Rules

You're probably wondering what Brain Brawl is, so allow me to explain. Brain Brawl is a trivia competition at NYU Shanghai where teams of students from all classes compete for honor, glory, and unlimited bragging points! The night will consist of several rounds, each with its own style of question. At the end of the night there will be a Final Showdown between the top two teams to see who is the ultimate Brain Brawler! Here are the rules for each of the different question styles:

  • Guess The Price
    This works a lot like The Price is Right, if you know that game show. An item will be shown and each team will guess how much they think that item cost. The team that is closest (you may "go over", or guess above the price) will win points.

  • Pub Style
    This may seem more like a test, but it's also your best chance to win points. Each team will be given a sheet of paper where they will write down their answer to a series of short questions. Unlike other styles, pub style does not involve shouting answers or being faster than other teams. Instead you will win points solely based on the number of correct answers you write on the sheet of paper.

  • Pass the Bomb
    A representative from each team comes to the front of the room, and one of them starts with a "bomb". A hidden timer is started, and questions are asked quickly. The person with the bomb must answer the question as fast as they can. However, if their first guess is wrong they have missed the question and must answer a new question. If they get the question right they pass the bomb to the next team's representative who answers questions in the same manner. When the secret timer runs out the bomb "explodes", and whichever team was holding it loses points. If you don't know the answer to a question, you can say "pass" and be asked the next question. This does NOT mean you pass the bomb to the next team, it only means you can move onto a new question as though you got the question wrong.

  • Name the Song
    The teams will sit among themselves and a song will be played. If anyone thinks they know the song they may stand up and guess the title of the song. As soon as they stand up the song is paused, and if they are wrong the next person to stand up can answer, otherwise the song resumes. If you answer incorrectly you can not guess again until someone else on your team guesses.

  • Guess the Person
    A series of hints about a famous person will be revealed one at a time, with each hint more useful than the hint before. As each hint is revealed, each team is allowed one guess for that hint. If a team guesses correctly, they get points based on how many hints were NOT revealed (you get more point when you have fewer hints revealed). For example, if you guess correctly on the 6th hint out of 10 total hints, your team would recieve 4 points for the 4 hints that had not been revealed yet.

  • Charades
    A team representative will go to the front of the room and face away from the screen. Then a picture will be shown on the screen and the other team members will try to use gestures or words (English only, and you can not say the answer directly) to show the representative what the picture shows. The first team representative to say the correct answer will win points for their team.

  • FINAL SHOWDOWN
    The questions above will be divide into two sections. You will play most of games in the first section against several other teams. The team with the highest score from each room at the end of the first section will move on to the FINAL SHOWDOWN, where the champion will be decided. Everyone will move to the same room, and the two finalists will play a few more games to gain new points (the points are reset between sections, so both finalists will start with zero points). Then, the points earned in this second section will be converted into a number of seconds, and a final version of Pass the Bomb will be played. However, instead of a hidden timer, the time that each team earned with their score will become a private timer. While one team is being asked questions their timer will be running down, and once they get a question right their timer will pause and the other team's timer will start. The team whose timer runs out first is the losing team, and you'll be able to see those precious seconds slip away! Good luck!

Sign Up

At this point you should be really excited to play so why hesitate? Sign up right now by clicking the button here! If you want to know more about the sign-up questions, here is a breif explaination of each:

  • Which Group Do You Belong To?
    This question is simply asking which class you are in, or if you are a study away student. This will help us see the diversity of participants!

  • Net ID
    This is basically the first part of your NYU email, or you can find it on the back of your NYU ID card.

  • What Is Your Name?
    This one is pretty easy, just enter your first and last name.

  • What Is Your Brawler Name?
    This is the fun one! Come up with a cool nickname or title to intimidate your opponents, or a cute name to throw them off, or whatever you want!

  • What Is Your Brawler Backstory?
    Now that you have your Brawler name, come up with your brawler backstory! This could be based on real life, but its better if you come up with a whacky origin story, like a superhero (or supervillain).


See Stories

Want to scope out the competition and see who else is competing? Find out below, and see how each participant introduces themself with a Brawler name and a fun backstory.