There are lots of basic ingredients to a quiz, and with SpeedQuizzing especially there are loads of whistles and bells that can be added in, many of which make for an even better experience. I will attempt to list them here, and try to articulate their value. With all pub quizzes the bottom line is selling beer. Please email me if I have missed anything, and any well constructed alternative view would be a welcome addition. A lot of them can be used brilliantly, but a significant number may suffer from excess. Please bear that in mind. (And whilst I'm at it, before you say 'it's just a bit of fun, relax' well why just don't have scores then?).
The main impertives for any host is do what you feel happy with, there is a huge deal of flexibility in most of these aspects and broad spectrums in the 'right' zone which I may be blind too.
My biggest request is be consistent.
Bingo/horse racing etc along with turtle races and any amount of inter-round distractions, are not quiz per se, but I reckon they are better than dead air, as it were. For the first of many times I will say that for spot prizes they are cool, for small amounts of quiz points they are fine ('feckaboutery'), for large, result changing amounts of quiz points ('fuckaboutery'), they stop it being a quiz.
Bitch-slaps are a method introduced by some hosts (not SpeedQuizzing the company I hasten to add) to make life more miserable. We must differentiate between aspects which encourage and promote the lower teams from stuff like this, which, generally, only spoils a nice night for the better ones. Click here for a more detailed article. Hosts - save yourself the bother and use Fast-Tracks, players refuse to initiate, but just continue to spoil the game if you get hit.
Buzz-in 'Advanced' and Buzz-in 'Classic' are questions/rounds where each question is like a starter on University Challenge, first in gets a shot at answering; if you are right you get the points, if you are wrong you either lose the points (Advanced) or are eliminated from the next question (Classic). In the Advanced mode everybody else has skin in the game by either agreeing or disagreeing correctly for points. In Classic mode you just keep pressing until someone gets it right. I love these, as far as I am concerned they are the esscence of speed quizzing, BUT... These rounds can be spoilt by teams just pressing whatever, especially in very busy quizzes, but I guess that is how hosts earn their crusts, by judging correctly. I'd suggest a red card for the round for anybody who makes two false starts - it works for track races!
Buzz in when you hear the tune is a question/round when the host will play snippets from various tracks, and a team presses when they think they hear the nominated track. I guess it's better than nothing, but in keeping with the spirit of quiz, questions about the tracks (as opposed to reaction time) seem so much more interesting and rewarding; who made it?, what's it called?, who made the original?, who is the lead singer? I can see why hosts are nervous about teams 'shazzaming' answers for music rounds but I do find that teams which have to Google don't generally win pub speed quizzes, especially with quick timer countdowns and prying eyes (unlike on-line SpeedQuizzes).
Cheap beer! is a boon not exclusive to quizzes, but I thought I'd mention it. My regular Quiz Of The Year for 2023 was The Hedley Verity in Leeds which is a Wetherspoon, and for any team of four drinking two gallons, it's like everybody wins. All the time.
Clever clogs penalty, i.e. punishing people who get too many questions first on the bounce is a bloody great idea if you ask me. Nobody likes a clever clogs :)
Comfort/temperature is not exclusive to quizzes, but I thought I'd mention it. FFS Landlords - turn the heating up in winter, you will sell more beer. I love a bloody armchair, nothing better than getting to the Cricketers in Knaresborough and shotgunning one by the fire. It's nice to find a chair you can get in but not out of when you are in a class pub with a nice pint.
Double Bubble is a term coined by Dave Bradley of Manchester applied to doubling the points for the question (in his quizzes from 6 to 12) of any team which gets a unique correct answer. Why not? - more power to Dave for actually putting together quizzes which appeal to quizzers and innovating. I have seen other hosts give rewards for sole answers but Dave and his Hot Spot quizzes have made it theirs, and his balance of doubling the score corrals the reward into a fair amount.
Evil Mode is played, usually in the last round, when players have to gamble weather to answer or not, as they are punished, usually to the value of the question if they are wrong. An interesting and fundamentally fair addition to a game, though I reckon obliging people to guess on inflated scorage can be a teensie bit over the top, and only advantages the better, cannier, teams.
Fast tracks, Super fast tracks, and the Fast track wheel are a facilities by which a team can be launched to the top of the table. IMHO their intelligent use is nigh imperative in a pub speed quiz, but used as golden snitch render a quiz the intellectual equivalent of crazy golf. Perhaps of all aspects discussed herein these can be the most extreme in terms of both benefits and destruction, and depend most critically upon a host's measured judgement, hence Click here for a more detailed article. I reckon spin the wheel is a credible balance between skill and luck to the end of the quiz. Outright fast-tracks should be turned off with a few questions left, especially in 'evil' mode.
Food!! is now a rare commodity in a pub quiz, at least for free, but The New Inn, Idle wasn't my Quiz of the Year in 2019 for nothing. OMG - stew to die for.
