EQC 2008 Club Teams Championships

Final results

The final official list of results runs as follows:

Analysis

1. Difficulty

A total of 1347 points were taken in the quiz out of 2700 possible, a percentage of 49.9. In detail, the difficulty profile, ie the number of questions at each observed difficulty (measured by the number of teams answering correctly) looks as follows:

We see a reasonably even distribution of difficulties between 6 and 20 correct answers, with fewer questions ending up at the difficult and easy extremes. In particular, one question was correctly answered by every team, number 2 about a Czechoslovak 800-meter runner with a world record still standing. Four questions were answered correctly by every team except one: questions 41 (card game with four main varieties and a name from «basket» in Spanish), 61 (Israeli foreign minister), 71 (host of America’s Next Top Model) and 91 (city also known as Dar Beïda). Questions 39and 79 were mastered by 25 of 27 teams; the questions were about the home country of Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary, and Kane’s last word in the movie Citizen Kane.

One question was too difficult for everyone, number 38 on a Russian entomologist and his namesake honey-bee gland. Two solo points were taken: Milhous Warriors answered question 55 on the Italian who wrote the treatise The Command of the Air, and De Knøsjes knew the answer to question 65 on a North African/Middle eastern cooking oil made from goat or sheep butter.

Three questions were correctly answered by two teams…
53 (Czech hockey player who defected and played in the NHL): Naapurivisa; Hovedstyret av 1914
70 (Spanish water polo player often considered best of all time): Naapurivisa; Café den Hemel
98 (South American rodent with name meaning «false paca»): JFGI; It’s Grim Oop North

…three questions by three teams…
10 (Bulgarian philosopher and literary theorist): Clockwork; JFGI; Nameless and Shameless
25 (the two football teams in the politically-charged 1941 German Championship final): Milhous Warriors; The Quizzers Who Say NI!; Cuthbert, Dibble & Grubb
89 (Spanish painter from Valencia with a variant of Impressionism): Clockwork; El Diablo en el Ojo; Viseo

…and two questions by four teams:
56 (first name of the son of the Buddha and also of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi): Café den Hemel; Tasmanian Nerds; More Cowbell; Nameless and Shameless
66 (five-letter name connecting footballer Kemal, artist Alain Gourdon et al): Põlva; Club Seals; It’s Grim Oop North; The Pitbulls & The Lipstick

Note that as many as 18 out of the 27 teams are represented among these 11 most difficult questions.

2. Combinations

Broken Hearts’ winning score was 73 points out of 100 possible. The best combined score by two teams was 85, as shown by this table:

 

The most complementary team for each participating team, ie the one with the most extra points compared to their own, can be seen in this table:

 

Even if the British teams dominated this competition, they need foreign help to break 90 points, as seen in the table of best triples:

 

(Note also that the winners, Broken Hearts, only feature towards the end of this list.)

Four teams together could have taken 96 of the 99 points awarded, through the combination of Naapurivisa, Clockwork, Milhous Warriors and one of Tasmanian Nerds, It’s Grim Oop North and More Cowbell. In order to make a superteam taking all 99 points, six teams were needed.