The quarterfinal games of the Baikal KVN League were held in Irkutsk

The new Baikal KVN League has started in Irkutsk, bringing together teams of different ages, professions and universities. In the quarterfinals 15 teams fought for a semifinal spot, with winners decided after each contest.

On April 24–26, the game season of the newly created “Baikal KVN League” kicked off in Irkutsk. What makes this league different is that it has brought together a wide variety of KVN players under its banner. Neither occupation, nor age, nor affiliation with any particular university matters in principle. At the moment, there is no equivalent in the Irkutsk region to such a “unifying” KVN league. And that’s great!
The organizers made the right decision when they chose to hold the KVN games in the spacious concert hall of Irkutsk State Technical University: a big ship needs a big voyage! Fifteen teams that advanced into the season based on the results of the closed qualifying festival (March 16, Irkutsk Philharmonic Hall) competed in quarterfinal games. Three quarterfinals were held one after another, pitting five teams against each other. On the first day, the teams fighting for a place in the semifinals were: “IGU KVN Team” (Irkutsk), “ParaDogz” (Ulan-Ude, VSGTU), “IGPU Alumni Team,” “FSB Academy KVN Team” (IrGSKhA-IGLU)
“Bureau of Lost and Found” (a combined team of the geology faculties of IGU and IrGTU). On the second day: “Refrigerator” (Bratsk), “Eurovision” (Ulan-Ude), “Gentle Udinsk” (IMEI IGU), “IrGTU Team,” “My Favorite KVN Team” (Angarsk). In the final, third quarterfinal, the following teams met: “Buryats” (combined team of Ulan-Ude), “220 Volts” (Institute of Social Sciences, IGU), “Five Stars” (Irkutsk-Yerevan, Irkutsk Armenian Cultural Society), “IrGUPS Team,” “First Soviet” (Irkutsk, graduates of School No. 18).
Yuri Yashnikov – captain of the KVN team “Baikal,” and now also host of the “Baikal KVN League” games, opening the first game, announced the season’s strict rule: only the top two places from each day would advance. Thus, six teams would definitely meet in the semifinals. But since rather strong and worthy teams took the stage, two of the losing teams could be added by jury decision at the end of the third day. And that meant a fierce battle — because even losing had to be done in a way that would appeal to the audience and the jury. By the way, the composition of the latter remained unchanged over all three days, which was quite natural. The judging panel consisted of well-known people in Irkutsk: captain of the “Irkutsk Decembrists” Vadim Belinsky, popular radio DJ Vyacheslav Shiryaev, head of sports and physical culture in Irkutsk Dmitry Abramovich, designer of several KVN logos Igor Volkov, player of “Baikal” Vadim Shestakov, and well-known journalist Alexey Shapenkov. Interest in the league was shown even by people professionally far removed from KVN — representatives of the City Duma were present in the hall.
Each of the games truly represented a hard-fought struggle. And if one team showed a lower result from the very beginning, the other four were equal to each other in every respect. “Tug-of-war with alternating success” — that is how the games could be described in sporting terms. After each contest, we learned new leaders. There were ups and downs. In one of the games, we learned who the clear leader was only after the final result was announced; in another, two teams, having scored in different contests, shared first place; in the third, a team that had initially shown a low result unexpectedly surged ahead. Probably the hardest thing in this situation was judging the games, because when there are a mixed crowd of spectators and active fans behind your back, when the performances of all the teams are received with enthusiasm — then it is difficult to rely only on your own emotions… But the six jury members still managed to handle the task. In the end, the winners of the three days — and, one might say, semifinalists already — were: “FSB Academy KVN Team” and “IGPU Alumni Team,” the KVN teams “Eurovision” and “Refrigerator,” “Buryats” and “Five Stars.” And the additional selections went in favor of the “IGU KVN Team” and the “IrGUPS Team.”
The games were competitive in spirit not only in terms of further participation in the season. In a sense, these games also allowed participants to shine in individual competition. Thus, each game revealed its own “Miss” and “Mister.” What joy there was among the still very inexperienced KVN players when, along with their debut, such public recognition “fell on” them! Among those honored were also more experienced ones — KVN players “with mileage.” It should be noted that the moment the winners of this nomination were announced was a rare case of complete unity between the audience’s opinion and the jury’s opinion. And yet KVN is a team game, so it was even more pleasant to receive the prize in the “Best Joke of the Evening” category — it was awarded to the entire “team of like-minded people.”
And now let us recall the best jokes of the three days.

