We are in what looks like an in-between era. An era in between the claustrophobic confines of indoors and what we always thought was ours – the freedom to be outdoors. Hopefully, we are now coming out of these pandemic-era policies. Not all of them were heavy-handed handed though. Some, of course, we hope continue long after we have forgotten all the terrible times of this crazy year-and-a-half (better sanitary focus and work-from-home are the two that top my list)
One of them is our desire to quiz. So in this transitional era, the team at Hindu BusinessLine decided to take the cautiously optimistic step of bringing back Cerebration after a year’s hiatus. If adulting begins when you turn adult, the 18th edition of the Cerebration Corporate Quiz matured by quickly adapting to a state-of-the-art digital avatar.
The quiz offered some significant prizes of INR 1.5 lakhs for its national champions, and so over 6000 participants across India attempted the preliminary rounds over a week. From the preliminary rounds, 36 participants were selected, 6 from each of the regions. The winners of each region then competed in the national final. Watch the action unfold in the partially abridged videos below.
But before that, I have some BTS takes to offer. I generally keep getting asked about the tweaks I make to rounds instead of offering a straight-forward question-and-answer session. My reason has always been simple, contrary to the rounds that I end up creating 😀 – I don’t see quizzing as a mere Q&A activity. One can create an enjoyable for all three – players, audience, and organisers – when there is more than Q&A on offer. So, while I retain the core tenet of Q&A in every quiz, with the tweaks, I intend to make my quizzes go beyond celebrating rote learning and eidetic memory and add another dimension of problem solving.
So here’s how each of the rounds worked out – Round 1 allowed for 3 different players to score unequal points. And so, quite predictably, contestants played the 50-50 game. That approach worked only in 2 regions –
- Hyderabad – Both Kapinjal and Naveen had a go at all 8 questions. But the result couldn’t have been any more K-shaped. At the end of round 1, Naveen with 8 attempts ended with 1 point, while Kapinjal took a hefty 26 point lead, a lead that meant that Naveen even with the last answer of the quiz would have fallen 1 point short of Kapinjal.
- Mumbai – Another funny one this, where Shantanu amassed 5 out of 8 correct answers. On the opposing end of the luck spectrum was Preetham had the exact opposite luck of 5 wrong answers! That contrast eventually meant Preetham’s 9 answer parade at the end couldn’t even bring him close to Shantanu.
In the remaining 4 locations, the top 2-3 were within one answer of each other after Round 1. Interestingly, in Bengaluru, Yogesa rode his luck (and bravado, of course) to win on the last question of the quiz after being 20 points behind the leader of round 1.
Round 2 – Friend In Need – Since passing isn’t an option in online competitive quizzes, the only possible option is to do buzzers. But just buzzers also makes it uber-boring. So, in this round, I had contestants piggybacking on answers by other buzzer-happy contestants. While they may not win as a result of one piggyback, they will end up with a non-zero score against their name. Thankfully, the round worked fairly well as contestants were more than happy to help others out. But of course, it worked really well for Preetham and Rohan in Mumbai and Delhi, respectively, who collected points from me and goodwill from fellow contestants.
Flowing beautifully as a sequel to Friend In Need was Saving Grace where, after having observed each other for the first couple of rounds, the contestants were expected to know each other’s capabilities. And in the way it played out, the participants had a fair bit of banter with each other too, and I, for one, wouldn’t let an opportunity like that pass by without sneaking in a comment. This round brought out the smiles among participants, a rarity in such intense competitions, thus making for a delightful viewing. I am patting my back as I write this.
And finally, after all the fun and games of the first three rounds, where we started with 3 players scoring points, then 2 players helping each other and scoring points, to finally only one player scoring points, but others avoiding losing points if they figured each other out well. The last round was old-school answer on the buzzer, except with a simple twist that if you were confident of the answer, you could double your points. Remembering that minor detail was really crucial for –
- Kapinjal, who gave himself the extra cushion of comfort with those “doubles,” and
- Pranav, who came from a 37-point distance to a 7-point distance of giving Jayakanthan a real qualification scare. If only, there was one more question, this post would have had a different headline and the words ‘underdog’ and ‘upset’ would have found mention
I hope I could give you, dear reader (all 4 of you 😛 ), an insight into why I do what I do. Hopefully, it makes you think of the quizmaster as not just as a content curator but as an experience artist.
Wow… I can’t believe in my decade of writing about quizzing, that previous sentence has never been written before now. Well, it has now been written and I feel I will use it as an anchor to describe more quizzes in future. For now, let’s watch the action at Cerebration 2021-
Chennai
Watch how Jayakanthan from TCS survived the late onslaught of the only college representative in the hexad – Pranav Hari from IIT Madras. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.
Kochi
Watch Jameer KB from QCollective exhibiting a masterclass in calm and composed quizzing. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.
Bengaluru
Offering stories within a story and reactions of exasperation and elation in equal measure, watch the nail-biting Bengaluru regional final that went down to the last question. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.
Hyderabad
With Dale Steyn-esque sledgehammer and SRK-esque, Kapinjal from TCS celebrates his qualification into the national final as he stays clear of Naveen Kumar from Sai Mitra’s strategy of collecting points and goodwill from fellow competitors along the way. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.
Delhi
Watch slow starter Ayush Awasthi from EY slingshot past the duo from SAIL in the middle segment, and then keeping Rohan from Barclays at arm’s length at the end. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.
Mumbai
Watch Shantanu Sharma from IIT Gandhinagar survive a late scare to keep Preetham Upadhya from IIT Bom-at-bay. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.
Final
Watch Yogesa Metla from Bengaluru exhibit calm demeanour as he climbs his way to the top for “cerebratory” glory. Catapulting himself to second place on the last question was Jayakanthan from Chennai. And completing the podium trio was Jameer from Kochi, who reaped the fruits of silence on the tiebreaker question. The video is deliberately kept low resolution, you can watch the high res video here.