Here we were at MTL finals in July, 2017 at Applebee’s in Taylor, MI… one of only two times we’ve won cash prizes at My Trivia Live finals events. The other time was December, 2019.

It’s almost by accident that this is even happening. And it wouldn’t be happening at all, had it not been for a MTL host personally texting me in mid June asking me to please please pretty please try to help her Sunday night trivia show – by showing up! I was a bit hesitant about getting involved with this trivia league again, for a variety of reasons, so I did not initially say “yes.” But after talking to a couple of teammates, we agreed to check it out. Because of a lack of enough teams playing regularly over the trivia season at this bar, we would have a shot at semis and finals with very minimal effort.

I’m an old grizzled trivia veteran who has done a lot of non-lazy things to get my team to trivia championships over the past 12 years. I’ve done the “barhop” method, played in more than one league regularly, had to duke it out at countless qualifying bar championships, played in more than one bar week after week to give ourselves more than one way to qualify, and I’ve done the Hokey Pokey. Just kidding about that last part! In all honesty, the last time I did the Hokey Pokey was as a warmup in high school marching band. Before that, it was when I was a kid at my local roller rink. It’s not easy to do on skates! Especially the foot stuff!

So what I’m trying to say is…I think I’ve earned my right to get my team to a trivia tournament with very little effort, thank you 🙂

The hardest part is – and always has been. – finding players! I don’t have much of a team anymore, and the two other original remaining members of my team who still occasionally play with us are not always available when I need them. I get it – some people take trivia more seriously than others. We all know people like that, don’t we? People have lives outside of trivial pursuits. There are spouse/kid birthdays, board game commitments, barbecues, Renaissance fairs, dog shows, football games, family vacations, weddings, countless life events more important than trivia. IKR? That’s crazy talk, isn’t it? 🙂

Neither of my two “OGs” could join us this time. Let’s see – board game commitments every Saturday afternoon for one of them, spousal birthday and football game for the other 😦 Since my husband does not have the option of saying “no” to joining me at trivia tournaments (lol), I have to reach out to other teams, friends, etc. almost EVERY time. Sometimes I get lucky and players reach out to me before tournaments! That’s only happened twice. Usually I just happily welcome aboard the first person saying “yes!” I’ve even bought drinks for players helping us in our qualifying games and even given gift cards/certificates as rewards to players helping us advance!

Seriously, I can’t thank my husband enough for always being there when I need him! He’s been my partner in countless live and virtual games, keeps track of scores during games, submits the answers, talks to the host if there is a score discrepancy, decides how to wager and has even done a couple of T-shirt designs for us. He’s definitely my “Number One!”

I don’t have an all- star “ringer” lineup for this tournament. Honestly, that doesn’t even matter to me! I’m just thankful I found two others to join us for the first MTL finals tournament we’ve played in nearly five years. All we can do is our best, and hopefully, have fun!