Angry Nerds. Max Pain. Grand Theft Answers. Total Kombat.
These are not the names of your favourite video games gone wrong. These were the different rounds at the TCS IT Wiz quiz for school students, which drew inspiration from popular video games. The quiz made ample use of animation, graphics and audio aids as angry birds in various hues, stolen cars and guns lit up the quiz stage.
A little green birdie stumps you with this: Which virtual place has sought UNESCO world heritage site status? Wikipedia, shouts this young quizzer from class 12. Bang on, beeps the bird.
In the Max Pain round, Payne (inspired from the gun wielding, bullet spraying game Max Payne) was literally shooting questions from the latest in the world of technology.
The Grand Theft Answers round saw zooming cars, with cops on their heels, striking questions rapidly. Inspired from the Grand Theft Auto game, any team could “steal” a chance to answer questions that belonged to the other teams in the first five seconds. So, what did Gary Thuerk coin? The term ‘spam’. Smart steal for the team that got this right.
“The idea behind the animation-based quiz is to pack knowledge through the games people play,” says quiz master Giri Balasubramaniam from GreyCaps, a quiz and knowledge services company.
The software for the thematic quiz has been developed by Bangalore-based company Blackboard Animation. GreyCaps is testing this software exclusively at the TCS quiz.
“The younger generation wants something fun and relevant. The best way to connect with them is through technology. Today, quizzing is not about what question is asked but how it is asked,” says Balasubramaniam.
For the brand connect, the quiz also had a round on Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
The Chennai round of the 14{+t}{+h} edition of the TCS IT Wiz quiz saw six teams (from class 8-12) battling it out for a place in the national finals. SRDFVV School emerged the winner, while Bala Vidya Mandir was the runner-up.
The Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bangalore rounds have already been held. The regional round now moves to Coimbatore.