The Rules Of The Game

QUESTIONS  CLUES  SPELLING  SCORING  BONUS POINTS  GAMEPLAY   TERMS & CONDITIONS


OVERVIEW

A game consists of twenty (20) questions and you are required to type in each answer in the boxes provided as each question is asked. Total points for a game are dependent on time taken to answer, clues taken and bonus points gained.

You have ten (10) seconds in which to provide the answer to each question and gain maximum available points. Failure to complete the answer in that time results in a time penalty. The extent of that penalty is dependent upon how long it takes for you to provide the answer (see SCORING).

An automatic clue is provided in the initial phase of each question and additional clues can be traded for points at any time prior to answering a question (see CLUES and SCORING). Bonus points are awarded at the completion of the game based on your total playing time for the game (you may pause between questions without penalty).

Your score is displayed in tables that rank you against other competitors.





QUESTIONS
A game consists of twenty questions. Questions are displayed individually and each question must be answered before advancing to the next.

The Playing Time for a question is deemed to be the time that elapses from the moment the "Ready for your next question?" prompt is accepted until the enter key is pressed following your answer to that question.

You may pause during the game but only between questions i.e. before you accept that you are ready for your next question.



HOW DO I ANSWER?

  1. The maximum time to answer a question without penalty is ten (10) seconds.

  2. You must answer from left to right on the screen.

  3. Although there may be more than one correct answer to a question the answer that we require is the one that matches our answer exactly.

  4. You are considered to have answered a question when you press any enter key.

  5. You are required to enter letters and digits only - punctuation marks are not required in your answer although they are generally displayed in the initial clue. There are some answer clues where punctuation will not be displayed, as it would make the answer obvious.

  6. Case match is not required in your answer.

  7. When the answer has less than four (4) characters no match is required against the blank component(s) (see CLUES).

  8. Answers that are numeric must be given in digits e.g. the answer to the question "How many players in a cricket team?" is 12 not twelve.

  9. Peoples names will generally be the most commonly used name such as Tiger Woods. Note the clue screen will not show punctuation for that part of an answer that is a person's initial.

  10. The full names of countries are required except USSR, USA and UK. Note the clue screen will not show punctuation for these three answers.

  11. When the answer is an Australian state or territory, the abbreviation is required ie NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, TAS, WA, ACT, NT.

  12. 50/50 questions such as True or Falso or Yes or No require just the first letter as the answer. ie T, F, Y, N.

  13. When an answer is a month of the year, only the first 3 letters of the month are required.

  14. Use of "The": "The" is not used in the names of sporting teams, for example "The Wallabies" simply becomes "Wallabies". "The" is required in the names of titles, etc.

  15. The ampersand is not used in any answer. The word "and" is used at all times, including those cases where use of the ampersand may be strictly correct.

  16. Roman numerals match letters I and V or i and v.

  17. An incorrect answer receives nil (0) available point






CLUES

  1. Your initial clue indicates the number of characters in the answer for those answers that have four (4) or more characters. In order to increase the difficulty of answers that are only 1, 2 or 3 characters, this display is always a minimum of four (4) characters.

  2. When the answer has less than four (4) characters no match is required against the blank component(s).

  3. Additional clues are given one at a time following the use of the appropriate function key.

  4. Each additional clue incurs a points penalty.

  5. When the answer is less than four characters the first additional clue will be the blank component displayed as #.

  6. Additional clues are given in the following order:

    • Blanks displayed as # - repeat till exhausted;

    • Vowels - a, e, i, o, u, repeat each till exhausted;

    • Consonants in alphabetical sequence b, c, d, f, etc., repeating each till exhausted;

    • Numbers in sequence: 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0-1 and repeat the sequence until exhausted.






EXAMPLES OF CLUES
Initial clue for answer JET: _ _ _ _
1st clue required: _ _ _ #
2nd clue required: _ E _ #
3rd clue required: J E _ #
 
Initial clue for answer BANANA: _ _ _ _ _ _
1st clue required: _ A _ _ _ _
2nd clue required: _ A _ A _ _
3rd clue required: _ A _ A _ A
4th clue required: B A _ A _ A
 
Initial clue for answer 1984: _ _ _ _
1st clue required: _ _ _ 4
2nd clue required: _ _ 8 4
3rd clue required: 1 _ 8 4
 
Initial clue for answer 42: _ _ _ _
1st clue required: _ _ _ #
2nd clue required: _ _ # #
3rd clue required: _ 2 # #
 
Initial clue for answer
GUNS'N'ROSES:
_ _ _ _ ' _ ' _ _ _ _ _






SPELLING
Spelling is checked against the English (Australian) dictionary. Although some latitude in spelling is allowed, the game check requires that the following number of correct characters in your answer matches the characters in our answer:
Number of letters in answer Number that must match
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
 1
2
3
4
5
5
6
7
8
8
9
9

For answers with more than 12 letters the maximum allowable errors remains at 3.

It is important to ensure that the number of characters in your answer is equal to the number of characters displayed in the clue box. If you have an additional character part way through the answer it will push the other characters out of sequence and the remaining characters will not match.

