This is it, the finale of the King of the Nerds. With four individuals left, the group must be whittled down to two with a quiz bowl which will prove their nerd knowledge. The first two to answer five questions move on.

I’ll say, though the questions are good, the two comic ones that were asked had some problems and you can argue the answers for each question weren’t right.

The questions though were good, and the two that made it to the final were solid in both their game play during the quiz bowl, but also the season as a whole.

Unlike last year, where the nerds voted for the winner, this year, there’s a gauntlet of 8 tasks dubbed the Nerdliminater. But, each person has to try to win over team members, either gaining allies or just denying their opponent a person. One person could have a very lopsided team, but they broke down pretty even.

The challenge is about 20 minutes, and each has 8 challenges they need to do. Whomever gets the most out of the 8 right wins. The challenges are really good and solid challenges. Each member can call on up to three team members to help them out. It’s interesting to see who calls upon whom to help and when. And when one person calls on a team member, and that team member declines, things get REALLY interesting. Maybe he has a reason?

Should I give the results? We’ll say the final score is very close and the competition is solid. And that wraps up another season of King of the Nerds!

Overall Score: 8.25

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The King of the Nerds seventh episode has the remaining players all on their own, no teams. It’s video game week with some pretty cool competitions.

The game is a live video game go-cart race. This looked amazing, and could be my favorite physical competition in all of the seasons. I want to do this myself, now! The racing is pretty solid, as it’s clear that a few folks have no driving ability whatsoever. It’s actually a decent competition because there’s a way to get bonus points if you drive over stars. So, there’s a bit of suspense towards the end.

The nerd off is all about voting now. The winner of the challenge gets to pick someone, then there’s the votes. With two members of each team, it gets to a lot of debate and deal making. That’s a bit fascinating to watch. There’s a pretty clear strategy to what should be done. While there was a lot of jockeying, it wound up the way I thought it should.

The Nerd Off is where the title of this episode comes from which has the two competitors build a structure and place balls that the opponent has to knock off. The game comes down to the wire. It’s a tight fight and a very solid match.

Overall, the episode was fun with some cool competitions. Now on to the final four and the season finale!

Overall Score: 8

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The King of the Nerds sixth episode starts off with an excited gold team and a somewhat dejected purple team. Chris has decided to play mind games now to cause a rift between Jack and Zack. Watching that, is beyond entertaining. It’s clear he gets to Zack, he has a mini-meltdown.

In this week, the teams have to go through an obstacle course blindfolded and then solving a mathematical problem to save George Takei. Shockingly the yellow team hasn’t had to get a purple team member, which is interesting….

When it comes to the actual challenge, Team Midas Touch Attack were impressive in their teamwork. The math problem isn’t too hard, but under pressure, with no paper, it can be a bit of a pain to get it all together. I don’t want to spoil who the winner is… but I kind of have to… it was Team Midas Touch Attack, their first win.

When it comes to who will get voted in, Midas Touch knows who they want to send, but Titans of Rigel are a bit more thrown off, not sure who to vote in, there’s one decision, then some gamesmanship to change votes. The two sent in aren’t a shock, but how they get in is…. it’s a good match-up.

The Nerd Off is actually really fun and the result is very close. It’s probably one of the best ones played this season. Overall, this was a great episode where a lot of game playing is present as players start to think about the long term ramifications of moves.

And with that, the teams are dissolved and it’s every person for themselves.

Overall Score: 7.75

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The King of the Nerds fifth episode starts off with what everyone is thinking… how is Zack still around? He might deserve to win the show just by the fact that he’s defeated so many in challenges and that he keeps winning rock, paper, scissors….

This episode is the debate challenge where they take on the ultimate debate… Star Wars vs. Star Trek. But, the debate even starts with a bad decision of which team is taking which side. One is very good on Star Wars, the other very good on Star Trek. So you can either take the strength of the other team, or stick with your strength.

Topics include such great issues as Enterprise versus Millennium Falcon, who’s more dangerous the Empire or the Borg?, and which is better the Trek or Wars universe? The arguments are interesting and debate actually good. It’s all very interesting.

