The captain of New England Ola Wagstrom (@StamkosFan) was outed as a nerd by several members of the team. Although initially respected for his nerdiness, Ola made a fool of himself recently. The team was horribly unimpressed.

Igor Volkov, the new recruit to the team, was already a proven nerd. He challenged Ola, who challenged Jakub Bruchevski (@JaytheGreat) and Sasha Dangelchek (@acdangel) to play a little game.

The rules were simple. The four of them would take turns naming every country in the world without repeating yourself or naming a non-country. If you do, you lose.

The result was... well, we'll let you be the judge of that.



Jakub started the game with "USA", one of the largest countries in the world. Sasha immediately countered with "Nauru", one of the smallest.

Ola then went with "Canada" and Igor countered with his native homeland of "Russia". After all, how could one ignore the largest country on Earth by area? Jakub went with "Ireland", trying to bring another familiar country into the game. Sasha countered with "Bulgaria", aiming for eastern Europe.

Ola and Igor went again, both declaring weird names. They said "Tuvalu" and "Tajikistan" respectively, neither one of which we have apparently heard of. Wikipedia is down at the moment, so we can't check. Jakub countered with "Greenland", a familiar country, and Sasha quickly replied with "Estonia" giving Ola almost no time to think.

However, Ola and Igor simultaneously declared "GAME", referring to Jakub's incorrect answer of "Greenland". As it turns out, Greenland is an autonomous area within Denmark that is not a sovereign, independent country. Thus, it was decided that Jakub would not continue. It was such a rapid loss for the forward. Ola allowed Igor to continue, when "India" was said. Ola countered with "Laos". The strategy was moving on to Asia. Sasha went with "Vietnam" following the tread, and Igor admitted the order was slightly messed up, but that the game had to continue. "Thailand" was his reply. Ola went to a different continent, citing "Angola".

Sasha stayed in Asia, countering with "Nepal", and Igor's immediate reply of "Bhutan". Ola once again switched continents, giving "Cuba" and removing it from play.

From here, things escalated. Sasha countered with "Indonesia" and Igor replied with "Lesotho". Ola went with "Panama, staying in North America, which led to Sasha replying with "Guyana", not too far away in South America. Igor went with the obscure "Burkina Faso" and Ola decided to take the country surrounding Lesotho - "South Africa" and remove it from play. Play shifted to Africa for a while with a few exceptions. Sasha went with "Serbia", a European country, setting a trap. Igor went with "Cote d'Ivoire" and Ola with "Rwanda".

Sasha changed strategies again, replying with "Montenegro", Igor countering with "Argentina", and Ola still in Africa with "Nigeria". Sasha, taking Argentina as a cue, replied with "Brazil" and Igor with the long "Bosnia and Herzegovina". The game went fast, with players uncertain of which countries would be called next.

Ola with "Chad", Sasha with "Paraguay", Igor with "CAR", the Central African Republic, Ola with "Serbia", walking right into Sasha's trap. Igor called "GAME" on Ola, which Ola disputed. Sasha replied that he had said Serbia, and so only Igor and Sasha remained.

The rest of the game was tense. Igor and Sasha would battle it out to see who knew more countries.

Sasha went with "Lithuania", and Igor logically answered with "Latvia", knowing Estonia was already said. Sasha went with "Ukraine", clearly trying to trip up Igor into thinking of his homeland of Russia. Igor almost fell for it, but went for another former Soviet republic - "Azerbaijan". Sasha countered with "Mongolia".

Igor, thinking of desert nations, answered with "Iran". Sasha continued in Asia with "Afghanistan", which was countered by the long "UAE", the United Arab Emirates. Sasha replied to the long answer with "Armenia", and Igor countered with "Maldives", a small island chain not far from India.

Sasha switched continents, going to "Moldova", and Igor went with the obscure "Palau" east of the Philippines. Sasha stayed in Europe with "North Macedonia", referencing the fact that he knew the country had recently changed its name. Igor turned to "Guatemala" and was countered with "Greece". Igor was going to avoid Europe.

So he did, replying with the Caribbean islands of "St. Kitts and Nevis". "Cyprus". "Kiribati." Sasha got the hint, and "Tonga" left his mouth.

Igor decided to pull a trap right then and there. Knowing Iran was said, but not Iraq, he went with the obvious choice. "Iraq" was said.

Sasha immediately replied logically with "Iran", the counterpart, then immediately regretted it. "Wait..."

"GAME!"

"Damn." Sasha accepted defeat.

"I said Iran! GG."

Obvious countries were left out, like China, Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, etc.

Nonetheless, Igor proved himself supreme in his nerdiness. He had listed more countries than anyone else without mistakes.

Seeing the horror that unfolded, Frans Eller (@Ace) was forced to apologize that his team captain Ola wasn't enough of a nerd. The situation would be improved. Ola would not be competing in the 57th Annual SHL Nerd Competition. That position would be taken by Igor instead.

The team was understandably disappointed and publicly shamed Ola for his incompetence at naming countries.