What do you get when you add beer, trivia, and local alumni?
Tournament of Champions magic.
Several months ago I was elected to serve as the Camaraderie Director for the Notre Dame Club of Minnesota. Because I have always valued kinship, I particularly cherish alumni clubs’ abilities to connect local members to form cohesive communities. Navigating a new city can be daunting, and, as I’ve moved from state to state, local alumni clubs have helped me build networks and form friends in otherwise foreign places. Therefore, as the newly elected Camaraderie Director, I knew I wanted to curate as many activities as possible that would provide diverse opportunities for alumni to come together and celebrate a shared past while forging new connections.
I’m not sure if bar trivia is considered a “Minnesota-thing,” but it sure seems to dominate the bold north. While several companies host regular competitions, Trivia Mafia certainly serves as the Twin Cities most dominant trivia giant. Trivia Mafia began in 2007 as a weekly Sunday trivia night in Northeast Minneapolis. It quickly caught traction, and soon more and more bars wanted to replicate this ingeniously profitable community-building business model. Today, Trivia Mafia is the largest and most popular bar trivia company in the Midwest. Ever growing, the company hosts weekly trivia in seemingly infinite locations across the Twin Cities and two massive annual tournaments.
What makes Trivia Mafia so entertaining? Perhaps what makes it so appealing is its unassuming structure and deep disregard for fancy frills. Indeed, Trivia Mafia offers “old-school, team-based, pen-and-paper trivia” that requires teammates to put their heads together to achieve a common goal. Questions span from general knowledge, to history, to word puzzles, to pop culture, and participants are encouraged to “use your noodle, not your Google.” The recipe is so simple it works: There’s something inherently refreshing about being forced to put your phone away[1] and collaborate with your peers for a few hours in the middle of a workweek that keeps people hungrily coming back for more.
I knew a monthly trivia night would quickly gain traction with the Notre Dame Club of Minnesota, so I assessed multiple locations and ultimately settled on Steel Toe Brewing in St. Louis Park. Steel Toe opened its doors as a family-owned brewery in August 2011 and proudly defines itself as “a small Minnesota craft brewery with big dreams of staying small.” Steel Toe hosts a wide range of regular community-oriented events including trivia every Tuesday at 6:30PM. With this in mind, I organized our first monthly trivia on the first Tuesday in September, sent out the communication, and eagerly waited to see if anyone would attend.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised when eight people attended our first event. We enjoyed sipping craft beers and getting to know one another while answering tough trivia questions figuring out our team dynamic. Fielding topics ranging from the ancient Mayan calendar to a now retired General Mills Cereal[2] we howled with laughter as we debated multiple responses for each question. We ended up placing second that night and winning $20 in Steel Toe beer money: Not too shabby for a bunch of trivia rookies!
Our September success story made me eager for our second get-together in October, and when I arrived I was surprised to find a packed bar of trivia-hungry competitors. I quickly located my friends scattered throughout the room, desperately searching for the appropriate number of tables and chairs. Space was tight and seating was even tighter: Finally, we had bothered enough people so the (now) eleven of us could assemble full tables as two adjacent teams[3]. When it was time to choose a name, my team of six huddled together and decided it was only fitting we pay homage to the evening’s humble beginnings. With that, “Can We Borrow A Chair?” was born.
We quickly learned each team member contributes his or her own unique flair to ultimately create a winning combination. Molly is a theatre-loving librarian, B.J. is a sports fan and music lover, Peter is a pop culture guru, and Allison is (hands down) our team ringer[4]. As for me, I contribute in subtle, unexpected ways such as helping my team determine the correct answer is NOT the band Air Supply because “I saw Air Supply live with my mom in Disney World, and I can promise you they don’t sing that song[5].” I pretty much have literature, music, and all things Taylor Swift covered[6].
With this dynamic combination we secured first place at halftime, winning a round of celebratory drinks on the house. This only continued to fuel our unstoppable momentum, and we ended the competition in a three-way-tie-induced sudden death face-off. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we elected Allison to represent our team in this high-pressure do-or-die showdown, and (again, perhaps unsurprisingly) she won! With that not only did we secure first place bragging rights and win $30 in beer money, but we also developed a loyal tribe of monthly trivia devotees and strengthened our bond as a club.
