Talking Trivia
by Tim Rich
I recently caught up with Mykal Duffy and wanted to pick his brain about Trivia and other topics. He made team of the week in Week 3 of OQLUSA. During the pandemic, I played online trivia with him on a few occasions. Two that stood out were The Big Quiz Thing’s food themed trivia and Andrew’s Bar Exam Music Trivia. Our paths would cross again when both of us left our Regions teams to form a new one called the Delaware River Bridge Trolls.
Rich: When did you first get into trivia as a hobby? Where did you play and what was it like? What are your favorite categories and least favorite categories?
Duffy: Probably my first exposure to trivia was when I was in 2nd grade my school got a TRS-80 and I was chosen to be one of the first students to use it and they had me do a program where I was naming all of the US State Capitals. Maybe 5 years after that, my mom bought Trivial Pursuit and my brother and I would take turns just reading the cards off to each other. Unfortunately, I was never part of the High School or College Academic quiz circuits, so I didn’t really get into trivia until later in my Army career when I started playing NTN (now known as Buzztime) in bars. From there I found a location that was hosting live trivia and it’s just blossomed from there.
I would probably say my favorite categories are History, Soccer, and 80’s pop music. I don’t think I have any least favorite categories, I tend to think of it more as I appreciate a well-crafted question. I really like questions where you may not necessarily know the answer but if you are able to apply other thinking to it, you can come to the answer, which then helps teach you about the original subject of the question. Not like dead giveaway types, but ones that require some lateral thinking.
Rich: Do you still play bar trivia where you live? What is your favorite place?
Duffy: I still play where I’m at, though there isn’t much in terms of nationally branded options. I’ve transitioned over to the hosting side recently and have picked up 2-3 nights per week. Any of the three locations that I host at, Black Star Winery, Mammoth Distilling, and Sparks BBQ are all good choices and have pretty good atmospheres.
Rich: What are the top five trivia highlights of your life?
Duffy: a) Pulling Carlos Vives as a WAG for a question about Encanto in OQL having never seen the movie and just relying on my limited knowledge of Colombian singers from my 2 years spent in Central and South America while in the Army.
b) Having a rolling cash bounty placed on my head that never went claimed playing Geeks Who Drink at Penn Brewery
c) 2nd place finishes at Geek Bowl 2020, and World Tavern Trivia in 2011 & 2012.
d) Winning the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council’s Trivia Bowl in 2013, which resulted in me being asked to appear on Pittsburgh Today Live on TV, my only brush with television when it comes to trivia
e) Winning the 2nd season of the OQL USA Cup with No Sleep Til Pittsburgh
Rich: How did you get into World Tavern Trivia and what was the process you went through to compete for a National Championship in Atlantic City?
Duffy: I don’t quite remember how I got into it exactly, I think I followed their website long before I started playing because the place that they said offered it locally, did not in fact have it. And then one day I saw they were advertising it at a place called Walnut Grill. They had 2 games every Sunday night and the winner of each took home a $50 gift card and second was $35, so I used to win pretty big. Then one day Andrew Thomas showed up and he and I would often trade victories, but when we both qualified for the championship via our league standings, we thought it would make sense if we joined forces and so we did and managed to get 2nd. He wasn’t able to attend the following year, so I got one of my old Buzztime friends to join me and we placed 2nd again. After that the restaurant sadly closed down and no other place in the area was carrying WTT. And that same year WTT started cracking down on ringers, so I wasn’t allowed to join anybody else’s team because you had to be on the roster at some point during the season. It was by far my favorite format for a championship because it was spread over 2 days and combined your scores from 3 games so you weren’t necessarily penalized for not knowing one question.
Tim: How did you first get into OQL and did you ever think online quizzing would be this big?
Duffy: I was on a team for the first edition of the Quizzing World Cup called Victorious Sponge that included OQL USA Commissioner, who extended a personal invitation for me to join. Somehow I ended up chatting about it with my Geek Bowl compatriots Can’t Stop Us Meow and played with them for the first season. I’ve always felt like online quiz had this potential for growth and in fact, if anything, there’s only room for it to get bigger because there’s a huge untapped market in the casual community that just isn’t being courted. If you just think about how many people played HQ, Confetti, and Trivia Crack there’s room for it. I just don’t know what that would look like.
Tim: What was it like at Geek Bowl in 2020 and are there any regrets on questions your team missed?
Duffy: Geek Bowl was absolutely amazing! Can’t Stop Us Meow were wonderful teammates and I was very honored to have been asked to represent them. I don’t think I have any regrets as far as questions go, my regrets center more on not meeting some of the wonderful people that I’ve come to know through the online community who were also there.
Tim: Besides trivia, what are some of your other favorite things?
Duffy: I love watching international sports (Soccer, Cricket, Rugby, etc), playing video games (mostly JRPGs), visiting wineries, and going to see Wolf Alice in concert.
Rich: If you could have dinner and trivia with any five people, dead or alive, who would it be with?
Duffy: Assuming language is not a barrier, and in no particular order: Victoria Coren Mitchell, Ian Curtis, Hypatia, Blaise Pascal, and Anthony Bourdain
Rich: We share a love for Godzilla. What are your top five Godzilla movies of all time and who is your favorite kaiju besides Godzilla?
Duffy:
a) Destroy All Monsters — it’s got so many kaiju in it, including my favorite, Rodan
b) Godzilla Minus One - this was such a fantastic movie and really deserves more love
c) Godzilla King of the Monsters - 2019
d) Godzilla vs Megaguirus
e) Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla
Rich: What are your favorite movies from 2023 ?
Duffy: My favorite movie from last year was Godzilla Minus One. It was such a moving story and did a really good job making the humans into real characters. The ending was a bit too cliche, but I don’t think it detracted from the overall message too much. The other two movies I really liked were Next Goal Wins about the American Samoa football team and their attempts to qualify for the 2014 World Cup and John Wick Chapter 4. I didn’t see as many movies as I would have liked to, but that’s something I plan on doing better this year.
Rich: Thank you for your time, I’m happy that Michigan won the National Title but not sorry the Lions lost because I am a 49ers fan.
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