BCQC March Open - QuiZeitgeist - QM's report

(Also see this report)

A decent turn-out for the quiz (27 teams). Good to see many new faces and some old stalwarts like Amit Garde and Manish Manke. Just like my last year's quiz, the top three spots were decided in the last few questions, it was exciting to watch with top positions changing intermittently.

Amit Garde was in great form, as he with some able support from Aditya and Kaustubh managed to just edge out the other two strong teams marshalled by Ramanand and Niranjan. The other teams also had their moments answering some tough questions.

The audience interaction was enjoyable, with our extra finances resulting in some good prizes for them. Also I noticed that the audience was more enthused by the special rounds, than the normal IR rounds.

Another aspect was that the quiz went off quite peacefully, with no acrimony among the teams or with the quizmaster :), a welcome trend after a few arguments etc in previous quizzes.

One drawback from my side was the intermittent changing of passing order of the questions,it could have been avoided. Also a few questions were perceived as sitters, though there has hardly been any quizzes without sitters, but still as a QM one doesn't feel good about that.It is a fine line actually, because on the other hand no one likes vague and obscure questions.

Thankfully there were no complaints of chestnuts, I am sure if one scrutinizes closely, some question fundaes would have appeared in quizzes before. But if it is not so obvious it is fine with me.

A few thoughts on some of the modifications that were there in this quiz.

1. Three member teams in the finals added to the thrill, as quite a few of the questions especially connects were cracked through teamwork.

2. There was an advantage to the top two teams from the elims who had a two question lead in the finals. This was to make the elims more meaningful, rather than it being treated just as a elimination which should be its secondary purpose, it should be treated as a written round prior to the final. As a written round has the advantage of equal competition.