Thursday, October 28, 2010

Extentia Company Quiz VII

When: Fri, September 24, 2010 at Extentia ITT, Kalyani Nagar
QM: Prakash Kamath. Quiz set by Suraj Menon/BCQC
Theme: General

Email Quiz:
As always a 'warm up' email quiz was sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Winners determined by # of correct answers and timestamp on email.

Answers and winner: (Vcat) announced ahead of Fri afternoon's quiz. He won 'cos he got Mehrauli for the exact location of the Iron Pillar [Q: Where is this (pic) located?]

Finals:
* Good turnout at ITT. A full house for this Extentia location.
* IR with participants split into four teams as always.
* Team 1 started to lead from the 4th question. Competitive quiz where all teams scored over 30 points each.
* Most questions were worked out and answered by teams
* Teams were given a minute for each direct - to read long questions and work out answers. An actual stopwatch was used.
* Cordial atmosphere despite intensity of competition. No fights between teams and with the QM.

Winners: Team 1 by 30 points(Jaya, Soumava, Vcat......)
Runners Up: Team 2 on the last question (Farah, Rohan, Deepak, Zyfn, ...

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Mindspark quizzing - Chakravyuuh Report

Set by Gaurav Keskar, Aadinath Harihar, Mohit Karve with inputs from Amit Patil and Gaurav Mehta
Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre and Aniket Khasgiwale
Theme: General
Date/Venue: 10th October 2010, College of Engineering, Pune:

Format: 35 Question Elims, 54 Question Finals (29 IR + 6 Written + 19 IR Rev)

Results:

1st Place: J Ramanand and B V Harish Kumar (Team E) [Elims: 20 (4*) || Finals: 120]
2nd Place*: Anand Sivasankar and Prasanna Potdar (Team C) [Elims: 25 (2*) ||Finals: 90]
3rd Place: Meghashyam Shirodkar and Amit Garde (Team F) [Elims: 26 (2*) || Finals: 90]
4th Place: Mayur Srinivasan and Abhishek Padmanabhan (Team D)- IIT Bombay [Elims: 22 (4*) || Finals: 70]
5th Place: Ganesh Hegde and Shivaji Marella (Team A) [Elims: 25 (6*) || Finals: 50]
6th Place: Suraj Menon and Yashovardhan Tamaskar (Team B) [Elims: 23 (4*) || Finals: 50]
(*2nd place decided on Elims scores)

Best College Team (outside the finalists): Akhil Srivatsan and Mukund Verma (IIT Bombay) Additional Credits: Himanshu Panandikar for developing the entire finals on Flash (template provided by Shravan Aras)

Report
When I reached the venue, I was surprised to hear from the slightly hapless registration desk that registrations had closed as they had a large turnout. Though soon it became apparent that all the 500-odd teams that had paid money had not shown up, the actual number of teams to attempt the prelims (297 to be precise) was quite staggering for an open quiz in Pune. Admittedly, most of them were spillovers from colleges taking part in other Mindspark events - still, for a change, it was good to see organisers worried about managing that kind of scale.

The prelims for such an audience was decent - the answers to many a question would have been familiar to them. The elims referred to interesting bits of trivia, but lacked quality in the framing. The same would be true of the finals.

Our team struggled to qualify - in fact, we qualified 2nd last. Only to find out that Messrs. Vinay and Yash Marathe, who had been announced to have just sneaked in, had to leave the stage because the paper from the team from IIT Bombay had been incorrectly scored. We were left teetering on the edge, and it was a pity for Vinay and Yash. But I thought the right thing had been done, even though there was minor egg-on-the-organisers face - with so many teams and people, it's hard to keep the errors to zero, and it was good of the organisers to allow for protests.

The finals never went below a certain threshold of quality, which was good, but quite a few questions had the touch of inexperience in presentation. Hopefully, the young college students behind the quiz will keep getting better. Many of the teams gave good answers, even when they wrong - thus there were many claimants to the Samrat Sir prize for good guesses.

The written round, IMO, was a little unnecessary - there was nothing in the format that merited it. There were a few recriminations too, but quelled by Aadinath's impression of a young Mussolini, keen to enforce order and discipline among the restless masses.

We (team E) made a strong start along with team F, but found ourselves trailing after the 2/3rd mark. Team C had made a strong push by then, challenging the clear leaders, F. However, we found ourselves in a fortunate position soon, and a couple of misses by others saw us surge and open a margin that was comfortable in the end.

For a team that has finished in 2nd place at Chakravyuuh, a record four times, we'll surely take another first place. There was a reasonably good audience turnout for the finals as well, which witnessed a competent 11th edition of Chakravyuuh.

Winners list so far
2001: Shrirang Raddi and Amalesh Mishra
2002: Shrirang Raddi and Amalesh Mishra
2003: Niranjan Pedanekar and Samrat Sengupta
2004: Gaurav Sabnis and Neeraj Sane
2005: Sudarshan Purohit and Amit Garde
2006: Gaurav Sabnis & Shamanth Rao
2007 (Apr): Kunal Sawardekar and Shamanth Rao
2007 (Oct): Avinash Mudaliar and Harikrishnan Menon
2008: J. Ramanand and B.V.Harish Kumar
2009: Anand Sivashankar and Amit Garde
2010: J. Ramanand and B.V.Harish Kumar

And Gaurav's recounting of the genesis of Chakravyuuh in 2001.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Mindspark quizzing - Full Throttle Report

