The story of how we did not hit the TV

    An attentive reader, of course, has long noticed that we at Veeam are very fond of playing intellectual games and even organize an annual corporate tournament. As in any sport - and we consider it quite a sport - an important role is played by a worthy goal, the desire to achieve it, the desire to make efforts for this, sports excitement, in general, challenge. And, of course, when in the winter of 2018 there was an announcement of the qualifying games in “What? Where? When? ”, According to the results of which the winning team had the opportunity to get into the famous Hunting Lodge (and, perhaps, in the TV show) - we could not stay away. Our ChGK-epic ended just recently, but whether it is successful or not is up to you.



    (I’ll say right away, warning possible questions that we didn’t see Druzya or Bera, didn’t participate in any dubious games, and in general they are and are a model of fair play.)

    Qualification round


    So, a little over a year ago, we heard this announcement: “A qualifying series of“ sports ”games held for amateur teams with the goal of getting into“ What? Where? When?" - A full-scale project consisting of three stages of selection. The first step should be a victory in the local qualifying game, then your team will take part in the finalists tournament, the winners of which will qualify directly to the Hunting Lodge in Neskuchny Sad and meet with the television group. “A video message to those wishing to participate was recorded by the host of the television game Boris Kryuk.

    Qualifying games “on the ground” started in Moscow, and as a result covered 18 cities from 7 countries - teams from Cyprus, from Lithuania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sweden and Israel participated in them.
    Our team showed up for the first qualifying game in St. Petersburg, which was held in early April 2018 at the Social Club site, which is at the Five Corners.



    In total, 10 teams entered this round, and Mikhail Skipsky led the game.



    In the usual format of sports ChGK - 3 rounds on 12 questions - we managed to score 31 points, ahead of the pursuers by 1 point.



    (Honestly, this was a so-so result, because the questions were simple. Most of the discussions went like this: on the 1st, in the worst case, on the 5th second, someone voiced the correct version, then quickly wrote the answer to the form and the remaining 50 seconds had fun and drank tea with sandwiches. This, however, somewhat dampened, and for a couple of questions more difficult was not enough concentration.)
    As a result, we won, took pictures with a prize owl and waited until we were called to Moscow to fight with the other winners of the qualifying games.



    Naturally, the team from St. Petersburg is dressed in various shades of gray :)

    This is our “magnificent six” experts (from left to right):

    • Konstantin Lyaptsev, Leading Software Quality Engineer
    • Alexey Latypov, T2 Technical Support Specialist
    • Kirill Stetsko, Escalation Engineer, Technical Support
    • Olga Slyusarenko, copywriter
    • Vadim Mordberg, Technical Support Manager, Team Captain
    • Denis Rudenko, Head of Software Quality Department

    Time passed, the team trained, participated in the games, acquired a new captain - our permanent captain Denis Rudenko moved to Prague, and was replaced by Dima Mordberg.

    (Looking ahead, I’ll say that Denis continued to play ChGK in the Czech Republic, and very successfully, but he always came to responsible games and played with us until he won.)
    So, from time to time playing at the club “60 seconds”, who at Sports ChGK, who is in the annual corporate tournament for the Veeam Cup, we waited for an invitation to Moscow. At the beginning of December 2018, the winners of the qualifying games from 18 cities came to the final game.

    Semifinal


    In a cozy, already in the New Year decorated catering establishment on Ordynka 35 teams fit. A host was located near the Christmas tree - Maxim Potashev:



    Everything was already serious here: the participants with a rather high rating, a package of questions, and most importantly, a “ticket to the TV” was at stake, that is, the opportunity to be at the same gaming table, which since childhood, everyone present has seen on television.

    After the 1st round, the Veeam team found that it was 3 points behind the first place. And then something “clicked”, probably a second wind or a third eye opened, I don’t know - but in the 2nd round the team, on the one hand, became free, on the other - it concentrated.

    Captain comment: “After the first round, we were 3 points behind the leaders, but were able to turn the tide of the game. By the end of the second round, we already shared the first place with two teams, and finished with 25 points in a clean first place with a margin of 1 point from teams from Moscow and Murmansk. ”



    While the host announced the results, we, not hearing the name of our team, of course, understood that we had already done everything we could, tried to the maximum, the level of adrenaline was appropriate. And finally, they announce that the first place was taken by the Veeam team! At that very moment our triumphant triumphant cry came out :) Emotions, indeed, were the sea (at the time of photographing, we were a little relieved, and as you can see, half of the team continues to rejoice :) .

    True, here they didn’t give us any owl, and even accidentally reduced one point when publishing the results, equalizing with the 2nd place - but then, fortunately, the organizers corrected themselves and we went home in a good mood, having managed, however, to walk around the holiday capital and along the way to find out some interesting facts about its attractions.


    It turns out that three architects with the surname Trezzini worked in Russia! This church of St. Clement in Moscow was supposedly designed by Pietro Antonio.

