The trivia league in which myself and my trivia team have played regularly since 2012 recently changed its rules on “barhop.” What does “barhop” mean? Well, it used to mean that if you were among the teams playing in the most spots over a trivia season, you would get a “free pass” to the tournament at the end. Other teams get their tournament spots by winning “semifinal” games – aka “venue tournaments” at their respective bars, but if you were barhop, you got to bypass those.

Now, the barhop teams have to win a “semifinal,” or “venue tournament” just like all of the other teams. If they do not, they get to play in a “last chance” semifinal game just two days before the tournament. If they are the top team at this game, they could win $100, and also a coveted tournament spot.

So how’s this all going to shake out?

It looks like the two biggest “trivia junkies” in my league are doing what they always do…playing almost every night. Trivia is literally – their life. Changing the barhop rules does not seem to have made any impact on their behavior…yet. These two players may be feeling things out, see what trivia spot they might have the best chance of using as “the” qualifying spot. This is something I have done with my team in the past, particularly in early 2016 when I was “shopping” for a new spot for my team. This is how we accidentally wound up in the “barhop” standings.

I’m not judging them – I’ve been there! Myself and my team have used the “barhop” route to get to several different tournaments, and anyone who says it’s a “free ride” can suck it! For one, there are the bar tabs (the ones that the prize winnings don’t cover). And two, it’s a real time commitment! And it occasionally involved asking for little favors from fellow trivia players (special thanks to everyone who helped us out in our quest to barhop back in 2016)! If I were to be able to offer any advice to these two “barhop” players, it would be this: Pick a “winnable” spot. Put most of your energies into playing there. Try to recruit some players who can help you out, particularly toward the end of the season. Don’t run yourself ragged playing every goddamn night if you don’t have to. But if that’s what you really, really like to do? Well then do it! Honestly, if I were able to get out to more games during the week, I probably would! 🙂

As for my team, after a while, it just didn’t “feel” right getting to finals tournaments through “barhop.” We actually thrive on the pressure of “having” to qualify (I’ve seen it happen too many times to not think there is something to this theory). When we barhopped and attended venue tournaments that we didn’t “have” to win, we basically just goofed around. While that was great fun, I knew we could do better than that!

I put a stop to “barhop” in the summer of 2017. Why? Well, not only did my husband cry “uncle,” but I wanted to feel more like my team was “earning” its way to the championship. For one season last summer/fall, I deliberately chose to play in only ONE trivia spot per week, which meant if we didn’t qualify by playing there, we wouldn’t go to the tournament. Do or die!

 

The spot I chose for us to play was Original Gravity Brewing Co. in Milan, MI, which is a place I’d taken a liking to since it started dishing up trivia in March, 2016. Since I’d already played there for at least a couple of seasons, I knew that there would be at least a couple of challenging teams in the mix. I also felt from the beginning it was a “winnable” spot – and I NEVER stopped believing that!  It was a rough go at first – seven weeks went by with NO prizes won! Scores were awful! Too many sub 100-point games…I was getting discouraged, and so were the guys on my own team.  I had to do my best Vince Lombardi impression with these guys – and I BEGGED them to believe that we could do this! And more importantly, I would really need their help in that all-important last game! We started in fifth in the overall standings, and slowly – but surely – moved our way up. I rarely had more than just a couple of players for games, and sometimes even fewer than that! I made kind of a “push” toward the end, the prize money started pouring in – and we wound up rocking a good enough game just before the “semifinals” to put us in second place! One of my players had a brother visiting from Cleveland, and he proved to be kind of a ringer – and teamed up very, very well on the questions with his older brother!

I had planned on bringing some extra players to the final game, one of whom had to duck out the last second, which…devastated me. We’d come so far, and, well, I was very, very upset about this! I almost wanted to call the whole thing off. Then almost as if by serendipity, a player from a rival team happened to fall in my lap that same day and asked if he could join us. I had posted on FB about being shorthanded for this game, and he happened to read that post. Long story short, we wound up winning our tournament spot, partially on the strength of being able to wager high on a question about rodeo movies (our guest player Josh was an Oklahoma native).

It looks like we may have to be fighting for tournament spots right along with the “barhop” teams this season. It’s entirely possible that both of these barhop players may be eyeing my Saturday spot as a place for them to qualify (though I sincerely hope they can find spots earlier in the week to win their spots). The more, the merrier! If my team can’t hack it, then we don’t deserve to to go the tournament! If nothing else, my team will (hopefully) continue to thrive under the pressure of “having to win!”