Quiz Olympiad - And the winner is...

[Suspence]

Sent for this round...and reviewed answers.

These were way tough, so I'm 99% sure I'm bowing out in this round. Only 3 correct.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Antrax]

I'm out after this round. At least I had one round where I actually knew answers, instead of constantly relying on lucky guesses
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Zag]

I would have gotten 6 right in the previous round, and only 4 in this round.

[Quailman]

I knew 9 of the previous round, and this time I knew six and would have guessed a seventh correctly. Bah!

[3iff]

Just waiting for lexprod and MNOWAX. This round has seen a wide range of scores (you'll see soon).

Even if I get the last 2 entries today, Round 6 won't appear until Monday at the earliest as I've run out of questions.

[lexprod]

Oof, lots of "F***ed if I know" questions.
_________________
I'll have a P please...

[3iff]

Olympiad Round 5

Quite a spread of scores.

1. Colombia gained its independance in 1810 from which country?
a. England
b. France
c. Portugal
d. Spain

2. The Forbes richest man in the world in 2010 was who?
a. Warren Buffet
b. Lawrence Ellison
c. Bill Gates III
d. Carlos Slim

Who's Carlos Slim you might ask. Just one right answer.

3. Harrison Ford wasn't originally chosen to play "Indiana Jones" even though he was first choice for Spielberg. Which actor originally got the part?
a. Bruce Dern
b. Clint Eastwood
c. Nick Nolte
d. Tom Selleck

Six players knew this (or guessed well)

4. The earth is in an elliptic orbit around the sun. In which month does it reach perihelion (the point in the orbit when it's closest to the sun)?
a. April
b. January
c. July
d. October

Perhielion occurs during the Northern Hemisphere winter, January. Just four correct answers.

5. The html colour code #007F00 is which colour?
a. Blue
b. Green
c. Grey (or Gray for Americans)
d. Red

The code is a 2 digit hex value for each of Red/Green/Blue (RGB). So Green is 7F (127/256) while the red and blue components are 0, so the colour appears green. Just one player got this wrong.

6. The battle of the Alamo took place in which year?
a. 1799
b. 1805
c. 1836
d. 1858

Three correct answers.

7. Natasha Khan is a singer/songwriter who performs under which name? (Yes, these are all valid performer names!)
a. Bat for Lashes
b. Cat Power
c. Feist
d. Joan as Policewoman

Only one right answer. I've no idea why she performs under the name "Bat for Lashes", perhaps I should look it up. Feist was a popular answer but that's Leslie Feist. Cat power is Charlyn Marie Marshall. Joan as policewoman is Joan Wasser.

8. Acrophobia is the fear of what?
a. Crowds
b. Dryness
c. Heights
d. Wind

Just one wrong answer.

9. Which room does NOT appear on the board of Clue (also called Cluedo)
a. Bedroom
b. Conservatory
c. Lounge
d. Study

Again just one wrong answer.

10. Which processor was used in the Commodore Amiga, first produced in 1985?
a. Intel 8088
b. Motorola 68000
c. TMS 9900
d. Zilog Z80

Three players knew this.

Forgot to add that the average score was 5.44 which compares well with previous rounds.

scores
9 Scurra
7 Duke Gnome, referee, MNOWAX
5 Jesus_Saves, Sentran
====================================
4 Lexprod
3 Suspence
2 Antrax

That gives us a 6 player final. Questions will appear soon. Note that there will be a changed format as it's likely to be the last round.

[3iff]

Olympiad Round 6 - Final round

Honesty quiz rules apply...no research permitted, with players on their honour to abide by this rule. Answers are PM'ed to me. There must be no discussion of questions in the forum until the round is closed. Any queries, PM to me please.

If you haven't qualified from round 5 then you cannot participate in the game.

DEADLINE is 12.00 midday Friday 16th September, UK time. I shall close the round once I have all the answers in and I'll wait a reasonable time for late answers.

This is intended to be the final round. HIGH score wins. If multiple players get the top score then there will be 5 supplemental questions to act as a tie-breaker between those players.

Questions are spoilered below. Good luck.

