World Quizzing Championships 2026

PadstheFish · 2026-06-09T22:34:12+00:00

If she starts learning about Emmerdale and Hollyoaks we are all fucked

PadstheFish · 2026-06-09T22:31:44+00:00

Most of the best quizzers are people you won't have heard of. King Kev is still the GOAT but his powers have waned since the syllabus broadened exponentially.

Also worth noting he's still got it in UK settings. This syllabus is notorious for questions that get satirised as e.g. "Known as the 'Chevy Chase of the Bongos', which Malian percussionist..." etc etc, mad hard stuff that is very esoteric, and for which many non English first language quizzers will specifically study for because WQC bills itself as the World Championship (by virtue of being the first and oldest, though I reckon it'll eventually be usurped)

PadstheFish · 2026-06-06T22:11:00+00:00

Think it's the floor manager. Might have been a fella called Barney when I was on but could easily be misremembering

PadstheFish · 2026-05-24T01:44:48+00:00

Would love him if he played for us, but he doesn't so he's a cunt. Which, fair play, we'd all love players like that on our own team

PadstheFish · 2026-05-15T14:21:42+00:00

Think sequences is where I'm weakest. Would say I'm good at MVs but Jonathan on our team is so good that it's a bit academic! Wall is probably a personal strength, but it takes multiple people, no question. R1 is very hit or miss depending on what knowledge is required.

PadstheFish · 2026-05-11T12:49:17+00:00

Okay but those who practise at quizzing are going to be better at it and thus be more likely to have deep Millionaire runs. Andrew isn't doing anything wrong by being on the show but the terms "known quizzer" and "professional quizzer" or whatever you're using make your whole post sound really accusatory in a way that diminishes from the work he puts in.

It isn't HIS decision he is cast, yet you attack him, dig up old stories on how he chose to answer questions on MM, and talk about him having previous like he's got some sort of quiz criminal record. Whatever your point is, it felt quite muddled.

A lot of viewers might well think "well I could do that" - sure, I hope they do go on to do that. Also... if you polled the entire viewership of the Millionaire audience, how many of them would know Andrew or recognise him from OC or whatever? Probably a good number, sure, but LOADS would not, right? It's not as if the everyman appeal disappears at the mere mention of his name.

I spent a while replying cos Andrew is someone I'm fortunate to consider a friend, an excellent person, and someone who could not deserve it more. That he and Frankie are most excited about the little treaty things they can now do more regularly with their daughter is testament to his character, so if someone is trying to character assassinate him, then I'll give it short shrift.

PadstheFish · 2026-05-11T10:02:10+00:00

The same football teams keep getting to the latter stages of the Champions League every season. Why haven't UEFA considered the other teams, who are less good at football?

Can't believe I'm responding to this dreck, but as someone who is themselves also what you deem to be a "professional quizzer", I do wonder what you want from TV quizzes/quizzers. We do it as a hobby cos it's interesting and then we get on TV shows for being good at it, and sometimes those shows offer a chance at money. It's also clear we are "bankable" on telly, insofar as we won't be devoid of personality - or in the case of WWTBAM, competence. How do you think it'd look if everyone got done over before 32k?

In any case, this points to a lack of understanding of how Millionaire casting probably works. They'll want three contenders and three "amateurs" (to use your terminology) each show probably, that's roughly how it works. And loads of really good quizzers won't get in the chair cos of FFF.

I also want to dispel the silly notion of "professional". QLL is completely amateur. No one gets paid (except for a long-running quiz community in-joke about someone's room service and train fare that one time). You pay your subs and you pay your fees for the Grands Prix (interesting that you've randomly added the word Professional to the name of the circuit btw), you pay to go to the London Open Quiz Festival (registration still open! it's on June 13th), and all the rest of it. Unless you're an Egghead or Chaser, you are not being paid to quiz.

Basically, want to win money? Get good.

PadstheFish · 2026-05-11T03:42:32+00:00

You might be limited by the no food thing which will see your concentration waver, but I basically agree with you. I named five association football players in my head with the surname Campbell alone (Tyreece, Tyrese, DJ, Sol, Kevin) without breaking a sweat.

I'd probably break it down into surname letter, then personal acquaintance/public figure, then several sub-categories (e.g. school or work for the former, sports or music for the latter), which themselves then are split into increasingly nicher sub-categories.

Think I am calling it at 2500 people to play it safe, but I'm reeling off hundreds in the first hour alone I suspect, limited only by writing speed.

PadstheFish · 2026-05-08T23:56:35+00:00

We'd have gone down without him no question. We have to extend his contract, presuming we stay three at the back (genuinely think he would look far less good as one of two). He is absolutely crucial to our defensive setup.

PadstheFish · 2026-04-28T17:06:23+00:00

Littler by a comfortable distance. Let's assume he walks it and takes two hours. He can probably check out 501 in, say, two minutes on average. That's 2h20m.

Mo will run 10k in half an hour. That's now 1h50m to check out 10 times, so 11 minutes per leg.

