Sports trivia competition concludes tonight

The annual Intramural Sports Trivia Competition concludes tonight, with teams of avid fans battling to prove who really knows the most about sports.\n"This is a really unique sport," said Shauna Robbins, the intramural sports graduate assistant in charge of the competition. "Not many schools have this."\nThe competition started with 25 teams, each with one to four players. The first two rounds of the tournament are conducted on the Internet, where teams are given a certain amount of time to submit the correct answers to a list of questions. These questions come from all areas of sports, and during these rounds, the teams are free to use any resources available to them.\n"The first round is pretty easy, but it gets harder in the next one," said Paul Dayment, a junior participating in the competition for the second time. \nAfter completing the Internet portion of the competition, correct answers are tallied and the highest scoring teams advance to the final two rounds Wednesday at the Student Recreational Sports Center. Teams are given 10 to 15 questions to answer during the third round, and players are not allowed to use any reference other than their minds.\n"This year I think I will use a 'Final Jeopardy' format where the teams are given a few minutes to write out their answers," Robbins said.\nAfter that round, the field is whittled down to six teams and a winner is decided by a final series of questions. \nThe winning team members will each receive a T-shirt as a prize, but these players are really competing for pride and bragging rights.\n"I consider myself above average in terms of sports knowledge," Dayment said, "but it would be nice to be able to say I won this thing."\nJunior Joseph Alexander, who serves as the captain of his team, sees this competition as a challenge just the same as any other sport.\n"I want to test my knowledge of sports against other people to see how I measure up," Alexander said.\nIn addition to giving sports fanatics a chance to demonstrate their knowledge, this event gives more people a chance to participate in intramural sports.\n"It shows that intramurals aren't just for athletes," Robbins said.\nThe final rounds will take place at 7 p.m. tonight in the SRSC Auditorium. Anyone is welcome to attend the event, which typically ends at about 10 p.m.\n"We had a great audience last year," Robbins said. "Eliminated teams and friends of the players usually stick around until the end to see who wins."\n-- Contact staff writer Jacob Surface at lsurface@indiana.edu.