iQuizLeague

(By catwoman aka Subhashree Srinivasan)

The room was silent. Twenty people crowded in a corner; their faces lit from light of laptop which was the only source of light.

“But she is blond!!”, said Sumo as he took a closer look. Sweat trickled from his forehead.

“Blond??” This is not blond”, replied Mensa as he scrutinized the photo which had confused Sumo.

The rest tried their best to justify in the dim lit room or at least get a closer look.

The third edition of the Champions league of IQL started with not-so-good ambience but with an amazing set of questions from the quizmaster, Vinod Ganesh (aka Mensa ..aka Vindy ). The power cut at Barista (the new venue which some ignorant idiots like me weren’t aware of) annoyed the quizzing folks; still they managed to enjoy the evening.

As I chipped in late, I have no clue about the order of attendance .So here it is as on the paper : Vinod ganesh (Mensa), Vinod, Anil, Gopal Kidao, JK, Patrick, Kn, Subs(yours truly), Sana, Yaggy,Vijay, Samba,Kabbala, Harish,Sri ram, Gaurav, Matti, Raghuvansh, Sumo and Viswa.

The entire event was split into three stages

Stage 1 – Prelims (with everyone participating)

Stage 2 – Top 10 scorers from stage 1

Stage 3 – Finals with top 5 of stage 2

By doing this, more members were able to participate till the end.

(Ok, it looks like Mensa has given a couple of aptitude examsJ)

The prelims consisted of 30 questions which was a mixed bag – questions from ambassador of a perfume to who gave away award at Euro 2008 (one of the questions for which the quiz master was profusely thanked by every member present at the meet). The cut off was on the lower side and top ten made to the next stage.

The top ten (without regard to score) : Vinod , Anil, Gopal Kidao, JK, Yaggy, Kabbala, Harish, Sri Ram, Raghuvansh and Sumo.

The highlight of the evening was this stage 2 format of questions. A passage with 26 blanks(alphabetical order A – Z) in which each blank was connected to the previous to form a complete sequence. This covered all topics from movies to sports. A format like this needs intensive research which was very well justified. Creativity sells. A round of applause for the quiz master.

The top 5 scorers (without regard to scores): Anil, JK, Kabbala , Sri Ram and Sumo.

The final round was almost private since all the questions asked were cracked immediately by the participants and the very few questions which were thrown to audiences were promptly thrown back to the quiz master.This round did not take much of time and JK won it classic way (was on lead from stage 2).

Patrick and I, right from the prelims round, were getting eye exercises while Sana, Sambha and Yaggy were jogging to the laptop most of the time and Kabbala did some gymnastics across the table and got a closer look. KN avoided all this and slumped into a comfortable couch. It was difficult to read most of the questions as the font was small and group size was large. However, Mensa with his natural oratorical skills read out the questions. This is something, according to me, must be noted down.

Overall, a fantastic evening (drat!! I am running out of adjectives) and a bit of caffeine (and also whooping bill – since a couple of guys didn’t stay back long enough to pay the bill, Vinod H had to fill in for them). The IQL gang needs to set a mental reminder to remind that everybody pays their own bills!!

After most of us left, Patrick said, “let there be light” and lo – the entire Barista became illuminated in light.

When everyone parted in their own ways, KN turned to me and asked “Will you write the review?”

Evalavo Pannitom ethu panna matoma?

(Forgot that IQL was hitting National –for those who didn’t understand the previous line, just ignoreJ)