ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The hunt for the elusive third championship keeps one trivia team going strong after three decades. WJON looks at the team Sigma Phi Nothing in part four of our series on KVSC Trivia Teams. Like a lot of teams, Sigma Phi Nothing is comprised of a lot of friends and family members.

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PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing
PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing
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Team Captain Wayne Stark says they have a strong connection to St. Cloud State University with many team members graduating from or having worked at the school. He says it has been fun to see the contest evolve over 38 years:

"I remember about 20 years ago or 25 years ago we had our first computer and we were using Ask Jeeves to try to find some answers to the questions and now it's all digital and online and googling everything so that if we get an answer from a book there's a lot of excitement and we cheer for that because that doesn't really happen anymore."

He says they used to write questions down in a binder and hand tabulate their points so technology is a huge timesaver.

PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
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Sigma Phi Nothing doesn’t take anything to chance though going so far as to have backup internet access and servers to make sure they are always online. Stark says their ability to adapt and work together always pays off and they appreciate the question writers keeping the contest fun.

PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
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PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
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Sigma Phi Nothing won the contest in 1993, and again in 2002 and is consistently in the top 10 every year. Stark says their longevity might be their biggest asset:

"We really work on being collaborative within the team and just trying to brainstorm, I think one of the things that's helped us is our longevity within the contest and so we've gotten to know how the question writers write the questions and sometimes they will give some clues within the question that we try to utilize."

Stark says the team likes to have fun too like with their dance for having a perfect hour. He says the most rewarding questions are the ones that take team members from multiple generations to solve.

PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
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PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
PHOTO courtesy of Wayne Stark/Sigma Phi Nothing.
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KVSC's annual trivia contest takes place from February 14th through the 16th. The theme for 2025 is Trick or Trivia a Hauntingly Good Time. Next up in WJON's series on KVSC trivia teams is Our Se7en Deadly Years of Trivia on Wednesday.  See below for a link to the other teams WJON has looked at so far in our series.

Meyer Meyer Pants On Fire
Digital Dungeon Dwellers (DDD)
House of Insanity

Dan Seeger, KVSC
Dan Seeger, KVSC
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KVSC Radio, St. Cloud State University
KVSC Radio, St. Cloud State University
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Chrissy Gaetke, WJON
Chrissy Gaetke, WJON
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(Chrissy Gaetke, WJON)
(Chrissy Gaetke, WJON)
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