by ending in the top 10-to-15 places, so that's what we aimed for. In stead, this three men Moose was defeated big time. Ending outside the top-50 was way below our potential and well, to be honest, we were quite ashamed of our poor performance. Unfortunately there was no Dutch Open that year for us to retaliate or at least redeem ourselves. Therefore we can only refer to our 'Hyves'-page where we keep track of our wins and losses in our home bar O'Casey's.

2009
In October 2009, one and a half years after the shame-game, Flaming Moose got their chance to set things straight. After five hours of quizzing FM once again was hailed the winner of the Murphy's Quiznight championships. This time we defeated 226 teams to celebrate quite a 'come-backer' from the blow we had to suffer at the 2008 (and '07) finals.

Pictures can be found here