Twenty Paces - Prelims

Date: 7th November 2010
Time: 4.15 pm
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Format: Written. The top 28 finishers will go directly into the main draw of the tournament. 4 slots are reserved for Wild Card entries. For more detail on that, see below. For more detail on the rest of the tournament, check this post.
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open. To register in advance, send an email to rajivdsilva[at]gmail.com.
Wild Cards: These are for those who can't make it to the prelim on the 7th November for one reason or the other but are available for the main tournament. To register as a Wild Card, send an email to the above address stating that you would like to enter as a Wild Card. Wild Card entrants will engage in a written face-off before the first round matches to determine who goes through.

The making of the BiG Q 2010

On another blog, tambdimati.com, I have posted a review of how I prepared the BiG Q 2010 quiz. You can access it by clicking here.

BiG Q 2010 prizes

The prizes for BiG Q 2010 will be awarded at 5pm on Sunday, November 7, at the Corporation Hall, CCP Building, opposite Cafe Central, off 18 June Road in Panjim. Everyone is welcome to attend, and have the pleasure of staying back for the SEQC November monthly, which will follow.

The prizes, which total Rs 5000 in cash courtesy of a friend and supporter of SEQC, Sanjeev Fatehpuria, are:

* The BiG Q 2010: Rs 1000

* The Best Open Quizzers for the four venues: Rs 600 each

* The Best School Quizzers for the four venues: Rs 400 each

Those who took the BiG Q quiz and want to collect their BiG Q 2010 answer sheets, can do so from me on the day. After that, the papers will be kept with the respective venue coordinators for a fortnight, for participants to collect if they like.

Arun Hiregange wins BiG Q 2010

The Best-in-Goa Quizzer (BiG Q) this year turned out to be someone from outside Goa. Arun Hiregange, a Bangalore quizzer acknowledged as being among the top 10 in India, was in Panjim for the weekend, and scored 78 points to emerge on top in the quiz held on Sunday, October 17.

A Karnataka Quizzing Association counterpart of Hiregange's, Thejaswi Udupa, took the Best Open Quizzer prize at Panjim (the BiG Q not being eligible for both prizes), with a score of 77, while Rajiv D'Silva finished close behind at 73. Other top finishers were Dr V. Muralidharan (Best Open Quizzer in Margao with 66 points), Ajachi Chakrabarti (who topped in Vasco with 65) and Anirudha Borkar (the Ponda winner with 58).

In the Schools category, Raj Kunkolienkar of Mushtifund Higher Secondary won the top spot in Panjim with 44 points, fending off a close challenge from Julian D'Costa, the Best School Quizzer (BSQ) in Margao with 43. The Schools category toppers in Vasco and Ponda were Anurag Panicker (31 points) and Shraddha Moye (16), respectively.

The inaugural edition of BiG Q, held in September last year, saw more than 80 participants take the challenge in Panjim, Vasco and Margao. This year, Ponda was added to the list, and the number of participants across the four venues rose by 50% to top 120.

BiG Q 2010 Top 20 and complete rankings

The top 20 finishers in the BiG Q 2010, across all venues and irrespective of category, are listed below.

For the complete list of scores of all 124 participants with their rankings, click here.

BiG Q questions and answers

The question paper and answers to the BiG Q have been uploaded to Google Docs. Here are the links:

* Question paper

* Question paper with answers

BiG Q winners

This is the list of the top scorers at the four venues for the BiG Q 2010, held on October 17. A full list of scores will be made available soon.

