The Cybertiger is vicious. He is cunning. And he is full of dad jokes.

Last week, EFF’s Cooper “Cybertiger” Quintin led three judges and eleven teams in five challenging (and comic) rounds of tech trivia, covering everything from fictional search engines in television to historical messaging protocols to ancient cryptography methods. The tensions were high, and the stakes were higher: three winners would come away with EFF prize packs, championship trophies (in the shape of oversized Tech Trivia beer tankards), and all of the glory.

The coveted Tech Trivia Tankards

EFF’s Tech Trivia is a blatant rip-off of EFF Cyberlaw Trivia, and is in its third round of offering the best minds in tech a chance to put down their phones, pick up a pen, and write their names in the history books by winning the pub quiz-style event, now in its third year.

By the end of round one, the gauntlet had been thrown. Normally, scores are read aloud after each round, but Judge Gennie Gebhart refrained from letting everyone know just how wide the gaps were “out of compassion.” What we can say: “A Spectre is Haunting CPUs” led, with “The Randoms” and “ROT13” close behind. As is sometimes the case, pedantic answers were not accepted (although EFF concedes, after much deliberation, that the Tor onion protocol is not named after a root vegetable, because an onion is technically a bulb), and clever team names are preferred but will not win you the competition (even if your team is literally named “In First Place.”)

By the third round, it was clear that the hive minds were working like well-oiled robotic machines, albeit machines with a blind spot for trivia relating to pop culture or ancient civilizations. “A Spectre is Haunting CPUs” was still in first place, while “Semiconductor Kind of Life” and “Arbitrary Capricious” sped past the other teams to reach second and third.

EFF's Tech Trivia can be a stylish affair?

In the end, the victorious teams battled through five rounds and a tiebreaker (Jte poief jusef ug c sezukg czh jte sfecjegj jfuluc ycgjef ar cxx juy!) to determine the winners of the coveted Tech Trivia Tankards. They are, in a very particular order:

The winning team, "A Spectre is Haunting CPUs"!

In second place, "rot13"!

And bringing up third: "UNREDACTED ▮▮▮▮▮▮"

In the end, it was a wonderful evening of wall-to-wall laughing, eating, drinking, and nerding out. Many thanks to Bishop Fox, Facebook, Gandi.net, No Starch Press, and Van Pelt, Yi & James LLP! If you or your company are interested in supporting a future EFF event, please contact Nicole Puller.



EFF's sincere appreciation goes out to of the participants who joined us for a great quiz over dinner and drinks while never losing sight of our mission to drive the online rights movement forward. We salute the digital freedom supporters around the world who have helped ensure that EFF can continue working in the courts and with policymakers, activists, technologists, and the public to protect online privacy and free expression.

Learn about upcoming EFF events when you sign up for our email list, or just check out our event calendar. We hope to see you soon.