It’s week 17 of the Sporcle Live trivia season. Trivia players are starting to see whether their efforts to dominate a bar will end in victory – or have been in vain. It’s something I know about FAR too well! We’ve been edged out of four MTL finals championships in the past three years because of failing in semifinal games, and have been edged out of two Sporcle Live finals (in 2012 and 2013). So our track record of at least finding our way to Sporcle Live championships has been very, very good over the past seven years. It’s the whole “winning money” at a Sporcle Live finals that’s been a bit more difficult! We’ve only managed to do that three times – Twice in 2013, and once in 2018. We won a first place prize once in a MTL championship (2017). We wouldn’t be the “Fighting Cephalopods” if we didn’t at least try, would we?

My team is in the unique position of having not attempted to dominate the standings of any single bar this past season. Why? Multiple reasons. One, we didn’t have “one” spot we could all play every single week. Two? I kind of wanted to take a break from competitive trivia a bit, and try out this “beer money or bust” strategy. It’s been great for my mental health! Though it’s hard for me to shut off my desire to win.

 

There are, however, teams out there which have been trying to be the top dogs for the past 17 weeks. I’m currently eating my popcorn and watching the standings of one local team in particular, whom has been been struggling in one of their bars this season, but doing quite well in a couple of others. They’re essentially waging a trivia war on…three fronts, which is something that appeals to the “general” in me! It would probably also appeal to Sun Tzu, best known for The Art of War, which outlines various strategies for winning battles – and wars. If you haven’t read it, the basic “gist” of it is (keep in mind I’m paraphrasing):

Follow the path of least resistance

Really, that’s true! Many of Sun Tzu’s strategies center on… following the path of least resistance! If you don’t already hold a fortified position, don’t try to take a fortified position. If your forces are smaller, make them “look” bigger to the enemy. If your forces are bigger, make them look smaller. Also, if you take prisoners, treat them well. They will likely become your allies. Exploit the weaknesses of your enemies. Know the lay of the land.  All of this is fascinating stuff that can be applied to real life, not just warfare.

Well? What are you waiting for! Read The Art of War!

I have little doubt that this team will be among those competing in the semifinals June 8 – and the state championship June 15 – one way or another! And I’ll be happy to see them playing together in a tournament again (it’s been a while)!

What about MY team? A new trivia spot opened up recently, which my team has a good shot of dominating at the end, and per the league rules, we will be able to be named “venue leaders” there at the end if we also played at least eight other trivia games throughout the season. I will be attempting to RSVP my team for semifinals, if possible. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do so on the first day or not (there will three days that teams can RSVP, and the earlier teams can do it, the better chances they have of getting in). So we’ll see!

As for finals? I already know I won’t have one of my strongest players playing with us that day. So our chances that day, if we play, won’t be good. We could either go there just to go – knowing we don’t have a chance to win – or I could offer our spot to a team who didn’t make it out of semifinals (ideally a team that has a good chance of winning prize money and is amenable to letting my team keep at least 20 percent of what they win). Only fair, right? We have been playing trivia games every week. The other option would be to try assembling a “dream team,” though I don’t think that would work out too well since I won’t have a good idea what players  I would be able to “hustle” on short notice.

If things continue going well at Sticks – on Mondays AND Thursdays – it’s possible we’ll try to continue playing there next season.

In about a month and a half, we’ll know what trivia teams will win the Trivia War!