Continuing the tradition of the hostel, the El juego Football Tournament was kicked off on the 1st Aug 2011. The tournament consisted of 16 teams from the Boys Hostel which were divided into four pools namely Pele, Maradona, Zidane, Bhutia. Each pool consisted of one seeded and three unseeded teams. The four seeded teams were Bihari Babus F.C., Celestial Crusaders, F.C. Tiara and Northern Nawabs. The opening match was between the Warriors and Bihari Babus, which ended in a 3-0 triumph for Bihari Babus F.C.
The group stages went on smoothly with just one upset loss of Bihari Babus to unseeded Soccer Showdowns, thus setting a Bihari Babus – Northern Nawabs clash in the Quarter Finals. The Quarter Finals saw Bihari Babus eliminated and also a shocking loss of F.C. Tiara to Desi Dabang F.C. in a penalty shootout, thus causing Tiara to be the only team to be eliminated without conceding a goal. F.C. Tiara however saw another couple of proud moments when they won an exhibition match against Bihari Babus and also their striker Rohan Malhotra got the award for the Rising Star of the Tournament.
The Semifinals saw remarkable example of humanity when Ajay Karan Singh left his match in between to take his injured opponent Rachit Upreti to the hospital after he suffered a foot fracture, however Celestial Crusaders F.C. and Soccer Showdowns played 5 on 5 for 15 minutes and eventually Celestial Crusaders won 8-1. In the other Semifinals Northern Nawabs demolished Desi Dabangs 5-1. In the third place match Desi dabang beat Soccer Showdowns 3-1.
On 21st Aug 2011, Celestial Crusaders met the Northern Nawabs in emphatic Final, which was won by Celestial Crusaders 3-1, courtesy a brace from top scorer of the tournament Mulugraj. As they were celebrating the victory Honorable Principal Dr D R Saini made an announcement for a second leg of the Final. On 24th August 2011, the second leg of the Final was hosted amidst the presence of the Girls Hostellers and our Principal Dr D R Saini. The Northern Nawabs took an early lead courtesy a Rajneesh das penalty. However, Celestial Crusaders made a strong comeback with a Ajay Karan Singh free kick. The Northern Nawabs scored two more goals and their captain Aryaman becoming the only player to score in both legs of the Finals.
However Celestial Crusaders did not let the game go beyond their reach as Ajay Karan scored directly from a goal kick and completed his hat-rick with a long range effort. The second leg ended in a draw at 3-3 but the Celestial Crusaders won an aggregate of 6-4.
In the Award Presentation Ceremony apart from Rohan, Rajneesh Das got the award for the most Versatile Player of the tournament. Mulugraj got the Golden Boot with 15 goals and the Organising Committee of Pratik agarwal, asmit Das, Sparsh Jain was felicitated with Certificates for successfully organizing this tournament. Also Ajay Karan Singh received the award for the Best Referee of the tournament.
The tournament ended in a huge success with hopes to see this traditional tournament continuing for years to come.
