Pace High alumnus wins $20,000 in trivia game

PACE — Jason Varney — a 25-year-old, 2010 Pace High School graduate — found himself about $20,000 richer late last month when he and 11 other contestants split a $250,000 jackpot in the popular trivia app HQ.

This jackpot was the largest in the game’s history, and the $20,833.33 landed in Varney’s PayPal account last week.

“When I won, it was pure elation and joy,” said Varney, who now lives in Ohio with his long-time girlfriend, Emily Dooley. “I’ve never felt such nerves and anxiety than I did when I was progressing through the game that night.”

Varney played basketball at Pace High during 2008-09, the team’s best season. While he said there were plenty of nerve-wracking moments that year, those didn’t prepare him for the night he played the winning game.

“You would think the nerves in those basketball games would outweigh this HQ game, but it truly did not,” Varney said. “My heart was pumping through my chest until I found out I won."

HQ is a trivia game of 12 questions and players must answer all 12 in a row to win a share of the pot. The pot amount is normally $2,500 to $5,000, Varney said, but players can get a lifeline called an “extra life” by referring friends to the game which allows them to miss one question out of the 12 and still continue.

“I actually got one of the questions wrong, but I had an ‘extra life’ and used it to get me back in the game,” Varney said.

The trivia app has gained popularity in recent months, and large companies have partnered with HQ to give away goods in place of money, including Nike. The night Varney won, March 28, HQ partnered with Steven Spielberg’s new movie “Ready Player One.”

This partnership pumped the prize up to $250,000, and 2.4 million people played — the largest in HQ’s history.

“So after I won, the folks over at HQ Trivia called to congratulate me and discussed that taxes are a real thing — bummer,” Varney said. “The taxes will probably be about $5,000-6,000, so I will set that aside up front for next tax season.”

Varney has been playing HQ since December and says he tries to play twice a day. The games are at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.

“It is a great break from work to stimulate the mind and break up the monotony of the day,” Varney said. “HQ is great. It allows for bonding through a channel that everyone enjoys, trivia with the hope of winning money.”

Now that Varney has the money available, he has some plans in mind.

“I planned on going to the Master’s to support our very own Bubba Watson and root on my all time [favorite], Tiger Woods,” Varney said, whose uncle is close friends with Watson. “Also, my grandmother is having heart surgery at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola on April 16. Prior to winning HQ, I had no way of paying for a plane ticket that worked around my work schedule.

"Now that I have won, I plan on surprising my great-grandmother before her surgery and helping to ease her nerves prior to surgery.”

While he plans on being smart with the remainder of the money — paying student loans, car payments — he said it’s tempting as a 25-year-old to want to have some fun with it.

“I would be remiss if I did not take a little bit and have some fun,” Varney said. “I also plan on helping my family wherever I can, as well.”

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pace High alumnus wins $20,000 in trivia game