Intelligence is no longer measured by your IQ test score; instead, it’s all about your HQ trivia score.

HQ was created by the founders of the now defunct app Vine. The game, which consists of 12 multiple choice questions with each with ten seconds to answer, first hit the App store in Aug. 2017.  Those who answer all 12 questions correctly win both a cash prize and the honor of winning the game. The winners, no matter how many, split the cash prize at the end of the game. split t. HQ goes live at 3 p.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. everyday.

“When you play the game at first, you don’t think you’re going to win,” senior Ben Stanish said.

“Knowing that people can actually win and that they give actually give real money has surprised many people.”

This game is growing increasingly popular among both CHS students and teachers. Stanish earned a cash prize of $59.41 by winning the Dec. 28 game.

“I went crazy,” Stanish said, “I was with my family and 6 friends and we all started yelling and jumping around.”

The questions can range from common knowledge questions to the most random and minute facts that may seem impossible to answer.

According to Stanish, whose winning question was about what scientists used to find the space at the center of the great pyramids (the answer being subatomic muons), winning the game isn’t expected for most people, so it’s all the more important when someone wins.

Even though the questions can be quite tricky, people still keep coming back to play it.

According to senior Taylor Kline, HQ is so entertaining because “trivia is addicting and there are prizes.”

Many people like to team up with their friends when they are together so that they have a better chance of winning. Stanish was able to get a lot of help from some of his friends when he was stuck on the harder questions.

“Shoutout to [seniors] Jiwoo [Kim] and Cameron [Miller] for coming in clutch with their help on some big questions,” Stanish said.

The game itself is so popular that even  teachers talk about it with their students. Modern World History and SMAC teacher Evan Rosenthal, who is also an avid player of HQ, heard about the game from his students.

According to Rosenthal, his students get “hyped” when he talks about HQ, and feels it is a great way for students and teachers to bond.

Teachers seem to like that their students are playing it because of its educational purposes. Even if it’s information that you don’t learn in the classroom, like “which band created the opening chime melody for Windows 95” (Rosenthal made it to Question 12 and lost on that question), teachers like that students are learning in a fun manner.

“I think that it is a fun way to keep the mind active even when you are relaxing on the couch at 3 or 9 p.m.,” Rosenthal said.

Of course, HQ does have its downfalls, including the personality of the hosts. While the game’s main host Scott Rogowsky does seem to be entertaining to his audience, other hosts who fill in for him are not as well liked. Stanish, Rosenthal and Kline have each mentioned a common dislike of certain hosts.

“The worst part of the game is when the host isn’t Scott, which is all too often,” Stanish said.

Another issue that people seem to have with the game is the glitching and freezing that comes with the huge size of the audience that HQ faces in each game.

According to a Jan. 4, 2017 Bloomberg Businessweek article, HQ generally has over 400,000 viewers for the 3 PM game and over 600,000 viewers for the 6 PM game.

Despite these minor flaws the game is still a success, though some, like Kline, are wondering about the future of HQ. Others, such as Rosenthal, however, feel that the game will only become more successful with time.

“I think that HQ will only get more popular as it comes out on different platforms,” Rosenthal said. “Hopefully they will work the bugs out in order to avoid glitches and lag.”