The Grapevine

Or, some news pertaining to Trivia in Vancouver. 3 Updates from the last month:

• It looks like Fray has closed down, so their quiz is therefore also finished. It is too bad, because it had some of the better quiz night food in town. If you're looking for a place to go, I'd recommend 131 Water, but there are quite a few other options as well. Take a look at the Master List and see what suits you.
• The Cascade Room quiz is on hiatus until April 15th, so don't act surprised if you show up on a Monday and there is no quiz.
• Finally, good news! There Is No Easy Mode returns to EXP Bar March 27th, at 9PM. I went last time, and it was a lot of fun. It is videogame trivia, and they aren't kidding with the name. A good time if you want to think about videogames all night. 

I've got a few more reviews coming up in the next couple of weeks - Darby's, Relish, Falconetti's and the aforementioned EXP Bar.

For those interested, Geek Bowl VII in Austin was an awesome time. It was definitely the best pub quiz I've ever been to, but that is probably because they run quizzes every night of the week all year, and then try real hard to give you the best possible show. And they did a great job. We came in 32nd. Read the full recap, if you like!

The Manchester

So it appears the Manchester has a new host and format these days. Take this review with a grain of salt, and I'll try and have an updated review up soon - ed.

Where: The Manchester Public Eatery, 1941 W Broadway

When: 8PM Tuesday, Weekly

Web Presence: None that I can find

Registration Fee: This one's free

Team Info: 8 human beings per squad

Prizes: Top team at the halfway point gets a pitcher of beer, and the winners get a 50 dollar gift certificate. They run 12 week long 'leagues,'  and the highest cumulative score gets $500.

Format: Pretty similar to the Pub Stumpers quizzes: 8 rounds, separated into 2 parts. The first part consists of an image, then some general knowledge, then a music round, then True False. Part 2 is GK, more music, GK, and then some 'Bonus' questions.

Food and Drink: Pub food, nothing special. Likewise with the beers.

As previously mentioned, this quiz is similar to the quiz run by Pubstumpers at Donnelly establishments - or at least the way they were run over year and a half ago, since I haven't been to one in some time. The questions are average trivia fare. Nothing significantly harder than average, and a few things a bit easier. The difficulty is raised a bit on the bonus round, and they throw out some tough ones. At least they don't do the horrible "Did you read today's Province?" round.

The music round strikes me as generous, since you get the point if you can name the artist OR the song. I'm a little trained to it being a point for each, I guess.

The atmosphere is nice, the place is pretty cavernous and was not particularly full when I was there - there were probably 10 teams playing, but this place could hold about twice that easily. TVs ring the walls, so chances are that if you are looking for a game to watch, it will be on. I'm not sure what their Canucks game protocol is. If I had to wager, I'd say it falls in favour of the boys in blue. The quiz is marked by the two presenters, and they do an efficient job of it. The whole quiz took a little under two hours, breaks and announcing winners included.

In the end? It is very similar to a quiz at a Donnelly bar, but in a more enjoyable setting.

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. 

Potpourri for $800, Alex

Some news on general pub quiz going-ons:

• 131 Water has reduced their "5-week cycle" to a "3-week cycle." That means you've got a chance to win a $100 gift certificate in just 60% of the time. Last few weeks has had decent crowds, too. Food hasn't got any better.
• Speaking of 131 Water, it looks like they'll be hosting a New Year's Eve party with Trivia. It is $40 bucks a person, but that also gets you some champagne and a DJ afterwards, if that's what you want. no word on if they'll have quiz again the next night
• Last ANZA club quiz of the year runs tomorrow night. You should go - it is probably the best quiz in town. 
• It sounds like there is now a Quiz Night at Ivory Tavern, downtown. I think it runs on Thursdays, though.
• At some point Briefed.ca put out a list of the best quiz nights Vancouver, for each day of the week. I agree with Monday and Thursdays, but greatly prefer Relish on Tuesdays, and slightly prefer The Fray on Wednesdays. 
• I also haven't been paying attention to Moose's Down Under, which has a quiz on Wednesday. Guess I'll have to pay it a visit!

The Cheshire Cheese

Where: The Cheshire Cheese Inn. Located at 4585 Dunbar Street

When: 8PM Tuesday, Weekly

Web Presence:  None for the quiz itself.

Registration Fee: Nope

Team Info: No team size limit that I could see.But then again, I didn't see any 9 person megateams either, so maybe there is an enforced limit that everyone already knew about and therefore no one even bothered to say it, as it was a deeply ingrained cultural thing.