As we reveled in our success the emcee, Alyssa, stopped by with our winnings. To our surprise, she also extended a formal invitation to compete in the Trivia Mafia Tournament of Champions. We had never heard of this event before, but apparently it is a highly-competitive invitation-only gathering of 50 teams hungry to duke it out in pursuit of greater trivia glory. Alyssa shared the invitation is highly exclusive and sought-after, and she inferred we could sell our registration code for a pretty penny if we decided not to participate. Needless to say we were intrigued.
Several weeks before the event, I opened my computer to register our team on the Trivia Mafia website. Buying into the hype, I made sure to log into the site at exactly 11:00AM when registration opened. Yet, thirty seconds later I found myself encountering technical difficulties, and a mere two minutes after the registration opened, all twenty-five of the first-wave tickets were sold out.
…I’m sorry… WHAT? Was this some kind of sick joke?[7]
I thought I had been on top of this, but clearly the Twin Cities has some diehard trivia junkies…
Heavily discouraged, I messaged my team, reporting the news that despite my best efforts I had failed in securing our tickets to the tourney. However, apparently we could try for a “second wave” of tickets a few days later on Thursday, and I promised my team I would do everything within my power to make that happen.
Thursday rolled around, and I had my game face on. I opened my laptop and navigated to Trivia Mafia’s website, carefully calibrating my plan of attack and crossing my fingers that this time I would come away with a victory. Moments later my phone began to buzz: Peter and B.J. were checking in and offering to serve as reinforcements[8]. Feeling the pressure of the moment, I stretched and did jumping jacks to prepare for the psychological warfare that was about to transpire.
The clock slowly ticked down, and suddenly it was “go” time. With what I imagined were lightning-quick reflexes, I entered our access code. And then the panic hit me: Within less than thirty seconds all remaining tickets were…gone.
Frantic, I futilely refreshed the page and reentered the access code to no avail: It appeared our hopes of world trivia domination would never come to fruition.
Suddenly my phone pinged: Peter. Defining himself as the #1 DARTer[9] in the history of course registration, he had beat me to the punch and secured our tickets to the tournament.
WE WERE GOING TO THE ‘SHIP!
After a barrage of celebratory emails, last Tuesday our team gathered at Steel Toe in preparation for the big dance. We had another excellent run and once again won drinks during half time before clinching the final win with an impressive eight-point lead and another $30 in beer money. To that, we raised a glass and toasted our victory[10], proud of all we had accomplished and hopeful for continued success in the upcoming weekend.
Finally, Saturday was upon us: The TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS[11] had arrived. As soon as we arrived, I distributed team “swag” I had acquired from a recent Notre Dame hockey game, and we proudly established our turf with an outward display of school spirit[12].
Looking around the bar, we were impressed by the sheer volume of trivia lovers that had congregated in St. Paul for four-plus hours of tournament madness. If the hilariously inventive team names were any indication of the creative minds gathered there, surely our competition would be stiff.
The Tournament of Champions design significantly differed from our more traditional monthly trivia structure. Specifically, there were four parts, each composed of five rounds (one general knowledge, two themed rounds, one image round, and one sound round) to create a total of twenty highly-competitive rounds. Unlike regular trivia, every round was a mega round meaning we could attribute certain values to each response based on our level of confidence. This added an interesting dimension of competition and general mind trickery, as we were forced to continuously assess and reassess our response confidence in order to remain competitive throughout the tournament.
In the end, we placed fourteenth out of fifty teams. While we didn’t take home the grand prize[13] or even the second place “silver” medal, we had secured a larger victory by getting a group of six otherwise would-be strangers together for four hours on a Saturday afternoon[14]. We had overcome an obstacle greater than answering any of the seemingly impossible questions thrown at us: We had come together as an unlikely posse to test our knowledge, drink a couple beers, and dive headfirst into the endlessly entertaining world of trivia.
Camaraderie at its finest.
