Hi everyone. It feels like it’s been an age since we last spoke, even though it’s really only been an age. B612 is back with a new season and a new format, so there’s plenty to talk about.
The New Format: Triads
First, let’s address some baseless accusations.
Accusation: “Triads, i.e. sets of 3 questions as opposed to 4, are a pointless innovation on Mimir league quizzing. B612 is making this totally arbitrary change to the format just for the sake of it.”
Response: This is 100% accurate, we are guilty as charged. Triads are absolutely an example of innovation for the sake of innovation, but let me argue in favour of that for a second. “For the sake of it” is an excellent reason to do something.
I have written before about how starting a new season of a quiz league is very much just a question of drumming up excitement and enthusiasm among its setters. If the Whatsapp group where your setters hang out is dead-ish, you aren’t announcing a new season of anything. The B612 Setters group had some mild struggles with motivation during the months that we were away. It felt like there were now dozens of quiz leagues all doing mostly the same thing, and many of them doing it as well as it can be done. There was a sense of Mimir fatigue.
The triads format is such a tiny yet fundamental change that its true effects won’t be truly known to us till we’ve done at least a couple of weeks of this. What matters most is that it was a fresh way of thinking about fundas (triads, not quads) and that it resulted in a nice burst of creativity amongst the setters. It seems obvious enough, it’s easier to collect 3 cool facts than it is to collect 4. There was a flurry of activity on the Setters’ Whatsapp group for a few weeks and many ideas were tried and tested. The hype went all the way up, and suddenly we had enough ammunition for a couple of game weeks.
Consider also now the happy side effects of running quizzes in groups of 3.Quizzes are regularly being completed in about 45 minutes, but most notably of all, they’re being scheduled faster than ever (easier to get 2 yeses on a proposed time than it is to get 3). As I type this, Day 1 of Game Week 2 is coming to an end. A whopping 36 of the week’s 80 games have already been scheduled. I could get used to this.
In addition to the speedy scheduling, we’ve also been extremely fortunate this season to be blessed with a very reliable team of readers as well as a lot of enthusiastic players who are happily signing up to read games after their own quiz is completed. I realize I am now inviting the quiz scheduling gods to strike with misfortune, but I still want to share that the 80 games in week 1 were read by an incredible 34 different readers!
Top readers of the week were Shrotam Mahato and Rajdeep Saha with 8 games each, B612 dedicated readers who aren’t playing in the league themselves. They’re followed by Fiza and Ankit Bisht with 6 each. Among the setters, Ruru leads with 4 games read and the players lead is shared by Sayak Dasgupta and Gayatri Verma with 3 each.
If you haven’t read a game yet but would like to, it’s quite simple especially with the new scoring app. Go to the list of Scheduled Games and just put your name next to a conveniently timed game. Mail the players a zoom/google meet link a few hours before their game and run the quiz using the set which can be downloaded from the League Home Page, using the ‘Current Game Week’ button.
You’ll need to request access, and I usually grant it after checking if you’ve completed your game already this week. It’s a bit tedious and you’d be doing me a favour if you could add a note in your access request. Anything that assures me that you’ve played the set yourself.
Only an example, you can be more creative.
Alright enough chit chat, let’s talk about the game week.
Game Week 1 Stats
Here’s a handy chart showing us the Game Score distribution for the week.
13 games can be called high scoring, while only 2 games totalled for a score of less than 25. What I can tell you is that this is the best performance we’ve had all season. Well done everyone!
Achyuth Sanjay is responsible for the highest ‘Own’ score this week, answering 14 of his 16 direct questions correctly.
Seats played even enough in terms of score, though you were much likely to get a “musket” if you were in Seat 1.
Oh right, let’s talk about muskets.
Acing a Triad
Firstly, what do you call it? Is it a musket if it’s only 3? I heard someone suggest Muskethree-er, but you can tell me in the comments what you’d prefer to name it.
As you’d expect, the number of people who successfully answered all questions from a set was much higher this time around than previous seasons, it’s just easier to get 3 of something. No less than 53 people aced a triad this week and that’s too many names to list here.
Since this achievement has seemingly become easier than last season, it makes sense to raise the bar a bit. Acing a triad is alright, but could you ace TWO triads in a single quiz? A triple-double, let’s say?
