Friday, June 29, 2012

Indian Bloggers League - The Phenomenon

Official IBL Logo
It was a lazy Monday evening on the 11th of June, my good friend Deepak Karthik of Whatever It Takes fame came up with an ingenious idea to host a IPL-like tournament involving the Blogging community called the Indian Bloggers League. When I saw his post on the IndiBlogger Family group, I immediately lapped onto it. We both started discussing the pros and cons about a tournament of this magnitude. I was eager to participate but Deepak insisted I work behind the scenes to organize the tournament with him, and so I got on board to be a part of the organizing committee of IBL and also as a moderator.

We didn’t know what to expect at that point but promptly created ‘another’ blog group on Facebook to annoy people with tons of notifications. We added few of our blog friends to the group, in the meanwhile me and Deepak were also brainstorming on chat about the format, rules, the number of teams etc. The idea was still very sketchy at this point. We posted whatever little we discussed about the tournament on the group waiting for the response from our fellow bloggers. An hour after the group was created, the group was unusually quiet, and there wasn’t much response. Deepak pinged me on chat, “Bro no response yet”. I replied, “Just give it a couple of days bro”. I was so wrong, should’ve said “a couple of hours” instead. What transpired in the next couple of hours was unprecedented; we were not ready for it. Within 3 hours of the group creation, there were already 200 members. The response was overwhelming; we hadn’t even decided how many teams we should allow participating or how many members in a team or things like that but already there were people forming teams for their respective cities. I was introduced to my fellow team members in the organizing committee by Deepak. Saravana Kumar Murugan of Few Miles fame and Binoy Karan of WriteUp Café joined us. The four of us took some time off from the chaos that was happening on the group to come up with some concrete set of rules and regulations for the IBL. Our brainstorming sessions lasted well into the night which continued in the succeeding days. And within a day, we had come up with some neat set of rules, a proper format, created a Fan Page, Twitter account, a Blog with a custom domain (thanks to Binoy for his self-less act of buying the server space for the sake of IBL from his own pocket). Also, we finalized the scheduling of the tournament in the coming days.

Official IBL Banner
Even though the tournament is yet to begin, we have already had our share of arguments, fights and difference of opinions. But we have stuck it out through it all and held ourselves together to work as a cohesive unit. This little ordeal has also brought all four of us much closer to each other, even though we have never met one another.

The greatest impact of IBL is, it has taken the conversations between bloggers to a much more personal level, and we all converse with each other as if we have known one another since the past many years. Earlier, conversations between bloggers may have been limited to the comment sections of each other’s blogs, but the advent of the IndiBlogger Family and IBL groups on Facebook has paved way for an interactive era for bloggers which was unheard of before. I am very happy to have played a small part in that transformation.

We, at IBL aim to promote the art of writing and the art of blogging and of course the competitive spirit. It will be a great test to all the teams to work as a team, gel together as one unit, to help win this prestigious tournament playing for their respective cities.


So who will take home the crown as the Champions of the Inaugural Edition of the Indian Bloggers League?

Will it be the cultural capital of Maharashtra known as the Pune Blog-In blowing their trumpets proudly in the end?

Armed with Dhoklas, Theplas and Phapdas, will it be one of the most hard working teams of the tournament, The Amdavadi Thadka?

Bombay’s Bloggywood - The superstars from the city of Bollywood are among the favorites to go all the way.

Maybe the best team on paper known as Bengaluru Bloggers’ Bistro from the Garden City of India which boasts of some of the best bloggers in the country in their respective genres. Who can bet against them?

The dark horses of the tournament from the land of the Chanakyas and the Aryabhattas – The Patliputra Wordsmiths have the potential to go all the way.

Known for their competitive and sporting nature, will the team from Chennai be able to emulate the exploits of their more successful counterpart of the IPL? The Chennai Super Bloggers are a team to watch out for.

The Kolkata Knight Writers team swears by the notion, pen is mightier than the sword; they are a bunch of talented writers whom no one can underestimate.

The spirited and enthusiastic bunch of bloggers from the Capital city of India – The Delhi Sutras are exceptionally talented. They may not be the most favored team but they are the team to beat.

The Battle of Blogs begins on the 1st of July. Be sure to catch all the action of this unprecedented blogging extravaganza on our Website, on our WriteUp Café Page, our Facebook Page and our Facebook Group.

136 Bloggers. 8 Teams. 4 Grueling Rounds spread over 3 Months. One Ultimate Winner. The phenomenon that is the Indian Bloggers League has arrived.

42 comments:

  1. Ahhh.. What a post??? :)I am already feeling adrenaline rush.. I am with hmmmm.... Of course Namma Bengaluru:) Good luck guys :)

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    1. Thank you Sonia. :) I wish I could support my home team too. Anyways, I felt you should've opted to take part in the competition as well. But now you could be IBL's top cheerleader! :D

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  2. Nice Post @Akshay! :)
    waiting for the event to set in soon!
    "All the best" to all the teams n mates!

