S O B wrote:
Maybe BO will read this and remember when I wandered into the Hofbrau Steakhouse in Addison in 1998 and played solo at the bar while his team shared answers in another room. I apparently played well enough to their standards that I was invited to sit at the table with "The Big Boys" and became a regular Tuesday Night fixture for several months before my job required me to move back to Tampa. I've always remembered the hospitality they offered and tried to emulate it to visitors in my home locations.
Ah yes, good times and good steaks. And the favor was returned when a couple of us at separate times made a visit to Tampa.
When visits are made to other bars all sorts of things can and will happen. Each and every time I've visited a team bar for a premium game I have informed those at the site ahead of time so there are no surprises. And each and every time the visit has gone well. There have been times where I've visited a team bar for the sole purpose of kicking their asses. I'll walk in unannounced, grab a box and start playing. Nothing will be said until they start getting beat. Then, and only then, will they invite me to join them. They don't care about me, they just want to improve their score and not get beat in the process.
Accepting visitors can be a little tricky at times. Sometimes they want to play with your team for the sole purpose of improving their score not caring about the team. These players typically cheer when they take the lead or something meaning that others missed the question. Others get what the deal is but just don't fit in socially with the group, that can be awkward as well. There have been players that walk in and sit near us to hear all the answers and then cheer if they win, those types get chased out quite quickly by those of us who aren't overly nice to this type of thing.
But most of the time, if an out-of-towner is planning on joining us on either Monday or Tuesday they'll let us know and things go well. About the only thing that can go wrong is sandbagging, which happened once. Although one well-known visitor got completely shit-faced and insulted a few of our players during the night, he was in town for many weeks but was smart enough to not return.
It's pretty cool though how trivia players get together and make new friends through BT. Have met some great people through trivia. Off the top of my head have officially hosted players from 10 states and been officially hosted in 12.