Before i start this topic, I want to make it very clear to every one including the CM’s.
You guys have done a exceptional job with all the FFC’s and you guys have been the best. (Esp Nidhi, you rock!)

After i returned home on 16th after the FFC3 Challenge, there were numerous thoughts wandering around.
I din’t know, whom tell it to?  O
Just wanted to know, if i was right or wrong?  (P.S: I know all these wont make sense at all noww, but i thought i should tell you guys what a fan was feeling about the process)

I totally respect the decisions made by the judges during this year’s FFC3. Having said that, How much of a “FAN” thing is necessary in a “FANATIC FAN CHALLENGE”??? Can anyone answer this???

As in to apply for the FFC in RCB, How much of passion for RCB accounts for your selection?? huh???

This year’s FFC3 winner, Dharma Chandru.. great guy, great photographer!!!No Doubt! How much passion does he have for the club? How passionate is he for the boys in red and gold????
huh???? The guy had no expression when his name was called out???
He had no emotions whatsoever, looked more like… “yea i won, so?” kinda expression!!!!

Now we’re told,our application needs to be among the top lot to make it to the final 21! Right?
Did the judges get to see the applications of the shortlisted 21 ???? NO!!! I don’t think so!

http://www.royalchallengers.com/cricket-online-contests/ffc3/DharmaChandru

The Above link is the application of Dharma Chandru! How much of a passion can you see in his application? (I ask the CM’s here)
How much?  Not only was he selected But WON the competition!

I have nothing against Dharma Chandru, i happened to talk to him during FFC3 and he’s a good person, quite humble to talk to.
And an excellent photographer tooo! But is he passionate about RCB???? I DONT THINK SO!!!

I personally took about 4 hours to fill out my application. It took really long to convert the thing that i feel for RCB into words, and i guess i was successful to some extent!

If only photography skills is what they’re looking for? then.. why call it a Fanatic Fans Challenge… Rather name it.. Photography Challlenge!
So only people with years of photography experience, people with high end lenses in their arsenal can applyy… and win!
Why do they even shortlist, 23-25 year olds with decent photography skills and who’re madly passionate about RCB ??? huh???

P.S: Am not cribbing, that i din’t Win! Am not! But I would have been more than happy, if a candidate who actually had the passion for RCB won.

This has been discussed (and rubbished) earlier
it is very evident that many people participate in the contests only for its benefits and not out of passion for RCB. in fact, some of the finalists are active supporters of other teams
during our game against delhi in delhi during IPL, some of the Mighty 14 winners were trying to trade their RCB Jerseys (given by RCB) for jerseys of Delhi Daredevils. Beat that

Its not just about fanatism for RCB. the chosen ones also have a job to do. So even skill n efficiancy is a factor.  Chandru need not jump n shout to show his passion.  he need not be spending hrs n work hard if he is skillful enuf to do the job easily.  I m nt a participant of any FFC s n dont knw much about its judging procedures.  if he has presented better stuff than u, he derservs that job. Even if he supports some other team like in th case presented by sandeep, if he does his job well to report about RCB, thts all that matters to the loyal fans on the site isnt it?

@holmes: that’s exactly the point raghav is making. dont call it a Fanatic Fans Challenge then…. it could be called a talent hunt may be

@HOLMES : Its a Fanatic Fans Challenge my friend! Not a job offered by RCB to be the photographer with skills!

Your skills and Passion for the club both are equally necessaryy!
Passionate need not be jumping and shouting! Its need to be with in and i cant explain passion here!

““Even if he supports some other team like in th case presented by sandeep, if he does his job well to report about RCB, thts all that matters to the loyal fans on the site isnt it?”” - I CANT BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT????    The “Fanatic Fan” in red just above your photograph on this thread need to vanish!

wel i think the organisers expect that if any1 is willing to do a job so closely related n specific to RCB, must be fanatic about RCB. So i guess thts y the title. I thought u r complaing bcoz u feel u should have been prefered over him just bcoz u r more fanatic. Nw any contestant can lie abt being fanatic n thr is no way u can read somones mind. So the selection is more on quality assuming they r fanatic.  but no need to doubt my loyality like that dude! as a fan, i m more interested in the content abt RCB n not who that winner really suports. I cant justify th title though! ur right i feel. its a talent contest then. but its too hard to make sure its a fanatic contest

All this needs to sorted out before shortlisting the 21. Or maybe there needs to be an on-the-spot essay/question-answer session where they need to explain to the judges what makes them a true RCB fan. It’s harder for the the temporary fan to elaborate on the spot whereas for the true blue fans, their answers would come naturally. Because from the judges point of view, they believe those 7 selected in each category are are equally passionate about RCB and they just need to make the choice who out of the 7 is the best in blogging, photography, or podcasting.

