Mahaquizzer 2010 - Pune results

Organised by: KQA
Conducted in Pune by: Vishwajeet Narvekar (many thanks as usual!)
Venue: Landmark, Pune (thanks to the staff for turning up so early and for the arrangements)
School Winner: Roopak Karalkar (22)
College Winner: Sukrit Munjal(32)
Ladies Winner: Meghna Sreenivasan (11)
Open Category Winner: J. Ramanand (69)

Number of participants: ~40 to 50
Official final standings: keep an eye on this link.

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Updated on 6 Jun
* Links to Top 100 results, local winners, and rankings in the ladies, college & school categories.
* Link to the Mahaquizzer 2010 Q & A.
* Four people from Pune were in the top 100 (Ramanand, Kunal S, Suraj, and Salil), with a few more BCQC members from other centres. Roopak K was ranked 11th in the list of school students.

The Landmark In-Store Movie Quiz - Report

The Landmark In-Store Movie Quiz was successfully concluded on Saturday evening. Quizmasters Niranjan and Suraj conducted the proceedings with great (and dare I say, Dereksian) flair, while Harish and I provided logistical and moral support. The quizmasters asked about 60-70 regular questions to the audience at large, followed by a final round of about 5-6 questions to four teams of the top scorers in the regular round. The audience for the quiz consisted of about 50-60 Landmark patrons (all adults, and thankfully so, seeing as Niranjan took the time to speculate on the strip club-visiting habits of the participants) with a core of about 20 staying through the quiz.

In sum, fun was had by all. Sadly, I did not note the names of the finalists, so perhaps Niranjan can let us know when he sees this.

Report by Kunal Sawardekar

This was the 3rd Landmark in-store BCQC quiz. The earlier ones were on the themes of Comics and the Books of Harry Potter.

Quiz Show - an informal Movie quiz at Landmark

We're going plane-crazy on Saturday evening. With a quiz on movies. If you're a quizzing enthusiast (read 'drooling geek') show up. If you're a movie buff, we'll be waiting for you. If you are both, then come on right in. If you are neither, then this quiz is tailor-made for you!

maajraa kyaa hai?: an informal movie quiz by the BCQC and Landmark, particularly for non-quizzers.
main kahaan huun?: Landmark, SGS Mall, Pune
maal kab pahunchegaa?: between 5 and 7 pm, Saturday (22nd May)
kitne aadmi hai?: there are no teams, no formalities, no registrations. Just show up, take a seat or stand by, and participate.

That's about it, really. See you on Saturday.

Private rumblings from the Pune Brand Equity 2010 quiz

Niranjan and I teamed up for the Pune round of Brand Equity 2010 quiz where we finished 3rd. Neither of us is any good at biz-quizzing, and so admittedly, a mercenary attitude fueled the decision to travel the entire diameter of Pune. Despite the middle-level placing (not bad, given the presence and three-blade-close-shave elimination of some very good teams), we can't help a couple of rants.

On the difference between data mining and data compression

Or, to compress the question, the various differences between data compression. I hate having to answering such school-type questions¹, but I guess we're always ready to pawn our soul for 10 points :-). So we defined it as being techniques "for reducing the size of data for transmission/storage etc" (paraphrasing), but were ruled wrong. I'm not sure what the correct answer was, but I think it was to the effect of "extracting only that info from data that is needed" (memory fails me, as I was still reeling from the surprise). Without going deeply into data compression, there are different kinds: lossy (like in MP3s where you say that some data/info is unimportant enough to be thrown away) or lossless (such as in file compression, where you have a different, smaller form of your data to cheaply store or transmit). I'm not sure what was needed here.

The quizmaster did assert that he knew what he was looking for, he knew it would be one of this tricky ones, and he had sources who helped him "nail this one". He also did apologise a couple of times later, saying that he knew it was one of those borderline ones (i.e. for the inherent ambiguity, not that he was wrong about it), which was kind of him, I suppose. However:

• It's a terrible kind of question to ask - school homework-ish at best. Neither was it entertaining.
• If a quiz-setter knows a question/answer is inherently vague or prone to misinterpretation, then he'd be better off not asking it
• If it's not a domain you are familiar with, then you are dependent on hearing keywords in such answers - not a good idea
• Don't ask for 'layman' interpretations of technical questions - my layman lives in Shivajinagar, yours may live in Salt Lake.

On yet another case study of the demerits of Direct-and-Pass

I don't have much of a problem with big quizzes being designed to appeal to non-quizzing audiences, but why must they mess with the fairness of the rounds? The use of D&P over Infinite Rebounds (Infinite Bounce to non-Pune quizzers) is a menace that everyone in the game knows about. Most (and all good) quizzes use the IR system for their regular rounds because it guarantees one thing : between two shots at questions for any team, all other teams will have had a chance to attempt a question. IR does not smooth the fairness of the content or the fortune of receiving an easy question. But unlike D&P, you can be assured that your team will not twiddle its thumbs while the rest get to answer. Think of it as all teams receiving (almost) the same number of deliveries to bat to, at any given interval in time.