Turns out you could, because 4 people score triple doubles this week!
But wait. What’s cooler than 2 triads? Correct, it is 3 triads. Is it possible? Could someone already have scored the elusive triple triple?
Amazingly the answer is yes! Jon Violet becomes the first person ever to ace 3 separate triads in a single B612 quiz. He swept up all 3 questions from Paintings by Color Scheme, Collective Names of Arteries, and Extension Packages of R. That is range.
Games usually get more competitive as the season goes on, so I’m not entirely sure if we should expect this achievement to ever be repeated this season. But let’s see.
Survey
Tell us what you thought of the triads in Game Week 1.
16 triads is a lot and I was already struggling with 15 last season. Rather than drag you through 16 tables of inane data, let me just use this space to draw your attention to some notable questions and quiz moments.
Ramen Styles: What do you boil for 8 hours?
Question: The 'Tonkotsu' style of ramen comes from the Fukuoka prefecture featuring a creamy, rich broth that is derived by boiling what for over 18 hours? A common broth ingredient world wide, barring some religious cultures, the word Tonkotsu translates to this in Japanese, thereby naming the style.
Answer:PORK BONES [Accept: **PIG BONES**; Prompt: Pork Fat or other Pork references]
The reader instruction is pretty critical there. Simply answering ‘pork’ would only earn you a prompt, and I watched more than one player get a bit annoyed at not being awarded a point for it. I can empathise, pork is certainly more than half the funda. But the question does ask for what specifically is boiled for 8 hours and no meat part would really survive that kind of process. This question was answered correctly in just over half the games.
Lion Heraldry: A lion rampant? Not rampant?
The lion heraldry quad was written a while ago, for Season 7, but was never used. It’s a cool topic though and this season it got picked up without its lead question, ‘Lion Rampant’, and I thought that was an interesting decision on the part of the editors. Rather than eliminate one obvious guess, allow it to hang over all the other like a spectre, influencing guesswork.
It failed dramatically in one question though.
Question: In heraldry, a leaping lion with both hind legs together on the ground and both forelegs together in the air is a particularly rare attitude, and is referred to as a "lion -------". **Which 7-letter word** fills in the blank, that is also defined in English as "standing out conspicuously; prominent"?
Answer: Salient
This question was answered a mere 2 times this entire week! A difficulty level we did not anticipate. Srikrishna Sriram and Vinoo S were the only ones who cracked it. Many others possibly saw this as the right chance to guess ‘rampant’, but it wasn’t to be.
Coldplay MOON MUSiC Typography: Week 1 things
We might as well admit it, this is definitely what one might call a bit of a ‘shady’ triad. By which I mean they’re cool facts but the guesswork required to answer these questions is such that they’re probably much more suited to a casual Infinite Bounce or pub quiz format than they are to a Mimir-like league setup.
Question: Moon Music is the tenth studio album by British rock band Coldplay. There are several theories behind the typographical choices made by the band for this album. **What specific typographical choice** in all of the album's songs, which can also be seen in the album's name, reflects the band's vision that each of us should take ourselves less seriously and be more humble?
Answer: The **letter I is in LOWER CASE** in all the song titles. (The album name is written as MOON MUSiC)
See what I mean? Cool fact, but very tough to guess. Only 5 people answered this question correctly, so well done to Ajit Nayak, Eric Mukherjee, Krishna G, Raunaq, and Siddhant Rao.1
Paintings by Color Scheme: Which Hockney?
I’m a sucker for art questions being asked in a new way. This question proved unexpectedly challenging though.
Question: This is the key colour scheme of **which 1967 pop-art painting?**
#6598B0 – Blue (pool) #C6AFA6 – Cream (ground) #E2E2E0 – Off white (spray of water) #4F745F – Green (trees) #C8BF96 – Green / Yellow (diving board)
Answer: **A BIGGER SPLASH** (David Hockney)
The real clues are in the parentheses, and something about those clues got a lot of people to reach David Hockney. At this point, we saw a fork. Some correctly guessed A Bigger Splash, but many others went for the more popular Portrait of an Artist.
Many common elements exist, but the most apparent difference is the definite lack of a diving board.
This is all we’re covering in the Game Week 1 review. Tell me what you thought of the new format of the set and the review, here in the comments or on our feedback form.
