One of the main aims of the IQO is to ensure that Ireland and Irish quizzers are well represented on the international quiz stage. With this in mind, we have devised a rankings system which will be used to find the top players to take part on the Ireland “A Team” and represent Ireland at events such as the European Quizzing Championships and Celtic Nations Championship.
The rankings are open to all Irish quizzers, irrespective of location, age, gender, background or quiz experience.
The system is based on quizzers’ participation in the following events:
- World Quizzing Championships (WQC) (held in June)
- Irish Open (held in September)
- Hot 100 (held every month, except for June)
- Squizzed (held every month)
This is a total of 25 quiz events per year. Understandably, not everybody will be able to participate in all 25 events. Therefore, each quizzer’s ranking will be based on the average of their best SIX results from the preceding 12 months.
The scoring works as follows:
- The top scorer in an event, be they Irish or from abroad, is awarded 100 points. All Irish quizzers are measured against that level.
- For example, let’s say Kevin Ashman has 84 correct answers on this month’s Hot 100 and has the highest global score of any quizzer for that month’s paper. He is therefore awarded a notional 100 points (even though not being Irish he will not receive Irish ranking points). Then let’s suppose we take an Irish quizzer John, who gets 42 correct answers on the same Hot 100. That event therefore scores John 50 points for the Irish rankings, since he had half as many correct answers as Kevin Ashman, therefore half the rankings points.
However, there are some extra rules to note:
- Firstly, the annual Irish Open and World Quiz Championships carry more weight in the ranking system than the monthly Hot 100 or Squizzed events. This is because they are a sterner test than the Hot 100 or Squizzed, i.e. the questions will be of a similar standard to those encountered at international events. Hence there is a 20% extra weighting for these events.
- Secondly, as mentioned above, the rankings are based on the average score from each quizzer’s best SIX results. It is not enough to top score on one event and then claim to be good enough to get on the A Team. Consistency is an important consideration. Should a quizzer have completed less than 6 events, their ranking will still be calculated by dividing the combined scores of their completed events by 6.
The rankings system is open to all Irish quizzers who are interested in taking part. The International Quizzing Association has published rules on the eligibility of those who were born, or are resident, outside a country competing for that country. The IQO has accepted these rules, a copy of which can be found on the European Quizzing Championships website.
These rules cover the eligibility of people to play for the Irish team. Once a quizzer meets these criteria they are eligible to represent Ireland. The following two rules also apply to those wishing to participate on the Irish A team:
- Quizzers must attend any ONE of the Irish Opens or the Irish venue of the World Quizzing Championships preceding the international event in question.
- All quizzers relying on scores in the Hot 100 or WQC’s to qualify for the Irish team must have their scores listed on the relevant websites as representing Ireland.
A few things to note on the rankings:
- The current rankings system began in December 2013 and have included all relevant quizzes since then.
- The rankings are done on an ongoing table, updated after each event. All results from events older than 12 months are discounted from the system.
- The quizzer ranked at No.1 at 31st December of each year is deemed to be the Official Irish Number 1 ranked quizzer for that year. They receive the IQO David Fay Memorial Trophy in recognition of their achievement. The past winners of this award are as follows:
- 2013: Lorcan Duff
- 2014: Lorcan Duff
- 2015: Lorcan Duff
- 2016: Mark Henry
- 2017: Lorcan Duff
- 2018: Mark Henry
- 2019: Mark Henry
- 2020: Mark Henry
Team selection for Celtic Nations and other international events
At the 2018 Irish Quiz Organisation AGM it was agreed that the Irish teams for the Celtic Nations would be decided by a three-person selection panel.
The panel will use the Irish quiz rankings as a key indicator of who should compete on each team, but it will also have the freedom to include quizzers not on the rankings (or who haven’t completed enough events to reach an appropriate ranking), rotate players among teams, match up quizzers based on strengths and weaknesses, and so on.
Within reason, the panel will endeavour to give most (if not all) quizzers who travel to an event a place on a team at some stage, but it must balance this with the need to field strong, competitive Irish teams, so it’s not guaranteed that all Irish quizzers will get onto a team. The Celtic Nations, for example, features a number of individual, pairs and fun quiz events, in which everyone can take part.