Participants during the quiz at Bistupur on Wednesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

If it is a clash of the “sharpest minds on campus”, trust XLRI to finish strong.

The Tata Crucible Quiz got rolling at Bistupur’s Michael John Auditorium on Wednesday, with a team from XLRI walking home with regional leg honours after seven intense rounds of quizzing.

Crucible, one of the biggest business quizzes of the country, saw six teams competing for glory in its Wednesday regional round with quizmaster Giri “Pickbrain” Balasubramaniam tickling the grey cells of the contestants with his mixed bag of questions. Two teams from XLRI, two from NIT, Rourkela and one each from ISM-Dhanbad and IIM-Ranchi competed in the event.

The event was divided into general quotient, rapid quotient, lateral quotient, Tata quotient, analytical quotient, crucible quotient and business quotient rounds with an enthusiastic audience soaking in every nugget of quiz knowledge being shared on stage.

The XLRI team, by the virtue of Wednesday’s win, is now eligible to compete in the zonal round before the national level. The final of the event is scheduled to take place in Mumbai on March 31.

“The Tata Crucible Campuz Quiz tests the participants in more ways than one. Your performance has to be consistent in all rounds if you want to win like the XLRI team did on Wednesday. The quiz needs more than brains and knowledge. It is how one connects and analyses things,” said Bimalendra Jha, executive director of Tata Steel Europe who graced the occasion as its chief guest.

Pickbrain Balasubramaniam termed Crucible as the “Wimbledon” of campus quizzing. “It does not get bigger than this. The contests here are stimulating, exciting, challenging and fast-paced, making it all the more attractive to the modern generation,” he said.

The winning duo of XLRI — Sourabh Choudhary and Chinmoy Kamat — walked home with a cash prize of Rs 75,000 while the team from IIM-Ranchi pocketed Rs 35,000.

The winners of the national leg of the event stand to win Rs 4 lakh in cash along with the coveted Tata Crucible Trophy.