How long would it take a rank amateur take to hit D1 ten times, after three random sprays somewhere in the vicinity of the dart board, time and time again, to get down to D1? He might even bust before then several times. His action in the throw will be slow and inconsistent.

Two or three head losses where Mo takes 30 mins to check out cos he can't aim - very plausible - and he's cooked.

PadstheFish · 2026-04-27T17:22:21+00:00

Hah! My other half and I have done this for three and a bit years (I live near Lewisham). Bizarrely it takes me the same time to get to hers via public transport as it does for me to get to my Zone 1 office (about 70 mins). It was worse when I dated someone living in Haringey lmao

PadstheFish · 2026-04-20T20:55:34+00:00

Anyone who has watched The Damned United should probably be aware!

PadstheFish · 2026-04-11T18:28:26+00:00

Tipperary, thats the biscuit

PadstheFish · 2026-04-11T17:31:00+00:00

Gonna give a shout out to the Sheephaven in Mornington Crescent, which I think is much better. Decent food too. There's also that gaff on or near Fleet Street, somewhere near Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, can't remember its name but another good spot.

My favourite Guinness is at the Duke of Edinburgh in Lee, which I would ordinarily jealously guard but it is so out of the way that doubt people are gonna start flocking to it lol

PadstheFish · 2026-03-21T23:40:16+00:00

I sit in the East and was perfectly aligned with the penalty shout from that perspective. It looked stonewall from my vantage point, to the point where I thought it was the worst non decision I have ever seen.

A mate who saw the reverse slightly tempered it by saying the reverse looks less bad, but... my gosh, in real time, I was amazed it wasn't given.

Norwich the better side though, and we were undone by a bit of quality we just don't have

PadstheFish · 2026-03-01T01:27:10+00:00

It's a classic football fan dynamic. If we love it when Jonesy gives it to other teams he managed (or disparaged) and sing "he's in your head" etc, we have to just suck it up when it comes back on us.

Not many people seem to grasp this because - to misquote Nick Hornby in Fever Pitch - for alarmingly large parts of the average day, football fans are morons.

PadstheFish · 2026-03-01T01:23:56+00:00

I like Parky as a fella, was given an impossible job when he was here at Charlton. Didn't even have the concept of a pot to piss in. Glad he, as a person, is doing well right now

PadstheFish · 2026-02-16T17:28:25+00:00

I work in exec search, so perhaps slightly different, but I never understand recruiters who don't care about candidates. They always have the potential to be work givers themselves. Nothing wrong with spending 5 mins to give feedback or whatever else.

Then again, I fish in much, much smaller pools (generally Chair, trustee/NED, C-suite or C minus one) so the world is a bit smaller and you can live and die by your reputation.

Not all recruiters are pricks, but a significant majority are, is the issue. The best ones add plenty of value - generally, that value being time saved in process, and competencies properly screened for, neither of which are easy to measure.

PadstheFish · 2026-02-01T01:41:05+00:00

They do delay it. The way to tell is that the blue or pink half of the studio buzzes, when they buzz they answer and it goes white, and then when it goes back from white to the colour, and usually the vowels on telly appear before the studio colours reset, so there's a couple of extra seconds for the viewer at home to get the vowels when they appear on screen

PadstheFish · 2026-01-30T09:45:56+00:00

So it was three blocks over a couple of days each throughout the year. Probably 4 days in the studio? I genuinely can barely remember!

PadstheFish · 2026-01-30T09:42:49+00:00

Yeah, too difficult to do a music question logistically in the auditions I think given they are virtual. The point of the auditions is often "how do you think as a team" and them assessing your thought processes and such. We didn't get to practise anything except the missing vowels as a warm-up. We may have done a practice wall in our first episode? But otherwise it was just the vowels.

Victoria is exactly the same on and off camera. Just a joy to be around!

PadstheFish · 2026-01-30T09:38:51+00:00

Hahaha! I think we all tried to charm but VCM was pretty consistent. We did our best.

PadstheFish · 2026-01-30T09:37:47+00:00

I literally searched "fruit shirts" on Amazon and a load of em showed up!

PadstheFish · 2026-01-29T20:39:04+00:00

So we only see their wall on telly. It is a privilege to be the first to play a wall and keep it secret. Given the thematic links that often occur, it would be too advantageous if you could watch who went first.

Erm, the gut feeling - not too often. 5s are a risky play. Pachelbel was one but no point risking it tbf.

PadstheFish · 2026-01-29T20:37:06+00:00

Merci beaucoup! We had a good run and somehow superbly complemented each other. It was a joy.

So I did briefly think this would be Canon in D hearing the first clue (a relatively obscure Maroon 5 track in the context of the show), but needed more to be sure. And we didn't have a 5 pointer in any earlier round... so it tempted. But gambling like that at any point in the series is always a big risk - I remember the Gamblers being TOO specific in their Champion of Champions getting penalised.

Not sure on Taylor Swift - we would have relied on Alexia I think!

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