Why someone would feel like they need to cheat to assert their trivia supremacy – for bar money (or even actual cash money) – is an absolute mystery to me. 🤔

All of us old trivia hats have heard – and shared – the stories about these loathsome low lives, haven’t we?

The most recent cheating story I’ve heard is that of team Twinkle Toes, former venue champion at Corner Brewery, who supposedly nailed a sports tiebreaker question and other “impossible” questions. They have stopped playing Sporcle Events games since November, 2024. Maybe they’re playing under a different name or in a different league?

It does kind of make ya wonder – if they so obviously cheated on a tiebreaker – could they also have cheated previously on other questions during the trivia season where they dominated the scene?

Reports are that since other players at Corner became suspicious, they skedaddled.

My take is tiebreakers need to be done in front of the host. Whether players use their phones to submit answers or not. There should be no chance of cheating. This is how My Trivia Live does tiebreakers. It’s fair and completely transparent – the players (one from each team) get called up, the question gets asked, and they have only their brains to help them. No phones! I personally think it’s exciting to be in tiebreaker situations (hey everyone has a kink 😉).

Sometimes trivia cheating is much more egregious. Consider the case of Supernatural Brewing and Spirits in Livonia, which reportedly permanently banned a player whom had repeatedly cheated to win a top cash prize of $50. Yes, a cash prize. This went on for months before they were caught.

Years ago, I had two different players send me photos of a My Trivia Live team that had been caught cheating. Word spreads quickly- trivia players can be a gossipy bunch! I don’t recall the exact ways they cheated but I think players were calling or texting each other to share answers on the same night. 

A few months ago, a trivia host told me that two teams thought that we were cheating. We absolutely were NOT!  For one thing, no…just no – that’s just so…gross and icky – for another, our overall scores suck just enough that it just wouldn’t make sense.

We have gotten lucky from time to time. Being the only team getting a final question correct last December likely raised suspicion among teams not knowing us well. I guess someone on our team walked back from the bathroom at the wrong time or something? We had already turned in our answer before he went to the John. 

That final question was an oddball 90s music question that my girl pal Kim was all about answering (she’s a real popular music wiz). It’s just too bad that what should have been a proud moment for her was ruined by those other poor sports trivia teams. Fuck them!

We took a month off from the trivia spot where this happened, because I was pissed off about it – and I wanted to let things cool off.

Just last spring(April 2024), we were playing at Original Gravity in Milan and found ourselves in a tiebreaker for first place. Our question was to give the degrees in Fahrenheit of the boiling point in platinum. Lo and behold, our competitors Ryan and the Ladies nailed the answer dead on. I immediately called BS with the host. I was told that the team “meant” to put in a different guess, but that they mistyped it. Bull. Shit. Such a shame that something like this had to happen on the first trivia night hosted here after they stopped hosting during the pandemic. It’s frustrating that the host let this go, and even more frustrating to have to play against unchecked cheating teams.

Trivia hosts need to walk around the room to keep an eye on things. Sitting at their table during the whole game won’t do anything to discourage cheaters. I am hearing that the new host at Corner Brewery does this.

Next time we play at Original Gravity, I’m going to do my best to keep an eye on that team! Both eyes when I can spare them 👀