InFest 2019 Reports | The Military Quiz, Mk. 1

Slot: Sunday, 6-1-2019, Morning.
Quiz: The Military Quiz, Mk. 1
Flavour: Military
QM: Kunal Sawardekar

Format: Teams of 2. Written elims, followed by finals with draft.

Winners:
1. Col. Sandeep Shankar, Ajai Ragde + Gokul Panigrahi (Draft)
2. Mihir and Shrirang Raddi + Col. Anand Karve (Draft)
3. Divij Ghose (Solo) + Prajot, Saqib and Samarth (Drafts)

Due to it being a Sunday Morning quiz, the attendance was low, but as the day warmed up, quizzers trickled in till quorum was fulfilled. The quizmaster for this eagerly awaited quiz was Kunal Sawardekar, the Military Gawd of Pune.

We had about 10 teams by the time the quiz started. What was great was we had specific attendance thanks to the topic chosen. Otherwise-non-quizzers turned up with their big guns, ready to prosecute the quiz to victory. There were 24 questions in the elims, with the last 4 having two answers each, so two-pointers. From the start there was a clear gap between the top teams (15+) and the teams that just made through (8+). This would not change much through the finals. The questions were topical and hence it is difficult to measure the easiness unless one is a specialist. However, there was a generous mix of derivable, interesting fundae and kolstylez thrown in for the fanatics.

Top 6 teams were taken into the finals. But staying true to his generosity and kindness as a QM and the fact that ‘Draft’ just played into the quiz, everyone was incorporated into the teams. The draftees were given the choice to choose their regiment. I am ambivalent towards this aspect at least.

The finals consisted of IRs interspersed with written rounds. Not much to complain about. All the questions were thoroughly enjoyed. 40 in all, at question number 20 there was a round reversal. There was close competition between pairs of teams for every spot. It was only until a few negatives put the Raddis behind, that the slow and steady team of Ajai and Shankar Sir marched to triumph. Weapons, armour, tactics and history, all were well-covered. Pouncing was fun and negatives did not seem to subtract enthusiasm, such was the research put into the quiz.

The first written round was a List it! of all non-posthumous PVC winners. This was a personal gripe of course and I guess not mine only. Had forgotten to rote-learn those. This created a huge margin of difference early on (before the 20^th Q) with a few teams missing only one and a few getting none .

The second written round was much more fun: Air Force roundels.

Overall a brilliant pre-lunch quiz which whetted the appetite for the quizzes later in the afternoon.

Report by: Omkar Dhakephalkar

Winners with QM