Finest ACT

CEBU, Philippines - Five times a tie had to be broken between three of the 17 schools which vied for the championship title of the recent “Battle of IT Schools (BITS) Year 3,” until Asian College of Technology played neck to neck with the University of San Carlos Talamban Campus.

The annual computer quiz bowl was initiated by Ezware IT Computing Solutions president Josephus Uy Dy. It is a gauge on how comprehensive, relevant, and updated are the students in the IT curriculum based on past, present, and future technologies.

At the deciding round, the quiz ran out of questions. The suspended momentum could not seem to settle down a thrilled, excited crowd. So Mr. Dy had to scribble, as quickly as he could think of, the final two questions on paper; the desire to know the winner has taken on everyone at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.

After all the heebie-jeebies, Christoeffer John Estrada (18 years old; from Iligan), Rachel Villaflores (19, originally from Cagayan de Oro), and Cliff Ian Murillo (20, of Barangay Quiot, this city) romped away triumphantly with the “BITS Year 3 Champion: IT War of Wizards and Witches” plum.

“It was very tough considering that we played against 16 schools this year with Mindanao schools joining in. So to drive the jitters away, we just kept in mind: ‘Win or Lose, Win gihapon.’ We attribute our victory to our supportive coaches who, despite the pressure, instructed us to just enjoy the experience,” Christoeffer shared.

Rachel would want to relax throughout the game. But there were moments during the quiz proper that her knees wobbled, the throbbing of her heart was louder than the rah-rah squad of strong competitors, her hands went clammy with anxiety, and though she had stock knowledge on the questions, she went fidgety and could not seem to decide on the right answer. “The questions are somewhat tricky. Choices seem to be all correct so you could either go for an ‘All of the Above’ answer, or all incorrect so you can opt for a ‘None of the Above’ choice,” she recounted.

Cliff, on the other hand, was just so glad he could not hear anything comprehensible from the audience now overwhelmed by thrill. Everything his auditory nerves processed was a distorted wave of the mix of vague, incoherent, disorganized sounds. Or a negative comment could have bothered him. “We have a few close friends who watched the event. I learned from them after the quiz that some spectators from other schools said our win was sort of ‘tsamba lang’’ (by chance). It could have hurt me badly because the mechanics ‘Right Minus Wrong’ proved we know the answers and are familiar with technologies. Daghan baya ang na-zero, that’s why they got eliminated in the earlier rounds. Kami, we made it to the succeeding rounds,” he narrated.

The three are humble enough to admit it still is a puzzle to them why their trio was picked to represent the school. “There are other students far deserving than us, more talented, more experienced, more knowledgeable, more intelligent. Nahibung bitaw mi nganong kami,” Rachel detailed.

However, their coaches Mr. Edwin Salanatin and Mr. Whiskey Alda explained that “they are top students and their experience as technical assistants (TA) make them more competent to represent our school.”

Technical assistants are working students assigned at the five computer laboratories of ACT. Through their different specializations, they are able to imbibe the varied and broad lessons on IT - networking/linkages, database, scripting languages, web design/development, fiber optics, to name a few, and were able to synthesize the resources to make them all useful during the quiz. 

“Basta, I just kept in mind never to act like some superhero. If naa koy di masabtan, I raise questions with my coaches. That made almost all of the questions familiar. And with the rigid training that I receive at the Fiber Optics Training Center, I was able to pitch in what I know of fiber optics. In fact, we already designed e-Learning materials for a Dubai-based firm. At the center, we are trained, despite being students, to work like professionals,” Cliff went on.