BADdiction: The Obsession Begins

“Badminton is like ballet dancing. It requires a lot of control, strength, mind play and measured movement”

The former world champion Taufik Hidayat was bang on while describing the game of Badminton in this way. But IMT Ghaziabad surely didn’t have ballet dancing on mind when “BADdiction”- the Badminton event held under the League of Titans began on the dusk of October 15. There was a slight chill in the air but the friction between grits and spirits produced enough heat energy to keep the environment warm. By now everybody was clear about their position in the LOT Leaderboard. The table toppers wanted to keep the momentum going while those sitting at the bottom were determined to do some shaking up.

The Baddiction figure adorning the Amphitheatre

The shuttle was set flying by the F’s (Junior F) and the Aces (Junior A). The Aces (Junior A) tried hard but could not match Junior F’s aggressive gameplay. The F’s went on to win the first three games to clinch the match in a best of five scenario. The crowd was making deafening noises and slangs & jargons were giving the environment a flavor of excitement. There were few one sided contests with the likes of the Dynamos (Junior D), the Dabbangs(Senior D) and DCP B winning their matches in straight sets and shuttlers like Archit Gupta, Ashish Bhadauria, Shubham Samdhani and many others mesmerized the audiences throughout the day.

But the day had its fair share of cliffhangers as well. One such contest was between the Excelsiors (Junior E) and the GameChangers (Senior G). The GameChangers (Senior G) made one of the finest comebacks to win the game 3-2 after lagging 2-0 initially. Sumeet and Amit were the star performers for them. Ashish Bhadauria of the Excelsiors (Junior E), one of the star shuttlers of IMT couldn’t do anything to prevent his team from going down. If such thrill was not enough, there were some upsets to top it all. The humdingers made the jaws drop while the upsets left them gasping for air. The upset of the day came from the Executives when they beat the Victors (Senior E) 3-1. The main man of the Victors (Senior E), Anand Pandey didn’t even get a chance to wield his racket as the match was well over before the fifth game. (The word is, there will be a “Strategic Blunder of the year” case study coming next term)

The Excelsiors faced an unexpected first round exit

The Executives stamped their authority on court

The “Titans” are a rare breed. To be one, the fight is definitely on. Day 1, in every sense of the word, was amazing. There were moments when crowds went bizarre and the shuttlers went ballistic. At certain times sledging was the order on the court while at others the supporters never shied to share a light moment. The refs and the linesmen were the people under most pressure but they ensured some fair badminton is played and the best team comes out on top.

All in all, it can be said that from strategic blunders to the cunning moves, from heart throbbing skills to heart breaking errors, from cries of joy to the moans of despair, the day had it all. If you think this is as good as it gets, let me tell you this was just the preface; the silver lining is yet to come.Day 2 has a lot in store with the Quarter Finals promising to take it to the next level. So just wait and watch and remember – “Don’t count the chickens before they hatch”.