Earlier this year I ran a poll asking what you think the team size limit should be at pub quizzes (if, indeed, you thought there should be a limit at all). Five months later I've remembered to have a look at the results, and they were fairly conclusive. As you can see below, a team size of six seems to be the prevailing opinion, picking up precisely half of the votes to date. Around one in five voters preferred to see quartets of quizzers, while one in seven think five heads are the perfect number.
I can't say I found these results all that surprising; in my experience of quizzing the most common team size limit is six, and I doubt that's a coincidence. Still, it's mildly interesting to note that even numbers seem to be preferred, while it's good to see the often under-represented non-integer team size getting a mention as well.
Not pictured: pretending it isn't a problem
All of this does raise the question of what to do about levelling the playing field between smaller and larger teams. The simplest solution to me is to have a size limit, and a six player cap (at least for a normal pub setting) is a good balance between letting people have a good social experience without too many players feeling they have no chance. There are times when this isn't necessarily practical though, be it a long-running quiz with long-held traditions, or simply a cultural issue (as noted on the original post, it's quite rare to encounter team size limits here in Montreal). There's also the question of what a quizmaster faced with an unexpectedly large group should do - your landlord won't be happy to see a large group heading out the door regardless of the quizzing reasons.
The latter case is probably more easily dealt with: one ad hoc fix is to let big groups play but explain they can't win the top prize (or, as I've seen at some venues, have a separate 'big team prize'). Another quite common choice is to ask the big team to split in two, although this needs a quizmaster who's either alert to collusion or good at persuading them to be competitive.
Handling a situation where large teams are an established part of the quiz requires more creativity. A careful balance has to be struck between the smaller teams feeling hard done by without the larger teams (and their all-important larger spending power) feeling unfairly targeted. The one successful solution I've seen (and discussed in the comments here) are multi-answer questions where the number of required answers is the same as your team size. ("For five points, name as many landlocked African countries as your team size", for example.) Choosing the correct questions for this is difficult, but it ties the difficulty directly to your team size making it feel perfectly fair.
If you have any other suggestions to balancing team sizes do let me know, either in the comments or on Twitter, and keep an eye out for another Pub Quiz Poll coming soon!
We won this week, but could you have done even better? The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The secret German 4) The metallurgist 5) The rich-person otherkin
The ones that got away 1) In the Canadian navy, what rank is immediately below rear admiral? 2) Despite its 'Peach State' nickname, Georgia's peach production is lower than which of its neighbouring states? 3) In which country did George Foreman fight Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle? You can give either the current name or its name at the time of the fight. 4) What do the letters of the US TV channel 'CNN' stand for? 5) Which Russian wrote the existentialist novel Notes from Underground? 6) Which company was behind the first FIFA World Cup football to be made with the now iconic black-and-white design of hexagons and pentagons? 7) And in which year was that World Cup? 8) Where in the body would you find the 'IT band'?
