Inside The KVSC Trivia Marathon: A Team's Decade Of Fun And Growth

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- A trivia team that started out small has stayed that way for over a decade and continues to play for the love of the game. The team, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand, started in 2013 as two college friends who thought KVSC’s Annual Trivia Marathon would be fun to try.

PHOTO courtesy of Natalie Motl

What keeps the team going after more than 10 years?

Thirteen years later, the team is only five members. Captain Natalie Motl says they had no idea what they were doing the first few years:

"We would keep score in a notebook, like I was thinking about that recently (laughs), and thinking we obviously were using computers, I don't know why we weren't typing the questions, so yeah, it was a pretty sad first year. We were writing questions down, we didn't really know any of the tricks of how to find answers, or how to use Google efficiently, so we were a hot mess."

Motl says they are small but mighty, and the thrill of the chase is what keeps them coming back.

PHOTO courtesy of Natalie Motl

It is hard to explain to people exactly what the trivia marathon is.

Motl says it is hard to explain to people the uniqueness and joy of playing in the trivia contest:

"You have a lot of funny moments where you're just guessing random things, the interactions with the phone bank are really fun, and just all the things you have going on in your life and going on in the world and every weekend or every year you get to come back together for this one weekend and have a very bizaar but very fun time together."

Motl says nothing beats the exhilaration of finding an answer when all hope is lost, and they think there is no way they will find it, and then there it is. KVSC’s 47^th Annual Trivia Marathon takes place from February 13^th through the 15^th, and costs $60 to play. Teams have until 3:00 p.m. on the 13^th to register for the contest, with it starting at 5:00 p.m.

PHOTO courtesy of Natalie Motl