We’ve been duking it out as a trivia team for the past 15-ish years or so. We’ve played in a variety of local bars and restaurants (mostly Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor MI and surrounding cities) ranging from “divey” to “gentrified.” Gastropubs, sports bars, Mexican cantinas, barbecue joints, brewpubs, dive bars, pizza joints, you name it, we played it.

With those battles, we’ve had varying degrees of success – and failure.

In the plague years, we were primarily playing virtual trivia games in the Sporcle Events league. We decided to start trying to crawl out from under our proverbial rocks like our octopus mascots in 2021 and try playing “for reals” again.

It was touch and go at first, and not without a lot of trial and error (mostly error). We had a lot of pandemic induced social anxieties (and even some health scares) to power through for sure! It wasn’t until 2023 that we really got back out there and actually played in a Sporcle Events Globe Game in December, 2023.

Later on in 2024, a friend and “trivia jockey” asked us to come out to play in one of her shows that was struggling in the My Trivia Live league. We said “OK” and gave that a go. We even played in one finals and two semifinals games in 2024. It felt good to be back in the thick of competitive trivia again!

Us showing up to play her struggling show at Powell’s Pub wasn’t enough to help the show survive. So about a month or so after that show died, we looked for another place to play in the same league that wasn’t too far for us to drive.

We decided that  McShane’s Pub in Ypsilanti was a good choice, and we played there a few times until my work schedule became too crazy (which usually happens around the end of every year). This meant that regular weekly games at McShane’s were not to be.

After being wrongfully accused of cheating at McShanes in late December, 2024, I decided to take at least a month long break from playing there. Since we had a new and younger player in our mix, we decided to play a few games at the very competitive Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti, where we had modest success.

Then…one of the players (will not say which one) had kind of a “freak out” at a game and apparently couldn’t handle the noisy crowded place. Which is completely understandable. The acoustics in the trivia room are terrible, and a challenge for even the most skilled handlers of microphones/speakers. I’m not the biggest fan of playing here anyway, and having to hustle so many players just to compete on top of arriving super early just to babysit a table. And those metal chairs 😩 I can’t even hang my purse on them without it falling off (it’s the little things, ya know).

So I decided that we were done playing at Corner Brewery – until further notice.

Except for music trivia every other Monday night! I’ll go out for those 😁 🎵🎶

The only other Sporcle Events spot we played in 2025 was the YpsiAlehouse, which hosts Sunday games. I usually work Sundays, so obviously we couldn’t play there very often. We have played two games there so far in 2025.

We returned to McShane’s in mid February and had decent success with winning prizes. Though in April we weren’t so lucky with prizes, with us winning just $40 in prizes spread over five games after having won about twice that in March! We knew our hot streak had to end sometime!

We visited two other MTL spots in April – Bobby McShane’s in Sumpter Township – and the Sawmill Saloon in Big Rapids. This helped satisfy my “wanderlust” tendencies and helped break up the monotony of playing in the same place week after week.

With summer on the horizon, there has been talk amongst my team about returning to playing occasional Sporcle Events games at Original Gravity in Milan. Only on nice nights when we can play outdoors in the beer garden. One of my semi-regular players is a teacher and has a more open weeknight schedule in the summer months. She also likes one of their blueberry ciders on tap called “Blue Boy.”

Within the next couple of weeks MTL scores will be posted and I’ll have an idea how our efforts have been shaking out. It’s a very competitive spot, so I’m not too optimistic we’d be able to get a semifinals spot at the end of the season. If we don’t have a shot, that’s OK! All we can ever do is try our best with the players that I have.

Looking ahead, we will not be in contention at the Sporcle Events Globe Games in June because my husband and I will be out of town that weekend. I don’t know how things will work out for us in the MTL league and their tournaments, it’s too early to say.

All I can say is we’ll play when we can play! And that next day is… Thursday, May 1!

See y’all in the next recap!