Tag Archives: Pentathanerd

Winter Pentathanerd 2012 – Final Results

A yeti-like photo of this year's lego luge contraption

Wednesday – Anna Graham

For the Anna Grahams event, contestants had to unscramble words or phrases to guess the original word or phrase based on the selected category. In groups of three, teams had to get four correct to move on to the final round of three. The categories were:
Steel Men (Elements)
Hip Cretaceous Stirrer (Prehistoric Creatures)
See Ample Money (Employee Names)
Creates Niches (Earth Sciences)
In the first round after choosing Earth Sciences, WYSIWYG blasted to a quick victory against Teh Awsumbs and QWERTY, leaving them with nothing on the board. In the second round, The Nerderlands’ knowledge of Elements gave them an easy path to victory over Teh Newbs and Nausea, with each of the others scoring a single point. In the third round, Chicago’s team RAGE! phoned

in and managed to get a point in the category Prehistoric Creatures; Don’t Blink came close with three, but We Are Not Cheaters pulled away with the win.
In the final round, We Are Not Cheaters’ Annette J took a quick lead with her knowledge of Employee Names, but WYSIWYG’s Sean Hickey and The Nerderlands’ Jim Barrett kept the scores close. Easily the most entertaining category, among the anagrams were “dimmest hick” and “cranky urea.” After a number of unanswered anagrams, a snap *snap* judgement had to be made to continue, after running out of anagrams in the category; we resumed the round with the remaining unsolved Elements anagrams.
The score quickly tied up, three points for each team. The final clue – “tiny moan” – was solved by The Nerderlands.
Try to solve them yourself at the (totally hacked the night before) game site: http://yankee.sierrabravo.net/~mseemann/5n/ag.php

Thursday – Lego Luge

A record crowd braved the chilly 76-degree weather in the Nerditorium to witness the first ever indoors Lego Luge event of the Pentathanerd. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Eric Myers, the indoor track made for a spectacle of its own, as competitors waited their turn to try out their luge designs in “the series of tubes.”

Participants were expected to bring their Lego vehicle – complete with rider – to the event for approval from the Head Judge (Kai Esbensen). Then, the competitors handed their luge to the Primary Luge Launch Technician (Mark Seemann, standing on a ladder), who placed the luge carefully in the pre-calibrated “Flusher.” Once docked in the “Flusher,” a member from the team pulled on the release mechanism, occasionally needing to j iggle the handle, to begin the luge’s descent toward the luge track. Based on the results, the following points were awarded:

300 pts – Clearing the flusher earned 300 points
500 pts – Making it into the luge track (not as easy as it sounds!)
700 pts – Getting caught in the “lint trap”
800 pts – Getting into the garbage can
900-1200 pts – Clearing the entire luge track, depending where the Lego rider ended up on a field of points

Three teams managed to propel their craft all the way down the luge track; WYSIWYG, Nerderlanders, and Ridin’ QWERTY. WYSIWYG missed the scoring field of points, earning 900 points. The Nerderlanders landered [sic] on the board, but just outside a colored scoring area, earning 1000 points. QWERTY made a solid showing in this event, also landing on the board but outside bonus points areas, tying for first place.

Friday – Price is Right

The Friday event was Teh Price Is Right. The game, as was revealed right at the start of the event, was to guess how Jansen Price would answer questions (hence, [Jansen] Price Is Right). There were eight warm-up questions, worth 100 points for the first four and 200 points for the second four, leading up to the wager-style bet-it-all final question.

Winter Pentathanerd – Midweek Update

We now join the Winter Pentathanerd in full swing, this week at The Nerdery! The Pentathanerd, as you all remember, is the twice-yearly competition that pits nerds against nerds across five different events testing their nerdy skillz. After two of these lunchtime events – “Biathlon: Revolutions” and “Rubik’s Cube with a Twist” – team WYSIWYG is in the lead with The Nerderlands, We Are Not Cheaters and Don’t Blink in hot pursuit. Here are the full scores as of yesterday…

1. WYSIWYG: 2243
2. The Nerderlands: 1958
3. We Are Not Cheaters: 1888
4. Don’t Blink: 1872
5. Teh Awsumbs: 1672
6. Teh Newbs: 1422
7. RAGE!: 1372
8. Nausea: 958
9. QWERTY: 300

The Nerdery’s very own boy reporter Mark Seemann has the scoop on the action:
“Biathalon: Revolutions was based on the concept of “run-and-shoot.” The competitors used nerf guns (their own or one made available for use) to shoot at high-tech paper-plate targets. The course was set up to have two competitors go head-to-head, almost literally. From opposite ends of the same table, competitors shot from “bases” at a series of targets. There were targets for each competitor facing each base. After two (2) shots, the competitor switched to the other base, even if those targets have been knocked down. If a competitor knocks down a target for the other competitor, it still counts as knocked down.

