Ent Quiz at VIT Pune - Report

Quiz: The Ent Quiz
Date & Time: 14 May, 2022, Evening Session
Venue: VIT, Pune
Fest: Advitiya 2022
Format: Elims+Final
QM(s): Naman Jain, Aditya Pethe and Parth Hasabnis
Results:
1. Pranav Pawar and Omkar Dhakephalkar
2. Piyush Kedia and Shubham (college team)
3. Sahil Gupta and Akshay Parale
Other Finalists:
Palak Shah and Mehvish Mukadam (college team)
Sumukh Herlekar and Kamya Chandrashekhar
Anisha Karnail and Avishek Ghosh

I am not an ent quizzer, but specialization is for insects. So I accompanied my partner-in-quiz, Pranav Pawar to this quiz at VIT Pune, part of their quiz-fest. As Naman, one of the QMs was at pains to point it out, it was an Ent quiz, not a MELA quiz. So we had TV series, movies, Bolly and Holly, and even Instagram Reels questions, the latter of which is one of the most innovative rounds I have seen so far.
The elims were nice and short. There were a couple of googlies which did bowl us over. However, it was a high-scoring round, especially for the Open teams. That is not to say there were sitters. Ent was expanded to include things like the Met Gala, Elon Musk and Amul Ads and other unexpected subject matter. This brought in a nice tinge of gen to the quiz.
 
The finals were a short one – comprised of 12 questions in IR in six rounds, interspersed with two written and a surprise round. The questions had breadth, without going into the L and A categories of a traditional MELA quiz, sticking to Ent. Some of the questions required clarifications, and here the QM might have been a bit too harsh or abrasive in dismissing those. But the questions were good.
 
The written rounds certainly showed innovation. One round was based on memes (definitely the new Ent mainstay in today’s world), and another regarding references from Ted Lasso. The latter had answers from sports, history and even lit. Hard work was seen.
 
The last round saw the return of buzzers to quizzing. This was enabled using mobile phones and an online software. On Instagram Reels, there is a trend where creators dress up like movie characters and act out famous scenes. We had to recognize the famous scene/dialogue after the beginning of the reel was given. on buzzer At this point, there was a tie, but my team-mate Pranav Pawar pulled out a brilliant masterstroke of answer and we pipped Piyush’s team by 10 points. This was fun, and the buzzer effect of anxiety definitely heightened the joy of the win for us. With just five questions, it was not an unfairly scored round too.
 
We had a lot of fun and kudos to all three QMs for their research, innovation, and hard work.

Report by: Omkar Dhakephalkar