Image credit: Friend & Fort
Trivia in the Twin Cities is about to get even better: Two revered institutions, Trivia Mafia and "The Initials Game," are joining forces to launch a brand-new live trivia game to play at the metro’s bars, restaurants, and breweries.
It's called The Initials Game Live, and it officially kicks off Thursday, August 1, at Falling Knife Brewing Co. in Northeast Minneapolis.
The Initials Game Live is based on the infectious trivia game created by KFAN morning radio host Cory Cove, made famous on “The Power Trip” morning show. Since its debut on KFAN in 2014, the Initials Game has grown into one of the country’s top weekly radio trivia games, with tens of thousands of listeners tuning in every Friday morning. In 2020, a play-at-home version was released following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Now, with the help of Trivia Mafia, The Initials Game is coming to a bar or taproom near you.
Cove is thrilled that the game he originally invented for smaller groups of players will now be playable on a larger scale. This is possible thanks to a web app developed by Trivia Mafia, which players can use on their phones to submit their answers.
“This is going to give fans who listen every Friday morning a chance to feel what it’s like to get in there and compete against other really good Initials players,” he says. “It’s the next logical step in the evolution of Initials and I could not be more pumped about this.”
How do you play The Initials Game Live?
As with typical bar trivia, The Initials Game Live tests players’ knowledge of trivial facts over a wide array of subjects, from pop culture to geography to history, and rewards them with prizes (usually free beer). Unlike typical bar trivia, this game rewards speed and quick-thinking. Players are given a two-letter set of initials (hence the name of the game), followed by six clues steering them toward an answer with those initials.
Once a player thinks they know the answer, they submit it using the Initials Game Live app, similar to how answers are submitted at Trivia Mafia’s regular trivia nights.
“This is going to give fans who listen every Friday morning a chance to feel what it’s like to get in there and compete against other really good Initials players. I could not be more pumped. ”
“Trivia Mafia is the biggest name in bar trivia here in the upper Midwest, and this is an awesome opportunity to give our trivia fans a fun new game to play,” says Trivia Mafia co-founder and co-owner Chuck Terhark. “Bar trivia players will love it. And fans of the original Initials Game on the radio are going to love it too. It’s super fun.”
The Initials Game Live will debut at Falling Knife Brewing Co. in Northeast Minneapolis on August 1, and will run weekly on Thursdays at 7:30. Trivia Mafia has run weekly trivia at Falling Knife every Wednesday for years and is thrilled to be able to add another great weekly event to the brewery’s calendar.
“We were excited to see an immediate reaction amongst our guests to the game, even in its beta,” said Dan Herman, Chief Revenue Officer at Falling Knife Brewing Co. “Within a couple of weeks we had people coming out to the taproom specifically for the Initials Game and bringing their friends!”
“We've been looking for an event to bring people in on Thursdays that creates excitement, but doesn't suck all the air out of the room if someone is here just to enjoy our beer,” said Herman. “Based on the test run, we believe we've found that event to bring returnable business to our taproom.”
Following the launch at Falling Knife, Trivia Mafia plans to expand The Initials Game Live to venues throughout the Twin Cities and beyond. For more information about The Initials Game Live, visit initialsgamelive.com. For more information about the other awesome events Trivia Mafia runs, visit triviamafia.com. And for more info about how The Initials Game started and where to buy the board game, go to initialsgame.com.
What’s it like to play The Initials Game Live?
Here’s a sample round. In the live game, these would be revealed one at a time. The sooner you come up with the correct answer, the more points you get! Let’s see how you do:
Initials: TM
It may go back and forth.
Apple operating system backup mechanism.
Popularized by H.G. Wells.
Seen in “Napoleon Dynamite.”
It may be a hot tub.
It may be a DeLorean.
Scroll down for the answer…
If you answered “Time Machine,” great job! You’re an Initials pro. See you Thursday, Aug 1 at Falling Knife!
