The story of how we did not hit the TV
An attentive reader, of course, has long noticed that we in Veeam like to play 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 it, sports passion, in general, challenge. And, of course, when in the winter of 2018 the announcement of the qualifying games in “What? Where? When? ”, As a result of which the winning team had the opportunity to get into the famous Hunting Lodge (and, perhaps, in the TV show) - we could not stand aside. Our CPG-epic has ended quite recently, and decide whether it is successful or not.
(I will say right away, warning possible questions that we have not seen neither Druzya nor Bera, have not participated in any questionable games, and in general have shown and are a model of fair play.)
So, a little over a year ago we heard the following announcement: “The qualifying series of“ sports ”games, conducted for amateur teams in order to get into“ What? Where? When? ”Is 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 tournament of the finalists, the winners of which will qualify directly to the Hunting Lodge in Neskuchny Garden and meet with the TV team. “The video message to those who want to participate was recorded by the TV game host Boris Kruk.
')
The qualifying games “on the ground” started in Moscow, and eventually covered 18 cities from 7 countries - teams from Cyprus, Lithuania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sweden and Israel participated in them.
Our team entered the first qualifying game in St. Petersburg, which took place in early April 2018 at the Social Club site, which is at the Five Corners.
In total, 10 teams showed up for this tour, while Mikhail Skipsky led the game.
In the usual format of sports CPG - 3 rounds of 12 questions - we managed to score 31 points, ahead of our pursuers by 1 point.
(Honestly, it was a so-so result, because the questions were simple. The discussion of most of them went like this: on the 1st, at the very least, on the 5th second, someone voiced the correct version, then they quickly wrote the answer to the form and the remaining 50 seconds enjoyed themselves and drank tea with sandwiches. This, however, was somewhat dampening, and for a couple of more complicated questions did not have enough concentration.)
As a result, we won, took pictures with a prize owl, and remained to wait, when we were called to Moscow - to fight the rest of the qualifying games.
It is quite natural that the team from St. Petersburg is dressed in various shades of gray :)
This is our “magnificent six” of experts (from left to right):
Time passed, the team trained, participated in games, acquired a new captain - our permanent captain Denis Rudenko moved to Prague, and was replaced by Dima Mordberg.
(Looking ahead, I will say that Denis continued to play in the Chechen-mining complex in the Czech Republic, and very successfully, but he always came to important games and played with us until we won.)
So, from time to time playing someone in the “60 Seconds” club, who in a sports CPG, who in the annual corporate tournament for the Veeam Cup, we waited for an invitation to Moscow. In early December 2018, the winners of the qualifying games from 18 cities arrived at the final game.
In the comfort, already in the New Year's decorated catering establishment on Ordynka fit 35 teams. The presenter is located near the Christmas tree - Maxim Potashev:
Here everything was already in earnest: the participants with a fairly high rating, the 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 that everyone from those who saw TV screen.
After the 1st round, the Veeam team found that it was 3 points behind first place. And then something “clicked”, probably, the second breath or the third eye opened, I don’t know - but in the 2nd round the team liberated, on the one hand, and concentrated on the other.
The captain’s comment: “After the first round, we were 3 points behind the leaders, but we were able to change the course 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 presenter was announcing the results, without hearing the name of our team, we, of course, understood that we had already done everything we could, tried our best, 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 cry of triumph was heard :) Emotions, indeed, were the sea (this was a bit calmer by the time we took pictures, and, as you can see, half of the team continues to rejoice :) .
True, they didn’t give us any owls, and even accidentally diminished one point when publishing the results, making it equal to 2nd place - but then, fortunately, the organizers got better, and we went home in a good mood, having had time to walk around the pre-holiday capital and along the way learn some interesting facts about its sights.
It turns out that there were three architects with the last name Trezzini in Russia! This church of St. Clement in Moscow was supposedly designed by Pietro-Antonio.
In general, the journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow was a success!
Lyrical digression about board games (not advertising! :)
As a warm-up, we periodically take on the game some desktop - usually it is “Dobble”. It is compact, designed for ages 5+ and a company from two people, dynamic and reckless. And this time in “Sapsan” our Konstantin took - no, not a guitar, but a board game “Code names”. As it turned out, she is very fascinating, trains the ability to work in a team, delve into the course of the reasoning of the partner in the game, generally understand who thinks like, what associations different people have for the same words and phrases, what chains they build, to to connect ... In general, a useful thing, we can recommend.
