MasterMines: A landslide victory for ESE

For many Imperial students, Tuesday 27th November was a typical evening. Some were rounding off their CV’s with society activities, others were sweating it out in ethos, and many a student could be found in the library, studying hard for the approaching end of term deadlines. These students were oblivious to the epic showdown, taking place in the Royal School of Mines, to answer an important and controversial question: Which is the more knowledgeable department: Materials or Earth Science and Engineering?

Four students (Academic and Welfare RSM Faculty Reps, Amy Tall and Chloé Lewis, and Materials and ESE appointed ‘Quiz Masters’, Seif Mehanna and Sam Casement) took it upon themselves to formulate a challenging (some would say impossible) set of questions, carefully constructed to accurately distinguish the learned from the uninformed. Long and heated deliberation took place to ensure that the questions displayed no bias, and the Materials students were eventually convinced that an “International Geography” round would not give ESE an advantage.

A total of eight teams, four from each department, scribbled furiously to answer the bombardment of questions with which they were faced. Every individual naturally wanted to contribute to their department’s success, however the single highest scoring team had also been promised a lucrative chocolate-based prize. The stakes were high. Yet, despite the extreme importance of the event’s outcome, spirits were high and the mood was jovial. Students, post-grads and staff were united by a common goal and fun was had by all. The only thing missing was sufficient snack provision (apologies, we underestimated the amount of brain-food required to fuel the average miner).

The quiz proceeded as follows:

1. Imperial Knowledge
2. History
3. Science
4. Pop Culture
5. International Geography
6. Sport
7. Literature
8. Technology

There was an additional photo matching round to be completed throughout the entire event - “Match the Celebrity to the Degree”.

Materials demonstrated superior knowledge regarding ICL, both departments drew for Pop Culture, Literature, Technology and the education of celebrities, but ESE knew more about everything else! Thus, by a landslide victory, ESE were deemed the most knowledgeable department.

Further congratulations are extended to the overall winning team, ESE 1. Only 1.5 points behind was Materials 3, claiming 2nd place. A further 0.5 points behind was ESE 3 and Materials 4 rounding off the rankings in 3rd position. It was undoubtedly a close race!

We hope those who attended enjoyed the event, and would like to thank our Quiz Masters, Seif and Sam, once more.

Who knows, maybe this monumental battle of the brains could become an annual event…