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Sky High Showdown: the head-to-head ladder quiz

Sky High Showdown is a head-to-head ladder quiz for 2 to 30 players, played on the TV with everyone's phone as their controller.

Our head-to-head climb-the-ladder quiz: one player from each side in the hot seats answers the same question at once, and everyone else is their side’s crowd.

Players
2–30 players
Time
About 5–8 minutes
How you play
Teams, or everyone for themselves
You need
A TV with a web browser, and a phone each
Price
In the Trial and Unlimited (plans); players never pay

How do you play Sky High Showdown?

Two hot seats, one question: lock in on your phone, climb the tower floor by floor, and bank it or go for the Penthouse.

47 seconds
Read the video transcript

Arnold: Two of you take the hot seats, in lifts on twin towers by the beach. You both get the same question, with four answers on your phone.

Lily: Pick your answer and lock it in. The TV only shows a padlock, never your answer. Right takes you up a floor. Wrong takes you down one. Miss twice on the ground floor, and you’re out!

Lily: Stuck? You have three lifelines. Ring a Mate, Ask the Room, or Split It, which takes away two wrong answers. And only you see the help!

Arnold: Reach the top first, or keep climbing when the other player goes out, and you win! Then bank it, or keep climbing for more. And the very top, the Penthouse, is a million points!

How to play

  1. Two sides

    In a show, Team 1 is the left side and Team 2 the right. In a one-off game, you pick two teams first on the TV. With just two of you, you’re the hot seats.

  2. Step up

    Everyone starts in their side’s crowd on the TV. On your phone, ▲ moves your face up into the hot seat, ▼ takes you back, and ◀ ▶ move between the seat and the dice (“anyone’s fine”). When the clock runs out (or the host presses OK): one in the seat goes; two or more get a spin; nobody, and the dice picks from the whole side. Then the two grab chairs in the middle of the room, facing each other, away from their teams.

  3. Take the hot seats

    One tower each. Arnold (the virtual host) asks a question with four answers, and both of you see it on your phones.

  4. Lock it in

    Tap an answer, then Lock it in. Nobody sees which until the TV shows both picks. Right takes your lift up a floor; wrong takes it down one. Run out of time and that counts as wrong.

  5. The ground floor

    You start on the ground floor. Wrong down there is a miss, and a second miss on the ground floor puts you out. Climb back up and your miss is cleared.

  6. Bank it

    Had enough? Bank it to keep your floor’s points, but you step out of the duel, so the other player wins it.

  7. Lifelines

    Lily (the virtual co-host) runs the Help Desk. Once each a duel: Call a Friend (a teammate’s answer, or “Don’t know”, comes to your phone only), Ask the Crowd (the rest of your team votes) and Split It (two wrong answers vanish). With no teammates, only Split It works. They help you answer, but they don’t stop a fall.

  8. Win, then choose

    Reach the top floor first, or still be climbing when the other goes out, and you win the duel. Below the top, choose on your phone: Bank it and finish there, or Keep climbing alone for more points (every floor is worth more). Climbing on, a wrong answer takes you back to the floor you won on, and you finish there.

  9. The crowd

    Everyone not in the hot seats is their side’s crowd: they get called and vote when asked, and play along on their phone for the Couch score.

How to win

Win the duel by reaching the top floor first, or by still climbing when the other goes out (if both go out at once, the higher floor wins). The most points wins the game.

What does Sky High Showdown look like?

Real screens from a game: the TV, the players' phones and the host's Backstage. The names are made up.

Sky High Showdown on a TV in a living room, with the real phone screens in front: Sky High Showdown on the TV: Sam and Priya in lifts on twin beach towers either side of a four-choice question, with Lily (the virtual co-host) at the Help Desk
Sky High Showdown on the TV: Sam and Priya in lifts on twin beach towers either side of a four-choice question, with Lily (the virtual co-host) at the Help Desk
Sam's phone: locked in after using Split ItPlayer controllerPriya's phone: the four answers, Lock it in, and the lifelinesPlayer controllerLeo's phone: Priya is ringing them for helpPlayer controllerNoah's phone: playing along from the couchPlayer controllerThe host's Backstage during Sky High ShowdownThe host's Backstage
Two hot seats, one question. Sam split it and locked in (the TV shows a padlock, never the answer); Priya rings Leo, whose phone rings in secret.
The Sky High Showdown TV while Priya thinks it over, Sam already locked in
Priya's phone: Leo's answer and how sure they arePlayer controllerLeo's phone after answering the callPlayer controller
Leo's answer comes back to Priya's phone only. The TV just shows that a lifeline was used.
The answer revealed on the Sky High Showdown TV, with Sam's and Priya's lifts on their towers
Sam's phone after the revealPlayer controllerPriya's phone after the revealPlayer controller
The TV lights the right answer and the lifts move: right goes up a floor, wrong goes down one (two misses on the ground floor and you’re out).

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