World Quizzing Championships - Results are in!

[Vanya]

I took this a couple years ago. I believe I came in 400th out of 1100. The sports questions were mostly Eurocentric, and was my worst category (which fortunately they throw out, at least they did then). And yes it was several levels more difficult than Jeopardy.

[HugoZ]

USA results here. (selfish motivation: the boston results don't seem to be included in the world rankings, but are included on the USA page.)

Boston numbers just hit the main WQC Site: http://www.worldquizzing.com/results/

[Turd Ferguson]

My favorite question was:

20. Czech athlete Roman Sebrle dominated the decathlon in the 2000s. But in 2007, his career was jeopardized by what fluke accident?

But I have a sick sense of humor.

I wrote what turned out to be the right answer down, half-kiddingly, but figured it was better than having a blank entry (I was disappointed that none of my "Smith", "Johnson" or "Singh" answers paid off, though). It had the "feel" of a question I might encounter at pub trivia or on a certain website, and that was the kind of answer that would fit at either place.

I achieved both of my modest goals of hitting double digits in every category, and breaking 100, pre-drop. I'm not a big fan of the "drop your lowest score" rule, though maybe because Sports wasn't the "auto drop" for me that it is for most North American entrants - it was actually my highest score. Seems that Boston results drop me to 410, which I find a much nicer number than 408, which doesn't even have an Ontario highway named for it.

This one in History was the one that worked out well for those who saw the Thursday 5/31 J! game:

4. According to a list published by Forbes magazine in March 2010, which Mexican national was then the world's richest man?

*************

I tuned in late to that episode and was only half-paying attention (though I do remember hearing the clue read before it). Was going to "play" the whole game on the archive, but the game wasn't yet up when I checked, and I didn't go back until Sunday...

[MarkBarrett]

USA results here. (selfish motivation: the boston results don't seem to be included in the world rankings, but are included on the USA page.)

Boston numbers just hit the main WQC Site: http://www.worldquizzing.com/results/

Boston dropped me only three spots to #456. Thanks for the alert to the scores addition and congrats to Joon for top 100 world.

The Q that drove me crazy was my own fault.

11. in Media:

Having set up the Soho (London) design company Graphiti with some friends, who turned his back on it to enrol [sic] in acting school at age 26, going on to be nominated for a Tony Award and finally land his first movie role, in Die Hard, at age 42?

I spent at least 15 minutes trying to remember the name of this guy:



When the answer was revealed I was so mad because I would have known that name in one second. I never realized I was working on the wrong actor. That's the kind of quiz it is. Another movie I love is Back to the Future. Recalling the proper shoe company? 50/50/90.

[Volante]

The Q that drove me crazy was my own fault.

11. in Media:

Having set up the Soho (London) design company Graphiti with some friends, who turned his back on it to enrol [sic] in acting school at age 26, going on to be nominated for a Tony Award and finally land his first movie role, in Die Hard, at age 42?

Once again, Cracked to the rescue!! http://www.cracked.com/article_19655_5- ... omers.html
Spoiler alert, it's the first one you get to (which translates to #5, but still).

Edit...ok, my vitrol was apparently misdirected: It was Cracked who can't perform basic math, not the clue writer... Yeah, I held a site that never misses a chance to make a wang joke to a higher standard than a trivia clue writer...

[gloriaclemente]

364! Woo hoo! I'm usually not too bad at sports (got Laettner, and of course the dreaded javelin), but the international flavor of these questions made it tough. I did notice a couple of people with 0 in a category; is this a good strategy, perhaps? Don't even waste time on your weakest category, if you know it's going to be dropped anyway?

[seaborgium]

enrol [sic]

That's a British spelling.

[MarkBarrett]

enrol [sic]

That's a British spelling.

Okay thanks, that's good to know. I can't recall seeing that one previously. If I could have thought of the actor's name I would have realized it was Russian and then woke up to get to the right actor.

[Volante]

enrol [sic]

That's a British spelling.

Okay thanks, that's good to know. I can't recall seeing that one previously. If I could have thought of the actor's name I would have realized it was Russian and then woke up to get to the right actor.

Incidentally, my remark was on the math...then I did it myself, and it was Cracked that couldn't do "1988-1946" correctly.

[reddpen]

My favorite question was:

20. Czech athlete Roman Sebrle dominated the decathlon in the 2000s. But in 2007, his career was jeopardized by what fluke accident?

But I have a sick sense of humor.

So does your tablemate, who also got this one right (nice to meet you, btw). Looks like Boston drops me five slots to 212. But I'm taking a point my round II scorer denied me (and I failed to catch) for giving Czechoslovakia as the country where Budweiser had legal issues. WQC wanted Czech Republic, but I submit my answer was good given the legal issue dates to 1907. Hell, I crossed out Czech Rep. and wrote Czechoslovakia. Wish Jerome had been marking scores in Redmond. (Feel free to dissect my reasoning--I'm rusty at jboard posting.)

Would love to see get rates for the WQC questions.

[fowlerism]

there is like a 50-way tie for hardest question, but rheingold is nowhere near it.

Well put. As a suggestion for the hardest question... big swing and a miss.

Point taken. I think I was caught up in the fact that the band was so obscure and ignored the fact that the question is still pretty gettable.

Okay, new suggestion for hardest question: Ürümqi (farthest 1M+ population city from a sea). This is basically a know-it-or-you-don't, and it's a pretty difficult fact to know. A quick internet search tells me that there are about 30 cities in China larger than this one.

Runners-up: Samaveda, Enki Bilal, Astrakhan, Thierry Sabine, Hakan Sükür

I take as a fair measure of obscurity the fact that only one of these answers (Astrakhan, and in a different context) appears in the Archive, in a clue or a response.

