5 Tips to Surviving a Quiz Night

5 Tips to Surviving a Quiz Night

 

 

 

I love trying new things. From getting a Boyzilian to eating a snake, I rarely say no to new experiences. So when I was asked by my editor to attend a quiz night, I quickly said yes. I’m a huge fan of trivia games and shows, so I thought it was going to be a breeze. The event was Fight Night: Quiz Night + Boodle Fight at PINO Resto Bar. The quiz night’s theme was 90’s. Perfect. I’m a 90’s baby so I was confident my team was going to ace it, maybe even win it. The questions covered everything in 90’s pop culture, including music, movies, TV, fashion, sports, and technology. The teams were named after 90’s pop culture phenomena like Rugrats, The Addams Family, Care Bears, Aqua, O-Town, and Steps.

 

Our team’s name during quiz night

 

All the team names were based on 90’s pop culture phenomena

 

I was dead wrong. My team (S Club 7) scored 41 points, while the winning team, Spice Girls won 60. But hey, it was my first time so it went well. Here are 5 things I learned from my first quiz night:

 

 

That’s me, right before the start of the game. Not pictured is my partner, who ate most of the food (I helped, like a lot)

 

5. Have a strong team

It’s important to have a strong team who’s willing to play. When I played, it was just me and my best friend, but you know what they say, two heads are better than one, but six is awesome. The more people you have in your group, the better chances you have of scoring. It’s a good thing my partner knew the answers to most of the questions (but we missed Diana’s royal title, calling her the Duchess of York).

 

I grew up watching Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan, while my partner watched Gundam, so we had no idea what Sailor Moon says before she transforms

 

4. Have an “expert”

It’s a good idea to have an “expert” on the theme, so that if no one knows the answer, there’s one who can save the team. While my partner and I are 90’s babies, there were things we were not familiar with, like the longest-running number one song in the Billboard Hot 100 (One Sweet Day by Mariah Carey feat. Boyz II Men), or what Sailor Moon says before she transforms (Moon Prism Power, make up!). Just make sure that that expert isn’t a know-it-all who’ll ruin the fun by hogging the whiteboard and answering everything.

 

PINO’s boodle fight setup was the perfect backdrop to a friendly competition

 

3. Make sure the food is good

Part of a great quiz night experience is the food, because it’s what’s going to cheer you up if you lose, and what you will celebrate with when you win. Luckily, Fight Night was held at PINO Resto Bar, a restaurant that serves delicious Filipino food. The food was prepared boodle style (food is laid out on a banana leaf and you eat with your friends) by Chef Dimchee Nunez, and the experience of eating with your hands made the food even tastier, if that’s even possible. For Fight Night, we had kare kareng bagnet, Pino chicken inasal, binusog na pusit with kesong puti, crispy shrimps with salted egg, Isol popcorn, and calamares negra served over pandan rice. The food was actually for six people, but since it was just me and my friend, we lost both the fight and the game. We couldn’t finish the food, but it made a great breakfast the following day.  

 

The strict rules of quiz night. Follow or perish (by point deductions)

 

2. Prepare

Even if quiz night is just a game, it’s still a good idea to prepare. At Fight Night, we were given the chance to study, but my partner and I were so confident (and hungry) that we just ate. You don’t need to prepare slides and reviewers, but just brush up on the theme. Because it was my first quiz night, I didn’t expect dates, missing words in song lyrics, and last names of people who only go by one name. Some of our biggest misses were spelling (we spelled Selena’s last name as Quentanilla instead of Quintanilla) and years (we were off by one year on the date of discovery of Viagra). So when planning to go to a quiz night, make sure to study song lyrics, spellings, and dates. They will surely come up.

 

It was a rowdy evening, especially when everyone correctly answered difficult questions, like the first men’s magazine Tyra Banks’ covered, and the name of the campaign where Kate Moss introduced the waif look (it’s Calvin Klein)

 

1. Have fun

Don’t forget it’s a game so have fun! Even if it was frustrating for a competitive person like me to have lost the game, it was a chance for me to kick back and enjoy the night. It was also nice to look back on the 90’s, which I believe was the best decade to grow up in. We may have lost the battle, but we have not lost the night.

 

The winner of Food Fight: the Spice Girls!

 

Do you have other tips for joining a quiz night? Share them in the comments section below!

 

5 Tips to Surviving a Quiz Night