The BC Cup 2024 - Report

Set by Aditya Gadre, Aniket Khasgiwale and Yash Marathe

Format: 30 question elim to determine the 8 quarter finalists. 60 question quarter to determine the top 4 for the semi finals. 40 question semi-final to determine the top 2. A 28 question final to determine the winner.

Report

The 15th edition of the BC Cup took place at the Boat Club steps on the 24th of November, 2024 - perhaps a welcome change in terms of weather, but no-so-welcome change in terms of availability of refreshments. 

The elims were a mixed bag - some finding it easy like Rohit Suresh aka Rotti, Prithwish Datta aka Boss and Deepanjan Deb aka DD all breaching 20 points. The rest of the field was clustered in the range of 12 to 15 points. Venkatraghavan S aka Ingit sir corrected his blip from the last 2 editions by qualifying comfortably. Sammy sir, Arnold and Anannya Deb were all on 12 points - where Dada missed out by the narrowest of margins on stars. 5 time winner Suraj Menon, and our runner up from 2022 Sachin Deshpande rounded off the quarter finalists. 

The Quarter Finals:

The top 8 in the quarter finals were:

Venkatraghavan S (Ingit sir), Deepanjan Deb (DD), Rohit Suresh (Rotti), Prithwish Datta, Arnold D'Souza, Samrat Sengupta, Suraj Menon and Sachin 'Talent' Deshpande

All the quarter finalists started pretty well  but Talent and Boss maintained consistency and kept chugging along to build a good lead. Ingit sir got all the cricket questions that came his way and worked up to a good score in the first half of the quarters. Suraj and Sammy sir started surprisingly slowly and missed several answers they would normally have put away easily. In the second half, Ingit sir couldn't add to his tally, and Boss and Talent secured their place in the semi with Suraj, Sammy sir, Rotti and DD in the fray for the other two spots. In the last 10 questions, Suraj hit a purple patch and pulled away to cement his spot in the semi. The fight for the last spot came down to Sammy sir, DD and Rotti and to the last 2 questions of the quiz. DD managed to pull a clutch answer on Q no 59 and held on through q60 to make his first semi in 3 years. 

The Semi Finals: 

The top 4 were: Suraj, Boss, DD and Talent 

The semis, like the quarters, started with all players scoring early. But again, slowly and consistently Suraj and Boss kept putting away answers to pull away from Talent and DD. In the end Suraj (who had found his groove) and Boss (who seemed to be at his nonchalant best) - the two most historically successful participants easily made it to the finals. 

The Finals:

Suraj won the toss and decided to go second. Boss had a bad start- missing a question on Olympics athletics - a subject he is an expert in - and Suraj duly swatted it away for an early lead and a precious away goal. Boss did pull one back in his first home leg itself to tie the game 1-1. Suraj's first home leg and Boss's second home leg ended scoreless - meaning that we went into Suraj's second home leg still tied at 1-1, but with Suraj ahead on away goals, he would win with another scoreless set. Boss though seemed to have other plans and got two successive away goals on questions 5 and 6 of the set - to seal the deal and win the cup. 

For someone who flew into India from the US specifically for this quiz, landing in Bangalore at 2am, and flying into Pune at an ungodly hour, fighting jetlag through the day - this was truly a remarkable win. 

Many congratulations to Prithwish for winning his 3rd BC Cup! 

BC Cup Winner 2024: Prithwish Datta

Runner Up: Suraj Menon

List of BC Cup Winners:

2009: Sameer Deshpande and Suraj Menon

2010: Anannya Deb

2011: Anannya Deb

2012: Sumant Srivathsan

2013: Ramkey V

2014: Prithwish Datta

2015: Samrat Sengupta

2016: Shrirang Raddi

2017: Suraj Menon

2018: Suraj Menon

2019: Prithwish Datta

2020: No tournament

2021: Deepanjan Deb

2022: Suraj Menon

2023: Suraj Menon

2024: Prithwish Datta