After weeks of anticipatory build-up, the business of knowing business finally became fun at the Rotary House of Friendship, Lavelle Road on January 15, 2005. The participants thronged the food-stalls, sizing one another up. Inside, the audience patiently waited for Time to ring in 6:30 p.m. Not surprising, considering they comprised enthusiasts who were at the venue, not because they were into the business of knowing, but because they knew that this was one place where knowing would be fun.
Registration and technical modalities completed, the Prelims commenced while also ushering in a first-ever - The Prelims began with an audience question! Having stirred up the audience, who usually have to wait for the Finals to have a say, the Prelims got underway with an ode to Megastar Chiranjeevi - "What record did this movie create?" (The video clip featured his famed dance routine from 'Indra', which ran in 192 centres for 100 days). During the Prelims-Answers Presentation, questions like "Who were the first to bring broadband to India" (Indian Railways - RailTel), were greeted with loud applause and whistles. "Wait for the Finals", was the sober response by Quizmaster, Avinash Mudaliar.

And then The Finals. With business questions extricated from diverse areas including movies like 'The Matrix' and 'Raincoat', teams were awe-struck as question after question, defied the traditional mores of "Database questioning". The history behind the Cholayil family and Medimix Soaps, brand-placements, advertisements including an X Box ad that drew whistles, Kipling and Laloo Prasad Yadav linked via A H Wheeler, Disaster Tourism, Benetton and Cadburys and their French Connection, were some of the nuggets that made first-time appearances to a first-day first-show response. Microsoft Bhasha Bizkrieg 2005 was the one place where it was let known that Richard Branson was as linked to The Exorcist as Camel Cigarettes were to Mickey Mouse, or that if Stanford University hadn't faced a financial crunch, the Silicon Valley wouldn't have been around! Two questions were reserved in every round for the Audience. Many of them looked future finalists in coming editions of Bizkrieg, and were rewarded with book coupons worth over Rs. 3000.

The Finals also simulated the corporate ladder as each team got to play a Bottom Of The Pyramid Round, a concept pioneered by business guru, C K Prahlad, wherein they needed to start from the bottom and eke their way to the top.

A Special Microsoft BhashaIndia Round on Indic Language Computing saw all the teams piling on their individual scores. Teams evidently had taken note of the pre-event publicity and scoured the Bhasha India website, as all the questions were derived from the site.
After six hard-fought Rounds, seasoned campaigners, Ajay Kasargod, Mitesh Agarwal, Anustup Datta won, while Prasad Shetty, Amit Didolkar, Kiran Nityanand came in second. Cash prizes of Rs. 20,000 were awarded to the winning teams.

Teams who had participated, in a one-off way, wrote out cheques to be registered for the remaining four quizzes. Non-verbal praise is often, a powerful gift. But there were also many who stuck to the traditional forms of expression:

"Superb.. You really need to know your business to do well at Bizkrieg" - Raj Dham (Faber Castell).

"Awesome quiz. The trip from Chennai, to participate here, was worth it" - Gunasheelan

"Great Quiz. Excellent content" - Mitesh Agarwal (Sun Microsystems)

"This is the first time, Bangalore has seen a Business Quiz of this quality" - Arjun (Accenture)

"Not just a quiz - an audio-visual blitzkrieg. Must be the only business quiz which has kept the audience as interested in the quiz as the participants." - Vinay (Audience)

"Bhasha sounds like a cool concept. I've always wanted to talk to my mom in Telugu. How do I get it?" - Bhaskar (Audience)

THE FINALISTS

FIRST PLACE Ajay Gaurang CIPHER CONSULTING Mitesh Agarwal CIPHER CONSULTING Anustup Dutta VERTIBRAND K.I. = PPKI + PKI + TKI       = 1 + 5 + 0 K.I.=6	SECOND PLACE Prasad Shetty PIDILITE LTD Amit Didolkar WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES Kiran Nityanand GODREJ CONSUMER CARE K.I. = PPKI + PKI + TKI       = 1 + 4 + 0 K.I. = 5
THIRD PLACE Raj Dam CITY ONLINE LTD Rohit Jain CITY ONLINE LTD Arjun B CITY ONLINE LTD K.I. = PPKI + PKI + TKI       = 1 + 3 + 0 K.I. = 4	FOURTH PLACE Vishwajeeth Narvekar SIFY Gunaseelan R NOVAR Ramkumar Shankar SANMAR K.I. = PPKI + PKI + TKI       = 1 + 2 + 0 K.I. = 3
FIFTH PLACE Akshay Anand CONTRACT Sachin Madhavan I FLEX SOLUTIONS Manoj Kumar Nambiar I FLEX SOLUTIONS K.I. = PPKI + PKI + TKI       = 1 + 2 + 4 K.I. = 7	SIXTH PLACE Naveen Giles GOLDMAN SACHS A P Alagarsamy ICICI BANK LTD A Arun ACER INDIA (P) LTD K.I. = 3