And hell hath no fury like a nerd who thinks his correct answer has been incorrectly ruled out.
"There are people who will fight to the death over the lowest hand in brag [a 16th century British card game]," says Nahu's Brofessor teammate - and fellow high school teacher - Lloyd Gutteridge. "That's a bad quiz question because there are two right answers. If you get the answer wrong and there is some ambiguity the nerds rise up," says Gutteridge, who read the Guinness Book of Records when he was growing up and "didn't get out much".
"It's f***ing scary," chips in Nahu.
There's an art to creating a good pub quiz question.
"Sometime they [stuff] it up but I won't get into that," says Nahu.
There's clearly a long-held grievance or two bubbling just beneath the surface, but you'd expect that. Nahu has been quizzing for years. In 2007, he appeared on a show called The Rich List, earning himself and a partner $15,000 by naming 24 Tom Cruise films and nine Kiwi Prime Ministers since 1900. He runs the Tuesday night quiz at Broadway's craft beer pub The Lumsden and, according to friend, will happily while away hours memorising the answers on Trivial Pursuit cards.
The Brofessors' high-powered team includes Shannon Mackey, another pub quizmaster who in 2008 pocketed $125,000 on the New Zealand version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and senior Auckland University law lecturer Khylee Quince.
Great minds don't always agree.
"If I asked you who won the best picture Oscar in 2004, a lot of people would say Peter Jackson, and they'd be right," says Gutteridge. "But is it the film that wins it or was that the previous year or whatever?"
Choosing the correct answer comes down to correctly interpreting the question; as captain, it's Nahu's job to ensure that happens.
It can come down to instinct, such as last year when he was convinced by Gutteridge that Dire Straits' 1982 album was Love Over Gold, but then over-ruled him on another question when he insisted on an answer that was wrong.
Brendan Lochhead, the founder, director and former owner of Believe it or Not Quiz Events - the firm that runs the championships - attended his first pub quiz in 1996 when on his OE in the UK. On his return here in 1998, he found quiz nights were rare and often poorly run. He toured the country attempting to convince publicans to adopt the company's quiz nights, receiving a mixed reception. "They shook their heads and said, 'Why would people do that'?"
Today, the company's quizzes are a weekly staple at around 250 Kiwi pubs and another 150 in Australia. With its products priced from $100 a pop, crunching the numbers suggests the firm's revenue is around $40,000 a week - or $2 million a year. Hardly trivial, and certainly significant enough for pay-TV operator Sky to buy a 51 per cent stake in 2014.
While there have been low-level discussions about the potential for televising events, there are no plans to do so any time soon. Quiz shows, though, appear to be making a comeback.
Iconic 1980s show Mastermind is set to make a return to New Zealand's TV screens next year, with Believe It Or Not contracted to supply the questions.
Tonight's event, which cost $200 per team to enter, sold out ages ago.
Nahu is desperate to recapture the national title. To do so, he knows he'll need to avoid a repeat of last year, when he filled in the time before the contest drinking and turned up trashed.
It is, after all, a pub-based activity.
"We've had various levels of drunkenness over the last few years, but you want to hold it together. I'm quite serious this year so I am going to try to refrain. You just want to take the edge off, take those nerves away.
"If we don't make the top five I'll be heartbroken. And if we don't make the top three I'll be disappointed. I want to win this thing running away."
Pub quiz trivia
• The national championships began in 2000.
• Teams have eight members.
• Tonight's final is at Alexandra Park but it sold out long ago.
• Cellphones are banned - unless your partner is expecting a baby.