Then there’s the Nerd Off. This is where things get very interesting as one team is very small, so there’s a lot of jockeying as to who’s getting voted in, etc. The actually competition is a spelling bee full of nerdy words. It’s a good competition with a nice twist.

Overall, the episode is pretty solid with a fun debate and solid Nerd Off.

Overall Score: 7.75

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The King of the Nerds fourth episode deals with the fallout of the last episode. With one team down enough members, there needs to be a shake up of the teams. It was obviously coming up when you looked at the numbers, so no one considering this was a bit odd.

With that all settled we learn that the game this episode is robot dodge ball. Each team creates a few robots while the other team gets to throw dodge balls at them.

It’s interesting to see how each team interacts and reacts to the challenge as there’s some folks who are made for this competition. The first part of the competition is picking which team has the best robot. Whomever loses, will lose a robot in the competition to start.

From there, it’s folks throwing red balls at the robots, which had me questioning why the hell any of them built their robots the way they did. You’d want one low to the ground and quick. Everyone has built tall things that go slow. It baffles me.

There’s a meltdown, a massive meltdown. I think one particular person has serious mental issues. Like, should be checked out mental issues. Something isn’t right.

Then there’s the nerd off, which involved the game of Kerplunk, or at least a variation of it. A lot rides on this nerd off. This game has a large version of the game where body parts sit. Whoever lets down 150 parts first loses. It’s a tight game that’ll leave you tense throughout. One of the best endings yet for the series.

While one personality is over the top, this seasons has been fascinating to watch so far.

Overall Score: 7.75

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The King of the Nerds s back for the third episode which you knew had to be interesting after last week’s end of show meltdown. And sure enough, we’re not disappointed, with at least one game player (Zack) being a disruption to his team.

While I thought last episode was this season’s LARP episode, I was wrong. Though the last episode had an acting element to it, this episode was straight up LARPing with each team having to put on a skit.

But, what’s brought up is interesting. While one team had a fully planned skit, is it really LARPing? LARPing is role-playing, so does it matter if you make it up on the spot? Well, that was up to the judges to decide, which consisted of three guest judges. I’m not about to ruin who wins and who loses, that’s part of the fun of watching each nerdtastic episode.

The episode is really about Zack, which I can’t tell if it’s an act, or he really is as socially awkward and out of touch from reality as he comes off. And there’s the strategy, do you want to keep him around? Or do you send him home just to make everyone happier?

Well, going into the game there’s actually some heart here with emotions laid out and the reality of who everyone is in the greater society. And it actually hit me, and got to me emotionally. It’s hard to tell if what was said, by who said it was heartfelt, or part of the greater game, but at that moment it felt sincere.

This episode reinforces these folks are nerds and celebrates the good and bad of all that entails.

Overall Score: 7.75

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The King of the Nerds s back for the second episode. With the first person gone, the fact it’s a game sinks in a bit more. The contest for this episode is relatively simple, make the coolest volcano with the greatest presentation surrounding it off. This is pretty much this season’s version of last season’s skit episode.

The dynamics of the team were on full display as they not only had to work through building the volcano, but also figure out what their skit should be. Some want to go over the top with theatrics and some are more focused on the science of it all.

The reasoning given for each guest judge’s choice as to why they picked their winner was pretty interesting. In the end, this season’s “science fair” wasn’t as good as last year’s skit competition. The combination of the science and showmanship was a good idea. It just wasn’t pulled off well enough.

The two voted in to the final isn’t shocking at all and the approach taken by the two contestants is pretty fascinating and the strategy by the various teams isn’t shocking at all. One wants to eliminate the cancerous player, while the opposing team wants to keep him in the game.

Part of King of the Nerds appeal is the freak show appeal and it was on full display this episode. Some of the personalities are extreme in this season. It seems like that’s often an issue with reality shows. Hopefully it becomes a part of this season, instead of its defining characteristic. This second episode is better than the debut, only because of those personalities, because they are a doozy.

Overall Score: 7.75