MSF reciept 20140905LightSpeed Individual Open Buzzer Quiz 2015, Newsletter 14

Tournament 8: Fastermind, Sunday 13th December

We can never comprehend how lucky we are to live in 'The West' in 2015. Yes, there is a lot to complain about, but in terms of consumption, no generation has ever had it so 'good'. Whatever. To assuage my personal guilt, once a year I try to do a 'charity' quiz (I generally hate charidee with a passion, I can think of nothing more revolting than Joey Essex beseeching you to send an hour's disposable income via a drunken text by using emotional blackmail whilst he gets xzillion quid a year for having no talent whatsoever apart from not threatening people in any size shape or form whatsoever).

At the time of the Haiti Earthquake I did a little research attempting to ascertain what charity yields the best "bangs for bucks" as it were, and the best answer I could arrive at was Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders). In a nutshell doctors work for minimum wage (<£12,000 pa) in the most dangerous locations in the world whilst we blow them up.

So please try to come to the final LSQ of the year at Pontefract Sports and Social Club on the second Sunday in December. It will be £20 to enter, ALL proceeds will be sent to MSF, and I will match each entry with £10 to a charity of the winners choice on the condition that they tell us about it.

In an attempt at genuine (as opposed to emotional) blackmail, all ranking point values will be doubled for the day. (I think that's bribery actually). This could definitely shake up the final table which will be calculated using each competitor's best four events.

The competition will be London Rules, i.e. a single questionmaster (me) will set and ask all questions, apart from each competitor will choose a specialist subject for which I will set TEN. The guidelines will be

  • 2 questions a man in the street might get,
  • 2 questions a 'quizzer' might get,
  • 2 questions a quiz team might get,
  • 2 questions an expert should get, and
  • 2 questions a real expert just might get.

    Each competitor plays a 'joker' on their ten questions, when their own scores are doubled (i.e. four points for a correct answer, two away for an incorrect interruption)

    You are welcome to discuss your specialist subject with other people, but I would keep mum until the week before when I will release the list to everybody simultaneously. The thing is, with sport, unless you try your hardest within a set of fair rules, you discredit your opponents by not trying to give them a proper rogering. I would definitely be looking at the subjects chosen by the guys at the top of the leaderboard in the week leading up to this quiz!

    There will be trophies for:

    Click here to enter (or go shopping, I'm sure Malls 'r' hell will be just wunnerful)