Set by Himanshu Panandikar, Mohit Karve with inputs from Aadinath Harihar
Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre and Aniket Khasgiwale
Theme: Automobiles
Date/Venue: 10th October 2010, College of Engineering, Pune:

Format: 30 Question Elims, 42 Question Finals

Results:

1st Place: Suraj Menon and Yashovardhan Tamaskar (Team E) [Elims: 19 (4*) || Finals: 85]
2nd Place: Kunal Sawardekar (Team D) [Elims: 20 (4*) || Finals: 70]
3rd Place*: Chinmay Pande and Gautam Unni (Team C) (Elims: 17.5 (4*) || Finals: 60]
4th Place: Chaitanya Pise and Ninad Alurkar (Team B) [Elims: 16.5 (4*) || Finals: 60]
5th Place: Vinay N and Yash Marathe (Team F) [Elims: 20 (4*) || Finals: 30]
6th Place: Jaipal Dhupar and Saransh Verma (Team A) [Elims: 17.5 (4*) || Finals: 30]
*3rd place decided on Elims scores

Best College Team (outside the finalists): Bharat Marathe and Aditya Ramachandran (MIT)

Please provide comments if you attended the quiz.

Report by Aadinath Harihar

Mindspark quizzing - Torquest Report

Set by Mohit Karve, Mihir Khatwani with inputs from Gaurav Keskar, Himanshu Panandikar, Amit Patil and Aadinath Harihar
Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre and Aniket Khasgiwale
Theme: Science and Technology
Date/Venue: 8th October 2010, College of Engineering, Pune:

Results:

1st Place*: Sachin Ravi and Raghav NC (Symbiosis Law School) (Elims: 18 || Finals: 105)
2nd Place: Nikhil Motlag and Avaneendra Bhargav (Elims: 16 || Finals: 105)
3rd Place: Jaypal Dhupar and Saransh Verma (Elims: 22 || Finals: 80)
*1st place decided on Elims scores after Tie Breaker also ended in a tie

Unlike previous years, Torquest was an open quiz this time making it extremely competitive. The number of teams participating in a "SciTech" quiz was also high this year. The elims started with excellent set of 30 questions, spreading across various domains of Science and Technology. It had a perfect mix of questions for a regular as well as a non-regular quizzer.

The finals had seamless 48 Questions in IR fashion (24+24). This was just perfect for a Scitech Quiz making it neither too short nor too long. Right from the beginning, teams B,C and F were locked in a fierce battle for the top spot. In the end we had a tie between teams B and F for the top spot. The tie-breaker questions again led to a tie between the two teams and hence finally team B was declared winner on the basis of elims score. The finals however made the quiz look more like a business quiz than a SciTech one. There was more focus on tech companies than technology. The partial points distribution decisions invited protests by teams for a few questions. Overall it was a well set and an enjoyable quiz. Comments are most welcome.

Report by Amit Dandekar

Friday, October 01, 2010

4 Quizzes at COEP's Mindspark, including Chakravyuuh


MindSpark is the annual Technical Festival of the College of Engineering, Pune.
This year MindSpark will play host to 4 quizzes from 8th- 10th October 2010. Specifics BelowFor any additional clarifications. visit http://mind-spark.org/eureka.php.

1. Chakravyuh- the Open General Quiz
Sponsors: Atlas Copco 
Saturday, 9th October 2010
Timing: 11:00 am to 4:30 pm.

Venue: The Auditorium, College of Engineering, Pune

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/chakravyuh.php

Chakravyuh has been one of Pune's best known open quizzes for many years now. A general quiz that is literally based on anything and everything under the sun, the participants of this quiz can range from college students to software professionals. Chakravyuh has gone on to produce quizzers who would later perform exceptionally well at national level quizzes. Previous years have elicited fantastic participation and the prize money remains as sweet as ever.
Status: Open Quiz (Anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.


2. Torquest- The Scince and Technology quiz
Friday, 8th October 2010p
Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/torquest.php
We wouldn't really be an institute of excellence in technical education unless our students were sound in their technical knowledge and fundas. Pit your love for technology against ours. Brush up your theory and find out how much you could actually apply it when you go out into the mad, mad world. Science and technology are inseparable, and this is a quiz where the passion for both would find a home.
Status: Open Quiz (anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

3. Full Throttle- The Automobile Quiz
(in association with the COEP SAE Collegiate Club)
Sunday, 10th October, 2010

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/fullthrottle.php

Have your fingers always itched to pull apart an engine to pieces and check how it works than just admiring the beauty of the bike and riding it? Then test your automobile wisdom in this adrenaline pumping quiz. Cars, bikes, and everything capable of clocking some serious revs- get ready to experience the rush! Turn up your collars, and roll up your sleeves, for only the sharpest can keep pace with Full Throttle.

Status: Open Quiz (Anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

4. 10^-9- The Nanotechnology Quiz
Sunday, 10th October, 2010

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/10%5E9.php

From nanotubes to colloids to powder technology. You need to know it all to crack this one. Dodge a volley of questions and advance in your quest to conquer the material world for this is the Nanotechnology quiz. The winner takes it all.

Status: College Quiz (I Cards required)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.
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Total Prize Money to be won : Rs 60, 000/-

Goodies for participants and Loads of Audience Prizes (Movie Tickets, Magazines, Anti Virus Packs, T Shirts etc.)

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For more details contact:

Aadinath Harihar +91 98224 31348 (chakravyuh@mind-saprk.org)
Mohit Karve +91 98907 77964 (torquest@mind-spark.org)

Himanshu Panandikar +91 90497 25707 (fullthrottle@mind-spark.org)