Nice thread and healthy discussion!
@Sandeep @Raghav Quite agree with you man, the thought comes to me every time i return from the event. I’ve been there three times only to see “Passionate” RCB fans clap for the winner. Thankfully, Disha won it this time.

I’m not saying that I deserved it, for the kind of podcast that I made in that one hour, with sound card crashing and bad mike, i didn’t deserve the job. The better person got it. May be there was a better “RCB loyal” fan who should have won.. The title surely needs to go away, or otherwise RCB strongly needs to look into the selection process..! Something inside me tells me that FFC will not happen the next time!

More than winning the competition, I’m glad that I was atleast able to connect with people who I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Now every time I visit Bangalore, I won’t feel alone for the kind of friends I have been able to make..

Kunal

Usually, the moderators BLEEP out any names mentioned in case of personal attacks. I very much see this as a personal attack in bad taste and am quite appalled that decision was made to put this post. But in this fix, it doesn’t seem appropriate to delete this post and censor the discussion.

The true issue seems to be “how do you define a true RCB fan”? Do you have to be loud? Should we put down a number of decibels you need to score? Do you have to be writing a book about a key RCB player? How then do I know you’re a true fan of the team, aren’t you just a fan of the player? You saw one match in which Uthappa scored a SIX and were then convinced you love RCB?

Why is this community so hell bent on proving who is the BIGGER RCB FAN?

Why can’t we just enjoy the fact that we are fans, and get more people to be fans?

FYI, I voted YES too, and as have shared with a few of you, we’re looking at a different mechanism to use in the future.

@Nidhi,

““The true issue seems to be “how do you define a true RCB fan”? Do you have to be loud? Should we put down a number of decibels you need to score? Do you have to be writing a book about a key RCB player? How then do I know you’re a true fan of the team, aren’t you just a fan of the player? You saw one match in which Uthappa scored a SIX and were then convinced you love RCB?”“

Yes i agree with the above points! yes you cannot determine a how big a fan a person is!!!

But Seeing Mr. Dharma Chandra’s application, How many of us feel he’s fan? Forget True/Loyal Fan? 

Nidhi, Dont get me wrong here! Am not trying to corner anyone here!!! But the fact here is lot a of RCB fans are upset about the selection of a few people this time around.
And you know we do make sense!

Fans were happy when Ashish and Sandeep were chosen! yes! We want RCB Loyalists up there! And both Ashish and Sandeep very much belong to that category!!

But we’re not here trying to prove who’s a bigger RCB Fan! No….!!! No wayy! you got us wrong Nidhii…!!

When Kunal said - “I’ve been there three times only to see “Passionate” RCB fans clap for the winner.” This line has a lot of pain associated with it. We’re not proving we’re bigger,passionate fans!

All we asking for is, Let the deserving one Win!

As Kunal and I elaborated, yes! If we weren’t good enough, obviously we don’t deserve to Win! But we do expect a true Fan to be up there Winning!

Good healthy thread and sandy that jersey incident was lol…:D:D:D and sick too!!!

Okay, I understand what you’re saying. I request you to stop using names and making personal attacks.

So you’re saying you want to ensure deserving fans win? Fair enough. One of the reasons Dharma won was the photos he took. The judges spent several minutes analyzing photo #3 in particular. Check them out—http://www.royalchallengers.com/blog/winner-of-the-chief-photographer-ffc3-dharma-chandru

Has Dharma outright said anywhere he is NOT a fan of RCB? Because if so, that’s a matter of concern to me and the community.

Nidhi, you and me know why Dharma could not make it when he came for the FFC the first time. (if not, I’d be glad to remind!)

