Let me start by saying that if you EVER have any questions, we are just a phone call away – feel free to call anytime!
We have been running Trivia and Quingo games for years, and have often thought how much nicer it would be if we just could get questions already written and researched, rather than spending hours and hours (literally!) preparing for the night. So here you go – our Trivia Game Network – so you can have your days to yourself before you go to work!
Just so you know, with our “Team Trivia” games, they are sent to you in pdf form via email on Monday mornings. There will always be a score sheet included, as well, just in case you don’t have one of your own.
Any slide shows, whether Team Trivia or Quingo, will be a sent via a download link from MASV – a fast file transfer service.
I just want to talk a little about Quingo. You may not know what it is, you probably never heard of it – that’s because we totally made it up!
One of our venues called to ask if we would be willing to run a Team Trivia night there. I had been mulling over a game with a new twist, something faster-moving, a little more exciting, so they let us try it there. Wow! People love it! Basically, it’s pretty easy trivia, with lots of visual questions, played in a bingo-style game. But, at the end of the questions round, we have 3 teams compete for the final prize in physical challenges. It’s a way to get people out of their seats, and interacting, and the challenges are just a variety of minute-to-win-it type games. And the questions are pretty easy, so even people that aren’t good at trivia can guess at them. When you purchase a Quingo package, you will get a slideshow each Monday morning that consists of 3 rounds of the game, plus a quingo playsheet. Each round, including your choice of challenges, takes about half an hour to complete. Then, you give them 15 minutes to enjoy a drink or food, you regroup, then start round 2….etc, etc, etc. All 3 rounds are completed in 2 hours (or less, if you don’t want to take a little break in between!)
We don’t send you any physical games – but we are happy to give you ideas for the challenges. At my game, I invested in a few games that I can use over and over again. Since I run a game every other week, I keep about 12 games on hand that I mix up, so we aren’t doing the same challenges every time. At the end of this blog, I’ll list some challenge ideas…but you can always google “minute-to-win-it games” and find some other ideas, or make up your own!
With both Team Trivia and Quingo, I’m sure you already know that people tend to be faithful to personalities that they like – so have fun!
Questions we have been asked:
~ How do you keep people from cheating?
In Quingo, that’s easy – they only have 15 seconds or so to answer the question, so it’s pretty difficult for them to google an answer. Also, we have so many “visual” questions (i.e. “this is the flag of what country?” or “study this picture – then answer the following question”), so that means they CAN’T look it up!
For Team Trivia, because DJs generally give people an entire song to answer a question, we often ask teams to place their phone face-down on the table until they have turned their answer in. That helps. But we also announce at the beginning of each game that anyone caught cheating will have points deducted from their score, and the other teams will have points added to their score. That’s a big deterrent! I will tell you that, in our games, we never disqualify teams from playing, because we still want them to spend money in the venue on food or drink. We just make sure they know that they won’t win. Remember, a business won’t hire you if you aren’t making them money!
~ What do you do if there is a “tie” at the end?
In Team Trivia, we always include a “tie-breaker” question at the end of each game, in case you need it. If you have a tie score for any of the prize-winning teams (some people have prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd…some for just 1st, etc)…announce that you have a tie, make all the teams write down an answer to the question in less than 30 seconds, then just give 5 extra points to the team with the closest-to-correct answer. (or, in the case of a 3-way tie, 10 points for the closest, 5 points for the 2nd-closest).
For Quingo (one of the beauties of Quingo is that you don’t have to keep score! They score themselves, then bring up their answer sheet when they have “quingo”, or 4 in a row right), if too many teams have “Quingo” for your challenge (we always accept 3 teams for the challenge), we keep tie-breaker questions on hand. As they are standing next to you, you ask a tie-breaker question, they have 10 seconds to write down an answer. Whichever team is closest to the correct answer is the team that moves on to the challenge. We’ll also list some good tie-breaker questions at the end of this blog, so you can bring them with you.
Do you have a question? We are here to help! Feel free to email us or call us whenever!
Okay, as promised, below are some ideas for the physical challenges in Quingo. There are initial purchases that you make, then keep them for future use. (then, at the end are the tie-breaker questions for you to save).
- Cup Stack. Give each participant (one person from each qualifying team) a stack of colored cups (we do 25 or 30), with a different colored cup at the bottom. Using one hand, then the other, they move the cups (one at a time) from top to bottom until the other colored cup is at the top. First person to reach the other color wins the prize!