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    1. Thank you Nandini. All the very best to you and the Delhi Sutras. :)

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  3. BRO...

    Amazing, super fabulous, rocking and bloody lovable post...
    Read every line of it(twice)
    Awesome and KUDOS to your work.
    It gives a feel...
    Thank you :)
    happy to have such people...

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    1. Thank you so much bro. Means a lot to me. :) Happy to work with you and our team. We 4 make a superb team indeed. :)

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  4. The post has given us a perfect start ...yes, an idea had paved way to India's writing tournament of the year and I'm happy to be a part of it :)

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    1. Thank you Uma. Looking forward to seeing you and CSB rock the IBL. :) All the best. :)

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  5. I totally agree about how IBL has transformed how we bloggers interact with each other. And all thanks to you four!

    Great post!

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    1. True Sudeshna. :) IBL has indeed paved way for us to interact with each other on a more personal level. Thank you so much. All the best to you and KKW. :)

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  6. Nice post Akshay...and I must not forget to appreciate your work behind the scene....

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  7. See what you have created and its repercussions. And YAY! I'm also a part of it. I have thanked you many times and won't miss this opportunity to thank you again...:)

    We owe it to you!

    And a post at last!

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    1. Thank you so much Saru, your undying support and appreciation means so much to me. I never imagined its going to get so big when I created it but I am so glad it did. YAY indeed. :D Thank you for being such a huge part of it. :)

      Hehe!! Yes, I finally posted something after a long time. My blog was feeling left out all this while, it just needed an IBL tonic to revive it. :D

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    2. IBL tonic was a good one. Once the contest is over, you can post behind the scenes.:)

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    1. All the teams are talented. May the best team win. Good luck to Pune. :)

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  9. Wonderful initiative. May be I will participate next time.

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    1. Thank you Rajesh. I'm sure you'll be a great asset for any team. :)

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  10. Woohooo! Congratulations Akshay! It's a super-brilliant concept! Best Wishes to all! :)

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    1. Thank you so much Arti. I was looking forward to your participation. Maybe next season you might change your mind. Thanks for all the support and good wishes. :)

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  11. Hi Akshay

    Nice concept and I am sure with time it would get better and more polished and gleaming :D Kudos to the IBL team :)

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    1. Thank you Jayashree for all the support. Good luck to you and CSB. :)

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  12. Hey..super idea!..all the best!..

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    1. Thanks Keerthana. :) Few people were looking out for you to play for the Bangalore team but you were absconding! :P

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  13. Wonderful blog...aGood Luck to ALL the teams! Special wishes for Kolkata Knight Writers :)

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    1. Thank you Panchaliji. :) Wish Kolkata all the very best. :)

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  14. I wish you the best and laud your efforts to organize something on this scale. Wishing all the team the best of luck :)>

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    1. Thank you very much Rachna, very much appreciated. We are just doing our bit to promote blogging and writing. Hope to see you cheering for Bangalore. :)

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  15. Lovely..Great job!! You guys have created the ripples all over the web...already :)
    C H E E R S !!!

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    1. Thank you once again Ma'm for all the support and encouragement. :)

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  16. Wow, what an introductions...! And what a start..!
    I am late but catching up for sure~

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    1. Thank you very much Ghazala. Hoping to experience some hot Amdavadi Tadka for the rest of the tournament. :) All the best.

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  17. Description of each team is awesome! And this is turning out to be one of the most interesting competitions I've participated in!

    GO BLOGGERS! :)

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    1. Thank you Vishal. Last one month has been exhilarating, exciting as well as exhausting. :D Each and every blogger has put in a lot of hard work and that's the reason why IBL is what it is, a phenomenon :) Great to see Amdavadi Tadka doing so well. Wish you and your team all the best for the rest of the tournament. :)

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  18. It is phenomenal. I heard Delhi Team is no more in the contest. Anyways, sorry for them and Cheers to the spirit of IBL.:)

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    1. Thank you Saru for your support, as always. :)
      Yes, we had to clean the filth left behind by few pathetic people who threatened to destroy something really great going for us, before it affected the entire system. Such people don't deserve to call themselves as bloggers. Its a shame, really! Nothing can stop IBL becoming a success, its a slap on their faces. :)

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  19. I loved this concept and I had conveyed my word of appreciation to Deepak last time itself. Again appreciating " Kudos". This is an awesome and must say brilliant concept. All the best.
    I'm not part of this due to time constraint, but support all of you. Honestly, by heart wish, "Namma Bengaluru team " should win. :)

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    1. This time we have moved away from the City based franchise concept to zonal based franchises. There are 5 teams from 5 zones, North, South, East, West and Central. :)

      Thanks for your support, Ranjana. :)

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