BPHC's Enigma Quiz - Report

Host: BITS Hyderabad

Proctor: Omkar Dhakephalkar

Results:

1st Place

Finals Score: 122.5

Institution: College of Engineering, Pune 

Divij Ghose

Dhanajay Jagtap

2nd Place

Finals Score: 117.5

Institution: Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce

Shantanu G

Shantanou P

3rd - Charles and Pranav: (95) (Modern+PICT)

4th - Anirudh Anil Kumar Arnabh Sengupta: (90) (AFMC)
5th - Omkar Joshi and Hithvik Jha: (65) (AFMC+COEP)

6th - Akshay Parale and Omkar Borate: (32.5) (COEP)

7th - Suraj Prabhudesai and Shubhankar Panse: (27.5) (PVG+PICT) 

8th - Pranav Rao and Ashwin Subramanian: (20)

Report - Written by Divij Ghose, CoEP

Tl;dr : A MELA Quiz disguised as a General Quiz. Some great fundaes, some poorly framed questions but all in all an enjoyable quiz and a great effort by the BPHC Quiz Club.

The Quiz: Pune regional qualifier of BPHC’s Enigma Quiz. Pune was not one of the cities in which the quiz was originally supposed to be conducted, but due to some persuasion and effort by the COEP Quiz Club, it was conducted in Pune with one day’s notice.

Prelims: 30 questions. MELA heavy. 4-5 great fundaes. A couple of poorly framed questions (like the question on one rupee notes). A couple of sitters and a couple of questions which I would call trick questions. The tribute question on COEP was appreciated. Considering it was a 30 question set, highest score (16) and cut-off (7.5) were low. Top 8 teams qualified for the finals.

Finals: Largely a MELA quiz, with a considerable amount of military questions and a few general questions here and there. Decent questions in the IR rounds, with a few sitters in each IR round. The AFMC team dominated the first IR, but lost their lead in the second one. Most questions were on things we’ve heard of. I can’t say the same about the themed written round on “Illusions and Paradoxes”, but I can’t complain either (got to know about things like the Ship of Theseus paradox). Themed written rounds are not easy to set, and since they were going for a theme related to Enigma, I’d say they did a good job, even if it was a low scoring round (with the BMCC team being an exception). What I can complain about is the LVC : it single handedly brought down the level of the quiz. The connect was prizes named after people, but I don’t think anyone present in that room knew what John Charles Fields or Joseph Pulitzer look like. A couple of brave teams did go for the connect, but were promptly awarded negative points. While Charles and Floyd made up for it in the next attempt, the AFMC team of Arnabh and Co. were awarded another -5, which made them slide to 4th place. The BMCC team did well throughout, but slid to second place because of an incorrect pounce.

BITS quizzes have always been enjoyable, and this wasn’t an exception. This quiz was described as a “Pretty OK” quiz, but I’m not being too harsh on them because I can only imagine how hard it must be to organize a national quiz with qualifiers which suit each city’s quizzing style.

Note : This quiz was conducted after Chakravyuh, and all of us (at least the COEP guys) were visibly exhausted. This was a very long quiz, but Omkar Dhakephalkar conducted it smoothly enough for us to not complain about how long the quiz is. Props to him for that.

Mindspark '16 Quizzes - Report

The Technical festival College Of Engineering Pune hosted a set of three mega quizzes from 23^rd –25^th September. The quizzes each year draw a variety of audience with a taste of everything for everyone.

Torquest - The Sci-Tech Quiz

QM- Divij Ghose

Set By- Ipshita Paul & Divij Ghose

Winners- Shantanu G. and Shantanu P. (BMCC)

              Known for its status quo of hi-tech fundas and you-know-it-or-you-don’t questions, Torquest ’16 had been an interesting affair. The 21 question Prelims with 4 two part questions seemed tough, the quiz had high-school familiar scientists fundas and relatively easy tech questions, with the very first question bearing the answer ‘Torque’! The two-part questions and long framing added to the difficulty of the Elims and the teams were seen tickling their brains.  The quiz had a participation of more than 85 teams which jam packed the Mini Auditorium. Finals went smooth at a slow pace with the same question pattern as that of the Elims, the rounds in finals were interestingly named after Coldplay songs. As the quiz progressed a close fight was worth a watch then eventually BMCC proving to be victorious.

