A new My Trivia Live season begins this week. I have this “feeling” that there could be some…changes in the competitive scene in the coming weeks. I really can’t comment specifically, it’s just my women’s intuition, my sixth sense and the fact that I’ve been involved in this crazy pub trivia scene for…more than seven years now!

I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen – maybe nothing will happen. But maybe there will be a shakeup in a team’s lineup, a new “Johnny come lately” team will start playing to spice up the competition, a team that hasn’t played in a while might start playing again, or maybe a new trivia spot will open up locally (yeah, right…dream on)! The teams that used to play at Wurst – which stopped offering MTL trivia – are going to have to play somewhere else. Where are they going to set up “camp?” My money says at least a couple of these teams will move to McShane’s Pub (I know that one of the teams is pretty good – because my team played against them for a  few seasons previously). The few times we’ve played at McShane’s, the only “real” competition was a couple of barhop teams- and the “house” team. The members of the “house” team seem like really nice, cool people – but we’ve definitely battled better teams than theirs. I say the place is ripe for some good old fashioned trivia competition! Ditto for Powell’s, too. We played there for a couple of seasons and won tournament spots, but other than the barhop teams and a couple of “house” teams, we never felt “too” challenged there.

The jackpot prize offered to teams winning three consecutive first places at Powell’s and McShane’s will still likely continue to be a draw for the diehard teams. It is a good idea – but I’m already mired in trivia enough! I don’t want to be tied into playing Mondays and Tuesdays in bars I don’t even like that much. Though it is occasionally fun to be a “spoiler” and ruin the consecutive wins for other teams trying to win all three of them in a row (ain’t I a stinker)? I distinctly heard a player on a rival team say “Oh shit” after seeing me show up at Powell’s a few months back (the first time we played at this bar in several months). Uh…I’m happy to see you, too? Some people clearly need to dial back the competition just a tad, don’t they? I’m competitive with this game too – so I get it – but there is a difference between being competitive – and being downright nasty. Pardon me while I climb off my soapbox (ahem)!

My team won’t be throwing in the hat this coming MTL season. Unless anything changes (like a new trivia spot opening up locally that my players like that Brad can walk/bike to, and is not a “dive” bar since my team doesn’t seem to like playing in dive bars Jesus they’re so picky LOL), I’ll probably continue being a “hired gun” with the same team as long as they’re willing to have me and I don’t get “muscled” out!

I say change is good!