CALEB NICKERSON
SHAWVILLE May 6, 2020
A local trivia connoisseur has launched a weekly virtual competition with her teenage daughter to keep their friends and neighbours amused during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.
Amy Taylor has several years experience both hosting and participating in trivia competitions and with many people turning to virtual activities to keep in touch with the outside world, the process was pretty straightforward.
“I thought, I can do this, it’s just basically what I was doing before, just online,” she said. “I recruited Syd because … some of the homeschooling stuff isn’t that exciting, so for her to research and come up with questions it’s more exciting than schooling. So we saw this as … a homework assignment.”
Taylor said that her daughter does research, comes up with topics and also helps her host the events, which are done through a private Facebook group every Wednesday at 8 p.m. Despite a spotty internet connection, the nights are seeing some lively competition.
“We just started this up and it took off, because all of our friends are into this too,” she said. “We’re averaging between 20 and 50 people signing in.”
Taylor also competes in two other online trivia leagues, and said that the Pontiac crowd has remained pretty tame in comparison.
“They’re not chirping* each other the way I thought that they would,” she said. “The league in Stittsville that I play in is all friends, and everyone knows each other … I don’t know why my people aren’t chirping as much … Everyone is having fun and people send me their scores privately so no one really knows who’s ahead. I post the top five every week and I keep a running tab.”
(*Editor’s note: Chirping is a colloquial term for good-natured banter or trash talk.)
Taylor said that many families that aren’t locked down together are teaming up for the competition by text or FaceTime. The group is mostly made up of people residing in the Pontiac, but also includes ex-pats and acquaintances from across the country.
She and Sydney have been baking cookies for the weekly winners, which Taylor said is another extra-curricular activity that keeps her engaged at home. Taylor said that the next night’s theme will be based around sci-fi and comic book topics like Star Wars or Marvel superheroes, which is right up Sydney’s alley.
“Syd’s really looking forward to that,” she said. “She’s proud to be a geek and she’s excited for next week”.
