Keep Calm And Trivia On at The Locker Room Pub

Well, shit. It looks like this was a short-lived quiz night, and only lasted a few weeks. Hopefully, someone else will carry the torch of sports-oriented quizzing in Vancouver.

Where: The Locker Room, 395 Kingsway (at 12th)

"Where good friends meet"

When: 7pm, Thursdays

Web Presence: As this is another IQ 2000 Trivia quiz, you can find hints, photos, and daily questions on their facebook page.

Team Info: Get some friends and show up! I think the max team size is 7 or 8.

Format: Four rounds of 10 questions each, marking after the second round. As per standard operating procedure, a great slideshow to accompany the questions and answers. Price-is-right style tiebreakers.

Prizes: Myriad. I've seen everything from novelty drinking gloves to PBR hoodies given away for the top prize. Pitchers tend to find their ways to enthusiastic teams. The prizes are continually shifting, so you'll have to show up to find out what is being handed out on any given night.

Food and drink: The food is the kind of food you would expect to find in a sports bar. The beer selection is your standard quiver of megabreweries, with a few craft beers to satisfy the choosy drinker. Once again, Parallel 49 continues to impress me with the establishments I can find them in.


Quizzes pop up in the most unlikely places sometimes. I would not have expected The Locker Room, née Maverick's, to have entered the Vancouver trivia night battleground, but here we are. As far as I can recall, this is the first sports bar in town to host a quiz. Since you are asking me, I'm going to go ahead and say that is interesting. Why? Well, read on. 

Keep Calm and Trivia On is the latest hosting venture for IQ2000 Trivia, who styles himself as the Justin Timberlake of Vancouver pub quiz. I would agree that he is certainly well-dressed, and definitely the most famous member of the boyband that was the UBC trivia club. Once again the questions are well written, the hosting is savvy, and the pace brisk. Given the clientele and target demographic, the questions are shifted a bit away from tech culture compared to other IQ2000 quizzes, which seems like a good decision.

So, with the technology questions largely excised, what will fill in those holes? Current events, history, some Canadiana, and... hmmmmm? Are there hockey games on all the TVs? Is that Kevin Durant I see dunking over there? Are the Indiana Pacers melting down RIGHT NOW? Of course! We're at a sports bar, people, and the operative word here is sports. The quiz comes with a dedicated sports round, which is easily the best ten noodle-scratchers (to borrow a phrase from guest-poster Rob) about the sporting world in town. Mostly hockey-related, but unafraid to foray into baseball, basketball, or either football, the round is a joy for a sports fan like myself. I've never been able to give a rational explanation as to why I want to stand up and yell SPOOOOORRRRTTTTTSSSSSS half of the time, but I've always enjoyed sports quite a bit, and this quiz scratches that itch quite thoroughly.

That said, the quiz is still in its infancy. The uptake is fairly low at the moment - it isn't yet experiencing the frenzied full houses that some other trivia nights are. The main draw of the bar is its impeccable sports programming, but when there isn't a game on, the ambient crowd is a bit low. It's too bad, but I remain hopeful for the future. Don't let this put you off, though. If there is a particularly gripping hockey game going on - Montreal in overtime, Stanley Cup Finals, etc), the quiz will usually accommodate the hockey watchers. For the health of the quizmaster, that's probably the right call.

Greg Adams! Greg Adams!: A well-run quiz that is a bit sparse on attendance at the moment. Hands-down the best sports questions in the city, and good prizes.

Darby's now running monthly league competition

Darby's pub has introduced a new competition that adds an extra level of excitement to their already excellent product.

Throughout November, the results of each weekly quiz will also count towards a monthly leader board; total points scored carry over from week to week, and the team who tally the most at the end of the month win a spectacular prize pack including Steamworks beer and branded glassware, a Darby's gift certificate, custom printed winners' t-shirts with the team name screened on it, and a grand prize yet to be determined. (The prize has been awarded once already, and it was Whitecaps tickets, so expect something equally big).

Quizmaster Katie plans to repeat the Monthly Cup at least through the winter, and perhaps on indefinitely thereafter. As if you needed another reason to go.

This columnist's only complaint is that I keep declaring this or that pub to have the best prizes in the city, and then another goes one better and makes a liar of me. Truly are we living in a golden age of Vancouver bar trivia!

Darby’s runs every Thursday at the corner of 4th Avenue and Macdonald.

Samesun Trivia

Where: Samesun Hostel, 1018 Granville Street

When: 9:00pm start time every Thursday. Be careful with parking; a lot of nearby spots become no-stopping taxi zones after 10pm, at which point you will still be quizzing and your car will be towed. 

Web presence: A facebook group with quiz info and a preview of each week's "web question."

Registration fee: Free

Prizes: Each member of the winning team gets two free drink tickets, though they can't be redeemed the same night

Format: Five rounds of 10 questions with no intermission

Food and drink: Fries, burgers, quesadillas, and nachos at prices to fit the backpacker's budget

If your university put on an end-of-semester open air rock concert, you’re already most of the way to experiencing the Samesun quiz: a lopsided and disoriented event packed to the gills with excitable undergrads, best (only?) enjoyed with liberal volumes of alcohol, offering a decent chance of a hookup, and, decidedly, being a less than a cerebral undertaking.