The answers
1) Commodore 2) South Carolina 3) Zaïre (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) 4) Cable News Network 5) (Fyodor) Dostoyevsky 6) Adidas 7) 1970 8)The leg
Our excuses
1) We (correctly) guessed this would be the same as the Royal Navy, but couldn't remember how they worked, so instead hoped it was the same as in Starfleet, recalling Captain Kirk's demotion from Admiral to Captain in Star Trek IV. Unfortunately, despite the Commodore rank also existing in Starfleet, it's seldom mentioned (and apparently was dropped altogether in the year 2364), so I think that's a pretty good excuse. 2) The team's combined knowledge of South-East US geography was good enough to identify the valid options, before going for Alabama over South Carolina in something of a coin toss. 3) After some brain-wracking, some of the team had Congo while the doctor dug up Zaire, and none of us were sure enough which Congo Zaire became (or indeed, whether Zaire was right in the first place). 4) I suspect for most this comes down to getting the C, and many of those will be kicking themselves - as we did - for putting 'Central'. 5) The classic pub quiz game of 'pick one of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin or Solzhenitsyn' and hope you're right. Except for some reason we ended up with Kafka. Hmm. 6) A fun fact which I was surprised to discover I didn't know. Adidas was tempting me, but seemed a bit too 'obvious' (famous last words, especially when they've been making them for the last 40 years...), and in hindsight I should have realized Umbro was a bit too anglo-centric for a Montreal quiz. 7) We were a bit closer on this one, as while we obviously knew it wasn't 1966, I then pushed one World Cup too late with 1974. 8) IT is short for 'iliotibial', and it seems 'IT band syndrome' is a common sporting injury. The doctor claims "it can't kill you so I don't care". Reassuring as ever.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 4
1) The highest-selling single computer model of all time, how much RAM does the Commodore 64 have? 2) Having granted a patent for the land to Robert Heath in 1629, North and South Carolina are named after which monarch? 3) What term for a type of punch derives from the arm's motion mimicking the action of swinging a scythe? 4) Which television network's logo is this? Its name translates to 'island' or 'peninsula'. 5) Give a year in which Dostoyevsky was alive. 6) The 2006 FIFA World Cup ball was the Adidas +Teamgeist, with the plus sign included so the name could be trademarked as the regular German word Teamgeist could not. What does Teamgeist translate to in English? 7) The 1970 World Cup was the last time the Jules Rimet trophy was awarded, as Jules Rimet himself had stated it could be kept by the first team to win the tournament how many times? 8) Z'roa, a lamb shankbone appears on the Seder Plate, part of what religious festival?
The answers
1) 64 kilobytes 2) Charles I (of England, Carolus is Latin for 'Charles') 3) Haymaker 4) Al Jazeera 5) 1821-1881 6) Team spirit (à la, for example, zeitgeist) 7) Three (with Brazil the 1970 champions) 8) Passover
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
We won this week, but could you have done even better?
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The secret German 4) The metallurgist 5) The rich-person otherkin
The ones that got away 1) Featuring artists including Joy Division and Anna Domino, now-defunct Factory Records was one of the most influential labels of the 1980s. In what city was it based? 2) In what year did Enron file for bankruptcy amid a massive financial scandal? 3) Which of these is not a real Prince song: 'Computer Blue', 'Easy 2 Tease Me', 'Glam Slam', 'Horny Pony', or 'Raspberry Beret'?
The following 3 questions all have answers of the form "blank the blank" (e.g. 'Gordon the gopher'):
4) What skating move involves crouching near the ice on one foot while holding out the other leg which looks kinda like a gun? 5) What 2001 movie starring Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, but lost out to A Beautiful Mind? 6) What 24 year-old rapper is also known as 'DJ Stank Daddy' and 'Wolf Haley'?
1) I think Salford-based Joy Division should have given us more of a clue on this one, but our first instinct was London and we felt we had little else to go on. In hindsight I could perhaps have had more faith in my observation that 'factory' hints to somewhere beyond the M25, but at the time that seemed more than a little flimsy. 2) Getting the year for something like this seems simultaneously very tricky and very gettable. We ended up three years off (guessing 2004), led somewhat astray by our memory of seeing the musical based on the scandal in London some time ago. (As I'm sure you're wondering, we scored free tickets somehow, and it was precisely as weird as you might expect a musical about a financial scandal to be. There were velociraptors.) 3) Pretty big mea culpa on this one, as I incorrectly tried to second-guess the quizmaster and suggested that the specification that the song was spelt with a '2' meant Easy 2 Tease Me was unlikely to have been made up. Luckily I made amends for it by downing half a pint of cider quicker than the other two teams in the tiebreak to win the quiz. Phew. 4) The 'gun' hint put us in mind of 'cocking the hammer', but it was still a fairly optimistic guess. I didn't recognize the answer, but it turns out it's one of those things you've seen loads of times so has a pleasing "oh, so there's a name for that?" ring to it. (By the way, if you've ever wondered why it's called figure skating, it's kinda fun.) 5) I don't think a single team got this one, which is a touch surprising for an Oscar-nominated movie. 6) Perhaps a slightly bigger name over here than back in the UK (although he's picked up a few top 40 albums, so hardly a nobody), but still rather outside our wheelhouse.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 5
1) Which US Government organization has nicknames including The Pickle Factory, The Company, and Virginia Farm Boys? 2) Before shortening to Enron, the company was to be named 'Enteron', but made the change after the realization that Enteron approximates the Greek for what body part? 3) Who is the first female in line to the British throne? 4) There are four Olympic disciplines of figure skating: men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and what other? Unlike the other three, in this discipline competitors must skate to music with a clear beat or rhythm. 5) Indicated on this floor plan, in what building would you find the Queens' Bedroom? 6) What Tyler was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England? (Spelling counts!)
