The Semi Final leg of Hero Megamind had its preliminary leg in Hero MotoCorp’s establishments at Gurgaon, Haridwar, Dharuhera and Basant Lok, Delhi. The Semi Final leg of the Megamind quiz was conducted in Jaypee Vasant Continental. Since Hero wanted to select 10 teams out of the 16 Semi Finalists;we decided on conducting four Semi Finals with the Top-2 finishers from each Semi Final qualifying automatically while the remaining two spots were kept for the Lucky Losers ,ie, the two highest 3rd place finishing teams in any of the Semi Finals. So, as the name suggests luck had a huge significance for the 2nd from bottom finishers in the Semi Finals. SF1 had a strong bunch of four teams who had come prepared by spending their previous evening watching Vanya Mishra winning the Miss Social Networking title. The solid start made by the teams from Head Office and Dharuhera gave them enough impetus to finish in the top 2 to secure their birth in the finals. It was quite heartening to see the then bottom placed Haridwar team opting for a double or nothing on being egged on by their colleagues sitting in the audience, and as the script goes they cracked the double or nothing and reached a respectable 3rd and gave themselves a chance to qualify as Lucky Loser. SF2 was the most closely contested leg with only 6 points separating the team placed 1st and the team placed 4th after the penultimate round. As a result, the strategies deployed resembled the game of Chess where players make their moves after weighing the pros and cons of their opponents moves in advance. Couple of teams buckled under the pressure and made howlers like identifying Mercedes as the title sponsor of SLPL and confused Ratan Tata’s voice with that of JRD Tata. The latter instigating McEnroesque ‘You Cannot be serious’ reaction from the audience. SF3 was a more one sided affair with the Gurgaon team lapping up all the points in the beginning and, quite literally, sat pretty at the top for the remaining rounds watching the other teams battle it out for the 2nd auto-qualifier spot. Hero employees knowledge of their industry was thoroughly tested in this leg, who showed why they are numero uno in the country, as they answered all industry related questions with ease along with identifying the voice of Cadbury’s latest catch Anurag of Wasseypur Hero MotoCorp left its best for the last with SF4 being the most entertaining quiz of the lot. With the brains of all teams performing to perfection in the first round. After the score-check, it seemed one of the two lucky loser spots will be taken by one of the SF4 teams. But it wasn’t to be as the Head Office qualifier kept on giving wrong answers on buzzers to fall 3 points short of the lucky loser spot after the penultimate question. The equation before the last question- Gurgaon qualifier to opt for an 8 pointer to give the HO team a chance in the finals provided they press the buzzer and get the right answer for +4/-2. Gurgaon qualifier, after careful deliberation, opted for an 8er. The HO team pressed the buzzer, after I gave them enough reasons to take a shot at the question, wrote [in his doctor like handwriting] Jhumpa Lahiri’s Idgah as the inspiration behind this Havell’s ad instead of Premchand’s Idgah. The laughter that everybody shared after that was priceless. A wonderful afternoon for the brightest of Hero MotoCorp employees. Some questions from the quiz: 1. This 66 year old classic re-launched in India with the taglines- ‘Fashion Unchanged’ ‘New age retro’ ‘A classic is forever’ and ‘Always with it’. Name it. 2. What is Namaskaar for India, Skyward for Japan, EnRoute for Canada, and Going Places for Malaysia? 3. Nicknamed as the Credit & Debit towers, these twin towers serve as the HQ of which International Bank? 
4. You shouldn’t buy a farm because you think you’re going to sell it the next day for more money. That’s a terrible reason to buy stock” ~ Warren Buffett to ______ investors who were frustrated with the stocks decline since its IPO. The investors in what high profile IPO stock is Warren Buffett talking to? 
Tweet
