Hello Schmoedown fans, Tim here previewing the live event in Atlanta, Georgia! This weekend, the Movie Trivia Schmoedown heads down to the Peach State, and down to the city where it has garnered a reputation as the second Hollywood site for new movies and shows to be filmed. A truly cultured city, where it will finally host two exciting matches in front of a sold-out crowd!

For this first part of two, we take a look at this special Innergeekdom bout. A hometown hero who is hailed as the stalwart champion of a galaxy far, far away makes his move into a new division as his faction makes their long-awaited debut in “The New Era;” while the other Innergeekdom representative of The Exchange begins her second season with the anticipation of starting off with a huge win. It’s a matchup to begin the determination of who will go after the champion for that Innergeekdom title!

It’s Emily “The Rose” Jacobson versus Atlanta’s own Alex “The Demon” Damon!

Hailing from his hometown of Atlanta, “The Scoundrel of Star Wars Explained” is seeking to give himself a new challenge. It has been almost two years since taking the Star Wars Championship with three near-perfect title defenses against these top contenders: Ken Napzok, Joseph Scrimshaw, and Laura Kelly. With this division beginning to finally grow, and the possibility of his dream match against Sam Witwer continuing to dwindle, Alex Damon decided to start a new challenge by extending his Schmoedown career into the Innergeekdom Division. When we initially heard that announcement, there was both excitement and trepidation with his decision to play these kinds of matches. For me, I saw it as an excellent decision for Damon to get more time and presence in the league. I really want to see more of him but despite the Star Wars Division finally getting its much-needed expansion, it’s still too small for now. By extending his legs into Innergeekdom, we will truly see how far his geeky knowledge can go beyond Star Wars.

His debut in the Innergeekdom Division will also coincide with the debut of his faction: Roxstars. Led by the fiery and smart Roxy Striar, she is looking forward to continuing her success as one of the very best managers in the Schmoedown.

With her two aces in Marc Andreyko and Jeff Sneider, plus excellent contenders in JTE, Alex Damon, and top potentials in both Stacy Howard and David Del Rio, Roxy is seeking to steal the spotlight from the other factions and be the Manager of The Year by the end of this season. For her faction’s first match in Atlanta, Roxy hopes that Alex’s entrance into Innergeekdom will yield a great contender to have for both Innergeekdom and Star Wars, plus a rocketing start to be in the mix of factions for the battle to be the best faction of the season.

For Alex to give Roxstars their first points and his first Innergeekdom victory, it will come down to being able to know all the other geeky topics: Marvel, DC, Middle Earth, Harry Potter and The Wizarding World, Back to the Future, plus other comic and sci-fi outliers, and of course Star Trek. He cannot just know them by heart like Star Wars, he has to study them with total dedication. Thanks to Mike Kalinowski and Kevin Smets, this division will either reward you or punish you based on your knowledge of all the details of these topics. Their studying methods have evolved this division into its current form today. Alex Damon must be studying hard with those topics and keeping his Star Wars knowledge fresh. That is where Roxy comes in. Her skills in helping Alex to study these Innergeekdom topics is crucial. Not only that, her decisions and advice during the match will need to be excellent to make Alex’s debut successful.

It will be something if Alex can win his Innergeekdom debut in his hometown, but his opponent is no slouch.

After going 1-1 in her debut season in Innergeekdom last year, Emily Rose Jacobson returns under The Finstock Exchange to further her success and continue her drive to be in the title picture. Coming from Hyper RPG, Emily is a strong personality with the ambitions of dreaming big in this division with her geeky gifts. Looking back at last season, Emily’s debut against Winston Marshall was a low-scoring affair where it took a strong Star Wars round to finally break through and win her first matchup. In her next match against Brandon Hanna, it was a much-more competitive battle with both her and Hanna stacking correct answers left and right. In the end, her opponent got the win with his 2-point question.

Although this loss ended her debut season, it did not end talks about her potential to emerge as a rising contender in this division. In Atlanta, Emily will have an opportunity to be in the title picture by facing the Star Wars phenom. It will be a big win if she can deliver on those moments and keep the Innergeekdom knowledge up to date. Those crucial moments where she can tie, take the lead, and possibly win are what she needs to capitalize on. Helping her will be her manager Tom Dagnino before the main event. If Tom was able to figure out her strengths and weaknesses, he should be able to guide her to victory just as he did with his top five players in The Exchange.

In this matchup, it will be not just a battle between geeks, but a battle between managers as well. For Roxy Striar, she is playing a long game against Tom Dagnino. Days before the match, she has been sowing seeds of doubt and trying to get Dagnino off his game. What does she want? The answer is simple, give Alex Damon the win and try to destabilize The Finstock Exchange going into their main event. Will that happen solely depends on the outcome of this opening matchup.

And let me tell you all, this opening matchup is a great one to kick off the Atlanta live event! Between the hometown hero and a rising star, this Innergeekdom Division will heat up as we wait for the Smets vs. Knopic title match to be solidified. Between these two, Damon will have the edge over Jacobson in Star Wars but in the other categories, that will be the factor in “The Scoundrel'' winning his first Innergeekdom match or losing. Can Atlanta’s own start the live event with a win on his home soil. We shall see this Saturday in Atlanta!