There’s Drama Afoot As HQ Trivia Denies A $25K Win Over Cheating Allegations

If you’re not already addicted to the infuriatingly good but fundamentally terrible HQ Trivia app, now might be a good time to start because there’s DRAMA goin’ down.

The app, for those not in the know, presents live trivia contests twice a day in which literal millions of people battle it out, with the bare handful who correctly answer 12 questions in a row rewarded with princely sums of money that often soar as high as $9.53.

Ordinarily, the game offers contestants a chance to score a slice of a kitty worth $5,000, with however many people standing after the always brutal Q12 left to split the prize pool evenly.

Recently, however, the app has been trialling a new game type: Once a week they’ll ask questions battle royal-style until one single, solitary contestant remains, with that one lucky person taking home a whopping $25,000.

The first time they tried it, the $25K was won by a 25-year-old teacher reportedly playing while sitting on the toilet, who answered 18 questions correctly to take out the big prize.

This week, however, something far fishier went down.

The game quickly whittled away contestants as it tends to do, but in this case it extended far beyond the teens, getting right up to Question 26 which eliminated all-but two.

People playing along had begun suspecting something a bit iffy was going on – that amount of questions in a row should’ve brought even the most seasoned of quiz pro’s well and truly undone – and evidently HQ staff thought the same.

The 27th question was left up to two users: Jeric and Kayla. Kayla got the question wrong, but Jeric was summarily booted from the game for “inappropriate conduct,” leaving the game with no winner.

In other words, Jeric was booted for cheating. You can see how it went down in the video below.

https://youtu.be/JejsLN32S_E?t=23m43s

HQ confirmed, in a roundabout way, the booting in a tweet after the game reminding people of its Terms and Services.

The app has been plagued by user-initiated bots, which aims to field the trivia questions and aid the player in spitting out answers; a method that HQ considers to be cheating, as opposed to talking it out with friends or quickly Googling answers, which it is ok with.

Jeric, as it turns out, has boasted about bot usage in the past on his now-locked Twitter feed. And both Jeric and Kayla were seemingly active in a Discord chat with an active HQ bot, in which Kayla was acting as a runner or insurer; i.e. using the bot until only two remained, and immediately dropping out afterwards to guarantee victory.

As accurate as bots are, however, the most efficient manner of “hacking” HQ is seemingly conference-style voice chats among trivia app hacking communities, where members collaborate and talk out right answers; decidedly more of a grey area.

Regardless, the battle royal winner-take-all jackpot now hits $50,000 next week (Monday at midday, Australian time). So if you fancy yourself a brain genius, now might be the time to start logging on.


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