The answers
1) The Central Intelligence Agency ('CIA' is good enough for the point) 2) Intestines (e.g. gastroenteritis comes from 'gastro' for stomach and 'entero' for small intestine) 3) Princess Charlotte 4) Ice dancing 5)The White House 6)Wat Tyler
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
1+ out of 9: Well done, you beat us! 4+ out of 9: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The gasman
The ones that got away
Question 4
1) What is the main fermenting ingredient in moonshine? 2) What is 'palcohol'? 3) According to Reinheitsgebot (Germany beer purity law), what are the only 3 ingredients permitted in beer? 4) Identify the house from the Dune series from its emblem. 5) If Hitler's Germany was the Third Reich, what was the First Reich? 6) In 394AD Emperor Theodosius I banned what for not being Christian? 7) Name the Japanese biological research centre in the Second World War notorious for its experiments on humans. 8) What term describes the rivalry between the British and Russian Empires for supremacy in central Asia during the 19th century? 9) The contras is a label given to the various rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the government of which country?
The answers
1) Corn 2) Powdered alcohol 3) Water, hops and barley 4) Atreides 5) The Holy Roman Empire 6) The Olympic Games 7) Unit 731 8) The Great Game 9) Nicaragua
Our excuses
1) We'll admit to not being experts in moonshine, and went with the rather hopeful (and vague) 'grain'. 2) Neither of us had heard of this, and so instead we were torn between it being slang for 'prison alcohol' or 'when you drink your friend's booze'. We opted for the latter (since we knew the term pruno existed for the former), and I maintain both are better (albeit admittedly incorrect) answers. 3) We managed water and hops, but went straight to yeast rather than barley for the third. 4) The doctor narrowed it down to Atreides and Harkonnen, eventually opting for the wrong answer thinking "I associate them more with the colour red, and it sounds a bit like 'hawk'". 5) Not a bad little question, we supposed that the Weimar Republic might have been considered the Second Reich, leaving the era of the Kaisers to be the First. 6) We didn't have much time to get creative here, leaving us with gladiatorial combat as a fairly uninspired (and obvious) guess. 7) Little to say here other than that judging by the bar's reaction we weren't the only team to be unfamiliar with this. 8) More than a touch embarrassing to drop a British history question in a North American quiz, but neither of us could bring this to mind (and only vaguely recognized the answer when it was revealed). 9) The doctor was aware the 'contra affair' involved both Nicaragua and Iran, and while on retrospect we should have known this quiz well enough to go for the more obscure option, both the gasman and I had heard of the Iran link but not the other.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (4 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question phwoar
1) The name of which English brand of cider, discontinued in 2009 after becoming synonymous with under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour, is also a slang term for moonshine? 2) The name of which US brand of powdered drink mix features in a figure of speech describing someone who holds an unquestioned belief? The phrase originally referred to the 1978 Jonestown Massacre where some 900 people drank a different brand of (poisoned) fruit mix. 3) Originally a celebration of a royal wedding in 1810, and most associated with rather a lot of beer, which German city hosts the 'original' Oktoberfest? 4) Real name Gordon Sumner, which musician (pictured) played Feyd-Rautha in the 1984 movie adaption of Dune? 5) Germany's first Chancellor, who supposedly made the prediction "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans"? 6) Potentially problematic for some Adidas-sponsored athletes, which Greek goddess of victory has featured on the obverse of medals for the last three Summer Olympic Games? 7) The choice of name 'Zyklon' for a trainer was definitely problematic for which English sportswear brand in 2002? 8) Though usually attributed to British officer Arthur Conolly, the term 'The Great Game' was popularized in the novel Kim by which Indian-born English author? 9) Nicaragua shares a border with two countries. One is Honduras, what's the other? (As a 'fun' hint, it has the same number of letters in its name as Nicaragua.)
