Tata Crucible Chennai 2012

 We finally did it in our final year. Vishnu had made it to stage two years back. I never did. Neither with Kommu nor with Neeraj (who had also made it to stage two years ago). After Neeraj and Anand (Vishnu's regular team mate)  graduated out Vishnu and I paired together for one last shot. And we cracked it this year. 

In the prelims we did not do that well. Vishnu cracked about 10 out of first 10 questions, but the next 10 were mostly guess work. We somehow got in through the wild card entry. I was disappointed and excited at the same time. Getting a wild card entry means that other teams are better and you have to go through one more excruciating round. After a round of six questions we were tied with three teams with 10 points each. Then, in the next question one team got JRD Tata's full name wrong and was eliminated. And in the next question Vishnu got the Lego funda right and we were in. 

The first round was a dream. We got three out of 6 questions in the first round and were ahead of other teams (at 10 each). In the second round too, we answered three correct and were comfortable at 60 points. The next three rounds were buzzer rounds with negative marks. We knew atleast 4, but decided not to take any risks and indulged in no more guesses. Other teams tried their best to catch up. But negatives pulled them down. IFMR's team was particularly unlucky as they got three right and two wrong. Our strategy of playing it fully safe paid and other teams bled whatever little progress they had made in the negatives. Saarang Quizzing lessons had finally been useful!

In the final round the second team was 40 points behind, with 45 points at stake for the round. After first question was guessed wrong we had won. The feeling took some time to sink in. There was a sense of relief too. We got a MP3, a mouse and a Bag each. And small cash too. Some media coverage as well. Here and here. And here as well

Vishnu had come to know about it very late. We registered for it on Friday. I was in Bangalore for IIM interviews and returned back to Chennai for two days so that I could participate. This was right in the middle of my Shillong and Bangalore interviews. National finals are on April 8, but I am not having any hopes for that. If there is any book or site from which we can prepare for the finals please tell :)