No matter how this current trivia season ends at McShane’s…

I’ll be able to say with all honesty that we…

Did our absolute best! ✊

We’re putting in a last ditch effort in these last three weeks to see if we can crack out of third and hopefully not fall into fourth place! 😲 If we don’t do this, we’re not the trivia team with the name “fighting” in the name that I thought we were! ✊ 🐙🦑

In the past 10 years or so, there were a few more spots for Ann Arbor and Ypsi (also surrounding areas) for trivia junkies in the My Trivia League to wage trivia battles. Powell’s Pub, Applebee’s, Tower Inn, The Wurst Bar, Fenders (Milan) and Maplewood (Saline) all formerly had weekly trivia scenes.

Now, McShane’s in Ypsilanti is the main trivia hub for most of those players.

Maplewood in Saline, for example, was known not only for its very competitive Friday night trivia scene, but also for its weekly “jackpot” prize. Though Maplewood attempted to become a trivia spot again after the pandemic settled down a bit, it decided to call it quits for good.

I played a handful of games there – even managed a solo first place prize once. I used the Star Trek inspired name “Kobayashi Maru,” which roughly translates to “unwinnable scenario.”

Ditto for Powell’s Pub, which had a very short lived trivia scene in 2024. Powell’s had a thriving weekly show for years up until 2018 or so. Its 2024 comeback was short lived.

Tower Inn had weekly shows, stopped, came back, then stopped for good. Now Tower Inn is closed and last I heard, was called “Basil Babe.” Which makes me think of…

Wurst Bar had a thriving scene for a few years, then the bar tried to switch to a different trivia company, which didn’t work out.

I played in all three of these spots for semifinals spots over the past decade.

Even the small town of Milan had a weekly trivia scene at Fenders. I can think of at least one regular player from McShane’s who would still play there every week if they still had trivia!

I did a “one and done” game there in June 2017. I think there was a carnival going on at the time, and we used some kind of carny name?

I can’t really speak about the former Applebee’s trivia scene, other than rumors about cheating (lol). Don’t we all hate trivia cheaters?🤔

The Mash Bar in Ypsi’s Depot Town has a fairly new trivia scene, but I don’t think it’s as popular as McShane’s.

I’d love to see another local MTL spot open up. Me and my team decided that the Mash Bar wasn’t for us (it happens). Too “bougie!”

All we can do is… play our absolute best! Let’s see how we do in these final weeks! 😉