As part of our column InquiZDition, we chatted with a Singaporean quizzer, founder and administrator of the Five Quiz Group on Facebook
If you haven't already, now would be a good time to remember a quote found in Juvenal's Satires - Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? which translates to English as - Who watches the Watchmen? Famous quote, which gave the title to the famous graphic novel by Alan Moore (yes, of course you know everything about it) fits the context like a glove, and would've made for a great title of this interview...if only the interviewer paid more attention in Latin and knew how to decline the word quiz.
Man of the hour is Guan-Tong Tay, quiz setter from Singapore and one of the icons of modern-day quizzing.
Thank you very much for agreeing to this interview, I know you’re very busy.
Q: Since one part of our audience are quizzers who exclusively play local and regional quizzes, can you tell them a bit about yourself. Where you’re from, what you do…standard stuff.
A: Hello and thanks for having me! This is a bit surreal because I’m usually asking the questions rather than answering them. I was born in Singapore 49 years ago and have lived here ever since. Graduated as a medical doctor in 1997 and have worked in emergency for the past 20 years. I’m married with two children; the girl is in university and my younger boy (who is 18) has special needs. Work and family take up most of my available time, and the rest I devote to quizzing (5QG), reading and running.
Q: You are a well-known name in a Quizzing World, mostly because of your enormous contributions – first and foremost, for the founding and administering the Five Quiz Group. What drove you to form it, and what keeps you going after all this time, it has been, what, five years?
A: I really don’t think I’m a well-known name in the quizzing scene, certainly not as an individual although I’m happy that 5QG is growing day by day. Yes, it has been five years, but it seems like yesterday when the five of us (David, Neven, Jhun, Jerwin and me) met in another quiz site, liked the type of questions we posted but lamented that they seemed to be a minority so why not let’s form a group of our own where we can devote to posting (ahem) ‘consistently high-quality, diverse, and international-style questions’? And so we did.
As to what kept the group going, I think the most important factor is that we have such an excellent group of members who are so supportive in what we do, in participating by answering questions as well as contributing their own questions (either through the Collab Quiz or as ad-hoc). I have said it so many times, but it will always be true that 5QG will be nothing without our members and all the effort they put in to make it a vibrant quizzing home for all.
Secondly, 5QG probably fills a certain niche in the quizzing community as a free site purely for the posting and sharing of questions. There is no ‘competitor’ in that sense, no pressure on us to hit any sort of target or KPI, so we can just be what we are and enjoy what we are doing.
Q: As the frontrunner for the 5QG, you see a constant influx of new quizzers who are elevating their game to reach the top, and you see some older, familiar faces that have to keep up. Did your perspective on quizzing change in the five years of 5QG, and if it did – how?
A: I mentioned in my interview with Daoud Jackson that I was astounded by his knowledge when he first joined 5QG, so we do see some young quizzers who subsequently go on to do very well (e.g., Krešimir Štimac, Evan Lynch, Seoan Webb etc), while at the same time our ‘older’ members (in more than one sense of the word) are still going strong - e.g., Didier Bruyere, Ronny Swiggers, Steve Perry etc. It’s always an interplay of factors isn’t it - the older ones have the benefit of longer life experience, while the younger ones are (hopefully) hungrier, have better memory and are more clued-in to current culture. But ultimately, I think one generation will in time outshine and replace the one before, that’s how we progress.
Another thing that transformed quizzing over the past few years has to be COVID, which ushered in the rise of online quizzing (OQL, Mimir’s Well, KFL, FundaesLiga etc). I see it as a big positive overall because suddenly you have such an abundance of high-quality quizzing opportunities and material available to all regardless of your location, and that’s especially significant to someone like me in Singapore. Offline quizzing still has its appeals of course such as in-person social interactions, and elite tournaments like the WQC/EQC will retain strong credibility and appeal, but I’ll venture to say that I think online quizzing will continue to flourish in the long run because the benefits it brings far outweighs any flaws.
Q: Even though you showcase sets by various quizzers and organizations, you are also the biggest contributor to the group, and you have shared a couple of thousands of very good and relevant questions. Were those written specifically for the group, or do you have other projects besides 5QG?
A: Those were all questions that I had posted previously, mostly as my Pot Luck sets. Right around the time COVID began, I began compiling them by WQC genres and the result is over 6000 questions in two compilations. They are free to download on 5QG. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when top quizzers mention 5QG or my sets as helping them in their revision.
I don’t really have time to do much more in quizzing other than 5QG at the moment. I had the honor of helping to write the questions for the first two editions of OQL’s ICC (ex- High Brow) competition, and it was a great pleasure. I dabbled in some ‘paid content’ malarkey a while back where I write a few sets which were exclusively for sale - while I’m grateful for those who would actually pay for what I write, I realized that the happiness I get by sharing my questions is actually greater than monetary rewards, so it’s something I’ve since dropped. Of course, from a practical point, it helps that I don’t really need the extra money that writing quizzes bring in, so who knows next time I’m retired it may be something I look at again!
Q: What is your experience with Croatian quizzers and what is your input on Croatian quizzing scene? I’m not expecting you to give a detailed account, of course, but your perspective which you might have acquired through the group, or through interaction with the players. You did have an interview with Krešimir Štimac recently as well.
A: Wow that’s a toughie! I’m definitely not qualified to give any advice or input on a country’s quizzing scene haha, simply some personal observations. My first contact with a Croatian quizzer is Neven Milijić (my 5QG co-admin), and my first impression was how good he is and how seriously he prepares and studies for it. Croats also form the 4th largest group by nationality of the 5QG membership (just behind the UK, US, and India), and as you mentioned Krešimir did so brilliantly at the WQC with his 3rd-place finish. With a vibrant quizzing scene and many good young quizzers, I’m sure the future is looking bright 🙂
Q: As you have showcased some of our sets, and we posted a number of them in the group, what is your opinion on Zadar quizzes? It’s no secret that we’re trying to place our content to the international scene, we already started that with the Zadar Open and we are looking on possibilities of doing the same with our monthly quiz Kvizdarije, but do you think that is something realistic and attainable?
A: Firstly, let me thank you once again for permitting me to showcase this wonderful set from Krešimir, which I’m sure all our members will enjoy. It is especially great to have the opportunity to post two excellent sets (yours as well as the T100 culture & art set from the Serbian Quizzing Association) one after the other. My own personal opinion of quizzes from Croatia and Serbia is that they are usually of very high quality, with a tendency towards the arts and humanity genres, which is also very much my cup of tea!
I think it’s fantastic that you are making the effort to reach out to a wider audience beyond the local scene. I’m not sure if translating them into English is a major issue, but I would have thought that 90% of the effort probably goes into crafting the question, and the other 10% in translating. Maybe it’s self-selection, but most of the Croatian quizzers I’ve come across are fluent in English, and you also have translation software/ apps available nowadays, so going forward it’s definitely a win-win proposition in bringing Croatian quizzes to a worldwide audience.
Q: Do you have anything else to add?
A: My love for quizzing started when I was in my early teens, and I remember waking up at 5 am to record Brain of Britain from the BBC onto a cassette tale and transcribe the questions later. It was hard to access any decent quizzing material in pre-Internet Singapore, so I started writing my own. It has evolved into a life-long passion, and long may it continue.
Thank you again for having me on this interview. I hope I haven’t blabbered on for too long and bored your audience. Take care.
