Stairway to BTCs 500th Event: BTC Badminton Tournament - 13.11.2016

A wise man once said that "IDEAS are Bulletproof" and BTC too began with one such idea to create a legion of people who are ready to look at things from a different perspective.

It all started with few people and now it's a group of over 10000 members. There have been 1 day treks, 2 days treks, multi-day events, Go Green Initiatives, Explorations, Expeditions, Photography Tours, Medical Camps, Biking Trips, Running Events and so on. This journey of BTC over the years has been inspiring for many people like me and I am sure that they will grow stronger with time.

Though I have followed BTC's journey closely, I was pleasantly surprised to see a post quoting "Amateur Badminton Tournament - BTC 500th Event" in my Facebook feeds !!! Started wondering, "Badminton", how did this happen! Nevertheless, it's the only outdoor sport I can play and hence decided to participate :) While I awaited further communication, came an email that quoted "Smash a Shuttle.. Give a Smile.."  Surprise over a Surprise !!!

With all the sense of amazement registered for the event and went to Gurukul Sports Academy on the 13th of Nov. Met my fellow trekkers, friends, played matches, and I could see the arena filled with positive vibes and smiling faces. I knew the 500th Event would be be pretty amazing, yet wasn't expecting such a startling experience. This IDEA of BTC Legion aiming to contribute towards society by smashing shuttles couldn't have been any better.

Glimpses - Men's Doubles

“Knowing is always better than Wondering”, and little conversations can be of great assistance in achieving the means. As the Organizing Team summarized, this is how BTC built the stairway to a successful 500th event:

Step1: Inception

21st August, 2016: It was at an Organizers meet when the idea to plan a Badminton Tournament, a unique 500th Event, was proposed by Gaurav. There were two major goals:

1. To diversify & bring new kind of events under BTC’s banner, and
2. To raise funds for upcoming social events.

Everyone pooled in with their thoughts to incubate this first of its kind BTC Event and thus an IDEA was born…!

Step 2: Preparation

Gaurav & Ankit volunteered to shoulder the responsibility of preparations - preliminary assessments, budget estimates, tentative schedules led them to arrive at the basic framework for the tournament by 28th Sep. Further, Virander joined to help find sponsors in order to minimize the cost and maximize savings. After around 7 weeks of meticulous planning, the event was "Open for Registrations" on 13th October, 2016.

Glimpses - Women's Doubles

Step 3: Participants

To make a tournament happen, you need participants. And believe it or not, BTC got a whooping 128 entries in a matter of just 3 weeks..!! Club players, Amateurs, Irregulars, First timers - there were all kind of enthusiastic BTCians ready to smash shuttles with all their might and spread smiles.

Step 4: Innovation

In the era of smart-devices and smart-bytes, what's fun without a smart-move towards creativity! Smart-coders of BTC legion - Subrata, Hiren, and Ritu teamed up with Virander to automate the tournament view on BTC's Website. And the page was all set to display match schedule, scores and results in real-time. The link was shared with participants a week prior to the tournament. One could easily check the time of the match/court number/opponent well ahead and plan accordingly. This resulted in hassle free management on the day of event and drew applauds from one & all. When the nation is going through Digital India initiative, BTC went through a successful Digitized Tournament initiative.

Glimpses - Mixed's Doubles

Step 5: TEAMwork

Together Everyone Achieves More - the day saw 21 BTC organizers and 24 energetic volunteers passionately coming together in making the D-day worthwhile. They all had given their best in answering calls, responding to queries, preparing the arena for multiple battles and above all they were there with all their hearts to do any task that needed their assistance.

Glimpses - Volunteers

Step 6: Execution

“IDEA matters, but EXECUTION matters more and it needs Precision”. Gaurav, the Tournament referee and his team of 6 Umpires & 12 Line Umpires ensured the fair-play and professional execution of matches; Virander & his team took care of timely updates of scores & results; Ankit kept track of court schedules, providing shuttles during games and other logistics; Organizers, Volunteers, Participants, and Spectators blended together perfectly and the tournament went on like clockwork without any hassle. With all the cheers and smiles around, Channabasappa with 8 photographers silently captured hundreds of beautiful moments over a span of 12 long hours.

Step 7: Energizers

The Refreshment Team led by Hiren made sure that the energy quotient of everyone remained high. From the FAASOS Lunch to Chai-Samosa in the evening and the cake at night, this team made sure their tummies were happy.

Glimpses - Women's Singles

Step 8: Yhprum's Law

"Everything that can work, will work" - And this tournament was a flawless piece of work.

Like all good things come to an end, this tournament was also concluded. But numbers speak for themselves -

1 Day

12 hours

21 Organizers

24 Volunteers

83 Matches

128 Participants

177 Games

1200+ Photos Captured

3201 Points Scored and

Infinite Smiles floated around

If you were a spectator like myself (at least during a major part of the day), you’d be delighted at the energy that flowed, game after game..!! Matches were filled with dead drops, powerful smashes, impossible returns and high tosses. There were matches that were decided by a tie breaker and also there were matches where a player showed sheer dominance over the other; but every single one of them ended in smiles and handshakes. With an arena filled with the solid sound of shuttles and roaring applause of spectators, it was a day to remember.

Glimpses - Men's Singles

Step 9: The END that is not an End

“Great IDEAS followed by Great EXECUTION results in Exemplary Excellence”

And BTC excelled in its first goal of organizing a unique event impeccably. 3 Cheers to The Team for their splendid efforts. They have planned to donate the used shuttles along with new rackets to orphanages and also the team is investing their time/efforts in planning social events to utilize the funds collected through the tournament. The team will keep the BTCians appraised about these plans in coming days and one can be part of giving smiles during Christmas and New Year :)

They also say, "Every end is a new beginning", so is the end of this tournament. All participants will get their rankings and the campaign will continue with another sensational season of "Smash a Shuttle.. Give a Smile.."

I wouldn't be surprised, if this is gonna be BTC's very own Wimbledon ;)

Keep practicing shuttlers, I think the best is yet to come !!!

Written By       : Shruthi BP

Photo Credits  : Kushagra, Shashank, Reheman, Ikshit, Saroj, Sagar, Ashish & Sandeep

Organized By   : Channabasappa, Hiren, Gaurav, Virander & Ankit
Date of event  : 13th November, 2016

Place                : New Gurukul Sporting Complex, Siddapura

Food Partner    : Faasos

Members          : 164 (Participants, Volunteers & Organizers)

Results            : Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles

Other Links     : Player / Team Rankings

Pictures           : Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Volunteer Pics