A trivia league I’ve been playing in since 2012 recently added a fourth Michigan division. There are now four Michigan divisions, which includes (as of this posting) 123 different bars/restaurants. The division in which I play is now called “Central,” and only includes teams within a roughly 20-30 mile radius from where I live. It used to include teams from the western reaches of the state, including Grand Rapids, Lansing, East Lansing, Kalamazoo, etc. Those cities are now represented by the new “West” division.

And that’s not even the most interesting part of this story! What’s really interesting is that I posted a blog about this in December, 2017! The changes the league made are similar to the ones I suggested in my blog, except I proposed giving prizes to the top four teams in each division instead of the top five to keep prize pools the same. Does someone from the trivia league follow this blog? I don’t know. But I’ll chalk it up to them just thinking along the lines of dealing with the expansion of the league (about time)! To take a look at how the divisions look now, click here.

I’m certainly not complaining about this change! I hope this means we no longer have to drive more than 40 miles to a tournament! Last December, we drove 72 miles to play at a crowded bar in East Lansing, which took us more than an hour just to DRIVE there. Parking was another story completely, since the automated parking structure we approached wasn’t letting cars in! A woman parked at the gate right in front of us had to call someone to get down there to open the gate (there was a phone number posted for just that contingency). We were able to get into that garage later on – and we arrived early enough to have lunch with a friend first, but still…that was quite annoying! At the end of it all, we wound up not having to pay for parking because of a special event going on downtown, so we chalked that up to karma…

On April 15, our team drove 40 miles to play in a tournament in Highland, MI. We’d become accustomed to the drive there, and were actually happy the tournament was moved there after playing in that overly crowded bar in East Lansing. Ample bathrooms, ample space, easy drive (mostly highway). We had a table in a good spot for me to make a quick beeline to the restroom when needed (that is one of my mad skills, lol).

I think some teams might complain that with the new division being added that the prize pools are lighter. But I don’t think that’s going to stop them from playing.

The new season is just beginning, let’s see how things will roll for us!