SPORTS TRIVIA: A Few Thoughts

Trivia: things that are very unimportant, inconsequential, or nonessential

Internet Research: Means of obtaining very unimportant, inconsequential, or nonessential facts.

The question is how do I differentiate between a contest of who can FIND the information the fastest and who KNOWS the information the fastest?

I used to be a big WWF (now ‘WWE’) fan when I was a kid. I knew an unhealthy amount of information regarding the wrestlers, storylines, PPV matches and so on and so forth. In the late 90’s when I found out that the WWF had trivia on their website I made it my personal goal to have more points than anyone else. I thought, ‘Finally I can put to use all of this useless information!’ This was before Wikipedia. This was before High-Speed Internet. You either knew the answer before everyone else or you didn’t, and your points were determined by your speed.

It took me three months to get to the top of the leader board. I had to use my sister’s screename to play, which was brilliant because that meant that ‘Allison1122’ knew more WWF Trivia than guys like “Hogan4life” or ‘LegionofTriviaDoom’. However, the reason I was able to get the high score was not because I initially knew more than everyone else (though I did know a lot). The reason I retired as the Champion was because I played enough to notice that the questions recycled and I simply memorized the answers (Thank you photographic memory!).

How does this story apply to the question above? Trivia contests are supposed to test knowledge. I gained knowledge from watching the WWF and memorizing the questions/answers. The latter helped my speed and eventually got me to the top. So, isn’t researching a question on the Internet, cell phone or any other mobile device simply just another way to gain knowledge? Players who do this are still going to lose to the players that either A.) KNOW the answer to the question based on inherent knowledge or B.) Have seen the question before. The advantage will always be in the favor of the player who knows the answer. Whether that knowledge comes from your hippocampus or wikipedia is impossible for me to determine or control. Especially since this particular contest in question is being held ON the Internet.

So I really don’t have to differentiate between an Internet research and a trivia contest. A question one person knows might be a question another person has to research. However, the person who researches it, learns it and memorizes it will be in the driver’s seat the NEXT time he or she sees that question. That is the beauty of trivia.

Which reminds me…

Don’t forget to come to my Twitter feed this Monday and next Monday to play trivia and get a semi-finals spot for a chance to win two tickets to Opening Day at the Del Mar Racetrack.

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