InFest 2019 reports | The Undecided Quiz

Slot: Sunday, 6-1-2019, Evening.
Quiz: The Undecided Quiz
Flavour: Gen
QM(s): Pranav ‘Floyd’ Joshi, Charles Matthew

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

Winners:
1. Aditya Gadre and Arnold D’Souza  + Ankita (Draft): 250 points
2. Kunal Sawardekar and Divij Ghose + Vrushabh Gudade and Prajot Patne (Drafts): 125 points
3. Ajai Ragde and Sandeep Shankar + Vencat Srinivasan (Draft): 110 points

The Undecided Review

(This review was hurriedly written minutes before the deadline set by Comrade Dhakephalkar, in homage to the quiz being reviewed here.)

“A quiz only works out if one of the two setters is that annoying guy who keeps pushing the other one to set questions and get the work done. Neither of us (Floyd and Charles) is that person.”

: Pranav “Floyd” Joshi, kinda

The surprise, then, is that it actually turned out to be a decent (and more importantly, complete) quiz. The prelims were quite enjoyable: a mixture of well framed questions, a couple of peters, and the occasional know-it-or-you-don’t question. Overall, most questions were workout-able. Turnout was the same as the earlier quizzes, unfortunately. Top 6 teams went to the finals, but draft pick ensured that everyone present in the room participated in the finals.

Finals started with an 11 question IR, all of which were well framed and largely workout-able. Next was a written round on classic books badly explained by minimalism, with a bonus for getting all books and authors right. The round proved to be little of a challenge for Lit Gawds, and hence there were teams that scored the full 45 points. The second IR was as enjoyable as the first one, with some really good, well-framed fundaes. The second written round was on movie posters inspired by famous works of art, with bonus points for identifying all artworks and their respective painters. Again, if you are an Art Gawd, not much of a challenge for you, since this round too had a team scoring the full 45 points. I’m tempted to write that I wish the written rounds were more General , but this was after all an undecided quiz, so there’s nothing wrong with the QMs setting rounds specific to their taste.
Lastly, there was a long connect, with points for individual questions. Personally, I don’t have a favourable opinion about long connects, and this one didn’t do much to change that opinion. The individual questions were essentially elements on an exhaustive list, with the list being the connect. If you know the funda, you get the connect. Nothing to work out. Maybe I’m being too salty, considering the fact that a couple of teams did attempt and get the connect.

To summarize, I would say that this quiz occupies a niche: it was better than a good college quiz, but perhaps not as good as a good open quiz. The fact that the winning team (an open team) scored twice as much the team in second position (a college team) probably proves my argument.

Maybe I’m being too critical. Maybe not. I am, after all….undecided (sorry).

Report by: Divij Ghose

Winning Team with QMs