Quiz Report - The YZ Cup

Quiz: The YZ Cup
Date & Time:18 May, 2024, 3:30 PM
Venue: Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune
Format: One round only
Flavour: Sports-themed Gen
QM(s): Suraj Menon
Results:
1. Navya, Ranajeet Soman, Kunal Sawardekar, Lucky Kaul, Chaitanya, Dev K: 215 (Team 4)
2. Akshay Parale, Samrat Sengupta, BV Harish Kumar, Anurag, Dev, Ashutosh: 175 (Team 5)
3. Naman Jain, Aditya Gadre, Anurakshat Gupta, Charles Matthews, Uday, Aditya: 165 (Team 3) [Tied]
3. Pranav Pawar, Ingit Sir, Anmol Dhawan, Pranjal Gupta, Prayrit, Ira: 165 (Team 2)

Other Teams:
Omkar Dhakephalkar, Shubhankar Gokhale, J Ramanand, Saikat Sarkar, Man Agochar, Shivam Sharma, Maitreyi Gupta: 150 (Team 1)
Agastya, Deepanjan Deb, Vibhendu, Tewari, Kshitij Jyoti, Amit, Suryansh, Venkatesh: 110 (Team 6)

“Innovation comes out of great human ingenuity and very personal passions.”

“… regular ‘sports’ quizzers (whatever that phrase means) …”

There are very few things that make a journey on the Mumbai-Pune expressway worth it. But there is one colossus who holds the lamp beside the golden door of excellent questions – beckoning the tempest-tost huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The BC YZ Cup by Suraj “Pheno” Menon was the cooling breeze of a May weekend in which people from all over the country, including Mumbai and Pune, held their breath as every answer revealed a breathtaking funda.

Held at Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune, the quiz was well-attended (not a surprise, considering the QM) with about forty people (coming and going for various timespans) racking their brains in this sports-themed gen quiz. As people trooped in, they were in for a pleasant surprise. Till now used to the elims-and-finals format, the quizzing teams were broken up. Then the amassed junta was reconstituted into six teams, with newcomers being added to teams where some left as the quiz progressed. This was a great change as new bonds were forged, introductions made, newcomers and old ‘uns shared their knowledge, as the quiz itself had great width and depth.

A sports-themed general quiz, every question had a slight connection to sports, or the answer had that association. There were a few questions that could have had a good place in the BC Cup – completely sports, but those were a minority in the grand scheme of 60+ questions.

We made good time despite the number of questions, with the IR running at a nice pace and the quizmaster timing us all well. It did not seem exhausting at all, even after taking a break. This can also be attributed to the even distribution of BC Cup regulars. Hence a healthy back and forth and plenty of scribbling punctuated the last sentence of every question and the utteration of attempts.    

The quiz was so engrossing, that I cannot give a blow-by-blow account but in hindsight, Team 4 did seem to lead from the beginning. The rest of the teams were neck-to-neck and every direct seemed to be answered. Team 1 (read me) missed out on some obvious answers. How is sports connected to food, history, entertainment, the internet, to all the facets of life? This quiz has a question on each of them. Suraj was kind enough to donate some of his wealth, and the winning teams all got to go home with a book!

A sincere thanks to Pranav Pawar, for managing the venue, which was excellent as always. Thanks to the management of Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Pune are also in order.

Personally, I can’t wait for Suraj’s next last last quiz, which will be another Nobel-worthy experiment where much fun will be had.

Report by: Omkar Dhakephalkar
Photo credits: J Ramanand