1. Who had albums titles "The Blueprint" (2001) and "American Gangster" (2007)?
a. Eminem
b. Linkin Park
c. Jay-Z
d. Kanye West
e. R. Kelly

2. The wrote the "His Dark Materials" trilogy?
a. Terry Brooks
b. William Gibson
c. Alan Moore
d. Philip Pullman

3. Author L. Ron Hubbard. The L stands for what?
a. Lafayette
b. Lemuel
c. Leonard
d. Louis

4. What is the name of the paranoid android from the Hitchhikers guide to the universe?
a. Gort
b. Kryten
c. Marvin
d. Wall-E

5. What colour is the zero pocket on a roulette wheel?
a. Blue
b. Green
c. White
d. Yellow

6. What is a John Dory?
a. An Apple
b. A Fish
c. A piece of furniture
d. An unknown person

7. When Warner Brothers acquired the script for Dirty Harry (1971) they originally offered the part to which actor (who accepted the role before dropping out before filming started)?
a. Marlon Brando
b. Burt Lancaster
c. Steve McQueen
d. Frank Sinatra

8. Rickets is a disease that affects which part of the body?
a. Bones
b. Bowels
c. Ears
d. Nervous system

9. In Scrabble (English language tile set), if you were to play 6 tiles on an otherwise empty board to make the word PUZZLE on six non-bonus tiles, how many points would this score?
a. 16
b. 17
c. 24
d. 25
e. 26

10. What is a pashmina
a. An Afghan woman
b. A member of the cat family
c. A rug
d. A woollen shawl

[Antrax]

NOW you bring out the round where I know 6/10
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[lexprod]

I'll pretend I got 4th place instead of the actual 6th, to boost my self esteem XD
_________________
I'll have a P please...

[3iff]

[Suspence]

Woulda been 6/10 for me too in this round.

Great game, 3iff, thanks for running it.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[MNOWAX]

i know for sue about 6/10, the other four i guessed.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Scurra]

Alas I used up all my lucky guesses in previous rounds...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Antrax]

[referee]

Ouch, I definitely ran out of steam, but I'm glad I reached the final round.
_________________
Jan 21st, 2008: The pillaging continues.
Mar 4th, 2008: Rest in Peace, Gary Gygax. May your dice always roll a natural 20 wherever you are.

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

[Duke Gnome*]

[3iff]

Just waiting for Jesus_saves...she has until the Friday deadline but I'd appreciate an earlier reply if at all possible...

I'm sure someone is eager to claim victory.

(Fixed the pronoun for you. --Zag)

[Quailman]

It's just as well that I'm gone. I'd have gotten the five that I knew and guessed wrong on all the others.

[MNOWAX]

*finds old "Congrats Scurra on winning another quiz tournament" banner and puts it up.*
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Zag]

Isn't it rather tattered from overuse?

[jesus_saves]

submitted; 7/10, which i m ok with.

[jesus_saves]

[3iff]

Olympiad Round 6 - Final round

1. Who had albums titles "The Blueprint" (2001) and "American Gangster" (2007)?
a. Eminem
b. Linkin Park
c. Jay-Z
d. Kanye West
e. R. Kelly

2. The wrote the "His Dark Materials" trilogy?
a. Terry Brooks
b. William Gibson
c. Alan Moore
d. Philip Pullman

3. Author L. Ron Hubbard. The L stands for what?
a. Lafayette
b. Lemuel
c. Leonard
d. Louis

4. What is the name of the paranoid android from the Hitchhikers guide to the universe?
a. Gort
b. Kryten
c. Marvin
d. Wall-E

Kryten is from "Red Dwarf", Gort from "The day the earth stood still"

5. What colour is the zero pocket on a roulette wheel?
a. Blue
b. Green
c. White
d. Yellow

6. What is a John Dory?
a. An Apple
b. A Fish
c. A piece of furniture
d. An unknown person

7. When Warner Brothers acquired the script for Dirty Harry (1971) they originally offered the part to which actor (who accepted the role before dropping out before filming started)?
a. Marlon Brando
b. Burt Lancaster
c. Steve McQueen
d. Frank Sinatra

All of these actors were offered the part at some stage. Sinatra took the job but various problems (including holding the large gun) caused him to drop out. Clint Eastwood eventually took the part...

8. Rickets is a disease that affects which part of the body?
a. Bones
b. Bowels
c. Ears
d. Nervous system

Rickets is softened bones due to a lack of vitamin D.

