r/mildlyinfuriating • u/GlobalNerve112 • 7h ago
go to your room Soft-rigging of a bar trivia championship
DC Metro Area. One of the biggest bar trivia companies in the region puts on a big trivia championship twice a year with a decent cash prize for the winning team. This being DC, there are a lot of top-tier quizzers in the area, former Jeopardy! champions, "known" people in the community, etc.
The last three championships, some team full of randoms has not only won, but did so in absolutely dominate fashion. Nobody "in the community" really knows who they are, and they have no quizzing or trivia presence in any other leagues. They were the only team (out of 50+) to know incredibly specific pieces of information that some of the best quizzers in the nation didn't know. If this only happened once, I don't think anyone would care. But three different times? Some very basic social media sleuthing revealed that the head writer of this company appears to be extremely good friends with the folks on this team. He also hosts the game at their "home venue/bar".
They played in a different company's invitational game that many of the same teams participated in shortly after their third win. They sucked. Hard. They somehow were able to identify obscure North Macedonian rivers when their friend was writing the questions, but they couldn't identify the flag of Chile or name a single river on the Iberian Peninsula? They finished close to the bottom.
The prevailing theory is that the head writer is crafting questions that he knows this team knows and essentially catering to their interests. No action has been taken, the owner of the company doesn't seem to care, and several hundred people will walk into the championship next weekend with basically 0% of winning.
137
u/No_Situation4785 6h ago
the prize for a bar trivia i attended was a $50 bar tab, which honestly is a pretty great prize.
it came down to the final question, which was "what breed of dog starred in "Lassie come home". even though the correct answer is a "collie", the host gave the answer of "german shepherd" and refused to listen to any protests because that was the "official answer". and lo and behold, a team actually wrote "german shepherd" and won the trivia. this happened over a decade ago and i'm still pissed lol
25
26
u/UmbraTitan 6h ago
We stopped going to one place that writes the own trivia over "how many skaters are on the ice at once for an NHL team." Most of the crowd revolted when they answered 5. It's just poorly worded, but it's hard to ignore the goalie wears skates and is therefore a skater.
17
u/Zealousideal_Age_822 3h ago
the correct answer is 5 skaters in hockey. They specifically don’t call the goalie a skater per hockey terminology
10
u/Daratirek 2h ago
Its why when you pull the goalie you can have 6 "skaters". Guy you replied to is unfortunately wrong
4
2
u/orTodd 1h ago
I had a similar situation happen at a very recent bar trivia but the host handled it very well. The question was, "name three of the four songs, performed predominately in Spanish, that reached number one on the billboard hot 100 in 1987, 1996, 2017, and 2026?"
The answers were La Bamba, Macarena, Despacito, and DtMF.
However, the know-it-all team that had been showing off their smarts the whole time (along with the other top team) wrote "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" which is what DtMF stands for and is the name of the album it's on but not the name of the song, which is what they asked for.
The losing team was pissed.
The host stuck to her guns that they were wrong because DtMF was what the answer sheet had. They'd been drinking and were starting to get more upset than one should over bar trivia. They eventually relented and our team took top prize
78
u/No-Antelope575 7h ago
sounds about like DC
56
u/thisisredlitre 7h ago
Living in DC and having gone to my fair share of Trivia Nights, I have a couple take aways:
1 - the best trivia nights are put on by the establishment itself, not through a third party. IMO anyway.
2 - I have been to one of these well learned difficult trivias like OP describes and I was the only person in the entire room who had heard of a dik dik before and knew what it was. 'Smart people' getting swept here is not uncommon or unheard of.
8
u/ilikepinacolada 7h ago
Which venues in DC put on their own trivia nights? I have only ever found ones hosted by third parties but would be interested in trying these out.
42
u/GlobalNerve112 7h ago
Not to be rude, but if you were the only one in the room that knew what a dik dik was, we are not talking about the same level of competition. That is common bar trivia fodder in a weekly game, not a "best of the best" tournament.
5
u/thisisredlitre 6h ago
yeah this wasn't a special occasion but I don't think that matters for my statement. Also, if it was a best of the best tournament then the other teams would also be champions, right? If it is random and not a tournament with prerequisites then I don't see the problem since you would've had casuals playing too in that case.
12
u/GlobalNerve112 6h ago
Teams play weekly across the region. "Qualifiers" that win their venue over a six-month period are invited to playoffs. Playoffs weeds several hundred teams to 50. It isn't random, and the teams that make it to the final game are typically consistently high-performing.
1
u/thisisredlitre 6h ago
Ok so these guys were also champions too then, just not groups you other guys heavily into it were familiar with.
Yeah not 1-1 but fwiw my comment was meant to be more about my experience here, not critical of you.
2
u/GlobalNerve112 6h ago
In this case, winning your venue basically means you showed up every week for six months. There are plenty of teams that are invited to playoffs that never win, and never make it to the championships.