So, we were informed that the next selection stage in the 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 are likely to be quite telegenic and fit into the format), we can be invited to the Hunting Lodge. And then suddenly at the end of January our captain receives a message: “The place has changed. The selection will be in Neskuchny garden of the spot.
Before the final game, we arrived in the capital early and settled, in the words of the classics, in a “beautiful, highly cultured place” - the booked dwelling was exactly between the Old Arbat, the school for them. Gnesinykh and Conservatory. The evening, of course, was dedicated to different cultural events: Kostya went to the club for a concert, Olya and Kirill made up a story about the New Year adventures of the Veeam TechSupport team (as a result this article turned out ), Lyosha, Dima and Denis had a friendly conversation, which gradually turned into a warm-up with questions. The next day, according to tradition, we walked a bit around Moscow ...
... and went to the appointed place.
Here it is, the same “Hunting Lodge near the Ravine” in Neskuchny Garden! I can not even believe that we will now enter there and sit down in the chairs of experts at the mirror table!
We are met by kind lady Anna - assistant director of the group.
The area around the house is fenced, anyhow who will not get there. A little aside - the entrance to the “cellar”, where service and auxiliary rooms are located, where you can change clothes, drink tea with cookies, while waiting for the game to start, look at old photos with the founding father V.Voroshilov and the luminaries of the TV show:
Yes, you remember correctly, before the house was yellow, and they also say that once from there an underground passage led to the ravine!
Behind the house is a red carpet leading to the stage, on which musical guests perform (always in the open air both in winter and in summer, regardless of weather conditions). And behind the fence, really, pretty deep ravine.
We are waiting for the team from Murmansk to finish its qualifying session. And now, finally, that very hall! There we are met by the editorial team and Alyona Voschev, they tell us how to stay right, how comfortable it is to sit in a chair, who will be “using the hall” (this is Mikhail Kruk). The room itself is quite small, however, according to the editor, it can accommodate 50, and in exceptional cases up to 100 people!
Kirill feels quite comfortable at the gaming table :)
The editorial group asks prearranged questions, 1 minute of discussion for each, looks at how we discuss, interact, put forward versions. The first question, alas, is not for the experts. Apparently, still affects the unusual situation, the responsibility for the result. 2 more questions not taken - we are already “flying” 0: 3!
However, “the nutlet of knowledge is firm, but still we are not accustomed to retreat!” - gradually we enter a working state, listen to each other more carefully, try to throw up versions, and reason with reason. It must be said that the editorial group also supports a positive, comfortable atmosphere: they talk with us very favorably, 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 (remember, losing at first 0: 3). Here is the crucial question:
In one hotel in Belgium in front of the reception there is a big glass with a goldfish, and next to it is a price tag of 3.5 euros. What is this service and for whom it is intended?
We have several versions, as usual: someone thinks that it is possible to decorate the interior of the room in this way, someone says that it is food and entertainment for a resident's kitten, and Kostya claims that lonely guests rent this aquarium to It was not sad to pass the evening. And this is the correct answer! Hurray, 6: 5, and this is a strong-willed victory of connoisseurs from St. Petersburg!
Kostya Lyaptsev ( lyapkost ) is very happy to win :)
Then, some players are invited to take part in the mixte (the editorial team will “mix” participants from different teams - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk - in an attempt to determine the best combination of knowledge, characters and temperaments for the TV format, to select “new faces, update the team "). The rest are sent for a walk in the park and lunch, smoothly turning into dinner, after which they exchange impressions about the game. The guys are very positive: indeed, at first they didn’t even believe that it was really possible to go through this whole long road and find themselves in the cherished chairs - but it turned out! In addition, honestly, we do not often gather and play with such a composition. And the place itself - from childhood the familiar Hunting Lodge - makes you get together and show your best game, sports passion and the desire to win - no less than the famous masters from the TV.
And let in the end none of us got into the “TV box” - but for us this epic was very fascinating, during the trips we probably became even more friendly, we had new ideas, new goals, new projects. And this is probably the most important prize and the most important victory for our team.