The answers
1)White Lightning 2)Kool-Aid 3) Munich 4) Sting 5) (Otto von) Bismarck 6) Nike 7)Umbro 8) Rudyard Kipling 9) Costa Rica
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
We won this week, but could you have done even better?! The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The secret German 4) The rich person otherkin 5) The metallurgist
The ones that got away
Question 5
1) Director Richard Attenborough recruited over 300,000 extras for a two minute scene in what movie? 2) Madison Avenue lies between Park Avenue and which other numbered avenue in New York? 3) At the start of its first series the show Mad Men was set in what year? 4)2 point question: Based on the average Canadian consumption rate of beef, how many cows are eaten by the population of the island of Montreal each day? You need to be within 50% to get the two points. 5)2 point question: The car pictured in this slightly doctored advert is considered one of the biggest marketing flops of all time. What is it? (1 point for the brand, 1 point for the specific car.)
The answers
1) Gandhi 2) 5th 3) 1960 4) 500 (so 250-750 gets you the points) 5) Ford Edsel
Our excuses
1) I suspected I'd kick myself on this one, but when a teammate suggested Ben-Hur it rang a faint bell for having a lot of extras (even if it did seem rather too early for Attenborough). Turns out it had quite a few (some 10,000), but nowhere near the 300,000 in Gandhi. 2) Having visited New York City last November I attempted to sketch out a map on a cocktail napkin, narrowing down the options to 4th or 5th. My patchy memory had me leaning more for the former, and combined with a failed attempt to second-guess the quizmaster (5th seemed too amenable to a blind guess) we lost this particular coin toss. 3) While we were all thinking early sixties, no-one was quite sure how early sixties. I also probably didn't help matters by blurting out 1963 early on for no particularly strong reasons, thereby anchoring everyone to an ultimately quite wrong guess. Pro-tip for numerical quiz questions: everyone should think of their own answer before anyone says anything! 4) A Montreal special for you here, although given that we over-estimated the island's population by some 50% (thinking it was 2.5 million rather than the correct 1.7 million) we were unlikely to come close. As it turned out, and truly demonstrating the power of having a statistician on your team, I forgot to divide by 100 and wound up with an answer of 150,000 cows a day. Oops. 5) Not a car I'm familiar with, and a question we left rather too late to consider properly. That said, the doctor thought the Lincoln logo was roughly the right shape to fit on the grille, which wasn't too bad a shout.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions
Question 2
1) The 250 mile Dandi March, led by Gandhi in 1930 and an important part of the Indian independence movement, concerned the British tax on what? 2) Owing to its resemblance to a household item, what is the name of this building (located at 175 Fifth Avenue)? 3) 1960 is known as the Year of Africa, with 17 nations from the continent gaining independence that year. Two of those 17 gained independence from the UK. Name either of them. 4) mcdonalds.com lists 7 main ingredients/components in their Big Mac. For 1 point, name 2 of these ingredients, for 2 points, name 4. 5) Along with Ford, which two other major American automotive companies make up the so-called 'Big Three'? (1 point for each.)