Want to try your hand at a little trivia? Test your mettle with these questions from the 2015 Tournament of Champions (I’ll play along footnote style so we can feel bad about ourselves together):
1. The first cartoon using an elephant to depict the Republican Party was published in 1874. What cartoonist, who also created the modern depiction of Santa Claus, created that image?[15]
2. In what country can you visit the five people who live in Alert, on Ellesmere Island, the world’s northern-most permanently inhabited spot?[16]
3. Party of Five is to the BoDeans as Dawson’s Creek is to whom[17]?
4. Two cities served as the capital of the Confederate States of America. Both are state capitals today. Name both cities.[18]
5. Bhraonáin is the last name of what mononymous singer, born in 1961?[19]
6. In 2006, Keith Ellison became the first Muslim elected to Congress. He took his oath of office with a copy of the Quran owned by what U.S. president?[20]
7. What rapper had a hit song in 1994 that sampled Michael McDonald’s “I Keep Forgettin’”?[21]
8. The Catcher In the Rye got its title from a 1792 poem traditionally sung to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.” Both that poem and “Auld Lang Syne” were written by what Scottish poet?[22]
9. Who is the uncredited backup singer in the Carly Simon hit song “You’re So Vain”?[23]
10. Marie Curie[24] won the first of her two Nobel Prizes with her husband. What was his name?
Hungry for answers? Scroll to the bottom of the page.
[1] Ah, what a novelty. What “sad, strange little [men]” we have become. (Test your trivia acumen: Name that movie!)
[2] Who knew “Yummy Mummy” was a thing? I certainly did not.
[3] Teams larger than eight are penalized. There was no way we were going to mess with that!
[4] I swear the announcer hardly spits the question out of her mouth before Allison exclaims “ooh!” and hurriedly scribbles down the answer… which is correct 99.9% of the time. I don’t know how the woman does it, but she has a true knack for this type of random knowledge, and we owe a large part of our success (specifically, 99.9% of our success) to her. Notably, I described our team dynamic to one of my good friends, Maddie, and briefly outlined Allison as a “class of 2016 trivia guru.” With this very minimal amount of knowledge and pretext Maddie was quickly able to (correctly) identify Allison, recognizing her description because Allison had lived in Maddie’s dorm section senior year. Apparently Allison’s reputation precedes her: The woman is a force to be reckoned with.
[5] (Says every millennial ever.)
[6] Regrettably they have yet to ask us any TSwift questions. …But when they do, I’ll be ready!
[7] Or Black Friday? Or both?
[8] Clearly I was not alone in my determination to make this happen.
[9] If you don’t know what DARTing is, ask any Notre Dame student and they will share (with terrified reverence) that DARTing is the single most stressful, highly-competitive way of registering for semester courses. Basically, everyone receives a very specific, randomly generated timeframe to log on to the system and select desired courses. However, if you don’t act quickly enough your desired class titles and times disappear and you are left with a less than ideal schedule. This makes for some very stressful, desperate situations. One time I literally pulled out my laptop, popped a squat, and DARTed on South Quad amidst the hustle and bustle of lunch rush hour in order to secure my schedule. Fun times in college for sure.
[10] Afterall, hydration is key, even while scrimmaging.
[11] Champions, Champions, Champions… I feel like a gradual fadeout is only appropriate.
[12] There’s nothing like good old-fashioned signage to get the people going.
[13] A check for $750 (which makes “Drug Dealers Don’t Take Checks” even funnier).
[14] For something other than Notre Dame football!
[15] Dr. Seuss (…is for sure incorrect, but that’s all I’ve got).
[16] C? Eh? N? Eh? D? Eh? …What is “Canada?”
[17] No clue, but, by process of elimination, I know it’s not Air Supply because I saw them live in Disney World with my mom…
[18] Montgomery and Richmond?
[19] Oh, Beyoncé for sure…
[20] Honest Abe?
[21] M&M Eminem
[22] James Bond.
[23] Is said singer a man or a woman? Blondie…
[24] I just read this as “Mariah Carey,” so I’m already out.
Answers:
- Thomas Nast
- Canada
- Paula Cole (singer of the theme song)
- Richmond, Virginia; Montgomery, Alabama
- Enya
- Thomas Jefferson
- Warren G (“Regulate”)
- Robert Burns
- Mick Jagger
- Pierre
Well damn.
Aren’t you pretty proud of us placing fourteenth out of fifty teams? Way to go Independent Quiz Team With A NBC Contract Allison.
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