I had a little rant yesterday about large teams etc and this obviously has raised the issue of whether team size restrictions are appropriate for a pub quiz. I am purely talking about pub quizzing here as obviously in any serious, competitive quiz restrictions on the size of teams goes without saying.
I have had a similar conversation with a quizmaster before and his general idea I guess was the logical one. Restrictions on team size will always be counter productive in a pub quiz. The only argument I could muster was that large teams may put people off playing in smaller teams and larger teams winning everything would drive punters away.
The quizmaster in return raised valid point. First off he pointed out I was looking at it from a "quizzers" angle whereas 90% of the players in the pub where there purely for the social aspect. His job is obviously to get the quiz busy, keep the players coming in and buying drinks.
He then gave me a situation...."If I restrict the team size to 4, what if 5 friends turn up? Do I tell one he cannot play?". Obviously risking the whole team pulling out and loosing vital trade. I could not really give a good answer back. His role is obviously to attract not repel custom and pleasing the many certainly is better than pleasing the few in this case.
But what can be done about the team sizes? The one time I have had a massive team of 8 we split into two teams of 5 and the added "friendly" competition made it much more enjoyable. Maybe an idea for quizmasters to encourage?
Maximum team size in the quiz I run is 8. I mainly take the venue's perspective on this- I agree from a purely quizzing perspective it should be 4 or 5. Once teams are too large they can't oprate efectively in a pub environment nayways. the ofer key question is: what is the mimimum number to spilt into two viable teams?
ReplyDeleteAs a quiz master, a team of more than 8 I'd suggest splitting into two - for the exact idea you proffer, to encourage competition amongst them. Less than 8 and it doesn't work, in my experience.
ReplyDeleteI agree a 4 or 5 person maximum would be ideal, but in terms of getting punters in, you can't restrict them. And a pub quiz is about getting them. A quizzer's quiz is something else entirely.