* BiG Q: Arun Hiregange (score: 78)

Margao

* Participants: 30 (22 Open, 8 School)

* Best School Quizzer (BSQ): Julian D'Costa (score: 43)

* Best Open Quizzer (BOQ): Dr V.R. Muralidharan (score: 66)

Panaji

* Participants: 48 (29 Open, 19 School)

* BSQ: Raj Kunkolienkar (score: 44)

* BOQ: Thejaswi Udupa (score: 77)

Ponda

* Participants: 24 (18 Open, 6 School)

* BSQ: Shraddha Moye (score: 16)

* BOQ: Anirudha Borkar (score: 58)

Vasco

* Participants: 22 (10 Open, 12 School)

* BSQ: Anurag Panicker (score: 31)

* BOQ: Ajachi Chakrabarti (score: 65)

Be Quick or Be Dead

Tournament format: 32 contestants will be chosen through a written preliminary and organized into a tennis-style draw. The championships will feature 16 first round matches, 8 second round matches, 4 quarter finals, 2 semis and the grand finale that will throw up the champion.
Match format: Each shoot-out will be a one-on-one affair, with twenty questions being asked, all on the buzzer. Winners progress to the next round, losers exit the competition.
Key dates: Written preliminaries - 7th November 2010
First round matches (Top half of the draw) - 14th November 2010

First round matches (Bottom half of the draw) - 19th December 2010

Second round matches - 16th January 2011

Quarters, semis and final - 20th February 2011

Venue: The written preliminary will be held at the CCP Hall, just before the November Monthly. All other rounds will be held at the ICG.

QM: Rajiv D'Silva.

Participation: Open. To register, send an email to rajivdsilva[at]gmail.com. Spot entries will be accepted provided there are spare answer sheets.

The BiG Q 2010

Date: October 17, 2010
Time: Reporting time 11am
Flavour: General
QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

Participation: Open to all, entry free

Format: Solo, written quiz; 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes

Venues:

• Margao: 1st floor, Urban Health Centre, Margao, opposite Hospicio Hospital; coordinator: Ira Almeida, 9657320872
• Panaji: Goa College of Pharmacy, near Caculo Island, 18th June Road; coordinator: Aniruddha Sen Gupta, 9860089733
• Ponda: GVM's SNJA Higher Secondary School, Farmagudi; coordinator: Ameya Mardolkar, 9823171842
• Vasco: St Theresa's High School, Mangor Hill; coordinator: Mahesh Prabhu, 9823010242

Registration: Pre-registration is essential. To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, listing your name, contact information and the city in which you would like to answer the quiz.

More information: Call Aniruddha at 2415449, Anjali at 9860089733, Rajiv or Tallulah at 9823362217, or the coordinators at the other venues.

Waves 2010

3 quizzes will be held as part of Waves, the annual cultural festival of BITS, Goa.

SpEnt Quiz : 14th October, 2PM. Finals will follow immediately after prelims. Teams of upto 3 members. Open to college and school students.

Vices Quiz: 15th October, 1PM. Finals will follow immediately after prelims. Teams of upto 3 members. Open to college and school students.
Waves Open Quiz: 16th October, 2PM. Finals will follow immediately after prelims. Teams of upto 3 members. Open to all.

Total prizes worth 30K to be won.

For further details visit www.bits-waves.org or contact Shridhar at +91 9960534515 or Aditya at +91 9561939907.

October Quiz - Results

QM: Raunaq Rao

1st: Aaron Fernandes, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Ashwin Mysore, Divya Ramaswamy, Nitish Fatarpekar, Prajakt Kamat, Pranab Mukherjee, Raghunandan Mysore, Sunil Sardessai, Tallulah D'Silva, Taran Mukherjee - 405
2nd: Aadish Talwadker, Anil Rodrigues, Anusha Pai, Jayant Karn, Joshan Abraham, Leroy Veloso, Navin Pai, Shaswat Salgaonkar, Sohag Sen, Vinita Panicker - 355
3rd: Abhijeet Virgincar, Ajachi Chakrabarti, Kanchan Gatward, Kiril Vaz, Krithika Pradeep, Mahesh Prabhu, Priyesh Pandey, Sunil Thomas, Tara Anne Coelho - 320
4th: Ajit Parulekar, Anant Lawande, Anjali Sen Gupta, Dhruv Usgaonkar, Jatan Rodrigues, Joel Vaz, Omkar Borkar, Paul Gatward, Prajeet Madkaikar - 290
5th: Akash Kulkarni, Anagha Panicker, Anurag Panicker, Atharv Joshi, Joel Pires, Paola Mambro, P. D. Mukherjee, Rajesh Panicker, Rajiv D'Silva, Srijit Kumar - 255
6th: Aisha Kalangutkar, Akshay Rege, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Joshua Anranjo, Raj Kunkolienkar, Shishir Shankhwalker, Shridhar Ramachandran, Shubham Tiwari, Soraya Mukherjee, Surbhi Verma - 235

