A great way to spend a Sunday morning

An excellent quiz took place at the YWCA this morning, conducted by Ravi Venkatesh. Ravi had 35 questions with him while Shamanth Rao, who had been supposed to co-quizmaster, had sent 30 more to Ravi, though he couldn't make it himself.

Thirteen people turned up and split into six teams, created by a drawing of lots, and the quiz was well-contested throughout. No team was ever out of the race, and it needed a tiebreaker to decide the winner: Vibhendu Tiwari and Shiju Thomas edged out AP Alagarsamy and Nandan Krishnaswamy on the tiebreak question. The results:

1st with 21 points (on tiebreaker)
Vibhendu Tiwari
Shiju Thomas

2nd with 21 points
AP Alagarsamy
Nandan Krishnaswamy

3rd with 19 points
Mukund Krishnan
Amit Varma

Joint 4th-6th with 16 points each
Dipankar Goswami
Samrat Sengupta
Meghna Sengupta

Raghu Gopalan
Prasann

Arvind Krishnaswamy
Rishi

The quiz was well-balanced, and not too heavy: there weren't too many connects, and the ones that were there weren't too convoluted, as can be the case sometimes. The quizzers finished the quiz not tired and desperate for rest, as sometimes happens, but refreshed and hungry for more. More will duly follow.

The league standings (updated from here) are below:

BQC Points Table (as of November 26, 2006)

Amit Varma: 33.5 from 5 quizzes

Anand Sivashankar: 22 from 3
Vibhendu Tiwari: 22 from 3

AP Alagarsamy: 21 from 3

Ravi Venkatesh: 20 from 4
Rishi: 20 from 5

The Invizible Man: 19 from 3

Nandan Krishnaswamy: 18.5 from 4

Sumant Srivathsan: 17 from 2.

Arvind Krishnaswamy: 13.5 from 4

Aadisht Khanna: 12 from 2

Rajiv Rai: 11 from 2

Amit Pandeya: 10 from 1
Milo and Minderbinder: 10 from 1
Dhoomk2: 10 from 1
Rohan Khanna: 10 from 1
Shiju Thomas: 10 from 1

Prasann: 9 from 2

Prasad Shetty: 7 from 1
Rohit: 7 from 1
Saurabh: 7 from 1

Naveen Venkarataman: 6 from 3

Pradeep Ramarathnam: 5.5 from 1
Souvik Basu: 5.5 from 1

Arjun Chatterjee: 4 from 1
Leslie Mathew: 4 from 1
Mukund Krishnan: 4 from 1
Sarat Rao: 4 from 1

(There are also many two pointers, whose names haven't yet been included in this listing for reasons of length.)

To recap, here are how the points are allocated. Each member of a winning team gets 10 points. There are 7 points each for second place, 4 each for third and 2 each for being in the finals. In case of a tie between positions, points are split. (For example, if two teams are tied for 2nd, they get 5.5 each.) The only exception is for the top spot, which we always try to decide with a tiebreaker.

At the end of the season, we don't take aggregate results, but results from the top 60% of total quizzes. So if there are 20 quizzes, everyone's best 12 results are taken into account. That way, no one is penalised for missing a few quizzes or starting the season late. So far this season we've had six quizzes, and I'm hoping we can get more regular and have 12 to 15 more by the middle of 2007.

And, er, if you're a casual reader who chanced upon this post and are curious about what quizzing is all about, do drop in on the next one. As any attendee would tell you, it's not intimidating in the least, and you'll have fun. Keep an eye on this blog for schedules and updates, or join the mailing list.