(I will say right away, warning possible questions that we have not seen neither Druzya nor Bera, have not participated in any questionable games, and in general have shown and are a model of fair play.)
Qualifying round
So, a little over a year ago we heard the following announcement: “The qualifying series of“ sports ”games, conducted for amateur teams in order to get into“ What? Where? When? ”Is 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 tournament of the finalists, the winners of which will qualify directly to the Hunting Lodge in Neskuchny Garden and meet with the TV team. “The video message to those who want to participate was recorded by the TV game host Boris Kruk.
')
The qualifying games “on the ground” started in Moscow, and eventually covered 18 cities from 7 countries - teams from Cyprus, Lithuania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sweden and Israel participated in them.
Our team entered the first qualifying game in St. Petersburg, which took place in early April 2018 at the Social Club site, which is at the Five Corners.
In total, 10 teams showed up for this tour, while Mikhail Skipsky led the game.
In the usual format of sports CPG - 3 rounds of 12 questions - we managed to score 31 points, ahead of our pursuers by 1 point.
(Honestly, it was a so-so result, because the questions were simple. The discussion of most of them went like this: on the 1st, at the very least, on the 5th second, someone voiced the correct version, then they quickly wrote the answer to the form and the remaining 50 seconds enjoyed themselves and drank tea with sandwiches. This, however, was somewhat dampening, and for a couple of more complicated questions did not have enough concentration.)
As a result, we won, took pictures with a prize owl, and remained to wait, when we were called to Moscow - to fight the rest of the qualifying games.
It is quite natural that the team from St. Petersburg is dressed in various shades of gray :)
This is our “magnificent six” of experts (from left to right):
- Konstantin Lyaptsev, Lead Software Quality Engineer
- Alexey Latypov, T2 Technical Support Specialist
- Cyril Stetsko, Escalation Engineer, technical support department
- Olga Slusarenko, copywriter
- Vadim Mordberg, Technical Support Unit Manager, Team Captain
- Denis Rudenko, Head of Software Quality
Time passed, the team trained, participated in games, acquired a new captain - our permanent captain Denis Rudenko moved to Prague, and was replaced by Dima Mordberg.
(Looking ahead, I will say that Denis continued to play in the Chechen-mining complex in the Czech Republic, and very successfully, but he always came to important games and played with us until we won.)
So, from time to time playing someone in the “60 Seconds” club, who in a sports CPG, who in the annual corporate tournament for the Veeam Cup, we waited for an invitation to Moscow. In early December 2018, the winners of the qualifying games from 18 cities arrived at the final game.
Semi final
In the comfort, already in the New Year's decorated catering establishment on Ordynka fit 35 teams. The presenter is located near the Christmas tree - Maxim Potashev:
Here everything was already in earnest: the participants with a fairly high rating, the 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 that everyone from those who saw TV screen.
After the 1st round, the Veeam team found that it was 3 points behind first place. And then something “clicked”, probably, the second breath or the third eye opened, I don’t know - but in the 2nd round the team liberated, on the one hand, and concentrated on the other.
The captain’s comment: “After the first round, we were 3 points behind the leaders, but we were able to change the course 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 presenter was announcing the results, without hearing the name of our team, we, of course, understood that we had already done everything we could, tried our best, 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 cry of triumph was heard :) Emotions, indeed, were the sea (this was a bit calmer by the time we took pictures, and, as you can see, half of the team continues to rejoice :) .
True, they didn’t give us any owls, and even accidentally diminished one point when publishing the results, making it equal to 2nd place - but then, fortunately, the organizers got better, and we went home in a good mood, having had time to walk around the pre-holiday capital and along the way learn some interesting facts about its sights.
It turns out that there were three architects with the last name Trezzini in Russia! This church of St. Clement in Moscow was supposedly designed by Pietro-Antonio.
In general, the journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow was a success!
Lyrical digression about board games (not advertising! :)
As a warm-up, we periodically take on the game some desktop - usually it is “Dobble”. It is compact, designed for ages 5+ and a company from two people, dynamic and reckless. And this time in “Sapsan” our Konstantin took - no, not a guitar, but a board game “Code names”. As it turned out, she is very fascinating, trains the ability to work in a team, delve into the course of the reasoning of the partner in the game, generally understand who thinks like, what associations different people have for the same words and phrases, what chains they build, to to connect ... In general, a useful thing, we can recommend.