Brutal geological humor — the fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” — was presented by “Bureau of Lost and Found”:
- Dear sir…
- Nastenka…
- Dear sir…
- Sisters, throw out the coffin — Nastenka has returned!
“The IGPU Alumni Team” suggested that after the economic crisis, an economic boom would quite naturally follow. And then people tired of money abundance would go out into the streets with slogans:
- “Where else can pensions rise? We can’t spend that much!”
- “Raise the rent at least!”
- “Why is gasoline the cheapest in our region? Are we worse than others?”
They also joked:
- An incident on the Irkutsk-Buryat border…
- But there is no such border?
- There should be!
And from this team’s news bulletin we learned that:
- for many years between Uzbekistan and Pakistan there has been… Afghanistan.
- in ancient IVATU, weak and ugly boys were thrown into Voronezh…
- the expansion of Baikalskaya Street is carried out at the expense of narrowing other streets…
“IGU KVN Team” joked on a fast-food theme:
“Yesterday I bought a pie on the train ‘Chita-Chelyabinsk.’ It kind of reminded me of childhood… youth, student years, dormitory, friends — in short, my whole life flashed before my eyes!”
During the “warm-up” round, many funny answers were heard. Here is one such question-and-answer:
- What must Timati do so that the country will finally love him?
- He must open his own country — answered the guys from the “FSB Academy Team.”
“ParaDogz” — real Buryat guys — sang about the harsh everyday life of children from Buryatia:
Let mom hear it,
Let mom come,
Let mom take me away from wrestling.
For it just doesn’t happen in this world
That children are Buryat…
It turned out that in the “Gentle Udinsk” team there plays a certain Pavel — the winner of a men’s beauty contest in Kabardino-Balkaria — “Boy-Nalchik.” The guys from the same team joked during the warm-up:
- What will Valery Meladze and Nikas Safronov do if they end up together in a restaurant?
- Fact: neither sing nor paint…
The warm-up continued, and someone asked:
- What will Philip Kirkorov’s next birthday be like?
- Well, very much like Ricky Martin’s birthday, — the guys from “IrGTU” pointed out the trend.
A girl from “Refrigerator” performed a mini-sketch from the black-humor category — which she had warned about in advance. “An incident on the program ‘Wait for Me’:
- I am looking for my friend… Ivan Gavrilovich… He is blind, deaf, and mute… Ivan Gavrilovich! If you are touching the television right now…

One young man from the “Buryats” set out to prove that he was a mixed-race person:
- So, your mother is Russian, your father is Buryat?
- No.
- Ah, the other way around! Father is Russian, mother is Buryat?
- No.
- Then how is it?
- Well, father is mixed-race and mother is mixed-race… What’s so hard to understand? I’m a purebred mixed-race person!
And at the end of the presentation, the guys made a statement: “We Buryats don’t need anything from you, Irkutsk residents… Well, except maybe a little from the Irkutsk girls…”
The “220 Volts” team continued the eternal theme of the problematic Irkutsk bridge:
- Irkutsk residents, the New Bridge is not pregnant!
- What do you mean?
- Well, it only has one lane!

During the warm-up of the 3rd quarterfinal, the following questions were asked:
- Are famous people registered on Odnoklassniki?
- Ivan the Terrible registered on Odnoklassniki and gives everyone an “F”! — “Five Stars” got the point.
- How do Scots in Scotland differ from Scots in Moscow?
- Moscow Scots tuck their skirts into their boots, — “220 Volts” were up to date on fashion trends.
And “1st Soviet” delighted everyone with its textual, wordplay humor:
- Do you know why Kutuzov was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Russian troops during the war?
- No…
- Well, certainly not for his pretty eyes!
And overall, what is pleasing is that this is only a small part of the jokes that were heard at the three games that have already taken place… One can’t help but say: and how many more will be heard! Indeed, the league has only just started, but it has already established itself as the city’s largest and longest-running entertainment event. It is to be hoped that from game to game this good reputation of the league will only grow stronger. Don’t miss the semifinals of the “Baikal KVN League”!