QM’s word- “The teams performed as expected but missed out a few simple questions despite enough clues overall a high scoring finals was an indicative of their immense knowledge”

Qonnoisseur - The MELA Quiz

QM- Rohan Tikoo

Set By- Dhananjay Jagtap & Rohan Tikoo

Winners- Pranjal Gupta & Rishabh Mehta (AFMC)

                The MELA Quiz on Day 2 of the fest began with a fresh Saturday but had a low turnout despite the love of Pop Culture among students. The prelims were an easy set of straight-forward 25 questions. The quiz was lighted by the goodness gracious presence of the then Quiz Club head Chinmay Tadwalkar. The finals had an engaging confluence of Western and Indian fundas which were workoutable with many oh-damn-I-knew-that moments. Some historical questions like the one asking about the artwork around the Preamble of India kept the interest going. The quiz ended with two first positions by Pranav & Charles and Pranjal & Rishabh (AFMC) but just for the sake of winner trophies and documentation the AFMC team got the (third) tie-breaker correct about Indian Spiderman Pavitra Prabhakar. Pranav & Charles had the funda but couldn’t name the character. The quiz was set on the lines of known fundas which needed to be cracked from the clues in the questions.

QM’s word – “There were a lot of questions to which people thought the answers were obvious eg. Grauman’s Egyptian Museum, Que Sera Sera, Peter Sellers. Top 3 teams were fierce as there was an extended tie-breaker round”

Chakravyuh - Pune’s largest Open General Quiz

QM- Aman Shaikh

Set By- Omkar Borate & Aman Shaikh

Winners- Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre

                 Most of the Quizzing janta showed up for the quiz which made the Chakra this year massive. The Elims had a mixed-bag of questions a lot of which were not meant for the commoners but for the stalwarts. The finals were a small set of two rounds of 16 questions each (total 32 questions) that included everything under the sky and beyond. A strong set of finalists made the finals intriguing with current affairs, sports and major general questions. The quiz was set keeping in mind the standards of the legacy of Chakravyuh and its importance in the quizzing scene. Special mention to team 6 led by Maitreyi Gupta and Anannya Deb who were at zero after round one of finals because of many positive and negatives but finished runner-ups also the AFMC team who missed getting into the top 6 by only one star marked question led by Pranjal Gupta and Rishabh Mehta. The winners are Alumni and great quizzers Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre.

QM’s word- “Setting and open Quiz had been quite a challenge considering the standard one needs to maintain as participants are the ones quizzing as the same age as we are right now. The teams performed well which was as expected, we tried to keep the quiz safe without ambiguity which explains the short finals. It was a good experience as a whole and we have improved a lot in the categories in which we were weak.”

Overall the quizzes were having a low scoring prelims than expected by the quiz setters with teams cracking questions in the finals. The event was a success, special mention to Akshay, Soumaditya, Ipshita, Karan for the event management, scoring and logistics. Accolades to Rohan Jr and Omkar Jr for their help.

Right after Chakravyuh, ENIGMA – The National Quiz by BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus was conducted which saw a participation of 10 teams with 8 advancing into the finals. Omkar Dhakephalkar being the enthusiastic QM, the quiz was a high scoring one which Divij and Dhananjay won.

We would like to thank all the participants in the quizzes it could not happen without you.

We will soon have the quizzes on Slideshare.

by Vrushabh Gudade

http://coepbcqc.blogspot.in/2016/09/the-mindspark-16-quizzes.html?m=1

Qonnoisseur 2016 - Report

Report- Qonnoisseur 2016, CoEP MELA college Quiz
Report written by Pranjal Gupta, AFMC.

Set by: Dhananjay Jagtap and Rohan Tickoo
Conducted by : Rohan Tickoo
Date: 24th September 2016

RESULTS
1st - Pranjal Gupta and Rishabh Mehta(AFMC)
2nd - Pranav Joshi(Modern College) and Charles(PICT)
3rd - Arnabh Sengupta and Anirudh Anilkumar(AFMC)

PRELIMS-  Thanks to the previous day's events, it was a relief that the Prelims started on time. (Quiz was delayed by 3 and a half hours the previous day) Only 20 questions though, with some nice questions on Moulin Rouge, Kahlil Gibran, Greta Garbo mixed with easy ones like Feluda and a few from the Marathi category.
But some of the  weirdly framed questions on 'Take Me To Church' and the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre(yup, not the Chinese!) combined with no part points on offer reduced the cut off to 6.

FINALS

The finals began with a written round on Simpson movie references, and teams generally scored well with two teams getting all correct.
This was followed by 2 infinite rebounds with a LVC in between.
The LVC was about artworks with Vladimir Putin performing the Labours of Hercules. Two teams got it on the second slide itself scoring a 50. But the SLS team waited too long and had to play catch-up throughout the remaining quiz. I felt the nature of the connect deserved not more than 30 points.
The remaining quiz was actually quite good, with some stand out questions being about Peter Sellers playing an Indian, Japonism, Yayati complex etc. But it was really surprising to see a total lack of questions on post 2000 TV shows and movies in a college MELA quiz.
As expected, it was tightly contested with Rishabh & I tied with Pranav & Charles for the top spot with 175 points, closely followed by Arnab & Anirudh at 170.
A tie breaker gave us the technical 'first position'.
Thoroughly enjoyed it and kudos to the organisers!

