You may recall that we participated in a competition called PuzzleCrack last semester. It was a week-long ordeal with various puzzles every day of the week. The Saturday at the end of the week culminated with a big metapuzzle. Fun was had, and prizes were given away.
Well last Saturday was the first ever PuzzleCrunch, a smaller version of PuzzleCrack for the Spring semester which was hosted by Microsoft. Obviously we had to do it again. It was 6 hours long, running from 2pm to 8pm. There were 18 puzzles to solve during that time, and they involved going around to various parts of campus and finding clues.
We ended up getting 3rd of 40+ teams, so I was definitely happy with that. The top three teams go prizes. 1st place got an Xbox 360, two $100 Best Buy gift certificates, and other 360-related goodies. 2nd place got three $50 Best Buy gift certificates. 3rd place got three wireless keyboards and mice from Microsoft, which you can check out here. Plus, we got some shirts and hats. Everybody who went got some free shirts from Microsoft, pizza, soda, and candy. I certainly couldn’t complain.
In all, it was a lot of fun and a nice change of pace from the typical Saturday. I thought it was a little strange that our prizes were worth more than 2nd place, but I figure it’s probably because even if the keyboards/mice sell for $100, they’re probably not worth that much to Microsoft, who makes them. Still cool, though.
March 14, 2006
Our prizes were worth more than 2nd place because they couldn’t help but give the team with the name “the big enchilada” the better prizes….we’re just too cool.