Great Midwest Trivia Contest XLII Press Release
§ Monday, January 22, 2007 @ 8:08 PM
This year’s LU trivia press release was posted on their Web site earlier this evening. As some of you already know, I was interviewed for this year’s press release. Below is that part of the press release which makes mention of our team:
While Bennett was among those who were first-time “trivia converts” last year, Kristopher Koroch found trivia religion accidentally in the mid-1990s. He learned of the contest as a frequent listener to WLFM’s alternative programming while still a high school teenager. It took him another two years to assemble his team, but in 1998, Koroch and his “wide-eyed and ambitious high school friends” launched “Too Much Trivia in the Pants.”
This year’s contest will mark the team’s 10th straight year of participation, with a collection of 15 players converging on an upstairs Appleton apartment from across town as well as from as far away as Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
“The contest has really become a family reunion for us,” said Koroch, the only member of TMTitP who has played all 10 years since the team’s founding. “Everyone makes a point of getting together for this one exact weekend every year.
“We all enjoy the thrill of trying to answer a question in the allotted time and avoiding a dreaded busy signal, but the contest is also about the camaraderie and the relationships we’ve established with some of the other teams. We’ve built some friendly rivalries over the years. I usually meet a few members of other teams for a beer on Friday night before the contest starts.”
Nearly every trivia team has a ritual of some sort and TMTitP is no different. While the exact “why?” remains cloudy, two years ago team members began setting aside at least one hour of the contest to play “pantsless” — nothing below the waist but boxers and socks.
“It’s a sight to behold,” said Koroch, who holds a master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University.
Another TMTitP stable of trivia weekend is at least one round of “40s” — 40-ounce bottles of beer.
While adapting to the changing technological landscape of the contest, Koroch said he’s not interested in turning their team headquarters into a mini NORAD the way some teams have.
“We’ll have five or six computers at our disposal, but we can’t compete with the ‘big boys.’ We just do what we can. Our goal is to have fun. As long as we have fun, we don’t care where we finish.”
This year’s contest will mark the team’s 10th straight year of participation, with a collection of 15 players converging on an upstairs Appleton apartment from across town as well as from as far away as Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
“The contest has really become a family reunion for us,” said Koroch, the only member of TMTitP who has played all 10 years since the team’s founding. “Everyone makes a point of getting together for this one exact weekend every year.
“We all enjoy the thrill of trying to answer a question in the allotted time and avoiding a dreaded busy signal, but the contest is also about the camaraderie and the relationships we’ve established with some of the other teams. We’ve built some friendly rivalries over the years. I usually meet a few members of other teams for a beer on Friday night before the contest starts.”
Nearly every trivia team has a ritual of some sort and TMTitP is no different. While the exact “why?” remains cloudy, two years ago team members began setting aside at least one hour of the contest to play “pantsless” — nothing below the waist but boxers and socks.
“It’s a sight to behold,” said Koroch, who holds a master’s degree in cinema studies from New York University.
Another TMTitP stable of trivia weekend is at least one round of “40s” — 40-ounce bottles of beer.
While adapting to the changing technological landscape of the contest, Koroch said he’s not interested in turning their team headquarters into a mini NORAD the way some teams have.
“We’ll have five or six computers at our disposal, but we can’t compete with the ‘big boys.’ We just do what we can. Our goal is to have fun. As long as we have fun, we don’t care where we finish.”
» Lawrence University: Home of the Lafite-Rothschild of Trivia Contests [Lawrence.edu]