The Samesun Hostel on the Granville strip is the setting for this quiz, which runs every Thursday at 9pm. Given that it takes place in the bar of one of the city’s more popular youth hostels, the crowd is a cosmopolitan melange of young and roisterous backpackers. One benefit of this venue is that even if you can’t find friends to go with you, you can drop in solo and free agent yourself to a table of strangers.

Nevertheless, this one is not for the competitive quizzer. Thunderdome rules apply at all times, permitting oversized teams to compete unpenalized--and often win--and smartphone use to run rampant. The tiebreaker, should two or more teams come in with equal points, is, I kid you not, a boat race. The questions are generally weak, vacillating between bafflingly ambiguous and drop-dead easy. (That said, the waitresses make a circuit of the tables after the first round and will give you a “hint” on one question of your choosing.)

Are there brainy questions? Sure, there are some, though not often, and they have a nasty habit of self-destructing courtesy of the house. One asked what was banned in Mississippi in 1907 and not legalized until 1966. This is pretty good. I myself was mulling several options: interracial marriage and integrated education both, more or less, fit the timeline and locale; so does teaching evolution. Others spring to mind as well. It was here, unfortunately, that the emcee saw fit to neuter the question and declare to the roomful of tippling millennials, “IT’S SOMETHING WE’RE ALL DOING HERE RIGHT NOW.” Oh, well, thanks--points all around then.

That was in round one. The remainder was escalating pandemonium. In round two, the name-that-tune round, six of the ten song clips included the vocalist singing the title of the song. Six. Round three, the “memory round,” featured a raft of questions on an out-of-sync and nigh-inaudible YouTube clip. Round four, the picture round, asked players to identify famous cinematic animals; again, points all around for the giant ape swatting at biplanes from atop the Empire State Building or the extreme close up of the gaping maw of an especially angry looking great white shark.

Rounding things out was the “turbo round,” a ten-pack of true-false questions of doubtful veracity. To give an example: imagine our joy, having three genuine Frenchmen on the team, to be asked whether the average French citizen eats 25 kilograms of snails per year; only a brief tête-à-tête was necessary for them to return an emphatic and unanimous non. Imagine then our surprise to learn that we were “wrong.”

On top of all this, the production is a bit of a mess. The whole thing runs at a sluggish pace, in particular the marking, with about 30 minutes between handing in your answer sheet and the announcing of the scores. Expect to be done no sooner than 11pm, which can be a bit daunting for those with work the next day. The emcee is generally competent, but don’t expect much in the way of amusing badinage or crowd interaction; reading questions aloud is the order of the evening, and even on this there are some stumbles with mispronunciations.

Conclusion: Pub quiz puritans, steer well clear. Head instead to Darby’s quiz, which takes place the same night and is the better product by some distance.

Still, Samesun may have a certain appeal as the head-banging Daytona Beach spring break of the Vancouver quiz scene, and if you can get past the notion that you will probably lose to a visiting cohort of Arizona State sophomores, the cheap drinks and anarchic atmosphere could make for an enjoyable evening.

In fact, the timing makes possible a kind of Thursday night pub quiz golden mile, that might go as follows:

(1) Start at Darby’s at 7pm. For best effect win this quiz and power down your victory pitcher. This usually finishes up about 9pm, at which point...

(2) Pile in a taxi and floor it to Samesun, which begins at 9pm. (If possible, have a confederate be there in advance to snag a table).

(3) Play this one for fun and have lots of drinks.

(4) Ooze out of Samesun around 11pm towards any nearby watering hole to spend the remainder of the evening.

Darby's

Heads up, this quiz is no longer being run by Katie, as the article will try and tell you. Most of the vitals (start time, address, day of week) remain the same, but the format of the quiz might vary a bit. 

Where: Darby's Pub, 2001 MacDonald Street

When: 7PM Thursday, Every week

Web Presence: Facebook page

Registration Fee: Gratuit

Team Info: 7 Brains per table

Prizes: Top team gets a pitcher of beer, AND a reserved table at the next week's quiz - the real prize

Format: 60 questions, split into 2 halves, with 3 10-question rounds in each. Expect to see a themed round, a picture round, and a matching round, followed by another themed round, another picture round, and ending with the music round.

Food and Drink: Food is pretty good, and the beer selection is easily the best of any of the places I've been to a quiz. It will probably stay that way, unless the Alibi Room starts a quiz.

This quiz has been going for a number of years now - they just ran their 112th quiz. I've been going for a few weeks, but have been too lazy to write up a review until now. Anyways, it is a great time, and probably the best quiz in Vancouver that is run every week. It runs quickly, and while the Quizmaster marks all the own answer sheets herself, it goes reasonably fast. There is definitely no "trap you here so you can drink more" mentality to this quiz, which is great.

