A Dream called FIGHTCLUB...

“Sometimes some things come with a loud bang and bring about a change that stays even after they have made a silent exit. Although their achievements don't give an exact picture of what they had been, when they fade out they are obviously missed"

This is the story of a dream team that treaded a path that was about to change a lot of things around. It was a stop-gap operation when I formed FIGHTCLUB with my to-be quizzing teammate. A name heavily inspired from the Brad Pitt-Edward Norton's 1999 starrer and having no connection to upcoming hindi flick (in fact we are planning a mass agitation against them for spoiling our hard earned recognition), was destined to stick to our names and bring us instant fame. We had initially formed the team in the early phases of our 3rd year at college for a local Biz Quiz event. Our morale was highly boosted when we made it to the finals only to fall at the hands of one of our most highly regarded nemesis. The success on debut made us stick to the team and participate in a quiz that was supposed to be our first step towards stardom. It was an in-house quiz at our college and we were pitted against the most feared and supposedly best team in the college and the entire city, PURPLE HAZE. For me this fight was not just any other fight because I had once been a part of that team and managed to bag 4th position finishes at previous editions of our college annual fest quiz before I broke up with the team. So it was an occasion for me to re-establish myself without their help and for my partner to sound his entry into the arena and for both of us to ensure that in the quizzing community there was life and hope outside PURPLE HAZE. Although we just made it to the final round, it was down to the ultimate quizzing showdown in the finals. We narrowly won the game amidst some major distractions from people who had to do nothing with quizzing (that meant we never got the prize money nor the recognition for winning the event). This quiz made us a force to reckon with and also brought to limelight a faction that was constantly putting internet facilities and the close-knit companionship to great use through hostel quizzing. Then came the quiz that made FIGHTCLUB an overnight celebrity. The time was the annual intra-fest and on cards was the Entertainment Quiz. The event saw a good performance by us in the prelims and a performance of lifetime (thanks GOD for that good coordination and retention) in the finals that helped us win it by a big margin. The support we got throughout the game and laurels we won after it made us heed to the responsibility we had on our hands. The performance had such an impact on the audience that in spite our 2nd position finish in the General quiz, the next day and irrespective of the past achievements of PURPLE HAZE (they had a bad outing in both the quizzes), we were crowned the CHAMPS of quizzing. FIGHTCLUB followed it up with a 3rd place finish in the inter collegiate Biz Quiz (no comments about this Satyam employee hosted misadventure) and a hard earned victory in the inter collegiate Tech Quiz (without my partner but the same name though modified FIGHTCLUB - THE REPLACEMENTS). In fact although the latter one had no audience to remark about it and had no original FIGHTCLUB magic with my partner missing, the game was probably the most challenging of my career with our team winning via tie-breaker on the 7th break. The charm and attention that FIGHTCLUB and PURPLE HAZE had brought to the field along with the efforts of other teams like DEQUEL and GFN, led to numerous others leaping out into the forefront of quizzing and finally our college had its own official Quiz Society - QUTOPIA. It was a new dawn for quizzing but the time was changing for FIGHTCLUB.

While PURPLE HAZE had been disappointing on the home turf, they had an amazing record in events outside the college. On the other hand FIGHTCLUB were CHAMPS at the home turf but heavy losers outside. This, till date, remained one of the major under doings of FIGHTCLUB. Though they made it to the finals of many quizzes, they always returned empty handed. Probably unlucky I suppose... Another major flaw lied in the fact that they participated in very few quizzes and this lack of exposure to the real time challenges hampered their performances. I feel FIGHTCLUB unlike other quizzing teams let things like their personal differences, personal problems etc. distract them from the target. While I succumbed to my personal problems and started moving away from all public attention I was receiving, my partner had other things to do which prevented him from focusing on quizzing. The bewitching FIGHTCLUB was now half dead. Whatever we might have achieved, there are of course some regrets like not having a better away record, unable to win Mary Bucknell Trophy etc. But the biggest regret is of not being able to shed off our mutual ego (both FIGHTCLUB and PURPLE HAZE wanted to outshine each other and never shook hands on professional scale though they remained good friends on the personal front) and form a joint four membered team comprising of FIGHTCLUB and PURPLE HAZE for outside college events like MBT and MasterMind India. This, perhaps, would have been one of the toughest teams around to beat.

I am not saying that without FIGHTCLUB the quizzing fraternity would have been a dull showdown nor am I saying that without FIGHTCLUB there would not have been any quiz group in the college but what I mean to say is that even though due to various reasons FIGHTCLUB is vanishing into the oblivion, with the founders passing out from the college and moving on to join different companies the future of the team is uncertain, people are going to miss it. Even if they don't I will surely miss the Dream called FIGHTCLUB ... HAIL QUIZZING... HAIL FIGHTCLUB.