WarP 2006, the annual computer symposium of DPS Mathura Road, was held on 23rd and 24th November 2006. It was make-or-break for the Code Warriors, as we’d been told that by the principal that if we did not win this, we would not have Code Wars 2006.
Day 1 was not that good. The opening ceremony was so long and boring, with everyone invited giving such long speeches. At one point, the HOD of DPS MR computer department said ‘…we are going to give each participant…’ followed by a long pause, in which people crossed their fingers and muttered under their breaths ‘pendrive!’, but she completed it to say ‘…a good time…’. What a disappointing way to start that day! 😉 We lost the event in one of our biggest strengths, web designing, for which Code Warriors president Anshul had gone. We got second position in the symposium event ‘Geek Speak’. The other ones on that day were programming, where we did not get anything; and gaming where our ‘gamer’ Abhimanyu couldn’t qualify beyond round two with FIFA 05 as the game (he lost in penalty shootouts).]
The other ones were ‘The Next Question’ – the quiz event prelims, and ‘Criss Cross’ – the crossword event. My partner for both the events was Prannoy, who’d come along without telling anybody at home. The quiz prelims were definitely tough, and it didn’t go well for most, with even the mighty DPS RKP team accepting it was ‘too cryptic’. It was definitely so ODD. But we did well, and qualified for the finals.
Then there were the crossword prelims, and that is one of our strengths because crosswords are what I’m good at. We cracked pretty much everything in it, while other teams were left wondering in the test hall.
At the end of day 1, we were pretty far behind on the points tally, and to win it, we NEEDED to win pretty much every event on day 2. That plan had a rude jolt when we came to know that Prannoy couldn’t come along for two events, because his mom would be coming to school that day. He couldn’t take a risk of going with us. That’s bad news, since in a team, we’ve topics divided over who is doing what. I got someone else, Gaurav, but he’s been out of touch for some time.
Day 2: We reached the quiz event late, when it had almost started. The other went off for their events, and as the quiz started, I had a sinking feeling as it became clear this was going to be hardcore tech dominated. Me and Prannoy had decided he’d be doing that, with me handling what I’m best at, trivia. Unfortunately, Gaurav simply did not have that zest in him, and being out of touch contributed nothing. Maybe I could’ve done something had I taken those fields for preparation, but I’ve been going to trivia-dominated quizzes with Prannoy till now, which is what I’m better at, and felt like a fish out of water in this one. I did manage a last burst to get some quick scores on board, but it was late and we did not get a podium finish, which we required. The finals again were odd – some questions were too easy, and some, like the majority of the ones our team chose, we so absurd. Also, they’d kept a stupid system where a questions passes only once – to the next team and that’s it. It was totally UNFAIR to deprive another team of points like that.
In the digital imaging event that day, our president Anshul came second. But rest went bad. Raj, our ace in group discussion, messed up and lost. The CW team had expected a boost from a podium finish by him, but when he did not get it, it was shocking as he’s been on a winning streak for a long time. We also did not get anything in the presentation competition, nor the surprise event (where they;d to invent an innovative use of a banana, real one, not virtual) and then there was the DJ mix event, the team for which we decided at the last moment, would’ve Soumit and Gaurav, since I’d thrown Gaurav off from crossword team. Apparently, we came third since we were supposed to send a couple entry. Must’ve been embarrassing for them two. 😉
Absolutely the last event was the crossword. I had Vivek, a bright guy from class 8 with me. He was still good, but the crossword was pretty short. Some clues were so stupid and long shots that no team got them. We did well in this, just losing out in the end over one question to MIS; where they got a direct, the time ran out, the bell rang – so I gave the correct answer, and the MIS guy chipped in simultaneously. There was some heated argument over who should get the points, since officially the time was up, but they got it. We finished a close second here. There was another controversy where DPS RKP claimed that they were tied for third place with Apeejay Noida (we supported their standpoint), but the organisers didn’t agree. DPS RKP left in a huff.
The awards ceremony was sad, with us coming overall third score-wise, but fifth position-wise. Just four trophies being taken back home in an event which we needed to win. Nothing left now, but to do something in Force Fest, Code, and Dynamix coming up next week for Code Wars to happen.
Oh, BTW, Prannoy’s mom eventually DIDN’T turn up at school. Talk about bad luck, maybe he could’ve come along and things would’ve been different…