Quiz Competition on NPW: Part 3

In this concluding part of quiz competition blog sequel, I would like to share the happenings in the last stages of the competition- semi-finals and the final... On knowing that we were reaching the semi-finals, we happily walked up the stage circumspecting the audience to noting their amazed faces! Infact, we both were even more surprised than the audience; Vishal was literally ducking his face saying 'fluke! fluke! fluke!'... But I can see the happiness in his eyes...

The semi-final was divided in two groups; 4 teams in each... We were the team C in 1st group... The rules were somrthing like this:

1) No negative marking in normal rounds, except in buzzer round...
2) The questions were passable to the immediate next team; except for the buzzer round where no passing was allowed...
3) A positive marks of 10 and negative of -5 was awarded! (even negative marking was awarded)...

The quiz commenced! I would lay down as many questions as I remember below:

1) Which river carries maximum volume of water into the sea...

Vishal answered "amazon river"... That was right! We got 10 points...

2) Sabin polio vaccine is mediated by which process through the human gut?

I answered 'pinocytosis'... We got 20 points...

3) Prions are biochemically?

I answered infective proteins... We got 30 points...

I could see the startled expression on audience's faces... They were surprised with the spontaneity we answered the questions... I was happy to see that...

At the end of this sub-round, scores of each team was announced...

Team A- 10 points...Everyone clapped
Team B- 10 points...Again everyone clapped
Team C- 30 points....We clapped
Team D- 0 points...Believe it or not...Everyone clapped even this time...!!!

Well, I dont remember the next few questions, but the scores were something like this:

Team A- 30 points
Team B- 30 points
Team C- 60 points
Team D- 25 points

We were leading from rest of the teams by 30 points... Guess what happened in next few rounds?

Next was the Audio-visual round...

Team A- The stucture of paracetamol was displayed... They answered correctly...10 points to Team A!

Team B- A picture of an old man was displayed... They were asked to name that man!!!

How can one guess the name of one of the crores of old men in this world... No one knew him... And he turned up to be Robert Koch... Team B was 'awarded' 0 point...

Team C (ourselves)- Structure of 6-aminopennicilic acid was displayed... And we had to guess that structure (basic drug moiety)... We knew the answer as pennicilic acid... We knew that it comes under beta-lactam antibiotics... So we answered beta-lactam ring... We were stated as 'wrong'... 0 points to us...

I suppose they could have considered the answer as the answer was not completely wrong (they were considering the answer if the answer given relates to the actual answer)...

With a tragedy, we went ahead to the next round... This was the buzzer round...The team to press the buzzer 1st would be given the chance to answer... Pressing the buzzer before the question gets completed would lead that team to disqualify from answering that question...

This was the most depressing of all rounds... 4 questions were asked in total... We knew the answer of 3 of them... But guess a climax! Our buzzer was not working properly...! The 1st time I pressed the buzzer, a 'phat' sort of ring it cried, instead of 'tring'... The 2nd time, same problem... 3rd time, same problem... I got impulsive and started hitting the buzzer on the stage in despair...! Then we complained the judges (we were thinking the 1st two times that we might not be pressing the buzzer properly, but we knew that we were wrong during the 3rd time; that's why we immediately complained!)...Guess an additional treachrous climax! When we pressed the buzzer again to show the judges that its not working, the buzzer rang with a loud amplified 'tring'...We became furious but helpless... The judges really thought that we were not pressing the buzzer properly! The biggest tragedy I ever experienced in my life! A huge 'surprise' by luck... Due to these few luck chances, we were out of the quiz just by 5 points! Just a half-question... Our points were 105 and the winners' points were 110 after the last round...

My team mate strightly walked out of the seminar hall in front of all on losing, even without taking his bag with him which he had brought along with him... We were highly depressed... I took his bag and went out of the hall... We were thinking what would we answer to all in our college on why we lost... No one would see the cause because of which we lost... Everyone just see the results! And the result was that we were defeated!