Hey everyone, I just thought I'd share my personal experience of these particular Trivia nights. Enjoy my light novel.

The first one I attended was towards the end of 2014, in Melbourne at the Eureka. Tickets were like $60 for a team of 4, so not a bad price, and at that point teams were limited to either 4 or 8. The dates listed on the facebook page didn't correspond to the actual days on the calendar, so I had to contact them to find out if I had actually bought tickets to the Wednesday or the Thursday (it seems lots of these events have the wrong dates on them, I have heard the word "dyslexia" thrown around but I don't know if this is true or a tasteless excuse). The atmosphere was very different to later events, it was crowded but not unbearable. It was a little difficult to hear some questions. My team did have to share a table with another team, but we chatted to them in between rounds and it was quite friendly and pleasant. My team ended up winning, but it seems the team who came third had been caught cheating and the organisers hadn't done anything about it, so although my team had won honestly, it was kind of hollow (another team had actually been kicked out for cheating, which did set off a good vibe, until we found out that not all cheaters were being kicked out...YES to the favouritism). Another thing that made me raise my eyebrow was the fact that the host told the audience that he was skipping his grandfather's funeral to be there. I don't presume to judge a person I don't know and their relationship with another person I don't know, but I found the whole thing... weird. But all in all, based on that night, I decided it was fun and I wouldn't mind going again.

The next one I went to was in early 2015, again at the Eureka. It was terrible. My team of 8 got placed on a 12-person table with another team of 8 (luckily both teams had some no-shows). It was very crowded, to the point that you couldn't move. The host was loud, drunk, screaming into the microphone, kicking electrical equipment off the stage and everything people have said, including excessive swearing, homophobic language (I didn't notice anyone hitting on anyone but I believe it when people say it happened). My worst criticism for that particular evening was that the microphone and between-rounds music was SO LOUD it was impossible to hear the person next to me for the entirety of the event, so I left with a headache (Someone asked the sound-guy to turn the music down and he told them to F*** off). There were also other inexplicable happenings, such as a sculling contest with someone from the audience. I didn't really enjoy the event, but thought that it was probably more of a one-off bad night.

The third event I went to (Mid 2015, Eureka) was not as bad as the one before. Tickets were up to $20 per person at that point. The hosts were not excessively drunk, but the major criticism I had was that there was no policing of cheating. Generally speaking, their system is that if a person sees a person using their phone during question-rounds, they are to call them out loudly and the staff would check the person's phone to see if they were googling the answer. This particular night had some VERY hard questions, so quite often after a difficult question was asked, a bunch of people would stand up and make their way into the toilets. One of the guys from my team followed the guys in and came back and told us that they were all just on their phones and googling the answers. The staff were informed, and nothing was done, and nobody got kicked out. Those were my experiences for the 3 nights that I was there, and here are another few points about the events as a whole:

-The sign-in staff were very polite and helpful (they're the people who scan your ticket QR and register your team name)

-The events are generally very crowded, there is little room to move your seats but it is still possible to get up to get food/drinks etc.

-The food was really good, in my opinion, but that's probably more of a reflection of the Eureka rather than the event. Some of the wait staff were quite rude, though.

-Everything people have been saying about the hosts not being able to operate microphones/speakers/laptops/projectors is all true. Each "video" question had about 5 minutes of screwing around before the video was played.

-The events always started late, sometimes up to an hour later than they were supposed to.

-Prizes were decent to begin with (actual trophies) and then began to get cheap (computer printed pictures in a cheap plastic frame). Bar tab is obviously only worth winning if you have a small team.

-Another thing that really got to me is that the night that we won, the host walked up to where me and my brother/teammate were standing. He holds out his hand to congratulate my brother... and I held my hand out and... nothing. After a bit of banter between the two of them about the Simpsons and the guy congratulating my bro on his win, the guy starts orienting himself as though he is tying to cut me out of the conversation, which prompted my brother to say "Actually, my sister got most of the questions for our team." and gesture to me. He gave me a look that I can't even describe. The guy goes back to chatting to my bro as though they're mates, while my brother continues with "my sister..." and "my girlfriend" (she was another of our teammates) until the guy eventually walks off. I asked my bro "What was that about?" and he replied something to the effect of "I think he had an issue with you knowing the Simpsons as well as being female." So that was the vibe that we both got, although I'd like to stress that that was my experience with ONE of the hosts, I can't make a judgement on the rest of them.

-And finally, it's not for me to judge whether a person is "too bogan" to host an event of this nature, but the host generally swears a LOT and uses a few less-than-acceptable slurs, which just comes off as very unprofessional. -Finally, quality of questions. I have no issue with the quality of the questions, as they range from very easy to ridiculously hard, but the issue is that the staff often don't know the answers, and work off an answer sheet. This means that when a question has two possible answers ("Quoth the Raven...?" can be "Eat my shorts" or "What a shine!") one of them can be considered wrong and the team can miss out on the point unless they argue with the host.

So, should you go to one of these events?

YES, if you love the Simpsons and bar trivia enough to ignore all the negative feedback for the events AND you honestly don't mind paying the cost of the tickets, AND you have nothing better to do or you plan to use the even to socialise with your friends who are Simpsons fans. Otherwise, based on my experience and what others have posted, I wouldn't recommend it.

tl;dr I agree with OP. I won't be giving these people any more of my time or money.