Hunting 04: Through Friday 4 PM

CONCEPT

I'd hoped to blog yesterday.
But I became too busy running events (it happens) and didn't get a chance to.
Now the problem has compounded... I have thirty minutes approximately in which to tell you as much as I can.

READ THE LIST

First is that the website is up again. You can download a friendlier-formatted list here.

THURSDAY NIGHT

After the hot dogs had been distributed for the day, we prepared for the Thursday night item:

56. Schollywood Huares. Put on your game face and show up in BSLC 115 from 7:00 - 9:30 PM on Thursday. Survey says. . . bring marmalade, and plenty of talent—the more trivial, the better. Test the wisdom of our human matrix in
a battle for honor, glory, and fabulous prizes. Suck it, Trebek! [# points]

This was one of the most fun and certainly the best organized Thursday night items I can remember. Thursday night items traditionally have taken the form of a sort of quirky, nuanced talent show, but in the last three years the size and scope of this event has grown tremendously. Jessica, by girlfriend organized the event, and she did a sweet job.

Essentially, nine judges sat in a matrix three across and three deep (a la Hollywood Squares) while each team sent a member up to compete in each round. Each round was organized around a specific theme: Geography, Geeks, Arts and Entertainment, and Sports, and something I can't remember right now. The MCs asked the matricized judges various questions, and teams each decided whether or not the judges' answer was correct. Those who answered correctly advanced a square. The team to reach the final square first won that round and fifteen "points." Other teams won a number of points correspondant to the numbered square they had reached. The judge will later convert the game "points" into real scavhunt points.

The high points, however, were the Challenges.
For each challenge, teams were asked to supply one member with a particular quality, who then had to complete an unnanounced task. Some of these included:
A "ladies'" man: Unfastening a bra the head judge wore over her shirt, reaching behind her back, with one hand. The record was four seconds. The lowest time was over a minute.
A MacGuyver: The most interesting and useful pocket contents.
Someone with Emotional Fortitude: Cry within a minute.

That last was my favorite, and it was intense. One of the winners actually had real tears running down her cheeks by the end of the event. Other teams were alternating laughing and crying. One team member was clutching at his crotch to cause sufficient pain to make him cry. Sadly, it wasn't enough.

In the end, it didn't have the crescendo effect of previous years, but it was fun from beginning to end, and for once it was nice for a Thursday night to run smoothly.

That night, all of the judges went back to Kaury's and broke Kaury, Courtney, and Marina into Megaman II, one of the greatest games of all time.

THE APPRENTICE AND FANTASY SCAVHUNT

4. The Last Annual ScavHunt All-Star Game. By 7:00 PM Thursday, submit three résumés from your team’s All-Star ScavHunters (résumé forms supplied at The Conclave of the Captains). These All-Stars will compete for items on
Saturday afternoon with All-Stars from opposing teams. [a1 + a2 + a3 points]

11. Fantasy ScavHunt. Bring a teammember to Ida Noyes before the party to draft an All-Star team. The All-Stars will
be from other teams, but they will represent your ScavHunt Team. ["0 points]

248. Matthew XXII:14 - For many are called, but few are chosen. Do you want to be a ScavHunt Judge? Send one non-captain first, second, or third year teammember to meet with the Donald at 10:30 AM on Thursday at Ex Libris.
This Apprentice may be busy from Thursday through Sunday. [& points]

I wish I had time to talk about these items more, but they are interrelated so intimately and intricately, it would take too long to explain.

In short, we have done "reality TV" items in prior years. These items represent that attempt this year. #248 is a recreation of the show "the Apprentice," where each team sends one "apprentice judge" who work on teams and individually to complete challenges. Given the spectre of the possibility of actually becoming a judge, this item has a special intensity. I had an opportunity to sit in one one of the "board meetings" and watch an apprentice fired, and it was a breathless somber moment.

The detailed mechanics of #4 and #11 are something I still haven't complete worked out, but in essence, each team had its most qualified hardcore members fill out resumes which were then evaluated by other teams, which then drafted people to play for them. You'd expect this sort of item to crumble because teams would refuse to earn points for each-other, especially the most hardcore participants who tend to believe (and have arguments to back up) that their team is genuinely superior to all others. It went off without a hitch.

But what really interested me most was the play between these three items. The Apprentice Judges wrote items for the All-Stars to perform downtown. It was the reception of these items by the All-Stars that determined which Apprentice was fired next. It was the success of the Apprentice's items that determined the winners among the All-Stars.

In a way, this probably accounts, in some measure, for the success of all three events. Teams collaborated so closely that, for awhile, their original rivalies and alliances disappeared. But I could go on about this for too long.

FRIDAY, MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

200. A teammember, duct-taped in some ridiculous orientation, to the exterior of some campus building. [33 points]

At 2 PM, we found a girl "crucified" between two gothic windows, suspended eight feet off the ground with her feet dangling. The location, ironically enough, was the garden walk between Swift Hall of the Divinity School and Bond Chapel.

14. Enter the Seminary Co-Op wearing only backpacks and shoulder bags. [28 points]

At 3:30, a girl entered the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore wearing three backpacks... one across her chest and two loincloth-style. The joke implicit in the wording of this item is that the SCOB is notoriously strict about checking bags (it's the largest academic bookstore in the world).

Evidently, the scene developed as intended. The girl checked her backpacks and browsed nonchelantly through the store for several minutes before leaving. We hadn't required this for points, of course. The humor was in the situation. There have been many discussions about the things people will do during scavhunt, and the extent to which scavhunt excuses, encourages, discourages, prompts, or provides of context for behavior a little atypical of the more staid and quiet students here.

But I'm not going to go into it further here. I actually have to leave and judge part I of Scav Olympics. Later tonight, hopefully, I can post again, and finish talking about my baby (item) this year, the annual debauchery of the Friday night party on the quads, and the beginnings of Hungover Saturday.

~ Connor