So, we were informed that the next selection stage in the 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 are likely to be quite telegenic and fit into the format), we can be invited to the Hunting Lodge. And then suddenly at the end of January our captain receives a message: “The place has changed. The selection will be in Neskuchny garden of the spot.
Final and Decoupling
Before the final game, we arrived in the capital early and settled, in the words of the classics, in a “beautiful, highly cultured place” - the booked dwelling was exactly between the Old Arbat, the school for them. Gnesinykh and Conservatory. The evening, of course, was dedicated to different cultural events: Kostya went to the club for a concert, Olya and Kirill made up a story about the New Year adventures of the Veeam TechSupport team (as a result this article turned out ), Lyosha, Dima and Denis had a friendly conversation, which gradually turned into a warm-up with questions. The next day, according to tradition, we walked a bit around Moscow ...
... and went to the appointed place.
Here it is, the same “Hunting Lodge near the Ravine” in Neskuchny Garden! I can not even believe that we will now enter there and sit down in the chairs of experts at the mirror table!
We are met by kind lady Anna - assistant director of the group.
The area around the house is fenced, anyhow who will not get there. A little aside - the entrance to the “cellar”, where service and auxiliary rooms are located, where you can change clothes, drink tea with cookies, while waiting for the game to start, look at old photos with the founding father V.Voroshilov and the luminaries of the TV show:
Yes, you remember correctly, before the house was yellow, and they also say that once from there an underground passage led to the ravine!
Behind the house is a red carpet leading to the stage, on which musical guests perform (always in the open air both in winter and in summer, regardless of weather conditions). And behind the fence, really, pretty deep ravine.
We are waiting for the team from Murmansk to finish its qualifying session. And now, finally, that very hall! There we are met by the editorial team and Alyona Voschev, they tell us how to stay right, how comfortable it is to sit in a chair, who will be “using the hall” (this is Mikhail Kruk). The room itself is quite small, however, according to the editor, it can accommodate 50, and in exceptional cases up to 100 people!
Kirill feels quite comfortable at the gaming table :)
The editorial group asks prearranged questions, 1 minute of discussion for each, looks at how we discuss, interact, put forward versions. The first question, alas, is not for the experts. Apparently, still affects the unusual situation, the responsibility for the result. 2 more questions not taken - we are already “flying” 0: 3!
However, “the nutlet of knowledge is firm, but still we are not accustomed to retreat!” - gradually we enter a working state, listen to each other more carefully, try to throw up versions, and reason with reason. It must be said that the editorial group also supports a positive, comfortable atmosphere: they talk with us very favorably, 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 (remember, losing at first 0: 3). Here is the crucial question:
In one hotel in Belgium in front of the reception there is a big glass with a goldfish, and next to it is a price tag of 3.5 euros. What is this service and for whom it is intended?
We have several versions, as usual: someone thinks that it is possible to decorate the interior of the room in this way, someone says that it is food and entertainment for a resident's kitten, and Kostya claims that lonely guests rent this aquarium to It was not sad to pass the evening. And this is the correct answer! Hurray, 6: 5, and this is a strong-willed victory of connoisseurs from St. Petersburg!
Kostya Lyaptsev ( lyapkost ) is very happy to win :)
Then, some players are invited to take part in the mixte (the editorial team will “mix” participants from different teams - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk - in an attempt to determine the best combination of knowledge, characters and temperaments for the TV format, to select “new faces, update the team "). The rest are sent for a walk in the park and lunch, smoothly turning into dinner, after which they exchange impressions about the game. The guys are very positive: indeed, at first they didn’t even believe that it was really possible to go through this whole long road and find themselves in the cherished chairs - but it turned out! In addition, honestly, we do not often gather and play with such a composition. And the place itself - from childhood the familiar Hunting Lodge - makes you get together and show your best game, sports passion and the desire to win - no less than the famous masters from the TV.
And let in the end none of us got into the “TV box” - but for us this epic was very fascinating, during the trips we probably became even more friendly, we had new ideas, new goals, new projects. And this is probably the most important prize and the most important victory for our team.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/448694/
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