Following the HQ Trivia trend at St. Joe’s.
At 8:45 p.m. on a recent Tuesday night, Joe Kessler ’20 was anxiously texting his sister Victoria Kessler ’20 to meet him at his apartment in Lannon Hall. The clock was ticking, and the two-minute countdown towards 9 p.m. had begun.
Victoria Kessler arrived with a minute to spare. The siblings attentively listened to a voice eminating from their phones, glancing at each other for confirmation.
It was HQ Trivia time in Lannon Hall, a nightly ritual for some residents, who enjoy playing the popular live trivia game show on their phones. Once players download the app and create usernames, they can join daily games at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.
The games, which last about 15 minutes, consist of a series of 12 questions with three multiple choice options for each round. As soon as game host Scott Rogowsky begins to read each question, players only have 10 seconds to tap the correct answer on their screens. Creators of the game believe the 10-second limit makes it difficult for players to cheat and find answers on the web.
Once players answer questions incorrectly, they are immediately eliminated and can only watch for the rest of the game.
“I think the furthest I’ve made it was to question nine,” Justin Pauciello ’20 said.
Players usually work in large groups with an attempt for at least one of them to make it to the end.
“You gotta help each other out if you want to have a chance at winning,” Pauciello said.
Although the questions are simple enough in the first few rounds, towards the end of the game, they become more difficult.
“The questions at the end of the game are just bizarre,” Joe Kessler said.
An example of a first round question is “Which of these is a U.S. state?” The three multiple choice options are “Chihuahua,” “Saskatchewan” and “Louisiana.” A final round question might be something like: “In a 1961 speech, JFK announced his moon ambitions, but also acknowledged which other strategy?” The three multiple choice options for that question are “Navy SEAL training,” “Dismantling the CIA” and “Cambodia Opium Trade.”
The correct answer is Navy SEAL training.
“Unless you’re a history major, I don’t think people would know the answer to that question,” Victoria Kessler said.
If the player answers all 12 questions correctly, there is a prize of winning or splitting a cash amount. Recent cash prizes have been anywhere from $2,000 to $250,000. That big payout came on March 28, with over two million players itching for a slice of the prize. A total of 12 winners in that game each received over $20,000.
Despite their daily attempts, many St. Joe’s players remain a degree of separation from a prize.
“I’ve never won before, but my cousin did,” Pauciello said. “The prize was $2,000, but there were multiple winners so she had to split the money.”
Julia Taglianetti ’20 said she has a friend who won and split the cash.
“He only won $20, but it was exciting,” Taglianetti said.
When the app was first released last August, it only allowed players to cash out if they had won $20 or more, but as of January, players are able to retrieve their money no matter how much they have won by connecting their PayPal account to the app.
