Trivia

Man, it's a good thing I didn't promise to post a blog entry everyday! It's been awhile, but I've been busy, and haven't had a whole lot to say. However, Trivia was this past weekend, and that is always an experience :) For those who have never played, I shall describe as much of the wackiness as I can to give you a sense of how awesome Trivia is:

The Great Midwest Trivia Contest begins at 10:00:37 pm on Friday, and lasts until 12:00 am on Monday. There are on-campus teams who play from rooms in Lawrence, and off-campus teams who play from around the world! The students from Lawrence University who host the contest are called Trivia Masters, with the leader is dubbed the "Grand Master". It all starts with the first question, which is the question that is asked last the year before. (The "Super Garruda"; more on that later.) This question is worth 100 points, and everyone gets it. From then on, almost all of the regular questions are worth 5 points.

I say almost all, because there are "Action Questions" - worth 10 points - which are for on-campus teams only. (Off-campus teams are given an additional 5-point question because of this.) Action Questions can be anything: create a comic. Dance your team name. One year, there was a parade. This time, the on-campus teams had to reenact parts of Pokémon Snap.

The rules are simple: The Trivia Masters ask a question. You are given 3 minutes to find the answer. When you call in, you are given 3 guesses. If none of those guesses are correct, you may call in again with the time that is left. If you are right, you give the Phone Answerer your team name and number (which they assign you when you register before the contest.) 5 points are added to your score.

One of the best parts of the game is Jamming. Once you have gotten the right answer, you call again, give the answer, give a higher (fake) team number, and proceed to give a Jam Team Name. These are read on the air, along with the actual team names. The funnier, the better ;)

There are Theme Hours during the contest: Zombie Hour (where all the questions and music are zombie-related, natch), Alumni Hour (Lawrence-related questions), Disney Hour, Death & Destruction Hour (which is actually nice at about 4 am when most of us are falling asleep, because the Trivia Masters are loud and hyper), Viola Hour, Batman Hour, Church Hour, etc. Not every Hour has a Theme, but they are all fun just the same.

The team I'm on, "We Need More Cowbell, Martha" has never had a ton of people, but we seem to make due. We go in shifts: some of us answer questions, some of us sleep, and some go to answer phones at Lawrence. This is another great part of the game.

Being a Phone Answerer is just as fun as playing. There's a "basement" radio station where the contest used to be broadcast from. There are two big tables together in the center, and about 15 (?) phones around it. Trivia Masters and team member alike sit there and take the calls from those who are playing. There are slips of paper with a line for the question number, and more for team names and numbers. The tables always contain plenty of food for those who answer phones - a motivator that the Trivia Masters use to lure more of us down there when there aren't enough people to man the phones. (This happens quite often. If our team had a nickel for each time in the contest when a TM asked for more Phone Answerers, we could put ourselves up in a nice hotel for the weekend. [If any TMs are reading this, I kid. We love you guys!]) Plus, it's just fun to hang out with the Trivia Masters. They're really cool people, and I give them a lot of credit for doing this every year. Little sleep, people complaining to them throughout the weekend, etc.

Usually, our team starts going our separate ways in the afternoon on Sunday. Some of us go home to sleep, and some of us go back to Lawrence to answer phones.

When the contest is drawing to a close on Sunday night, the TMs have "Bad Question Hour". Basically, they ask weird questions, and whoever calls in what they deem the best answers gets them read aloud. I'm not sure if points are given for these answers...

There is a period of time where the contest ceases to be about answering questions, and all that's played is music. This is when the Trivia Masters come up with the really hard questions, called "Garrudas", and the last, hardest question of the contest, the Super Garruda. I have read that these questions are not prepared ahead of time for security reasons. There are a few Garrudas, worth various amounts (I actually got the answer to a Garruda a few years ago, worth 30 points!). Finally, the Super Garruda is asked. This question is worth 100 points, and there are some years when it goes unanswered.

*I will say that this year there was an incident which one player referred to as "Garrudagate" (clever name, btw), however, I will not get into that here.*

After the Super Garruda is answered (or not answered), the Trivia Masters announce what time the Closing Ceremonies will take place. For the past two years, my cousin Whitney and I have been present. It takes place right outside of Lawrence. Many - if not all - of the on-campus teams show up, and some of the local off-campus teams as well. It's like one big party. Then, the Trivia Masters arrive. The Grand Master gives a speech, announces the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for on/off-campus teams, and hands out prizes. The prizes are nothing extravagant: things such as bacon, a box of hangers, and one year, when the Action Question was to retrieve human hair, the prize was...the hair. Lastly, there is the "crowning" of the new Grand Master, who will be the leader of next year's contest. All in all, it's fun to be a part of this, even though it's often very early on Monday morning.

And that’s Trivia in a nutshell. You really have to participate to get the full experience, and I look forward to it every year. It’s a time to get together with friends and family, and just be weird! It also makes you feel like you’re part of something.

One last thing for my fellow Trivia players: SKULL SQUADRON!