Go-wide is a facility employed which enables players to have two guesses if they are not sure, but only gaining half the points for a correct answer. Another interesting addition to the host's armoury, I like 'em, recommend them, and they are absolutely fair.
Handicaps are the fairest way of 'evening things out'. Look at golf - anybody can play anybody. They are, however, difficult and time consuming to keep accurately, but there is a host in South East England, Marc Coates who has got the best handle on them, and as a consequence has a whole string of amazingly busy pubs and all enjoyed by people of different abilities who love quizzes. I wish SpeedQuizzing would develop a handicapping algorithm for individuals and ergo teams which field those individuals (non-obligatory of course). I know Mark puts a hell of a lot of work into constraining the 'Big Guns', but there is a young man, Arun Bishop, who is so adaptive and dynamic, he has it simple - Steve, fuck you, 20% off your final score, and he tells the whole jam packed pub containg 2.5% of the population of Howarth, I'm as happy as a dog with two dicks, and lose joyfully (I wouldn't have won anyway). Failing handicaps, (which can easily be be clumsy, and exploited by wiley players) go back to fast-tracks.
Jackpot games are perhaps essential to even out the 'equality of outcome'. In real life equality of opportunity is an absolute must try to achieve, equality of outcome is too ready a tool for the crap to get to buy a house in the country. Never mind all that. In a pub quiz, especially if you pay for it, if punters percieve they have as good a shot at the returns as anybody they will logically be happier, wish to return more often, and buy more beer. An Open the box, Play your cards right, or other such game may bring that around. The caveat here is - what if a team waits for the jackpot to reach the limit of £500 and then just rocks up for that night and swamps the market by buying tickets. I have only ever seen one host who tells teams "If your 'ticket (s)' do not get pulled out this week, they are still in the hat for next week, untill they are either drawn out or the jackpot is won". It definitely increases the chances of the regular investors, and that is fairer (as well as an added gravity to return visits) - win win. And don't forget some prize for the winners!
Midwife crisis is another lovely touch from Dave Bradley - Any player or team can shout 'Midwife' once per quiz to change their answer prior to that answer being announced. Another encouragement to slightly riskier play is only a good thing, an added dynamic.
Nearest Wins questions take the form of a guess at a number where only the closest gets the points. IMHO they can become 'Golden Snitches' a way for any team to win on the last question, which detracts from the sport, but used sensibly can add an exciting angle Click here for a more detailed piece.
Price, per handset and/or per person is a very subjective issue. Should you charge or not? I have seen hosts charge per person, charge per team, or make it free. I have never seen a host charge both (why not?). It's like wine, you can get enjoyable stuff cheap and expensive shite, nevertheless I would say to any host or publican - charge. Some of the busiest pubs I have seen charge, some of the best quizzes I have been to charge, yet many of my Highly Recommended quizzes are free. Econ 101 tells you reducing price increases demand, yet we know that people are inclined to ascribe greater value to something they have paid for. In addition money collected can add considerable incentive value to a product. Ben Knight of Cheshire is the host I would cite as having the best business model along with a generally awesome quiz, though when I visited Chris Potter at The Highly Recommended Shepherd's Crook in Portsmouth it was £3 a person, I couldn't get a seat, there were at least 120 players all booked in in advance and the prize was a £50 voucher! OMG, eye watering or what???
Prize distribution between finishing places, rounds and questions. I want to be unequivocal here. Better to divide a single prize into three unequal parts than give it all to me if I win. Obviously the more prizes the better. Spot prizes for individual questions are sweet and don't have to be much, and I reckon three prizes for three rounds with stymies in for previous winners can just spread the love around. Visit The Lodge in Bridlington and say 'Hi' to Dean Barnes if you want a treat and see how this is done.
Prize value directly and proportionaly impacts upon the value of any competition. More equals better, d'hoy!
Pub cooperation doesn't happen much. Why not? Man, if we could persuade 120 hosts to cough up £10 a month, what an incentive prize that would be for them to give away - entry to a £1,000 game, once a month and a chance for a pub to host that event.
Question accuracy, ambiguity, and 'Level' are essential, undesireable, and important in that order. Click here for a more detailed piece.
Question set balance is a thorny issue, closely related to 'level', nevertheless world knowledge is not 5% football related. I never want to go to another 200 question quiz which is only about pop music 2000-2010 and it definitely should not be advertised as General Knowledge. Perhaps we should think - is this current affairs and/or will it be relevant in 20 years time? The nail varnish remover used by Kylie Jenner's third child to her second husband who appeared on I'm a Celebrity because I'm a celebrity is not and will not (sic).
Question trips are question where a host tempts players into wrong answers. By and large they are wrong, and when played deliberately they are a maximum of funny once. Having said that the brilliant 'Spunky' Edwards posts sets of them up, and it is part of Peter McKeating's Modus Operandi, so .. Click here for a more detailed piece. A trick is something a whore does for money (or candy).
Score adjustments, covert Cheating by the hosts - potentially criminal fraud Click here for a more detailed piece.