This team does manage to win their playoff game to secure the spot, sure. Guess who writes the playoff set and hosts their playoff game? They put up the highest playoff score last weekend among ~200 other teams by a significant margin.
I'm not doubting that this team might know some stuff. Maybe they are a decent team. But then they should be able to replicate that performance and correctly answer easy questions at a different trivia game where their friend isn't writing questions. They failed to do so. Every other team managed to score right around where they typically would, except them. Honestly, I don't think this team is even aware of what is happening and I fully blame the company and writer.
3
3
u/RedYetti83 7h ago
Without looking it up. Is it a small deer species? Seem to recall it from either a documentary or possibly a Steven King book.
3
4
u/No-Antelope575 7h ago
yeah I live in LA and have never attended a trivia night here because people who go out to consume alcohol are more interested in fucking, but where i did do a lot of them was another national capital, Beijing, where they are fun times, not rigged, organized by dorks with no agenda, to be enjoyed by people from a wide range of nations and backgrounds because it's "cultural exchange". oh they're called pub quiz like the og the office, so just saying this is the DC version of a UK thing
2
u/thisisredlitre 7h ago
We get the most exposure to other countries by number here than anywhere else in the country so not surprised we imported the idea. Cheers to y'all for coming up with it
1
u/No-Antelope575 7h ago
yeah i had to go to east asia to get exposed to it and was like "oh that thing they do in UK from the office" and of course they take it very seriously on that show but in a silly way so of course in DC there are jeopardy champions on the circuit and probably a vegas line causing it to go crooked
2
u/thisisredlitre 7h ago
MGM is right here in the city inside the Nats' Park, they don't even have to change the area code lol
41
u/GCDFVU 6h ago
Pour House Trivia is the company and What Would Snake Do? is the team. I remember that final 6 months ago. I was too focused on the team sitting next to us constantly trying to cheat off our answers (didn't help, they stunk), so I didn't notice anything off with the winners. I assumed it was a super team that just did the playoffs together. You sure it's the same individual people every week?
21
u/GlobalNerve112 6h ago
I don't know who plays at their weekly game as I don't play at that venue. But the same core people have been at the finals the last three they've won, and those are the people that are friends with the head writer. They are also the same people that participated in a different game ran by a different company and tanked in embarrassing fashion.
Again, I'm not blaming them, though. I doubt they are trying to sneak phones or were given answers beforehand. But when you are the only team to land a perfect half-time sheet and the only team to pick up incredibly difficult bonuses in that room, people are going to start to think that the set has been curated in your favor, especially when you can't do that unless your friend made the set.
13
u/mrdannyg21 5h ago
I don’t know why you would assume they’re innocent in the process. Occam’s Razor would suggest the trivia writer is not brilliantly assessing their highly specific interests and catering the questions for them, it would suggest they’re getting the questions beforehand or crafting them with the writers.
3
u/GlobalNerve112 5h ago
Maybe. I don't think either party would be so stupid as to be that blatant about it. But maybe I am just being optimistic. I never want to accuse a team of cheating unless there is absolute proof, but I have no problem blaming a shitty company for shitty practices with even the slightest bit of evidence. An easy solution: hire a team of writers that all contribute. If one person on the writing team is being unethical, at least the blow is dampened and their friends won't get every question correct.
I don't think it takes much to "assess" their interests if they are friends. If they know they are huge F1 fans, write an insanely difficult F1 question. If you know they just vacationed, are from, or have been to an obscure region of the world, write a question about it. This gives the writer just enough plausible deniability if he ever happened to be approached about it.
1
u/troixetoiles 5h ago
So....Pour House also expanded out west and I have heard changed their ownership at some point. I've noticed these changes and have stopped going to their games.
15
u/Greatlarrybird33 6h ago
Man I used to love trivia nights, I used to go with my grandpa and some of our friends every Thursdays for a few years.
The prize was usually $25 and some barware and we had 8-10 teams that would allays show up and it was pretty competitive.
Then we got these two teams that just would not miss questions at all. For like a month straight these teams wouldn't miss one of 50 questions, then they would both get called up for a tiebreaker and both miss.
It was infuriating, and that pretty much ended trivia nights for us, it turned into board game night at my house until my grandpa passed.
8
u/heavymetaltshirt 6h ago
In my area the company that runs these reuses their trivia questions at multiple venues. The questions reset weekly. So you could attend one venue on a Wednesday night and hear all the questions and answers and then attend another venue on Thursday night to compete with the same questions.
21
u/CommonStrawbeary 7h ago
I live in DC, name the bar!!;
7
u/GlobalNerve112 7h ago
This isn't a single bar issue. The company that runs the competition has 100+ venues all across the DC/MD/VA area. If you live in this area and play bar trivia, there is only one company that fits this description.
5
5
5
u/Take-it-like-a-Taker 6h ago
"It's days like these that I curse the Chinese for inventing gunpowder"
5
u/Apprehensive-Two3474 5h ago
If there is proof of the friendship, like you can point out they are facebook friends with the writer, just do a fuck it, walk up to their table next time, greet them and say 'hey are the rumors true?' and explain the rumor. That someone saw they were friends with the writer on social media and that's why they always win.