9. In Scrabble (English language tile set), if you were to play 6 tiles on an otherwise empty board to make the word PUZZLE on six non-bonus tiles, how many points would this score?
a. 16
b. 17
c. 24
d. 25
e. 26

A sneaky question. Although the move wouldn't be valid in the game (as we have to use the centre square at the start or join onto an existing word), the catch is that there's only one "Z" in the English language set. The second Z must be a blank, scoring zero for that letter.

10. What is a pashmina?
a. An Afghan woman
b. A member of the cat family
c. A rug
d. A woollen shawl

scores (average was a high 6.8)

1st: 10 Duke Gnome (if you're going to have a perfect score, the last round is the best time to have it)
=======================================
2nd: 8 Sentran
3rd: 7 Scurra, jesus_saves
5th: 6 MNOWAX
6th: 3 referee

And MNOWAX sheepishly takes down the"Congrats Scurra on winning another quiz tournament" banner and puts it away until the next quiz.


Congratulations to Duke Gnome and very well done to the other five players who made it this far. Thanks to everyone who joined in.

The one-shot round meant no matter how well you did the previous round, you would start fresh for the next round. That made the quiz less of a foregone conclusion.

[3iff]

So ends the first Quiz Olympiad.

I hope everyone has enjoyed playing. I enjoyed it too although I seem to have used up all my question setting energy for a while. Thankyou for all the comments of appreciation.

It's been a pleasure to run this quiz as everyone plays it in such a good spirit and there's never any complaints about unfair questions. It is hard finding a balance for the difficulty of questions but I believe this format (multiple choice) offers an easy way to play the game and allows me to mark it fairly. Having separate rounds also stops any one player building up a big lead.

Once I get some time and build up my question list, there will be another olympiad.

Congratulations again to Duke Gnome. You now have a title to defend.

[Antrax]

Thanks 3iff, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I got extremely lucky on round 2 when I think I guessed 8 questions in varying degrees of blindness (but never better than a 50-50 shot), I still can't figure out how it seems on some rounds I knew most of the answers and some I had absolutely no clue, when the topics were pretty consistent between rounds.
And congrats to DG for stealing the victory from Scurra! and of course to Scurra, for his consistently excellent performance
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[MatthewV]

Personally, I think it is best to do well on the first round!

[Duke Gnome]

Thanks for running it 3iff. It was a lot of fun. (I actually only knew 7 of the answers in the final round, but went for Lafayette and Sinatra as they seemed to be on the face of it the most ridiculous and Jay-Z as he was the least prominent artist mentioned.)

[MNOWAX]

Wow, what waas a little bit of a shocker....

*Runs to have a Congrats Duke Gnome banner*
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Zag]

I would have gotten a 4 on that last round. Great job nailing that one, DG! Congrats!

Thanks very much for running the game, 3iff!

I know I've said this before, but it bears repeating: You have a great talent for making trivia quizzes. For almost all questions, you hit just the right level of trivia, where I can imagine myself knowing the fact even when I don't. (That is, they aren't so obscure that I can't even imagine knowing them.) And with many, you do a nice job of setting values such that a fairly knowledgeable person can eliminate one or two of the choices and be making a guess from a reduced set. I look forward to the next one, when your question list is built up again.

[Quailman]

Great job! If more than one person had been eliminated in Round 2, Duke Gnome would not have survived Round 4.

[Sentran]

I'm very happy with second place!
Congrats to Duke Gnome, I'll get you next time!
_________________
Sentran
"Speaking of double negatives, I haven't read greylab yet today." - Lifeinmomland

[jesternl]

tahnks 3iff, that was fun!

[Suspence]

[lexprod]

Congrats Duke Gnome, and thanks for the fun 3iff!
_________________
I'll have a P please...

[MNOWAX]

Gongrats Duke

I do have to say this was well put together, thats for modding 3if!
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX

[Scurra]

[3iff]

Thanks for all the kind comments.

I'll start question hunting, but in a leisurely way, and another olympiad will appear in due course...maybe before year-end.

[referee]

Well, but then how do we know that the P, U, other Z, L, or E is not the second blank?
_________________
Jan 21st, 2008: The pillaging continues.
Mar 4th, 2008: Rest in Peace, Gary Gygax. May your dice always roll a natural 20 wherever you are.

Be the Ultimate Ninja! Play Billy Vs. SNAKEMAN today!

[3iff]