SCORING
Available points for each question are displayed on the playing screen. Level and Category determine available points for each question as follows:

SCORING Level 1 Level 2 Level 3
Category Specific Game 1,000 2,000 3,000
All Categories 3,000 6,000 9,000
Specialist Categories: 2,000


There is a penalty loss of 0.5% of maximum available points for each question for each second of time over and above the allowed time of 30 seconds in standard play and 20 seconds in competition play. This is calculated in milliseconds.

There is a penalty loss of available points for a question for each clue taken. This loss of points is related to the number of characters in the answer. For answers of one (1) to four (4) characters, each clue will cost you one quarter (1/4) of the available points for that question. Each clue to an answer of five characters will mean a deduction of one-fifth (1/5) of the available points. Each clue to an answer of six characters means a deduction of one-sixth (1/6) of the available points for that question, etc...

Please note that in order to facilitate a faster game, the clues system deals only with integers after initial calculation. All initial calculations for clues taken are ROUNDED DOWN and all further calculations for points deducted are a multiple of the initial calculation.

For example:  A seven (7) letter answer in a 3000 point question
1st clue taken: The initial calculation is 3000/7 = 428.57.
This number is then rounded down to 428 and the points calculated as follows:
Clues Taken
Penalty
Points Scored
1
428
2572
2
856
2144
3
1284
1716
4
1712
1288
5
2140
860
6
2568
432
7
3000
0

The final score for each correct answer is dependent upon time taken and clues used.

An incorrect answer receives nil (0) available points.

Total game score is a combination of the total of scores from each individual question plus bonus points.

BONUS POINTS

  1. Bonus points are awarded based on total time taken to complete the quiz - note this is cumulative time in play only (remember you may pause between questions without penalty).

  2. Bonus points for each game are awarded at the completion of that game (20 questions).

  3. Bonus points are awarded if total penalty time does not exceed twenty (20) minutes. Penalty time is the time taken after the allocated thirty (30) seconds (15 seconds in competition play) of free time expires for each question. Total penalty time is the accumulation of that time for the complete game of twenty (20) questions.

  4. Bonus points are time dependent only. They are awarded at the rate of fifty (50) per second. There are a maximum of sixty thousand (60,000) bonus points available in any game.






GAMEPLAY
The game commences when you reply positively to the "Ready for your next question?" prompt. The question is displayed along with answer boxes that tell you how many characters are required in the answer.

In order to maintain a reasonable degree of difficulty there is a minimum display of four boxes. If the answer consists of three or less characters you must fill in the required characters from left to right leaving the remainder blank. You may accept an additional clue at any time by use of the appropriate function key.

When you are satisfied with your answer or wish to pass you must press any enter key. You may pause between questions as the time clock only applies to the time between the question and answer.

Two examples of points won for individual questions in standard competition are as follows:
An answer of ten characters in a specialist category, Level 1
(Maximum available is 1000 points)
Answer given within 30 seconds with no clues 1000 points
Answer given within 30 seconds with 1 clue taken 900 points
Answer given at 40 seconds with no clues 950 points
Answer given at 40 seconds with 1 clue taken 850 points
Answer given at 50 seconds with 2 clues taken 700 points
 
An answer of ten characters in All Categories, Level 3
(Maximum available is 9000 points)
Answer given within 30 seconds with no clues 9000 points
Answer given within 30 seconds with 1 clue taken 8100 points
Answer given at 40 seconds with no clues 8550 points
Answer given at 40 seconds with 1 clue taken 7650 points
Answer given at 50 seconds with 2 clues taken 6300 points

For any question to which you do not immediately know the answer you must decide on the best course of action. At this point you have a number of options - you may take extra time, you may buy a clue or clues, or you may decide on some combination of these options.

You may also elect to pass, in order to preserve bonus points. Bonus points are awarded to encourage faster play - if each of the twenty questions in a standard game is answered within 10 seconds (total accumulated time-in-play of ten (10) minutes or less) then maximum bonus points are awarded even if answers are incorrect.






RANKING
Your total score is then ranked against other competitors for the day, week and year. Rankings are also available within your organisation if this is requested at registration.

The top all time score for the last 12 months and the top score of the current month for each category and level are displayed when you enter that level for game play.

Monthly rankings are available only for the past 12 months. These tables are zeroed at 12:01am Eastern Standard Time (ie, the East Coast of Australia) on the first day of each month.

Note that if scores are equal, that score achieved on the most recent date will be ranked higher.






PLAYER HISTORY

Personal player history and player account details are available to all registered players.




TERMS & CONDITIONS
SportsTrivia and Quizmasters accept no responsibility for errors or breaks in game play caused by communication problems. If your game is interrupted and your game was not completed the game can be recovered but your last unanswered question will be marked incorrect. This approach is necessary in order to preserve the integrity of the game. Each game is recoverable for up to 48 hours, after which time the game is lost. Any incomplete games are automatically recovered when you log in to play a game.

While every effort is made to ensure that the answers to our questions are correct, no responsibility can be taken for the fact that some errors are unavoidable.

Please advise us by e-mail if you have found an incorrect answer. Sports Trivia may send emails to competitors from time to time with information on upcoming competitions, results, promotions or other news.

A player can only win once in any 12 calendar months. Sports Trivia reserves the right to reject any registrations.



Contact Information

SportsTrivia

www.sportstrivia.com.au

TEL: 1800 005 438

PO BOx 74
Toowong QLD 4066

info@sportstrivia.com.au