Anybody know which four questions Jerome Vered missed in the History section? Those four automatically qualify for hardest question.

[jpahk]

Having set up the Soho (London) design company Graphiti with some friends, who turned his back on it to enrol [sic] in acting school at age 26, going on to be nominated for a Tony Award and finally land his first movie role, in Die Hard, at age 42?

I spent at least 15 minutes trying to remember the name of this guy:

that guy came up as a clue in the ballet category of my ToC quarterfinal. i believe i negged with nijinsky, which is rather hilarious in retrospect, since (among other things) the clue mentioned that he dated jacqueline bisset. in my defense, i was thinking of nureyev, which is also wrong but not hilariously so.

I did notice a couple of people with 0 in a category; is this a good strategy, perhaps? Don't even waste time on your weakest category, if you know it's going to be dropped anyway?

i don't think the extra time helps you on the other sections, though. there aren't really any questions i can point to and say i would have come up with the answer if i'd had more time. only a handful of questions in the whole test took me more than a few seconds to either get, guess, or realize i had no shot at; time pressure was definitely not an issue.

Okay, new suggestion for hardest question: Ürümqi (farthest 1M+ population city from a sea). This is basically a know-it-or-you-don't, and it's a pretty difficult fact to know. A quick internet search tells me that there are about 30 cities in China larger than this one.

Runners-up: Samaveda, Enki Bilal, Astrakhan, Thierry Sabine, Hakan Şükür

ürümqi is a pretty good candidate for hardest. i'd certainly never heard of it. both steve perry and jerome vered got it, but steve mentioned on facebook that it was his "toughest" get. (jerome said it was "a gimme".) enki bilal, thierry sabine—never heard of these either. sabine is a shining example of how tough the sports category is for americans. i certainly recognize the name hakan şükür and i remember watching (in dismay) the goal referred to in the question, but no way was i going to pull that. i consoled myself by at least coming up with the name of a turkish player on that 2002 team, hasan şaş.

[mrbungle]

there is like a 50-way tie for hardest question

my favorite question was this one:
Seldom has a sportsman stumped an entire nation more than which Dutchman, who became the first Olympic judo champion in the open category by defeating the great favourite Akio Kaminaga in 1964 at the Tokyo games?

there is a nice absurdist ring to the trivia category "DUTCH JUDO CHAMPIONS OF THE 1960'S."

[reddpen]

my favorite question was this one:
Seldom has a sportsman stumped an entire nation more than which Dutchman, who became the first Olympic judo champion in the open category by defeating the great favourite Akio Kaminaga in 1964 at the Tokyo games?

there is a nice absurdist ring to the trivia category "DUTCH JUDO CHAMPIONS OF THE 1960'S."

I got a shout-out from the scorer for my wrong answer to that one: Hans Brinker.

Joon, one question I remember getting on second thought was the larch, aided (as many others were) by a Monty Python bit.

[fowlerism]

Are the question sets from previous years (or from similar events) on the web someplace?

[MinnesotaMyron]

Are the question sets from previous years (or from similar events) on the web someplace?

iQa sells sets from past events as a fundraiser:

http://www.quizzing.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=32

-M

[dhkendall]

Okay, new suggestion for hardest question: Ürümqi (farthest 1M+ population city from a sea). This is basically a know-it-or-you-don't, and it's a pretty difficult fact to know. A quick internet search tells me that there are about 30 cities in China larger than this one.

I know that Ürümqi is closest to the Pole of Inaccessibility, but I wouldn't have guessed that the city was so large. (I know, I know, it's in China and all ... ) - this would probably have prevented me from guessing it, and going further away for a "larger" city (in my mind). Plus, I'm surprised (again, knowing Chinese cities) that there's only 30 larger, I would have figured the top 40 at least were all in the coastal area.

[TheConfessor]

364! Woo hoo! I'm usually not too bad at sports (got Laettner, and of course the dreaded javelin), but the international flavor of these questions made it tough. I did notice a couple of people with 0 in a category; is this a good strategy, perhaps? Don't even waste time on your weakest category, if you know it's going to be dropped anyway?

It's not necessarily a good or bad strategy. It has the potential to either help or hurt your overall ranking. If skipping your worst subject enables you to get at least one more correct answer in the other three subjects in that hour, then it's a good strategy. If the extra time does not enable you to get one more correct answer, then the strategy will usually result in a lower ranking than you could have achieved. Your dropped lowest score doesn't count toward your point total, but it is used to break ties among those who had the same total score.

In my case, I was one of six people who tied with 124 points, but my 9 points in the dropped "Sports" category put me ahead of someone who took a zero in Sports. So that put me in 121st place instead of 122nd place. If I had used those extra minutes to come up with one more correct answer in a non-Sports category, I would have finished at 117th or better. But I'm not convinced that the extra time would have helped me. Of course, once you get past the usual suspects at the top of the scoreboard, a few points either way probably don't matter to most people.

Another good opportunity to match wits with the champions is coming up at in August at the Trivia Championships of North America in Las Vegas. Last year was fun. I hope to see lots of old and new friends there this year.
http://tcona.com

[JyV92]

there is like a 50-way tie for hardest question, but rheingold is nowhere near it.

Anybody know which four questions Jerome Vered missed in the History section? Those four automatically qualify for hardest question.

I do.
Can look it up if you're curious.

[MinnesotaMyron]

Anybody know which four questions Jerome Vered missed in the History section? Those four automatically qualify for hardest question.

I do.
Can look it up if you're curious.

I am if he's not.

Thanks, -M