First Trivia Night sponsored by SDO. (credit: Amber Amortegui)
Thirteen teams took part in a competitive trivia battle in the Ruth Cameron Auditorium on Friday, September 22, 2017, and this trivia night had some edge to it.
Apart from being packed with varying levels of questions, it also included talent-based contests that members of any of the teams could compete in and the chance to win a grand prize of $200 cash.
Keri Lewis and the Office of Community Life were responsible for constructing this fun-filled event. According to Lewis, “Community Life has been working on this event since June, taking care of all of the planning, advertising, recruiting volunteers to staff the event, and costs associated with the event.”
They were approached by a company called TjohnE Productions, which promotes the ThinkFast Interactive program utilized for trivia night. According to their website, ThinkFast Interactive is “an experiential team building and awareness program that appeals to all ages with its…informative and engaging awareness trivia.”
When Lewis was asked what she hoped students would take away from this event, she replied, “It should be a fun way to get our community together for some friendly competition. We’re always looking for new ways to keep people on campus for the weekends and are hoping this will be one of many exciting weekend programs for students.”
ThinkFast Interactive transformed the atmosphere to be like a gameshow with its point system, timed answers, ecstatic host, and cash prize.
After each question was answered, they projected the updated rankings of the teams by displaying the top ten scores. Students were getting antsy as they watched their teams’ progression throughout the night.
Besides the variety of questions asked throughout the course of the event, popular hits played in the background, questions referred to music video clips, and talent contests appealed to those who weren’t interested in trivia.
The topics of the questions ranged from pop culture and sports to poetry and science. Some random questions included: “Who is Snoop Dogg doing a VH1 cooking show with?” and “What is energy in motion?”
Other questions focused on the students’ morals. Those questions provided time for ThinkFast to spread awareness about issues amongst today’s youth.
One example of this is a two-part question in which teams were asked to answer the following question honestly: “Have you ever dinged a car in a parking lot and drove off?”
After the teams decided on an answer, the follow-up question was: “When 25 teams were asked this same question, how many do you think answered ‘Yes’?” The correct answer was 13 teams.
There were four talent contests: dancing, singing, and two acting performances. The winner of each contest was selected to be in the Preliminary Speed Round near the end of the night. The participants vigorously tried to hit their buzzers first so they could earn extra points for their teams.
At the end of the trivia war, Nate Vazquez’s team, ‘Lightning’, came out on top after sitting in eighteenth place during the entire competition. By answering the bonus questions correctly, as well as Nate’s participation in both Preliminary Speed Rounds, team Lightning came out victorious to claim their $200 cash prize.