Yet another illustration of this from the other day: after 2 rounds of passing (one forward, one reverse), the number of attempts (out of 12 questions): two: A, B, F; three: E; five: C, D. Five vs. Two - that kind of imbalance would never happen in IR.

(This is no reflection on the qualities of the other teams, esp. the winners - just a commentary on why a quiz format shouldn't be so uneven. Let luck of the draw play its role in the content and team placement, but not the number of attempts.)

So why do big quizzes still employ an outdated and inferior system? Makes no sense at all.

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1. read up for the future: the difference between ink pens and fountain pens; between MP3s and MP4s; between first slip and third slip (about a feet?)

Brand Equity Quiz - Pune round results

Date: 14 May, 2010
Conducted by: Derek O'Brien
Venue: Ishanya , Pune

Turnoutt: 23 teams

Standings
1st: Infosys (C): Ajay & Jayakumar (95)
2nd: Advinus Therapeutics (A): Suraj & Siddharth (58)
3rd: Cognizant (B): Niranjan & Ramanand (55)
4th: Neo Green (D): Shubhodeep & Sandeep (40)
5th: RBI (F): Mohana & Priyam Bhattacharya (35)
6th: QED Baton (E): Nikhil & Tejas (10)
(IBM - Vishwajeet & Ramanathan just missed out)

Report
The theme of the year was 'social networking', so much so that it also was the answer to a question. This was one of the few really good questions in an otherwise routine Brand Equity quiz round. The finals began with a round of direct multiple-choice questions (no passing), went on to a round of 'dry' questions, followed by a 'identify' visual round (reversed passing) and another 'dry' round. The fifth round was an audio-video round, at the end of which the last team dropped out (there was a two-way tie for the 5th place). In the final buzzer round, 3 teams left the stage after 4 questions, and 2 questions later, the quiz ended as Infosys took an unassailable lead. However, the quiz had been decided in the 'identify' round thanks to a hat-trick of answers from the winners, who scooped up 35 points to leapfrog to the top, which they never relinquished since.

The questions zig-zagged from the immensely ordinary (such as identifying the poster of 'Kati Patang') to the slightly controversial ("the difference between data compression and data mining") and a couple of excellent ones (especially well-answered by Advinus). Last year's venue (the amphitheatre in the same location) had a better ambience than the banquet hall thingy for this time. For the quizzing geek, there was yet more evidence of the iniquities of not using Infinite Rebounds (Bounce), but quizzing philosophy has always been secondary in such events. The idea of asking audience members to ask prelims questions was more than off-putting. However, overall, the quiz was a lot less annoying than some other business quizzes, and the audience seemed to enjoy the show.

Questions from the prelims here.

World Championship of Quizzing - Pune details

We have an announcement on the World Quizzing Championships, and the details of the Pune venue:

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This is a solo written competition consisting of 8 sections (of 30 qns each) to be solved in 2 hours.

Date: 5th June 2010 (Saturday)

Time: Report by 3:30 pm. Quiz starts sharp at 4 pm, ends at 6 pm. Answers & Scoring will follow immediately.

Venue: Symbiosis Law School Auditorium, Symbiosis Law School, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune - 411004

Registration: Prior registration is mandatory to ensure your seat. Only very few extra answer sheets will be available for "on the spot" registrations, so confirmation is necessary.

Registration is free & open to all. To register, please contact the local coordinator as follows:

Pune Coordinator: Suvajit Chakraborty (+919370124365,chakrabortysuvajit at gmail dot com)

For the quiz format, visit this link.

Mahaquizzer 2010 (with Pune details)

The announcement for this year's Mahaquizzer follows. A short summary (with Pune venue details) is as follows:

When: 30 May (Sunday), 9 am onwards (timing to be confirmed)

Where in Pune: Landmark, SGS Mall, Moledina Road, Pune

To register: write to mahaquizzer@gmail.com with Pune in the subject line (since the venue may only has limited seating, it is recommended that you register in advance, by 23rd May).

Prizes: for the best quizzer, lady quizzer, school quizzer, college quizzer; as usual, the BCQC will sponsor additional prizes in some of these categories.

Note: the venue will not have desks, so you may want to get a writing pad along with your pen.

The full announcement from the KQA:

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We will hold the sixth edition of Mahaquizzer across 14 cities on Sunday, 30 May 2010. The cities where centres are being offered are Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati, Panaji, Thrissur, Mysore and Coimbatore. If we are able to obtain permission, Singapore will also figure among the venues.