To see him get selected over Pradeep Sanyal who was there for all the three times, specially with his Photographic skill on the very professional level, was a feeling of “Kyon, What does it take to win? ” and you just go out having a good laugh I’m pretty sure, Pradeep Sanyal is not coming back next FFC!

Thankfully Disha got selected much to the relief of all, except Shrest of course..

PS: Dharma has all the experience, and is great, nothing against him, but this time It had to be Pradeep! Take a vote and I’m pretty sure you’ll know what I mean!..

Nidhi, We have to take names because otherwise it gets mistook for some stupid reason.. I’d also like to see the other photographers work, is that possible?

KunJan - 19 August 2010 06:17 PM

Nidhi, you and me know why Dharma could not make it when he came for the FFC the first time. (if not, I’d be glad to remind!)

Kunal. Disha didn’t win first time either. She heard the feedback, took it, came back. Won.

@Nidhi : Am sorry for taking names here! I shall stop!

Nidhi what does it take for an application to get shortlisted into the final 21 in the first place? Could you please tel me that?
What does it take?

You are talking about his photographs being talked about by all the judges? Yes possible! He’s definitely talented as a photographer!
But how on earth did he make it there????  Judges, assume the shortlisted are obviously passionate cos we were the chosen 21!

Application has nothing in it! Absolutely!  Why give out fields in application?  we sit 4 hours to fill out an application and another guy just puts in his flickr album gets shortlisted? Woah!

Then Why an application for a photographer??????  You can just say, Give you Flickr link!

If photography skills is the only thing required? Then why call it a Fanatic Fans Challenge???
You can name it a Photography Challenge! and Podcaster Challenge and so on. Then you can as well just announce a it world wide, RCB is Hiring! All you need is skills!! You even need not know, the full form of RCB. Just drop in to Chinnaswamy Stadium on such a such dates, and we shall take care of the rest! ? ?

@Raghav

What does it take to be shortlisted - primarily good app. We use votes to help decide if there is a tie, logic being “he tried harder, he’s more passionate.” Alternatively, we also sometimes like to dig out talent and will invite someone who has good app and no votes (as was the case in FFC2). Funny story about Ashish who was Chief Photographer during IPL 2010 - he applied FFC1 and had votes but didn’t make the shortlist. He applied half-heartedly FFC2 and didn’t have many votes or as elaborate an application. We recognized him from FFC1 and invited him. Dharma made it in the sense it was his second time applying so he must obviously care enough about RCB to be hanging around. His photos were good. He stood out amongst all that applied.

Regd. “application”.... if such a big hue was raised during the contest we may have been able to address this, but I’m afraid it’s too late now. When it comes to photographer, no matter how lovely and passionate the write up is, you still need to have skill. After all, we’re trusting the Chief Photographer with the responsibility of taking photos for the rest of the fan club dispersed around the world.

Regd. “Fanatic Fans Challenge” hm. not a bad idea to re-name it…

hey guys i’ve just been reading thru the thread and all of you make really valid points , i was just thinking about it and our apps might not have showcased how passionate we are about the team, it was also about proving how good we are at what we are applying for, you might me insanely passionate about our team but might choose to put up other work not involving rcb at all, for example i sleep with an rcb flag stuck on my wall… on most days its the first thing i see… but m sure i came across as not so passionate( i had only 10 votes!!!) ...!! lets take the time to know each other before we assume someone is or isnt passionate… you just might be suprised!!

So what do we all get to know from this Thread?

1> You don’t have to be a Genuine RCB fan but just a Good ?

2> Chief Photographers pictures which he took was great indeed but how many know he’d got his friends to do the act & didn’t convert people on Brigades as RCB fans? http://www.royalchallengers.com/blog/winner-of-the-chief-photographer-ffc3-dharma-chandru

This is the application of Pradeep Sanyal http://www.royalchallengers.com/cricket-online-contests/ffc3/Sanyal
You can check the same & see how good it is.. I wouldn’t think anyone can take pictures more better thn him of those who were short listed..

@Allen

Re point “2” - you know that one of Pradeep’s three photos was a pic of me with a tattoo and a bandana right?

I’m not debating who should have won, the judge decided that, I’m respecting his decision. I’m just defending here that Dharma being shortlisted was with valid reason.