Welcome to the Online Quiz League

We are currently welcoming applications for season 4 which begins on 5th May 2021. If you're a full team ready to go you can sign up at the Join Us. If you're an individual looking to join a scratch team then head to the contact page and tell us a bit about yourself and we'll find you a team for season 4.

Do you like quizzes? Of course you do, who doesn't?! Well the Online Quiz League is currently recruiting teams for our new season. We will have at least four divisions so you can be sure you'll be playing teams of a similar level to you and for just £55 your team will play 11 league matches and at least 2 cup games plus access to a wealth of statistics and membership to a growing quizzing community.

If you're ready to sign your team up then click on the Register page. If you're an individual player then go to the Contact page and send us your details. We'll put you in a scratch team with players of a similar ability level to ensure you have an enjoyable season.

How the quiz works

The quizzes are played to the standard MQL/QLL format. All questions are answered individually and this is how it works.

The QM will ask player 1 from one team a question, if they get it correct they score 2 points. If they don't know they can defer to any of their team mates to answer individually for 1 point however if they answer their own question incorrectly it goes straight over to the opposition where any player can individually answer for 1 point. If a player defers their question to a teammate and they are incorrect then an opposition player may answer for 1 point.

There will be four divisions it has been decided that all matches from second division and lower will play using the 'free guess rule'. This means that any player (in a 2^nd division game) can have a guess at their own question. If they are wrong then a teammate can also have a guess at the answer for 1 point before the question is passed over to the opposition.

This is where hand-signalling is so important. Teams can use whatever signalling process they want however the most common one is that the more fingers on display the more confident a player is with a fist or open hand showing 100% certainty down to 1 finger meaning, 'I can have a guess'

It is up to the Captain to decide who answers the question on a passover or a deferment. They can just give that player's name who must then answer.

The timings are strict, you will have just 15 seconds to answer your question and a further 5 seconds if it passed to a teammate or passed over to the opposition. If teams wish to play to longer or shorter timings that is fine, just ensure that it is agreed upon by both teams. If no agreement can be reached play to the 15-5-5 rule.

Please note that unless indicated on the question sheet, if the answer is a person then a surname alone will suffice. But if a wrong first name is offered then the answer is wrong. For example if the answer is David Beckham then 'Beckham', 'David Beckham' or 'Dave Beckham' would all be acceptable answers but the answer of 'Robert Beckham' is incorrect. If a player gives a partial answer then the QM is to say 'prompt' informing the player that they have to give further information. Prompts will usually be mentioned in the answer section of the question.

There are 8 rounds of 8 questions, the away team will decide who answers the first question and questions alternate. After round 4 the play switches order and whichever team went second in the first half goes first in the second half. The questions are paired so it's important to remember to switch order at half time.

At the end of each round the QM will give the scores, in a close match any player can ask the QM for a score update during round 8.

The winners of the match receive 4 league point, if it's a draw it's 2 points each. The losing team score nothing unless they lose by 4 points or fewer in which case they score 1 point.

There will be trophies for the top 2 in each division and we will run a handicap cup and plate competition at the end of the season.

It is important that you set yourself up with an account at the new website which can be done at https://quizcentral.net/users/join.php . Once you are logged in you'll be able to see all the quizzes for the season as well as your half of the password each week in the My Page section. This negates the requirement for the weekly fixture email so these will no longer be occurring.
Each week your QM will be able to access the quiz from the “Quizzes” section and you will DM them your half of the password over Zoom, the opposition will do the same and the quiz will be unlocked and ready to go.

Matches will continue to be played at 8pm on a Wednesday evening and it is always the responsibility of the home team to arrange the Zoom call and forward the details on to the away team at least 24 hours in advance of the match. If you're the away team and you have not received the Zoom details then you should email your opposition to remind them and also please CC info@onlinequizleague.com into the email. All team captain email addresses can be located in the file under My Page.

All matches must now be scored using the online scoring tool. This can be located at https://quizcentral.net/league/oqluk/scorer. You can also watch a demonstration video of how to use the scoring tool at the same page. You must use this tool as it means that as soon as the result is submitted the website will update with the result, update the league standings and all the individual and question statistics. Feel free to have a play with it before the season starts to acquaint yourself with the software. If you have any questions at all on the new software please don't hesitate to contact me.

I will also be available every Wednesday night to be a QM if anyone needs or to be on hand for any technical issues, there is a full list of rules published on the website but this document will give you the basics you'll need to get you through the friendly.

And once again, thank you so much for joining in with the Online Quiz League, I've been blown away by the positive response, yes it means an absolute ton of work for me but I'm sure it'll be worth it to enable people to maintain a semblance of competitive team quizzing as Lockdown continues.