Trivia Night is an enormous success

Cole+Mason%2C+Zara+Alkaff%2C+Kailey+Diaz%2C+James+Zheng%2C+and+Josh+Lee+of+The+Underachievers+pose+for+a+picture.+Photo+Credit%3A+Karen+Manley

Cole Mason, Zara Alkaff, Kailey Diaz, James Zheng, and Josh Lee of “The Underachievers” pose for a picture. Photo Credit: Karen Manley

Karen Manley

Fossil Ridge High School’s first annual Trivia Night was held on Friday, November 10 in the media center. The cost to compete was $10, and all proceeds went to hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. Students were asked a variety of questions from five categories: sports, science, music, movies, and history. Following this Jeopardy style competition, the four teams with the highest scores were selected for sudden-death bracket play.

Before the competition began, many teams were feeling very unsure of themselves. Junior, Alli Konstantinov complained, “There’s a lot of smart people that purposely got together.” Meanwhile, sophomore Charlie Tychsen said, “as long as we don’t get last, that’s our main goal.” Many teams were intimidated by Ryan Yu and the other Knowledge Bowl students who participated.

After winning both “movies” and “science,” senior team “Jayz in da Hood”, who wore pictures of Fossil student Jay Chandra on their shirts, were widely expected to be the winners, their first seed position locked. However, they were destroyed by the number four seed in the first bracket buzzer round and were filled with a need for revenge.

In the second v. third seed buzzer round, the number three team, “Dane and the Pain Train,” came out victorious over number two, “Flat Earth Scientist.” This left Dane and his Pain Train to compete against “The Underachievers,” who were ironically decked out in their best nerd gear.

The vengeance-hungry seniors of  “Jayz in da Hood” strongly opposed an “Underachievers” win, and were in strong favor of “Dane and the Pain Train.” Ainsley Lotito, however, was a fan of everyone, chiming in with load cheers and breaking the competitive tension.

The final round consisted of high stakes and panicked faces. After a strong lead, held by “Dane and the Pain Train,” “The Underachievers” made a comeback. It went back and forth until, in response to the final question, James Zheng of “The Underachievers” uttered two words to solidify his team’s win: “The Illuminati.”

Academic Council’s committee head for the event, Dylan Ellis was thoroughly impressed with the success of the event. “I think it went really well. The crowd was very interactive and they seemed very excited…people enjoyed what we had for them,” he said. Academic Council plans to make Trivia Night an annual event.