They went on to participate in a battle of bands competition organized at Birla Institute of Technology (Deoghar) by Utthaan where the band won the competition along with that Alvin was awarded the best guitarist in the competition. As it was the year-end of 2012, then went on to do few local gigs in Ranchi and Jamshedpur. They also had a major achievement in their early years by winning the Wheels competition organized by TATA Steel in Jamshedpur. Dheeraj and Alvin both use to be bandmates in their previous metal band. Both had high expectation from their band but weren't able to find that same spirit in that band so they left to form Highway 69. But even before completing one year as the drummer for Highway 69, Dheeraj decided to quit the band citing difficulty in managing his time between the band and his higher studies. Dheeraj was replaced by Anugraha Sonal Johnson Mundu, a local musician who belonged to Alvin's neighbourhood. He joined the band and the band continued with him. With the new line-up, the band won the battle of bands competitions at St. Xavier's School, Ranchi, National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology Ranchi, made their appearance in the Avalanche of Srijan at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad and in Rockolesseum of Unmaad, the cultural festival of IIM Bangalore. Performing in Bangalore became their very first metropolitan show as a band which also required travelling of approximately 1,900 km from their hometown. The Bangalore show became the place where the band got the exposure of various other bands and musicians who were the part of that fest like Blackstratblues, Karsh Kale, Farhan Akhtar and many others. The band also performed at Detox, which was an initiative by the Government of Jharkhand to promote the local rock & metal music culture. They shared the stage with Demonic Resurrection, Girish and The Chronicles and other local bands from the city. Later during mid-2014, Tarang Kerketta took the initiative of starting an inactive rock & metal music festival from their city called Thunderstrock Festival. It was a charitable music festival started in 2008 with the initiative of promoting the local music scene as well as to donate the funds generated from it to the people in need. Tarang is generally credited in bringing this stagnant music festival back to life again in 2014 with giving the stage to the local bands like Death Note (now Reciprocal), Destiny (band in which Alvin and Dheeraj used to play earlier), Error 404, Virus (John, the drummer of this band later joins Highway 69), Genesis, Highway 69 and Head Motif all the way from Darjeeling, West Bengal.