- Hexnut Stack. We bought a ton of larger hexnuts at a local contractor store (but you could use anything stackable for this). One person from each of the qualifying teams stacks the hexnuts. The person with the highest stack (still standing at the end) wins!
- Cottonball Head. This is one of my favorites! We spent some time at the local Dollar Store for supplies. This game involves a cooking tin (on their lap) filled with cotton balls. They wear a blindfold (a thick hair band), and are given a medium-size bowl to hold on their head, and a spoon (make sure they hold it at the end of the handle, not near the spoon head, where they could feel whether a cotton ball is on it or not). They have one minute to spoon as many cotton balls from their lap to the bowl on their head. Whoever has the most cotton balls in the bowl at the end, wins! It’s pretty hysterical to watch – most participants start spooning madly, and quite often, are only getting air!
- Blindfold Drawing. We bought dry-erase boards and markers – easy to use over and over again! We put a simple picture on the screen (for example, 3 squares, with 3 circles inside the squares, triangles inside the circles, and plus signs inside the triangles – see below). Each contestant is blindfolded, then has to draw the closest-possible image to the picture shown. Whichever comes closest, wins. (note: we choose the judges for this challenge from the audience). Here is the drawing we chose, and a competitor:
- CD Drop. This one is pretty easy to set up, but kind of difficult to play. Each participant gets a stack of old cds (not ones you plan on using again!) and a sturdy plastic cup. The cups sets on the floor, the contestant must drop a cd to have it land on the cup and stay standing. First person to have it land properly, wins.
- Tissue Head. You’ve probably seen this game at kids’ parties (and we buy tissue boxes at the dollar store)! Each contestant holds a full tissue box on their head with one hand, and, with the other hand, pulls tissues out of the box one at a time until it is empty. First person to empty the box, wins.
- Puzzle Challenge. We bought cereal boxes that had a puzzle on the back (at the dollar store, again – one of our favorite search places), and cut out the puzzles. One contestant from each of the qualifying teams has to put together the puzzle. The fastest puzzle-completer wins the prize!
That’s just a few ideas – you can make up your own, call us for more ideas, or google “minute-to-win-it” challenges.
On to our other item promised: tie-breaker questions:
TIEBREAKER: IN WHAT YEAR DID THE GIRL SCOUTS START SELLING COOKIES?
1917
TIEBREAKER: HOW MUCH DID THE AVERAGE WEDDING COST IN THE U.S. IN 2018?
$44,105
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY AIRPORTS ARE THERE IN THE US?
19,601
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY ISLANDS MAKE UP THE BAHAMAS?
700
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY PEOPLE COMPETED IN THE 2016 SUMMER OLYMPICS IN RIO?
10,500
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY BRIDGES ARE IN VENICE, ITALY?
417
TIEBREAKER: HOW LONG IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST CRUISE SHIP?
1188 feet
TIEBREAKER: IN WHAT YEAR WAS THE FIRST LAMBORGHINI UNVEILED?
1963
TIEBREAKER: WHAT IS THE SPEED OF THE FASTEST BASEBALL PITCH EVER THROWN?
105.1 MPH
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY NATIONAL PARKS ARE IN THE US?
58
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY BILLIONAIRES ARE THERE IN THE WORLD?
2,208
TIEBREAKER: APPROXIMATELY HOW MANY STARS ARE FEATURED ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME?
2600
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY PEANUTS COMIC STRIPS DID SCHULTZ PUBLISH IN HIS LIFETIME?
17,897
TIEBREAKER: ACCORDING TO THE UN, HOW MANY OFFICIALLY-RECOGNIZED COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD ARE THERE?
195
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY ISLANDS IS JAPAN COMPRISED OF?
6852
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY WINDOWS DOES THE WHITE HOUSE HAVE?
147
TIEBREAKER: HOW MANY WINDOWS ARE THERE IN NEW YORK CITY’S EMPIRE STATE BUILDING?
6,514
TIEBREAKER: ACCORDING TO THE MOST RECENT DATA ESTIMATE, HOW MANY LANGUAGES ARE THERE IN THE WORLD?
6,912
TIEBREAKER: OVER THE COURSE OF THE TWO WEEK TOURNAMENT, HOW MANY TENNIS BALLS DO THEY GO THROUGH AT WIMBLEDON?
Over 54,000