The next monthly quiz will be held on the 7th of November, to be hosted by Paul Gatward.

Announcing The BiG Q 2010

The BiG Q 2010, which expands to the 'Best in Goa Quiz' will be held on Sunday, October 17. This is the BiG Q’s second year, following on from the success of the inaugural edition, in which more than 80 participants from Panjim, Vasco and Margao took the challenge. This year, Ponda will become the fourth city to host this premier quizzing event in Goa.

The BiG Q will be a written quiz for individual participants, with 120 questions to be answered in 90 minutes. Reporting time is 11am, and the proceedings are likely to last till 1.30pm or so. This year, the BiG Q is being set by last year’s overall winner Annie Sen Gupta.

Entry to the quiz is free, and open to all, from the youngest school student to the sprightliest senior citizen. We are expecting at least a few outstation quizzers who will probably be here for the weekend, as the BITS Open Quiz is to be held the previous day.

Pre-registration is essential for participation. To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, mentioning your name, contact number and venue. If you need more information, call Annie at 2415449, Anjali at 9860089733, Rajiv/Tallulah at 9823362217, or the coordinators at the other venues:

Margao: Ira Almeida, 9657320872

Vasco: Mahesh Prabhu, 9823010242

Ponda: Ameya Mardolkar, 9823171842

The long quiz of the law

A report on the SEQC October monthly by Aniruddha Sen Gupta

Never expect a lawyer to wind up anything quickly. Raunaq Rao lived up to professional stereotype with his quiz, the October monthly. At least, during its first couple of rounds. He had devised a complex, multiple-clue formula for the questions in the opening two rounds, which made for interesting quizzing, but involved a lot of people running helter-skelter, some vociferous arguments, much confusion regarding outcomes and the delivery of judgements from the bench. A typical day in court, so to speak.

After the first two rounds, though, the dust kind of settled, and the remaining eight rounds sped by like a... um, well... like a case on speed. The level of the questions was such that the quiz was enjoyed by everyone present. Those who often sit stupefied through SEQC quizzes, looking like they've suffered a roadroller incident, were for once animated and joining in the hubbub. One teammate of mine celebrated what he said was the first question at an SEQC quiz that he had been able to answer.

The scoring, however, went for a bit of a toss, with the two scorers split by irreconcilable differences. The hand of an international betting syndicate is suspected.

At the end of the day, we had probably the first SEQC quiz where the scores were not formally announced, as a combination of the lateness of the finish and the discrepancies of the scoring saw people departing sans results. I suppose we'll know who won when Rajiv puts up the scores on this blog.

As Rajiv put it (you know I'd never utter such words on my own), Raunaq lost his QMing virginity in style, and we all enjoyed the defloration. We all look forward to being party to more such cherry-picking incidents in future SEQC quizzes. Caligula never had it so good!

Riviera School Quiz

Organized by: Rotary Club Riviera, Panaji
Date: 8th October 2010
Time: 2.30 pm
Flavour: General
QM: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly
Venue: Gaspar Dias Club, Miramar
Participation: Open to students of Std. X and below in teams of 2.

Heritage Quiz

A quiz will wind up events at the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Goa Heritage Action Group. The events that precede it ought to be quite interesting too. Everyone's invited.

Going Places
A Quiz on Heritage, Culture & Tradition

Date: 2nd October 2010
Time: 5.30 pm
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Venue: Panjim Inn, Fontainhas
Participation: Open