Trivia Smackdown - What, When and How?

Trivia Smackdown is a weekly live trivia game that occurs each Wednesday night at Auntie Maes.  The game will start shortly after 8 pm but it is highly recommended you get there earlier to gurantee you get a table.  A maximum of 11 teams are allowed to play each week.  Cost is $5 per person playing and cash prizes are then given to first and second place and a $25 Auntie Maes gift certificate for third place.

Rules of the game: The game consists of two halves of play and then a final smackdown question.  Each half consists of 4 questions per team.  Each team has seven categories of which to choose a category.  If the team answers their question correctly, they receive 100 points and the game moves on to the next team.  If they get it wrong however, every other team has a chance to steal 50 points by writing the correct answer on their white dry erase board.  Now for the interesting twist, each team is allowed one smack per half where they can give their question to another team in hopes that team cannot answer the question correctly.  If they miss it, the team smacking recieves 200 points.  If the smacked team answers the question correctly (Thwarts the smack) then, they recieve 100 points. To be fair to a team that may not be performing very well, a team may only be smacked a total of three times per half of play.   So good strategy is a key characteristic of a fine Trivia Smackdown player.  For the second half, we double all the points and each team has one smack to once again use.  For final smackdown, a category is shown on the board.  Each team will turn in their final bet basing their bet on what they perceive the ability of their team to answer the question correctly is as well as the amount of points competing teams have at the time.  Then the final question is posted, each team has a couple minutes to quietly discuss their answer and then turn it in to the front.  Everyone's answer and bet is read aloud and that week's trivia smackdown champion is crowned!!!

I will try to post occasional thoughts about each week's game and a few questions just to wet your brain's appetite.  Stay tuned!