5 Trivia Event Rules, and Why They Matter

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Every game has rules, and live trivia events are no exception. In order to ensure that an event is run both fairly and efficiently, there are several crucial rules which much be effectively communicated to the group, and enforced by the host.

Below are the most important rules employed in a live trivia event, and why they matter:

1) No Cheating – Perhaps the most obvious, as well as the most important. Although this wasn’t such a huge deal in the days before smartphones, nowadays everyone has access to virtually any question’s answer in their pocket. Googling the answer takes away from the spirit of the trivia event. I find that this isn’t really a problem in corporate entertainment or employee team building events as it is in pub quiz nights, but it’s still worth mentioning to participants right off the bat.

2) Time Limits – Firm limits must be imposed on the time teams have to write down their answers and submit scoresheets. I’ll be writing exclusively on this topic in an upcoming post, but I can’t reiterate how important it is for the flow of the event – as well as in fairness to all participants –  for all answer sheets to be submitted in a timely manner.

3) Contesting Answers – While not advertised, teams should be able to contest their answer, PROVIDED they have credible reason to believe it to be correct. This is only fair, as occasionally there may be more than one correct answer to a question; however, it’s tricky for teams to prove this, since the host should have explicitly outlawed Googling during the event (see above). For this reason, the host should bring a smartphone of their own to confirm contested answers.

4) Team Names – To make the event as personalized and impactful as possible, the first act the groups take as teams should be deciding a team name. This is also an important icebreaker from a team building standpoint, as participants will have to quickly generate ideas, collaborate, negotiate and ultimately decide on what to call themselves, as a team.

5) No Sabotaging Other Teams – You’d be surprised; event the most buttoned-up employees of the most staid companies can bring out some vicious trash talking once the competition begins, and this can at times include deliberately saying the wrong answer at a “loud whisper,” in the hopes of other teams hearing and submitting. Strangely enough, this happens more often in private corporate events than in an open pub quiz; I assume it’s because the level of competition is higher among folks who know each other, but for whatever reason, it happens. Make sure it doesn’t, or it takes away from the good-natured core of the event.

What other rules are important for live trivia events?

4 Comments

  1. Peter on May 8, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    Interesting points. I think rule 5 is hard to execute for a quiz host.
    And I’d suggest adding ‘Contesting Scores’ to rule #3, for as a former quizhost/jury and a fanatic participant, I’ve seen errors been made at score calculations.

  2. david on May 8, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    @ Peter: Agreed rule #5 is definitely hard to execute. To make the even as fair as possible, every effort should certainly be made by the host in this regard. Also, great point re: “Contesting Scores” – definitely worth including here.

  3. Mike on October 14, 2012 at 7:38 pm

    1) I mention this rule from the get-go, but I also mention that they’re on the honor system. I also tell them that if they have to use their Phone-a-Friend lifeline, to instead tell their friend to get their butts down here and answer the question themselves. 😉

    2) I don’t do time limits, but after all the available answer sheets have been scored, I ask if the remaining teams are participating in this round. If so, this is a nice reminder to them to get with it, since sometimes they get caught up in socializing.

    3) I hosted back in the day where I had to bring an almanac and a softcover dictionary/atlas to settle disputes. Thankfully, my iPhone does the work for me now.

    Never had a problem with team names or sabotaging, just the occasional loud-mouthed drunk. That’s what bar managers are for.

    A couple of things I add is that if a team needs a question repeated, to just shout it out and let me know, as often as necessary–usually this happens at the end of the round–and that if a question needs clarifying, to just come up and ask me about it, and I’ll help as much as possible without giving anything away.

    Also, if a team wants to change an answer after turning in their sheet, they may do so–if I haven’t already scored/begun scoring their sheet. If I have, too bad, so sad.

    Finally, spelling doesn’t count, but I gotta be able to read it, so make sure the answers are filled out by someone with decent handwriting.

    • david on October 15, 2012 at 12:26 pm

      All goo points/rules – though I’m usually strict about no changing answers once they’re handed in, for the sake of fairness

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