BJ Medical Quizzasm - Report

Report is written by Anmol Dhawan from AFMC.

Quizzasm, General Quiz  at BJ Govt Medical College, Pune
Date: 11th September 2016

QM - Omkar Dhakephalkar

RESULTS
1st - Anmol Dhawan & Pranjal Gupta (AFMC)
2nd - Anirudh Anilkumar & Hritvik Jha (AFMC)
3rd - Omkar Borate & his partner (COEP)

Other qualifiers - Sruthi & Sravya Darbhamulla (ILS Law College), and one team each from BJMC & SKNMC.


REVIEW
- Anmol Dhawan & Pranjal Gupta

Prelims - generally easy workable questions. Omkar had obviously toned it down from his usual quizzes at ILS/BCQC allowing for easier guessing. Questions were good, well framed and fundas were nice too.

Finals - again a great set. We felt there were some sitters in the finals which probably could have been asked in the prelims instead (new iPhone not having headphone jacks, Canonisation of Mother Teresa, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory etc). Could have been more representative - there weren't many questions from literature or sports.

The questions themselves were interesting, and considerably more workable than Omkar's usual quizzes, which was great and thoroughly enjoyable. A lot of great fundas too. The quiz also saw a bunch of first time quizzers work out questions, pounce and get them right, which we think is excellent.

The QM was also confident, explained the rounds clearly and crisply, and was fairly certain regarding what exactly he needed in the answer.

All in all, great quiz. Really enjoyed it.

Chakravyuuh 2016 - Report

Set by Omkar Borate and Aman Shaikh
Conducted by Aman Shaikh

Format: 25 question elims followed by a 32 question final on IR

Attended by ~ 100 teams

Results:
1st: Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre : 85 pts
2nd: Anannya Deb and Maitreyi Gupta: 75 pts
3rd: Vibhendu Tewari and Avaneendra Bhargav : 70 pts
4th: Abhinav Dasgupta and Shubhankar Gokhale: 65 pts
5th: Venkat Srinivasan and Samrat Sengupta: 60 pts
6th: Omkar Dhakephalkar and Pranav Pawar: 40 pts

The quiz started with a 25 question elim. The questions were a bit long and while workable, they could have been crisper. Some questions in the elims were totally know it or you don't. Overall the set was competent. The highest score was 19 while the cut off was 13.5 with one star

The finals had 32 questions on Infinite rebounds with half passing clockwise and the other half anti clockwise. The questions themselves were good and one notable point that the QMs should be proud of is that there were almost no Gawd awful peters. One major issue for me was that the quiz had only 32 questions in the final. Would have been nice if a couple of written rounds would have been added.

The finals had a good balance of questions (by topic) and were of a good difficulty level that didn't leave much to be desired. However, a general theme in the finals was that the fundas uncovered were great but the QMs tended to ask for the wrong thing - choosing to not ask a nice workoutable funda in favour of asking a tough know-it-or-you-dont . Also several cases of wildly varying difficult levels. Perhaps a function of inexperience more than anything else.

Another issue which may not have been in the QM control is the logistics.The projector died at least 7 times during the quiz requiring a replacement. Perhaps the organizers should have pushed for M13 which is significantly more reliable as a venue than SH2.

Overall the quiz was good - good questions, good time management (elims started *only* 15 minutes late and finished in exactly 45 minutes!) and fairly good questions. Aman conducted the quiz well and save for a few questions where I felt that part points policy (while clear) was arbit and unfair, the quiz was well designed.

Kudos to the QMs for keeping up the standard by not succumbing to pressure to include questions for the heck of it and ensuring only quality, standard questions made the quiz.

As for the performance in the quiz - all teams led the quiz at least at one point in the quiz. Abhinav and Shubhankar started well and built a good lead by the end of the first half. Samrat and Vcat and Dhake and PP too started well but ran out of steam. Anannya and Maitreyi started with multiple negatives but had a stellar a second half to finish second just 10 points behind the winners. Aditya and Aniket started slowly but chugged on and finished strongly to win the quiz for the second consecutive year.

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
2011: Meghashyam Shirodkar and Yash Marathe
2012: Kunal Sawardekar and Avaneendra Bhargav
2013: Meghashyam Shirodkar and Amit Garde
2014: Anannya Deb and Anirudha Sen Gupta
2015: Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre 
2016: Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre