TRIVIA lovers and geeks at heart came in droves to Loreto’s Bar and Grill at Tomas Saco Street last Wednesday, December 9, 2015, for the weekly Geek Wars competition. It was a full house that night with twenty-two teams occupying the entire second floor of the said establishment.
“Officially, Geek Wars started in January 2014,” said Jones Villanueva, a founding member of the said event.
The group is composed of friends Lawrence Que, Anthony Tisara, husband and wife Wabin and Maia Poblete, Shor Macalbe, Jones and his wife Amor, among others. Most of them were part of Kili Elites, one of the teams that dominated the discontinued regular trivia nights at an artisanal breadshop in Limketkai.
The group first held a trivia night competition in partnership with the organization JCI Kagayhaan Gold as a fund raising event for the victims of typhoon Yolanda in December of 2013. Seeing the overwhelming clamor for more such events, the group decided to officially create what Geek Wars is now known as. “There was a hole as far as trivia night events are concerned in Cagayan de Oro. There no longer was a trivia night event anywhere and we know very well that there are so many teams in CdeO who want events like this. So we decided, why not give them what they want?”
The Geek Wars started July 15, 2015 in its current home at Loreto’s. The ‘wars’ is on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM where twenty to twenty-six teams participate on a regular basis. It is, however, open to walk-ins and anybody who just happen to be there at the opportune time.
“Some of the team started as walk-ins. They just happen to be here at the right time tapos they enjoyed the categories that night so the following week, they come back here and made their own team,” added Amor.
The event is much awaited by the ‘trivia’ community which typically means a jam-packed venue. “Heavy down pour, exam week, holidays, they all still come here,” said Jones. Those who are interested to combat other trivia buffs are encouraged to come early.
The Geek Wars is divided into three main categories: the Words category, fondly called the boring category by the regular participants, where each team try to answer correctly the questions asked; the Visuals where participants are shown pictures which will be the basis for their answers; and, the Audio category where the teams answer based on the audio recordings played.
Each main category is then subdivided into specific trivia categories. That night, Words had trivia questions coming from the categories current events, dinosaur names, the number zero, and middle initials. Visuals had players guessing the UFC legend, the visual artist who painted the painting, and the TV series by Christmas special being shown on the white screen.
Audio was loads of fun as the competitors listened to clips from Nicholas Sparks films and songs that had a day in the week in its title. According to the organizers, the highest score a team may get is 76 points. However, since the inception of Geek Wars, no one has yet to get a perfect score.
Despite the fierce competition, participants were having loads of fun and were very supportive of each other and the other teams as well. Applause went up the room each time a team gets the answer right and even louder cheers each time nobody answers correctly.
“It’s nice clean fun,” said Amor, “We get our high when people get very excited, when we see their faces that they’re very elated and excited to answer the questions, na kabalo sila na maka tubag sila, that’s really something for us.”
“After a very long work day, pag abot namo diri, murag bitaw mawala ang tanan, na nakita namo sila, na daghan tao, na bibo kaayo. So it’s also like a break, nahimo siyang stress reliever also,” added Maia.
The night’s winners were the Pabobo Boyz who edged out two of Geek Wars more competitive teams, Y Khurat! who placed second and Fuzzy Virtue who placed third. Teams received Loreto’s GCs and other freebies.
“It’s our first time to actually win first place so it’s kind of very special,” said Tristan Roño of Pabobo Boyz, “It feels surreal right now.”
Joining since the first Geek Wars in Loreto’s, the team is composed of male friends and their girlfriends, hence the team name. The team shared that the weirdest category they encountered was the one about female underwear, “It was awkward but we learned new things like the C-string, that was the first time we saw a C-string.”
Fuzzy Virtue on the other hand is composed of twelve friends who make it a point to really join each Geek Wars event.
“We make it a point to make ourselves available,” said Jun Daumar, whose team is proud to say that they’re a bit nerdy, “It’s really fun and we get to laugh at ourselves if we don’t get anything right.”
“There’s something really exciting about finding out the questions that we already know the answers to,” added Shane Tagupa. They are one of a few teams participating since the now defunct trivia nights in Limketkai.
Family and friends compose the team Y Khurat! who have been monthly winners for three months straight, from August to October. “It’s our pastime,” said Junel Ares, “The goal isn’t necessarily to win but to have fun, winning is secondary.”
Kale Ramos added, “The feeling of being founts of useless trivia can be realized here. Some of us know things that would not be useful in the real world but here we get recognized for it, and it’s a great feeling.”
Team Tsong, relatively newbies to the wars, have been participating for two months only. “We were passing by here and we saw the banner,” said Nice Importante.
“It’s not something you see every day. It’s that one day a week where you can just really geek out and do stuff and share info that most people don’t know on a daily basis.” The team has not yet won a war but said that they’re getting there, “The competition is really overwhelming sometimes, kung battlefields pa ni, nagdugo-dugo na mi taman. But it’s really fun. It’s that one time where you can just really have fun with no hesitation, no bars, no judgment from others.”
Geek Wars also accepts gigs for companies and organizations. They’ve done several trivia style parties with Misamis Oriental Medical Society, the CDO-ICT Council, VEST, and was even a part of the first ever CDO Toy Show last November 14 and 15, 2015.