The Objective of Tirakaatam is to improve general knowledge, familiarity, fluency and vocabulary of students learning Telugu. Just by practicing and playing this game, students will vastly improve their general knowledge about all-things related to Telugu language, Telugu history, prominent Telugu personalities, Telugu regions etc.

Tirakaatam Rules by Level

In order to scale the game for a large number of players, Tirakaatam will be played differently at various Levels of the game. The following rules apply to Tirakaatam games at various levels:

• Prelims — see below
• Finals: Details will be shared at the appropriate time

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Tirakaatam Prelims: Rules & Guidelines

Tirakaatam Prelims will be played in-person. Players will be allocated to games boards with other players within their center, based on their age group.

Setup

• The Game Board consists of a board with a Grid of Boxes, arranged as Columns and Rows.
• Each Column pertains to a Category/topic (e.g. Telugu authors, Tourist places in Telugu states etc.)
• Each Row has a certain number of Points associated with it, starting from Row 1 = 100 Points, up to Row 5 = 500 Points.
• Each game can be played with 3 to 6 Players, as determined by the Organizers.
• Participants will be randomly pre-assigned a sequence number, from 1 to the max number of participants.
• Starting with #1, each Player will pick a Box (referenced by its Column + Row numbers, or by its Category + Points) from among any of the Boxes that have not been answered yet.
• The Anchor will read out the question/clue on that Box, and display the question on the screen. In general, the question on a Box with higher number of points will have a higher level of difficulty than a Box in the same Category with lower Points.
• Players can choose to Answer the Question or Pass.
• Answer should be in Telugu language only!!
• The Judge's will rule whether the given answer(s) are correct.
• Depending on the Player's response, the following Points will be awarded:
  • For correct Answer(s): the participant will get the Points on the Box. Note: for multi-part questions, all parts of the question must be answered correctly. No partial Points.
  • For incorrect Answer(s): the participant will get negative Points equal to the Points on the Box. Note: for multi-part questions, if any of the parts is answered wrongly, it will lead to negative Points. No partial Points.
  • For a Pass: No Points. Players score will not change.
• Scores will be updated on the screen as the Game progresses.
• If a Player does a "Pass", the Player with the next # in sequence will get the Question, until all Players get a chance for that question, or someone gets the right answer.
• This process continues until all the questions on the Game Board have been completed.
• Once the Game Board is completed, the scores of each player will be announced.
• In case of a Tie, all the Players involved in the Tie will be asked to play one row in a fresh Game Board; and the Player with the highest points is declared winner. If a tie still exists, we will go to a "Sudden Death" round where the player who answers the first question is declared Winner of the tie.
• Depending on their scores, players will be ranked as 1, 2, 3 etc.