Champions

Champions is a party game where the scoring is pretty much secondary to the silliness it presents.

In each of the game’s two rounds, players randomly generate a number of names – ideally, names everyone knows – from media, politics, history, or even friends if you like. Then pairs of these names are randomly pitted against each other in four ‘quarter finals’ that the game supplies the context for. Who would best calm a screaming child? Who leaves the Chirstmas decorations up all year? Who buys books but never reads them? In the box are a large deck of these pleasingly idiotic battles.

But before each match is resolved, players decide ahead of time who they think will win each match-up, AND the subsequent semi-finals, AND the final itself: you write all your predictions before any of the matches begin.

Each match is simple: players vote for who they think will win. Strategically of course, you’re voting for your own secret choices in the quarter-finals. In the semis and the final, however, they may be knocked out so it’s about reading the room and guessing which way the majority vote will go. You get a point for correctly calling the result of a quarter final, 2 points for the semi-final and 4 points for the final itself. If you correctly predicted the overall winner at the outset, that’s a 3 point bonus!

After the second round, the player with the most points wins.