Trivia is a pretty meaningful subject to a lot of people in Butler County. Why else would they venture out of their homes on a dark January weeknight to test their knowledge of flags of the world or 1980s sitcom stars against a roomful of competitors?

But they’ve been doing it since 2014 when Craig Lawrence of Renfrew bought the Butler County affiliate of DJ Trivia and started posing questions to bar and restaurant patrons.

Lawrence, a wedding reception DJ and the owner of Red Hot Chameleon Entertainment, said he first encountered the national DJ Trivia company while on an industry cruise.

“One of those companies was DJ Trivia, which sparked my interest,” Lawrence said. After he and his wife were partnered with the DJ Trivia representative at their dinner table aboard the ship, Lawrence learned more and eventually bought an affiliate that includes all of Butler County.

Then all he had to do was convince the owners of bars and restaurants to allow him to host a trivia night in their establishments.

“I started cold-calling businesses. You have to remember, this was in 2014, the only thing in bars was karaoke and Texas Hold ’em. It took a few months to get the venture up and running,” he said. “But then we got one, and then another one and then another one.”

Today, DJ Trivia is played in 27 locations in the county under the guidance of 20 hosts.

DJ Trivia consists for four rounds of four questions each, plus a “double down dare” optional question at the end of each round, which can either double a team’s score or erase the points the team had acquired in that round. At the end of the game, there is a “do-or-die dare” question, which, if answered correctly, can double the team’s total score. If answered incorrectly, it drops the team’s score for the night to zero.

Team points are accumulated each week during a 20-week season leading to a playoff round and then a championship.

On a recent Monday night, trivia host Matt Gray was setting up at Butler Brew Works, 101 S. Main St., which has been hosting Monday night trivia competition since 2020.

Gray has been a trivia host for 5½ years. In addition, he compiles the list of the songs that play between questions and is the unofficial manager for Lawrence, who spends the winter months in Port Richey, Fla.

“I played for a couple of years. I started in 2014 and then moved into hosting,” Gray said. He hosts two trivia competitions a week and substitutes when hosts are unavailable. He said that is about a much as he can handle, as well as work his day job in software.

“It’s the most fun thing I’ve done professionally,” Gray said. “I love this job so much — I wish I loved my day job as much.”

Gray said a lot of factors go into creating a successful trivia night, including the physical space and how supportive the establishment’s management is to the players and the host’s banter with the players.

But perhaps the camaraderie and good-natured competition, as well as league standings, keep people coming back.

“The amazing thing about DJ Trivia is that it’s so different from other trivia experiences. You are with your friends, sitting around a table, not just answering into a phone. You are up and socializing. You get to know other people,” he said.

Lawrence also credits the scoring system for keeping people coming back.

“Even if you have 10 teams playing and you are in eighth place you still have a chance to get back on top with the ‘double down’ and the ‘do-or-die’ dares. There is never giving up in this game,” he said. “People aren’t saying, ‘We are never getting back in this game, let’s get out of here.’”

The questions that appear on the screen are generated by DJ Trivia corporate, the music between questions, which can be a either be a clue to the correct answer or a misdirect to the wrong one, are created by Gray.

On this night, longtime players Brian and Amber Miller and their sons, Camden, 22, and Chandler, 20, were getting ready to go into battle as the Food Fighters.

“’Food Fighters,’ my daughter came up with it. It’s a play on the rock band, the Foo Fighters,” said Brian Miller.

Amber Miller said the family started competing in trivia at another venue before moving to Butler Brew Works about two years ago.

She said, “This is more convenient. We also kind of float around the week to other places.”

“We play once, maybe twice a week,” said her husband. “We’ve made it to the playoffs more than once.”

Amber Miller said the all-family nature of the Food Fighters makes the game into a family outing with a chance to spend quality time with their sons, but it also offers them a competitive advantage.

“It’s better to have a variety of age groups on the team for the questions,” she said. “Everybody has their specialty.”

“I think history is my best subject,” Chandler Miller said. His father said he usually tackles the sports and history questions.

Amber Miller said she feels her expertise lies in music — “more of the older stuff, but some of the current stuff, as well.” Camden lists science and, more recently, flags as his areas of expertise.

What’s his most disliked subject? Camden Miller said, “I can’t do pictures of celebrities.” This is a category where, instead of a question, a picture of a person appears on the screen, and the players are asked to identify the person.

“I don’t like flags. She’s getting better at it, but I don’t like flags,” said Brian Miller of the category where teams are asked to correctly identify the nation whose flag is displayed on the screen.

Across the room Mike and Melissa Vinton and their daughter, Libby Kline, of Prospect, were preparing to do battle. Their mildly risqué team name came from a hit cable series of the recent past.

“It’s from ‘Game of Thrones.’ We really loved that show, when it came out,” said Mike Vinton.

The trio had been playing since 2015 at several different venues before turning up on Mondays at the Main Street brew pub.

The Vintons take the game seriously enough to study up on subjects, such as state capitals and the periodic table, all the better to best their foes, but they admit they have some blind spots.

Kline said, “Once in a while you get a math question. They are the worst.

“I don’t know anything about sports,” she admitted. “I’ve never even seen sports in my life.”

“None of us are really sports people,” Mike Vinton said. “We’re all general trivia experts, but we do know pop culture.”

But it’s not solely about the competition for these combatants.

“Sometimes we play with friends, their girlfriends, whoever can make it,” Amber Miller said.

She said, “This is a great time for the family to get together. Nobody has their phones out. It’s a great opportunity to just spend some time with one another, have fun and eat a good meal.”

A fun night out for the family is exactly what the parent company had in mind, Lawrence said.

“They were very adamant about nothing being vulgar,” he said, “There are no off-color questions. All of our questions are very family-oriented.”

The feel-good atmosphere seems to extend to the employees.

Heather Rozic, a bartender at Butler Brew Works, between running orders to players before the start of the game, said Monday nights were her favorites.

“Mondays are my favorite days to work. I have fun trying to guess the answers,” Rozic said.