The planned city of Chandigarh got to witness perhaps “India’s most well planned quiz” as one of the finalists aptly put it. Team from all over the northern belt from Jammu, Dehradun, Roorkee, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Bhatinda, Amritsar etc. came down to Chandigarh for the inaugural edition of Campus Crucible here.
The prelim by the standards in the other cities was a little easier and as a result the scores were quite high warranting two wild card rounds.
The start of the quiz was truly dramatic with Punjab Engineering College requesting the quizmaster to tell them if they have qualified as they had exams – the QM refused to divulge the information ahead of time and said “Would you not stay of you qualified” and indeed they did.
The next drama unfolded as IIT Roorkee had a lone contestant and as per the new rules that was not allowed. The replacement team from Punjab Univ that came onstage also had just one member but he pleaded time with the quizmaster and said his teammate was outside the hall. Fortunately, he could reach him on phone, get him back in time and the final began with Pickbrain in his own witty way describing, “I don’t feel we are shooting a quiz, its like a Bollywood film”.
The final was an absolute battle of nerves with teams cracking questions at regular intervals. It moved quickly from one round to another laced with audience questions and a dash of humour from the quizmaster. In the final round of the quiz with each question the scales tilted from one team to another. On the final question Punjab Engineering College – Shobit Bhatnagar and Nikhil Dhar hit the buzzer and got it right only for the QM to comment “Every time they have a quiz and an exam they know it’s the exam they have to miss” as everyone burst into laughter. The duo were truly exited at being the first champs from here to move into the national final.
For the second place, there was a tie between NIT Kurukshetra – Anup Suresh Kumar and Protick Ghosh and Punjab Engineering College – Bhuwan Mahajan and Ketan Chaudhry, the latter won it to ensure a double for their college.
The audience at the quiz was truly impressed with the arrangements and the way the show was organised. People showered praise on the Tata’s for the concept in their feedback and requested the organizers to hold it twice during the year and not once.
WINNER: Punjab Engineering College – Shobit Bhatnagar and Nikhil Dhar
RUNNER UP: Punjab Engineering College – Bhuwan Mahajan and Ketan Chaudhry