The finale of the inaugural Sudoku Mahabharat was indeed superb. We really enjoyed the first four rounds of solving - each of them tested a different aspect of solving - and the fifth round was a good eye-check up test. There was healthy competition between the top 5 and anyone could have won on their day. In the end, the recreational activities were very enjoyable as well. And it was a perfect opportunity to meet a lot of old timers and some new faces, apart from Deb, Rohan and Prasanna, of course.

A lot of effort must have gone into the organization of the finals - both the puzzle part and the logistics part. Thanks to all the organizers of the event. The prizes on offer were well thought of. And the venue was also perfect for the occasion. The organization was flawless. We stuck to the round timelines and scores were available almost real time.

I can say that those who could not make it to the finals missed a great event.

Wanted to add Sumit's name here. He took care of the goody bag (containing the exam board, notepad with blank sudoku grids, band, badge, pen/pencil, tag) and the trophies for top 3. All the stuff were specially designed for Sudoku Mahabharat. Unfortunately he could not make it to the finals.
Thanks also to Akash who carried all the stuff from Kolkata.

That is really nice of Sumit...
Really missed him in the event

All participants at SM finals 2015 - Can someone please post the names in sequence?

I think this is taken after 3 participants left, since I count 25 participants here with 3 organizers.

Dividing into three rows even though the one at the back is 'uneven'. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Back row - from left to right - Jayant Ameta, Sai Karthik Burra, myself, T.N. Venkatesh, K. Ravichandran, Akash Doulani, Deb Mohanty, Amit Sowani, D. Devarajan, Harmeet Singh.
Middle row - from left to right - M. Ezhilarasi, Deepika Moningi, Purvi Shah, Zalak Ghetia, Ashish Kumar, Neeraj Mehrotra, Gaurav Kumar Jain, Aditi Seshadri, Shri Vasantha Senaa S, Manikodi Rathinam.
Front row - from left to right - Varun R., Rohan Rao, Shaheer Rehman, Kunal Verma, Rakesh Rai, Rajesh Kumar, R. Kumaresan, Sanket Saxena.

I think you have got all correct. Ravi, Parag and Priyanka are the three missing participants.

One more try one getting all the participants - hope no one is missing here.

Not only they missed a great event, they also helped to increase the expenses for the organizers significantly.

Out of the top 50, around 8 players had immediately responded that they won't be able to attend, and the rest 42 players responded that they will be attending the event. All the arrangements were done based on those numbers. However, exactly one-third dropped out from the event. There were of course some genuine reasons for dropping out, but we also heard reasons like "oh, I didn't realize that today is 10th".
It is important to respect the commitments since nobody was forced to make a commitment. I was personally very sad to see players from Bangalore missing out without even letting us know till the last moment.

Hi Deb/Rohan/Prasanna,

Can you please upload all the pics from finals to google cloud/ dropbox?

I think the volunteers also deserve mention. The three volunteers were Deb's friend Himanshu, my mom (Usha) and her friend, Swati. We're thankful to all three of them for their help in checking the competition booklets and the other odds and ends they helped with over the course of the event.

Do read about my experience @ Sudoku Mahabharat
http://www.funwithpuzzles.com/2015/05/my-experience-sudoku-mahabhar...

Thanks for the detailed write up Rajesh. Did you miss the Introduction segment ? It was not planned to be, but I think it was good fun too.

Sudoku Mahabharat Finals - Complete results

I would have loved to participate, but couldnt qualify.

Prize Distribution photos from Sudoku Mahabharath 2015 Finals.

https://plus.google.com/photos/111075859285734607809/albums/61476426...