    In general, the trip from Petersburg to Moscow was a success!

    Lyrical digression about board games (not advertising! :)

    As a warm-up, we periodically take some kind of board for the game - usually this is “Doble”. It is compact, designed for ages 5+ and a company of two people, dynamic and gambling. And this time, our “Kapsan” our Konstantin took - no, not a guitar, but a board game “Code Names”. As it turned out, she is very fascinating, she trains the ability to work in a team, to delve into the reasoning of a partner in the game, to generally understand who thinks, what associations different people have for the same words and phrases, which chains they build, so that they tie ... In general, a useful thing, we can recommend.


    So, we were informed that the next stage of selection for television is a series of questions and answers under the supervision of the editorial team, most likely on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, after the New Year holidays. And only then, if we show ourselves well (and, probably, turn out to be quite telegenic and fit into the format), we can be invited to the Hunter's Lodge. And then suddenly at the end of January our captain receives a message: “The place has changed. The selection will be in the Neskuchny Sad tchk.

    Final and roundabout


    Before the final game, we arrived in the capital early and settled down, in the words of the classics, in a “beautiful, highly cultured place” - the booked dwelling was exactly between Old Arbat, his school. Gnesins and the Conservatory. The evening, of course, was devoted to various cultural events: Kostya went to a club for a concert, Olya and Kirill composed a story about the New Year adventures of the Veeam TechSupport team (as a result of this article ), Lesha, Dima and Denis had a friendly conversation that smoothly turned into a warm-up with questions. The next day, according to tradition, a little walk around Moscow ...



    ... and went to the appointed place.

    Here it is, that same “Hunting House by the Gully” in Neskuchny Garden! I can’t even believe that we’ll go in there and sit down in the chairs of experts at the mirror table!



    We are met by a kind young lady Anna - an assistant to the director's group.

    The area around the house is fenced, but whoever doesn’t get there. A bit aside - the entrance to the “cellar”, where the office and auxiliary rooms are located, where you can change clothes, have tea with cookies, while waiting for the game to begin, consider old photos with the founding father V. Voroshilov and the luminaries of the TV show:



    Yes, you remember correctly, the house used to be yellow, but they also say that once an underground passage led from it to a ravine!

    Behind the house there is a red carpet leading to the stage, where music guests perform (both in winter and summer, regardless of weather conditions, always in the open air). And behind the fence, indeed, a pretty deep ravine.

    We are waiting for the team from Murmansk to finish their qualifying session. And then, finally, that same hall! There we are met by the editorial team and Alena Povysheva, telling us how to properly fit, how it is more convenient to sit in the chair, who will be “using the hall” (this is Mikhail Kryuk). The room itself is very small, however, according to the editor, it can accommodate 50, and in exceptional cases up to 100 people!


    Cyril feels quite comfortable at the game table :)

    The editorial team asks questions in advance, 1 minute for each discussion, watches how we discuss, interact, put forward versions. The first question, alas, is not for experts. Apparently, the unusual situation, responsibility for the result, nevertheless, affects. 2 more questions not taken - we are already “flying” 0: 3!

    However, “the nut of knowledge is hard, but still we are not used to retreat!” - gradually we enter the working state, more attentively listen to each other, try to throw versions, reasonedly argue. I must say that the editorial team maintains a positive, comfortable atmosphere: they talk very favorably with us, give their comments on the questions, explain why, from their point of view, we did not take this or that question, and what we do well when we take .

    And so we get to the score 5: 5 (recall, initially losing to 0: 3). Here's a crucial question:
    In one hotel in Belgium, in front of the reception, there is a large glass with a goldfish, and next to it is a price tag of 3.5 euros. What kind of service is this and who is it for?
    We, as usual, have several versions: someone believes that it’s possible to decorate the room’s interior, someone says that it’s food and entertainment for the guest cat, and Kostya claims that lonely guests rent this aquarium so that they can It was not sad to spend the evenings. And that is the right answer! Hurray, score 6: 5, and this is a strong-willed victory of experts from St. Petersburg!


    Kostya Lyaptsev ( lyapkost ) is very glad to win :)

    Then, some players are invited to participate in the “mix” (the editorial group will “mix” participants from different teams - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk - in an attempt to determine the optimal combination of knowledge, characters and temperaments for the TV format in order to choose “new faces, update the team ”). The rest go for a walk in the park and lunch, smoothly turning into dinner, for which they exchange impressions of the game. They are very positive among the guys: indeed, at first, even they themselves could not believe that it was really possible to go all this long road and end up in the coveted chairs - but it turned out! In addition, to be honest, we do not often get together and play with such a roster. And the place itself - from childhood, the familiar Hunter's Lodge - makes you gather and show your best game, sports excitement and the desire to win - no less,



    And even though none of us ended up in the “TV box” - but for us this saga was very exciting, during the trips we probably became friends even more, we had new ideas, new goals, new projects. And this is probably the most important prize and the most important victory for our team.

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