Super Bowl 52: Box Score Game, Recipes and More Party Entertainment

It's Super Bowl time! The Philadelphia Eagles will face the New England Patriots in Minneapolis in Super Bowl LII, and you'll want to be hosting your party in style.

If you were looking for advice on how to do so—and on a popular Super Bowl game as well—you've come to the right place. 

Super Bowl Squares Advice

For those unfamiliar with the game, Neil Greenberg of the Washington Post (h/t the Chicago Tribune) broke it down as follows: 

"For the uninitiated, Super Bowl Squares require participants to place their name in one or more of the 100 available squares of their choice (if you're playing for money, a square would cost a predetermined amount). After all boxes are accounted for, numbers 0-9 are randomly assigned along the vertical and horizontal squares. A winner is then determined for each quarter, or only for the overall score of the game. To determine a winner, take the last digit of each team's score and find the corresponding square on the grid. For example, if the NFC team has 21 points and the AFC team has 17 points, the square that intersects 1 on the NFC side and 7 on the AFC side wins."

According to Greenberg, a 0,0 box gives you a high probability of winning for final score, while a number of varying combinations are more likely to be successful per quarter or half. 

Any combination with a zero or four gives you a high chance of winning as well. Per CBS Sports, "the number four has cashed in four of the last five Super Bowls" and "appeared in 10.4 percent of all Super Bowls through the 2012 game."

The number zero, meanwhile, "has appeared in a team's final score a whopping 26.9 percent of the time through 2012," the most among the numbers.

So seek out those zeroes and fours. And good luck.

Party Advice and Recipes

Every Super Bowl party is, in fact, two parties: The party for the hardcore football fans and the one for the casual bystanders or people who simply like eating, making fun of commercials and watching the halftime show.

You have to accommodate both crowds.

The hardcore crowd is likely fine with beer, simple food and the opportunity to concentrate on the game and talk shop if other hardcore fans are in attendance. You never want a party with just one hardcore fan—he or she will be miserable trying to tune out the small talk while the game is on.

Likewise, you never want just one casual. In an effort to fit in, they'll ask a bunch of questions and get on the nerves of the football nerds. You either want all-hardcore, all-casual or a balanced mix. 

By the fourth quarter, everyone will be locked in on the game, especially if it's a close and exciting game. That's inevitable. Drama brings us together. But understanding the two crowds is the key to throwing a successful Super Bowl party.

This works in multiple ways. Don't be afraid to mix in traditional Super Bowl junk food—wings, multiple-layer dips, etc.—with stuff for the vegetarian or vegan crowd. It's 2018. Throw a party that reflects the crowd you're hosting (and maybe your region, too).

Do all of that and you're good to go. And take solace in the fact that if the game is great and the halftime shows and commercials are entertaining, everyone is guaranteed to have a good time.

If you are looking for recipes, you have all sorts of options. Vogue has got the chic crowd covered. Boston.com broke down some healthy suggestions. Good Housekeeping compiled 50 different options. The New York Times has several ideas, too.

And if you didn't see what you wanted, well, it's probably just a Google search away.