The quarantine has been an unpleasant experience for anyone who undergoes it. But we have become increasingly accustomed to the transition brought into our daily routine by it. This has now created a situation where we could compare and contrast, different ways of fulfilling our needs and wants, as there is a drastic increase in preference for online services. Apart from these, to mitigate quarantine further efficiently, varieties of entertaining elements also have emerged. The Rotaract Club of Colombo Mid Town came up with the idea of an online quiz on football, which was named as “Thinking boots”. Along with the boredom, my interest in football enticed me to participate in it.
So this football trivia was in a “one against one” format. The ZOOM ROOM was chosen as the online interface for the quiz. Only the first 32 to register were able to participate in it. It was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the participants were divided and apportioned into 4 locations cleped as Camp Nou, San Siro, Allianz Arena, Old Trafford which are the stadiums of best football clubs in Europe, except the latter. Basically it was a knockout of 8 people per location.
The match times were informed one day prior. A 5 minute grace period was allowed before calling a walkover. Each game started with a coin toss and the winner decided who should start. In a game, both the players got two rounds each and in each round, 5 questions were asked. A time frame of 15 seconds was given for each question. Even though it was a quiz, the game was symbolized in a way that each player manages a team with a goalkeeper, two defenders, a midfielder and a striker. The goalkeeper has the ball during the inception of the first round. For each correct response for a question resulted in the addition of 10 marks to the total and the ball being passed to a team player in front. And this will take the ball forward, and when it reached the striker the next correct answer -I.e., the fifth correct answer- was assumed as a goal scored where extra 50 marks were added to the total. The same points system applied to the opponent player, and this continued to the next round. At the end of the game, the one with the highest marks advanced to the next game. If scores are level, 3 questions per person were asked in similar to a penalty shootout. In case of that being a draw, the winner was to be elected through a death penalty.
I was drawn into Group D, which was the “Allianz Arena”. I played and won 3 games where I became the winner of that location and progressed to the second stage.
In the second stage, the semi-final and final matches were played where one among the finalists of four locations was surmised as the champion. One notable point of the second stage was that a major change in the rules and regulations was introduced by the organizing committee due to atrocities by the players in the previous matches. In the first stage, there was no limit for attempts made for the questions, so that the players could say any amount of incorrect answers before landing on the correct one within the time frame. This was even worse when the players had to give a numerical answer, and all they knew that is a number within a certain range, so they would just simply say all the numbers within that range. So for the next stage matches, the players were instructed that only a maximum of three attempts can be made for a question.
Rahul, who is also from our club, was also among the other three who got selected to the second stage. I was really looking forward to an “Achievers Derby” in the final. Unfortunately, I lost the semifinal, but Rahul went on to win the semifinal and final and emerged as the champion of the first-ever Thinking Boots.
Rtr. Gowthaman Jegatheesan
Editor
Editor