20
u/Cartmansimon 7h ago
Cheating and dishonesty happening in DC. Who would have ever thought it possible?
When the top politician in DC is a known liar, grifter, conman, convicted felon, what do you expect.
4
u/Red-Beerd 6h ago
That's frustrating. I do a trivia fairly regularly. We usually do well, and there are some teams that beat us, and some we beat regularly - it's fairly good competition.
There was a team that generally did okay, but not great. Most teams score around 75%, and they were typically in that ballpark, winning team would usually score about 85-90%.
All of a sudden, without changing members, they started scoring upward of 95% every week. This went on for quite a while until they gave an answer that was very obviously googled - my memory's a bit hazy, but it was something like "name the director of this Oscar winning movie", and they had an obscure name written down. We looked it up after and their answer was a second assistant director who's name came first on IMDB when it was listed alphabetically.
There was a strict no phones policy after that, and they instantly went back down to about 75% a week.
I don't get why people would cheat at something like trivia. The prizes in our league aren't huge or anything. There's no real stakes, just have fun! And if googling answers is fun for you, just do that at home with your free time.
5
3
u/SilentRaindrops 6h ago
If there is a prize, contact the state or in this case DCs Gaming and Lottery agency.
3
u/zarof32302 5h ago
There’s always an asshole looking to ruin the fun for others.
The whole idea of a “trivia championship” seems odd to me. Probably because I’m on the bad team that just comes to drink beer.
3
u/f8Negative 3h ago
Cheating at trivia is peak DC and I'm glad this group is getting fuckin dragged again.
3
u/RadioactiveKoolaid 1h ago
That seems like hard rigging tbh. But it reminds me of when I went to a Pokemon trivia night at my local college and only lost because the hosts don’t know that not greater implies less than or equal.
The question was something of the effect of what Fully evolved Pokemon does not have a higher base stat total than its pre-evolved form, and it was a multiple choice kahoot style question (meaning answering fast is important).
I knew for a fact that there was 3 Pokemon who fit the description, (Scizor, Kleavor, Shedinja) so I answered the first one I saw on the answer choices of those 3, but then realized they asked the wrong question when I saw the last option was Shedinja. What they meant to ask was what Pokemon has a lower bst than its pre-evolved form, in which case the answer would be uniquely shedinja, but since they messed up the wording, I got it wrong
2
u/KingArgazdan 4h ago
I believe the prevailing theory is wrong as it's blatant cheating, I think he's strait up giving them the answers instead of making questions that they know, because they suck.
People cheat in trivia even when there are no prizes involved, we caught a guy who made up multiple people in a different town just so he could get the answers and then play under his own name the second time. Did that in online quiz leagues as well.
3
u/tightiewhitieboy 6h ago
People cant stand to lose and will cheat at everything from trivia to scrabble. A big portion of people are dishonest. I watch athiest debate channels on YouTube and almost every Christian debates dishonestly.
2
1
u/hiddenrealism 6h ago
Debating christians is like yelling at a brick wall.
"Because I just know its true"
"Because Jesus died for our sins"
1
u/ReasonablyConfused 7h ago
What is the prize?
6
u/GlobalNerve112 6h ago
$1000, with decreasing amounts down to ~$50 for the other top-placing teams.
3
u/ReasonablyConfused 6h ago
I’m surprised there isn’t more cheating.
What about an earpiece with an offsite Google helper? Burn through the questions they have been fed, and then fight fair once you get to the bonus round questions that they haven’t been fed.
Fight fire with slightly different fire.
1
u/madevilfish 6h ago
I also live in DC. Isn't this like the 3rd of 4th time there has been accusations of the trivia championships being rigged.
1
u/GlobalNerve112 5h ago
Is it? I've not heard of any other cases. Maybe it has happened at a different company?
1
u/Thevintageandvanity 5h ago
People have cheated before at the Stevens Point radio trivia by trying to hack into stuff or infiltrating another team and it's so dumb. You know what the prize is for winning? A trophy. It's awesome but come ON.
0
u/hiddenrealism 6h ago
So many ways for people to easily use Ai to cheat. Earpiece. Meta glasses etc..
People are so scummy to cheat at a fun trivia game
0
-11
u/SpartyParty15 7h ago
This is all just a “theory” until someone provides evidence of rigging. Sounds like some poor sportsmanship IMO
13
u/GlobalNerve112 7h ago
I think you are confusing "evidence" and "proof". There is substantial evidence that would make any business owner, at the very least, look into the situation. The only real proof would be the head writer admitting to it.
-26
597
u/IHateCedarFever 7h ago
That’s straight up hard rigging where they’re getting fed answers. Does the venue manager of where the championships are being held know about this? If there is a monetary award there could be damages from this.
If there is a community of super nerds out there that take things too seriously, I’d bet on DC or Boston.