Quizzers say online leagues have helped them balance time between their work and quizzes.
Bengaluru: Former quizzers who had stopped attending quizzes due to professional commitments years ago, are beginning their second innings in the mind sport, all thanks to online quizzes with an Indian Premier League-like league format.
Organizers say that online leagues such as Fundaesliga Quiz League (FLQL), Pro-Quizzing League (PQL), and Asian Quiz League (AQL) have seen a good response from regular quizzers and occasional quizzers alike.
Siddhartha Sinha Ray, a regular quizzer in his college days in the 90s, had to quit in 2005 when he moved to the United Kingdom. Fifteen years later, Ray has started quizzing once more due to the online events. He said the FLQL took him back to his college days.
The FLQL is played in the Mimir format, named after a mythical well situated below the Yggdrasil tree from Nordic mythology. Each game has four players and 64 questions. Each answer fetches one point. Usually, in an hour-long affair, the winner of each game moves up in the table until the league stage closes and the knockout rounds begin.
“I only scored five points in the first match. Many of my friends who were attending a quiz after a long time had faced similar situations. Though I managed to come second in the next week itself,” Ray stated.
Ishani Sengupta, an architect, stopped attending quizzes after she left school. She said online quizzes help her to get the time for quizzes amidst her professional life. “Even though I would prefer offline events, online quizzes have certain perks as well. One can participate in a Bombay or Bangalore quiz while sitting in Kolkata. “Even if two separate quiz fests are scheduled on the same day, it’s still manageable. Teaming up with people across cities became possible in offline quizzes,” she said.
Aanton Mukherjee, one of the organizers of the Pro-Quizzing League said that ten percent of the participants in the PQL for college students were participating for the first time. He added that the response to the event has encouraged them to think about creating shows for over-the-top (OTT) platforms or television.
Mukherjee mentioned the pandemic played a major role in the success of the online leagues. “Since online platforms were the only available modes at the time we had to make the move. The response has been encouraging. For the college quiz we got participants from 21 states from 120-plus colleges,” he added.