The questions range from easy to pretty hard, so all can have fun, and the winning score tends to be in the 50-55 range (out of the aforementioned 60). The tiebreaker, which I have only seen once, is excellent. The tied teams get another sheet of paper, and then a trivial pursuit card is read out, and the high score wins. In the event of a tie, it is playoff overtime rules - they keep going until there is a winner. It tends to lead to some sidebets among the non-participating teams as well. This activity is almost surely not sanctioned by the BCLC.

The atmosphere is enjoyable, a good mix of University kids and older folk. It is almost always full, so be prepared to show up an hour early to stake out some space. It can get a bit hectic on Canuck game nights, but the general attitude lately has tended towards quiz over hockey. While I'm positive this trend won't carry over to the playoffs, it is heartening nonetheless. There are ample TVs to catch whichever game you want to watch, though, even when the questions are being asked. Everyone seems nice here.

In the end? A rad quiz, but show up early to grab a table - or win the previous week.

Quiz Updates, Late January Edition

Some news in the world of pub trivia:

Our Town is back on a biweekly schedule. Per their facebook group, they are running a quiz on the second and 4th Thursday of every month. They've also upped 131 Water's game a bit, and now are running 6 game trivia "seasons." Highest score at the end of 3 months gets prizes (described as "BIG prizes") , from such local sponsors as the Rio, Red Cat Records, and the Alibi Room. Doesn't sound half bad. Also, a picture on the Wall of Champions. As ever, winning team gets a pitcher of beer, and reserved seating the next week, which can be handy since that place can get packed early. 

Secondly, not strictly Vancouver related, some friends and I are going to attend Geek Bowl VII in Austin, Texas. Billed as the largest live pub quiz in those united states, it is probably also the largest pub quiz in North America. I doubt that anywhere else in CONCACAF can make a decent claim to that title. We will be the first Canadian team to compete, as I understand. 

We've never been to a Geeks Who Drink pub quiz before, since they don't have them in Canada. They seem to be a pretty solidly run organization that hands down quizzes from on high to people to read at a bar. It sounds similar to what Pub Stumpers does here in Vancouver (specifically at the Donnolly pubs). I am hoping that the questions are better than the Pub Stumpers quizzes, which attentive readers will know that I think are pretty terrible. I'm pretty confident that the Geek Bowl quiz will be better. That runs February 9th, 2013, so I'll post how it went when we get back. 

Our Town

Where: Our Town Cafe. Located at 245 East Broadway.

When: The last Thursday of every month. The "official" start time is at 7 PM, but it doesn't usually get running until 8 or so. Some months get skipped, so check the facebook group before heading out.

Web Presence:  They've got a facebook group.

Registration Fee: $2 per player

Team Info: Up to 5 players per team.

Prizes: A pitcher of beer, which you should share with the band. Wait, a band?

Format: 3-6 rounds, depending how you divide thing up. There are two rounds of what we've always called "Phoenix-style" questions, some audio rounds, a matching round, and finally, a gigantic video/picture round. more on both later.

Food and Drink: The food is coffee shop food, and there are cheap beers to be had. Don't expect too much, and tip your server.

Meg runs this quiz, and does good job in a pretty informal atmosphere. You'll quickly find that this is not a restaurant, and therefor table space can be a little tight. I advise you to get there early, grab a muffin and a coffee, and be glad you have a seat when the rush hits. You may have been a little confused early when I mentioned a band. Well, there is a band - the unimpeachably named Def Jeppard. Usually a 3-piece, they provide live musical accompaniment to your cognitive activities. I was taken aback when I saw them setting up the first time I showed up, but that is because I was an idiot. It is even more fun to argue amongst yourselves over answers (all of which are incorrect) when a band is play "The Son Of Mr Green Genes" in the background. They work hard, buy them a drink sometime.

Now, to clear up what I meant when I said "Phoenix-style" earlier. One time I went to Phoenix, Arizona for a week. We did a pub quiz while we were there, and there were these 4 question long rounds. You are given 4 point values (here it is 2, 4, 6, and 8), and the categories of the forthcoming questions. For each question, you wager one of the point values.  Each question is marked immediately by the quizmistress, and you can't wager the same value twice in a round.  If you definitely know an answer, you wager 8. If you're guessing, you wager the lowest value you have left. It's a neat way to do it, and keeps the scores interesting. 2 Correct questions can be 14 points, or 6 points, depending on how you wagered. A neat way to do it.

The crowd is a neat mix of people who just want a coffee and got caught up in a quiz, hipsters from main street, and students trying to study. The questions are pretty good, and you can tell that Meg likes movies, as the movie related rounds are usually the hardest (comparatively). That could be because I'm not a film type person, so most of it ends up being Greek to me. The picture smorgasbord has some good questions, usually including flags, movie posters, and some dumb word puzzles. In general, it seems to me that this quiz is more geared towards the 25-35 crowd, just by virtue of the questions the quizmistress likes to write. It usually takes a while for the quiz to get started, and I have sympathy for Meg, since it seems like she's herding cats sometimes trying to get this to start. The cafe closes at 11, so everyone is usually out of there by then.


ANYWAYS, it's a fun, chaotic quiz, although the space can get a little cramped. don't expect to get out too fast, though.