Prizes: Distributed "key" style, except that instead of keys, you get slices of cheese at the end of each round (3 to 1st for the round, 2 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd). At the end, they draw the slice of cheese, and the winner gets a gift card, redeemable on some other night.

Format: 3 Rounds, 12 questions per round.There was one bonus "lightning round" where you could win extra "slices" of "cheese."

Food and Drink: Pub food, doing their best to keep the English tradition alive. I've never eaten here, so I can't comment beyond what it looked like.

This quiz is all the way out in the barren wastelands near Dunbar and 30th, which really isn't that hard to get to, but also isn't near much of note. You can also take this review with a grain of salt, because I've only been here once. The place is a nice community pub, and seemed to be full of regular patrons. The crowd was significantly older than you'd find at most of the other quiz nights, which suits the area it is located in just fine.

Each round is scored separately, and there is no announcement of which team won it all at the end, but the top scoring teams in each round are always called out. The questions? Well, to put it cordially, they seemed primed to keep everyone within a reasonable score tolerance of one another. There were a lot of incredibly easy non-questions (Detective with a pipe and deerstalker! Tallest mountain on Earth! Your name!), mixed in with multiple choice and true/false questions. There were a lot of questions that fell into the standard trivia categories, like definitions of funny sounding words, and word roots. The bonus round - Name the 7 Big 4 sports teams named after cats - was a lot of fun, though. The quiz finished promptly at around 10 PM.

Yet again, the quizmaster insists on marking all the quizzes himself. Ugh.

The Coles Notes? Fun enough, fairly quick, friendly atmosphere. But pretty easy. If you want a quiz where you are rewarded for knowing tough things as opposed to being punished for missing easy things, this may not be the quiz for you.

The Fray

Well, It looks like the Fray is closed now, so this trivia night probably doesn't exist anymore. If you've lost your weekly quiz, you have my condolences, and feel free to checkout Vancouver's other Wednesday options. Debbie, the quizmistress, has set up residence at the Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood Pub, down the street on Kingsway. That should hopefully fill that East Van Quiz-shaped hole in your Wednesday nights.

Where: The Fray. Located at 3980 Fraser St (at 24th)

When: 8:30PM Tuesday, Weekly. I'd show up before 7:40, but it doesn't truly fill up until game time

Web Presence: None for the quiz, alas

Registration Fee: Nope.

Team Info: No team size limit, so bring as many as you want

Prizes: Distributed as at the Cove: Win keys, hope the number on your key is drawn. Winner of the draw gets a $50 gift certificate. Most points gets to write a question for the next week's quiz, and a pitcher of beer.

Format: 3 Rounds, 15 questions per round. A music question after every round. The music question is worth a lot of points

Food and Drink: Pretty good, in the 12-20 dollar range for a dinner. Drink specials which are not all that cheap, but at least they are better than nothing. All the food is local, which is a nice touch.

This quiz is run by the lady who does the Cove, and as far as I know, it's the first quiz on Fraser, which is nice if you are in the area. Do you want the a quiz that is similar to the Cove quiz without having to go the fucking Kits? Well, now you can! The crowd has all the attendant benefits/drawbacks of being closer to main street and further away from UBC.

Every now and then there a contentious question pops up, and you just have to suck it up and admit that you're wrong, and the nice lady is right. After all, that is only good trivia manners. Conversely, why do some quizzes insist on having one person mark all the papers? I don't get it, it takes a long time to do, AND is less fun. Since you read out the answers anyways, so you may as well put the kids to work marking each others' papers. Also, the 3 'name that tune' questions are worth 6 points each, which is bordering on absurd. If you happen to know the name and artist of 3 songs, then congratulations! you just got the equivalent of a perfect round and then some on top of your score!

There is a full score rundown after each round, so you usually know exactly where you stand. There seem to be 2 or 3 regular teams who always show up and do quite well. The quiz takes about 2 hours and change, so expect all to be said and done at about 10:15, which is about the average for a quiz that starts at 8. There are minigames to win free pitchers, and usually drinks get handed out for general spirit. Don't be too boisterous, or you may end up being awarded shots, though.

Can you say it in less words? Sure! Head on down, it is pretty good, even with the undue weight on the music questions. Wednesday night is shaping up to have some good options for trivia nights.

Cascade Room Trivia On Hiatus

The summer downtime in quizzes is here, and with that, the Cascade Room will be taking more than a monthlong break, until mid-September. I can't give you the exact date that it will be back, but I'll try and let you know. Until then, go to the Cascade for some mixed drinks or frosty pints, but not for quiz.