The Quiz

Mahaquizzer is the National Quizzing Championship. It is open to individual entrants, irrespective of age or other affiliations (though we do suggest that the taker is at least 12 years old). There is no entry fee--except in Kolkata where hall-hire expenses will be met thus.

As always, contestants are required to answer 150 questions over 90 minutes.

Four prizes will be given out in each city: Best Quizzer, Best Woman Quizzer, Best College Quizzer and Best School Quizzer.

The person recording the highest score across all centres will hold the title of Mahaquizzer for 2010. She/he will also be awarded the Wing Commander G.R. Mulky Trophy for Quizzing Excellence. This trophy will be presented during ASKQANCE, the KQA 27th Anniversary Open Quiz Festival scheduled for 19th and 20th June 2010.

The Question-setters

Mahaquizzer 2010 has been set by Arun Hiregange, Dibyendu Das, Thejaswi Udupa, Mitesh Agarwal and Ochintya Sharma. Mitesh Agarwal will coordinate the event across all centres.

How to register

1. Participants interested in registering should mail Mahaquizzer@gmail.com (Mahaquizzer at gmail dot com)
2. Please mention the city where you would like to appear from in the subject-header.
3. Please do mention age and institutional affiliations if you are a student.
4. Since seating is limited in many centres, local coordinators will work on a first-come first-served basis. Please register by Sunday 23 May 2010 to avoid disappointment.
5. No entries will be accepted by email after the 23^rd. However city coordinators may allow entries on the spot if there is adequate seating.
6. You will receive a mail confirming your entry latest by 28^th May 2010. If you fail to receive your confirmation, please text the details to either Mitesh Agarwal (98452-59423) or your city coordinator (see http://kqaquizzes.org for details).

Previous Editions

You can have a look at previous editions of the quiz (2005-2009) here: http://kqaquizzes.org/quizzes/

Venues

We are working on finalising the venues--a list with full addresses will be put up at http://kqaquizzes.org in a few days.

Baar Baar Deco (BCQC May Open Afternoon Quiz) - Results

Date: 9 May 2010

Set and Conducted by: Suraj Menon

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. About 20 teams participated. 30 questions written elims.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams chosen by finalist teams as draft picks. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 1 written theme for free hit. 48 questions IR with round reversal

Results
1st: Team E - Salil Bijur, Aniket Khasgiwale and Nikhil Kumar Verma (draft) - 150pts
2nd: Team C - Niranjan Pedanekar, Aditya Gadre and Sameer Deshpande (subst. Arnold D'Souza) (draft)- 130pts
3rd: Team D - Kunal Sawardekar, Venkat Srinivasan and Gurudatt Bhobe (draft) - 120pts
4th: Team B - J. Ramanand, Yasho Tamaskar and Subhashish Das (draft) - 110pts
5th: Team F - Aditya Chandorkar + 1 + Vaibhav Bajpai (draft) - 95pts
6th: Team A - Prasanna Kumar, Rahul Nayak and Vikram Keskar(draft) - 80pts

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Dosvidaniya (BCQC May Open Morning Quiz) - Results

Date: 9 May 2010

Set and Conducted by: Aniket Khasgiwale

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. About 20 teams participated. 25 questions written elims.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams chosen by finalist teams as draft picks. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 48 questions IR with round reversal

Results
1st: Team F - Kunal Sawardekar, Yasho Tamaskar and Subhashish Das (draft) - 125pts
2nd: Team A - Prasanna Kumar, Rahul Nayak and Anand Viswanathan (draft)- 65pts
3rd: Team B - Salil Bijur, Suvojit Chakraborty and Vikram Keskar (draft) - 65pts
4th: Team C - J. Ramanand, B.V. Harishkumar and Gurudatt Bhobe (draft) - 60pts
5th: Team D - Aditya Gadre, Suraj Menon and Sameer Deshpande (draft) - 60pts
6th: Team E - Rashmi Machado, Jaspreet Rikhraj and Bharath S (draft) - 35pts

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Extentia Company Quizzes - III

When: Fri, Apr 30, 2010.
Location: Extentia ITT, Rd 12, Kalyani Nagar
QM: Venkat Srinivasan

First round: BCQC set email quiz sent to all employees Monday. Rohan Nakar a regular topper got all 14.5/15 correct. 4 way tie for 2nd at 14.

Theme: General
Participants split into 4 teams of about 4 each
IR with 25 questions
21/25 questions answered by teams

Notes: Competitive quiz where all teams scored above 3 points each. Loads of applause for several questions. Several 'difficult' questions solved by all teams.

Winners: Team 1 led by Chetan Shetty, VP, Operations
Runners up: Team 3 led by Prashant Main, SEO Coordinator
Prizes: Crossword vouchers in various denominations for all winners.

Report by Venkat
Earlier Extentia quizzes here