Score adjustments, overt may or may not be mean spirited, but at least the hosts who do it own it. They may even be neccesary.
Score, goalpost moving. A host will sometimes make up a scoring system on the fly. It is especially prevalent if one team is running away with it on a nearest wins question, and the host might say today's nearest questions is worth enough points to topple the leader. I can see why hosts do it, but it seems to indicate a lack of both planning and/or originality. Make a plan and stick to it.
Scoreboards on screens and Scores on handsets are terrific. A good host might show everybody the overall scores on big screens, often at the end of every round and sometimes even between questions. Unfortunately hosts will often deactivate the personal score which appears on one's own handsets throughout the quiz. I have never met a quiz player yet who has said 'we want to see the scores less', but the vast majority I have spoken to do say they like to see them. Hosts claim that by hiding the scores 'it keep things exciting'. I am not sure that that is the case - it definitely gives the hosts more opportunity to say 'it's really close' along with the greater chance of remaining undetected in the face of chicanery. Show the scores, the more the better.
Shuffle handset options is an addition to the SpeedQuiz 'armoury' which instead of alphabet answer and number keypads being displayed to a player in the usual order, they are shuffled up, ostensibly to delay players who are percieved to be doing too well. Mmmkay. It is not unreasonable to think this might be legally a little dodgy, especially in a paid-for quiz. There are other ways to keep things exciting that do not deny equality of opportunity. P.S. this is another innovation that Dave Bradley (him again!) lays claim too.
Social Media engagement as a source of points for a quiz is a rational way to gain publicity for an event, but should be kept down to gentle thankyou, not a critical component to winning a quiz. It is not quiz. It is fuckaboutery. Take my case - I have put up my honest thoughts on hundreds of quizzes yet have lost some of those quizzes for not posting on face twitcher before the quiz. Fuck social media as a tool for snowballing hits for publicity without talent. Click here for a more detailed piece .
Sound is absolutely critical, for a good quiz, but I have been to pretty good quizzes (Charlie Coyle at The Box Headingly) who have got through without any sound, and places such as The Anvil, Darton and Brewdog Huddersfield who conduct their quiz refreshingly 'unplugged'. P.S. Ian McKendrick at the Isle of Ely would be my go-to man for 'best technical presentation'.
Specialist /music rounds are often great fun, and big up those hosts who put together great sets of their own, perhaps chosen by their teams in previous weeks. I reckon some hosts fall into a trap of picking specialist, especially music sets, of what they know well, hence all too often I'll whinge on about 'a string of naval gazing radio one late nineties brit-pop dirges'. And if you think whinging is bad WTF would you want to listen to all that suicide music anyway? Sorry, I digress. Specialist and broad-based music rounds are terrific!
Score 'inflation' happens by default with SpeedQuizzing sets and values can be adjusted by hosts, wherbye early rounds are worth relatively little compared to subsequent ones. I have a degree of ambivalence about scores rocking up to such an extent that one might win a quiz by doing just the last round (that should not be a scenario, but happens too frequently). Any host which uses the same score system throughout their quiz is valuing all questions equally - and surely that should be the applied case?
Score Speed Bonus and Sliding Scale are the escence of SpeedQuizzing. Usually all questions will have a value, and along with that basic reward for being correct will have bonus points for speed of answer, the quickest gaining the most. Some great quizzes have little or no speed bonus. Equally some quizzes have relatively large rewards for speed. Sliding Scales of reward are further incentive to nick a second or third or nth place. I do think that a given score equalled by a sliding scale with an equivalent maximum value gives the impression of being 'Speed' and 'Quiz' in balanced portions. Dave Bradley rears his cloth-capped head yet again as a model of consistency with 3/3 sliding all the way through.
Starting on time. Whatever is the advertised start time, make sure the first question is within 15 minutes. A quarter of an hour is more than enough to make introductions and make sure everyone's stuff is working. Those hosts and landlords who exagerrate by 30 minutes or longer may be nicking a bit of short term extra custom, but in the long term cultivate a climate of mistrust - more costs than benefites = BAD. Start when you say (special thanks to the majority of hosts who do).
Team size upper limits seem a bit daft. A team's score is unlikely to improve by adding players once a couple of decent hands are on the tiller, and smaller teams do get a speed advantage. I have seen the brilliant Tom Guy put a lower limit of two to a team. Thanks for excluding me Tom!! I would suggest with reference to 'Price, per handset and/or per person' (above), that charging per handset AND per person would allow the dead hand of capitalism achieve an optimal outcome in this respect.
Timing can be absolutely critical. During questions, the more time teams have to answer, the more time they have to cheat. Between rounds a gap of more than 15 minutes can seem interminable. It is imperative to allow people enough time to get plenty of drinks and read the menu. These objectives conflict. That's what a great host will sort out - balance and consistency.
So what is a 'perfect' quiz? Impossible, but this is my idea of most excellent
14th April 2024