1+ out of 12: Well done, you beat us! 2+ out of 12: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor 3) The rich person otherkin 4) The metallurgist 5) The secret German 6) The gasman
The ones that got away 1) What animal gives birth to a 'farrow'? 2) What age was the youngest human known to have given birth? 3) At what age are Canadian senators obliged to step down? 4) Star Wars Round! Adjusted for inflation, which Star Wars movie made the most money at the box office? 5) Star Wars Round! By what name is Ghyslain Raza better known? 6) Star Wars Round! Who plays Storm Trooper Finn in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens? 7)2 point question: Which band has albums titled Leave Home, Rocket to Russia, and Road to Ruin? 8)2 point question: What was the first Martin Scorsese directed movie to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar? 9)2 point question: To within 10%, according to icontainers.com, how many bananas can fit in a 20 foot shipping container?
The answers
1) Pig (it refers to a litter of piglets, rather than a specific offspring) 2) 5 years 3) 75 years 4) Episode IV (A New Hope) 5)Star Wars Kid 6) John Boyega 7)The Ramones 8) Raging Bull 9) 48,000 (so 43,200 to 52,800 gets you the point)
Our excuses
1) What seems like it should be an easy chestnut caught all of us off-guard. We got a bit anchored to it being a bird (presumably because 'sparrow') and were doomed from there. 2) First instinct from a team member was 6, and while someone else mooted 5, we stuck with the initial guess on the grounds that it was always going to be a guess. 3) Leaving this to the Canadians (we had no idea, obviously) they had an inkling it wasn't a round number and went with 72. 4) On retrospect this is a pretty standard form of question, and on discovering that Episode IV is the second-highest of all time (after the trivia goldmine of Gone With the Wind) I'll admit to being a touch embarrassed to miss it. (After some debate about it being either IV or I, we went with the latter.) 5) We didn't cast our nets wide enough here, getting stuck on characters from the series and ultimately opting for Jabba the Hutt. 6) Tough one, I think, although on researching for this I've discovered he's British, so maybe that was our 'in'. 7) When two members of the team both have the same first instinct it's usually a good sign. Unfortunately The Foo Fighters meant this was one of the exceptions. 8) I typically leave these questions to the rest of the team as I'm exceptionally weak on movies. My only contribution? Telling them that Raging Bull wasn't right because it came out later than our answer of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. 9) First job was working out how big a 20 foot shipping container was, and then a protracted debate about how many bananas fit in a cubic foot. We dramatically overestimate the former (thinking it was 2,000 cubic feet rather than the correct 1,172) and slightly underestimated the latter (thinking 30 per cubic foot instead of the correct 41 or so) contriving to put us well off the money.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more point)? Would you have helped us win (2 or more points)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions 1) The theme song to the movie Babe, If I Had Words was a 1978 hit song in the UK. Its main tune is taken from the main theme of which composer's third symphony (often referred to as their Organ Sympony)? 2) Which word, from the Greek for 'month' and 'beginning', refers to the first menstrual cycle in female humans? 3) What two-word, alliterative title, describes the Queen's representative in Canada (along with some other Commonwealth nations)? This person carries out most of her constitutional and ceremonial duties, including the appointment (on the advice of the Prime Minister) of senators. 4) What is the lowest number that, when written in roman numerals, requires a numeral other than I, V or X? 5) According to Samuel L. Jackson, he made a personal request to George Lucas that his lightsaber be what colour so that his character would be easily distinguishable?
6) Which US President proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (informally known as 'Star Wars')? 7) Foo Fighters was originally formed by which drummer, following the 1994 death of which singer-songwriter guitarist? (1 point for each) 8) With Martin Scorsese directing, Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actor (winning neither, alas). For 1 point each, name them. 9) At what address did Eric Wimp (also known as Bananaman) live? You get 1 point for the number, and 1 point for the road, and as a minor hint, the number is prime and the road is named after a genus of shrubs and trees. Exciting!
The answers
1) Saint-Saëns 2) Menarche 3) Governor General 4) 40 (XL) 5) Purple 6) Ronald Reagan 7) Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain 8) The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street 9)29 Acacia Road
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
Just a quick post to let you know (and apologize) for no post this week - after being away in the UK work has piled up in my absence which has left no time for attending quizzes (let alone writing them). Normal service should resume next week!
