Priming

Priming is a buzzing strategy that involves slightly pressing in on a buzzer button without actually triggering a buzz, making it so the player has less distance to travel when they actually buzz in.

Theory

On physical buzzers, the buzzer button itself has to be pressed a certain amount for a buzz to register. Before that threshold is reached, the button has a small amount of space where it can be pressed in without anything happening. Priming takes advantage of this free space by pressing the buzzer closer to the buzz threshold than it is by default. Doing so makes it so the player's finger needs to move less when they know the answer. These few saved milliseconds can be crucial in games, giving players an extra edge on buzzer races.

Due to variation between buzzer systems and the very small distance between the default position and buzz threshold, priming is very risky and liable to lead to accidental buzzes. Because of its difficulty and high risk for low reward, priming is not widely used at any level of play.

Priming does not have an online counterpart. While some keyboards may have keystroke thresholds similar to buzzers that allow for intermediate pressing, most modern keyboards do not have this feature.