Thus concluded the first event of the Winter 2012 Pentathanerd Games

The winner (with a record time of 19 seconds) is The Nerderlands.
In second place, We Are Not Cheaters, followed by a tie for third between WYSIWYG and Teh Newbs.

Rubik’s with a Twist was a speed-solving competition, but “with a twist” that was revealed in the final round of competition.

The event started off with a massively multi-player (offline) round of speed solving (MMPORoSS) wherein the teams were seeded into a direct elimination table of the top eight. (Team Nausea obliged to make it easy to eliminate the ninth team by not showing up.)

WYSIWYG’s Sean Hickey eliminated QWERTY in the fasted recorded time of the day, solving in 33 seconds. Also making it out of the top 8 were Teh Awsumbs (1:18), [We Are Not] Cheaters (2:30), and D

on’t Blink (1:50).

WYSIWYG blasted Teh Awsumbs out of the games with another fast 49-second speed-solve. Then Don’t Blink’s Sean Kladek struggled against Justin Hendrickson from [We Are Not] Cheaters, who seemed to be taking his time. After an opening piece of hijinx where Justin unsuccessfully locked Sean’s cube in a filing cabinet, Sean never figured out that Justin had also swapped his cube for another cube with 10 red stickers instead of 9. Team [We Are Not] Cheaters was disqualified for the dishonest shenanigans.

WYSIWYG faced Don’t Blink in the final round and the “Twist” was revealed. Instead of unscrambling the competitor’s cubes (following trends from earlier rounds), they instead had to unscramble mirror-block cubes!
These all-silver-faced cubes have different-sized faces instead of colors to tell them apart. The two contestants looked a bit out of their element as they previewed their challenge.

After a back-and-forth, frustrating, nail-biting nine minutes and thirteen seconds, Sean Hickey was able to throw down an unscrambled cube, winning the event for WYSIWYG!”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Apollo 13 Challenge

Using only a bag of stuff, teams must make a tool that can retrieve a ring of keys from a bowling pin ten feet away to escape the wrath of an unjust jailor.

Here’s what Mark Seemann from The Werd had to say:
“The rain could not stop an event like this from happening – all it did was delay it for a little while. After a late start, the Apollo 13 challenge revealed its plot:

“You are all accused of a crime that you did not commit. The sheriff will prosecute you in the morning. Luckily, a confederate has given you a kit of supplies, and lets you know that the sheriff will be asleep for half an hour while you construct something, and then he’ll do his rounds, which will give you two minutes to grab the keys off of a bowling pin ten feet away and escape.”

Teams selected kits in paper bags with standard items like:

6 feet of twine
a 2 foot dowel
a manilla folder
one sheet of paper
three paper clips
two chopsticks
a set of platic utensils
a pen with…
6 feet of duct tape wrapped around it

In addition, each kit had a special item, one of:

4 foot dowel instead of the 2 foot
10 feet of nylon string instead of 6 feet of twine
banker’s box in place of the paper bag
scissors
10 paperclips instead of 3
2 foot piece of 1×2 wood
a bar magnet (not chosen, as Nausea could not attend the event).

The event was pass-fail: success brought the team 500 points, and failure earned nothing.

The InterNerds used the manila folder, rolled up, to extend a kind of fishing rod. Unfortunately, it came apart, and cost them too much time to recover (pun intended). She! attempted a similar device, but fell onto the floor and “out of the cell”, prompting an instant DQ from the head judge, Kai. The Whom? had a clever plan: they constructed a kind of trawling dredger – the paper bag with chop sticks taped to the top edge, string on the bag. In the crunch, the plan just wasn’t coming together, and they ran out of time.

Teh Awsumbs used the banker’s box to make a crane-style extended fishing rod which, after a few tense moments, was able to hook on to the keyring and pull it to victory. Effortless were able to harness the power of a waterski-handle looking device with similar hooks on it to snag the key and a win. Revenge of the InterNerds had a tense length of time after their paperclip hooks fell to the floor and snagged on the carpet. With time running out, and the hooks snagging and unsnagging, a last second shake brought the hooks up and in contact with the keys. With only 10 seconds on the clock, a desperation pull brought the keyring up and back in reach for a dramatic success.

The overall standings after this event are:

4962 – Teh Awsumbs (event points: 500 – going on to Gyparody)
4105 – Revenge (500 -going on to Gyparody)
3604 – The Whom? (0 – going on to Gyparody)
3378 – InterNerds (0)
3294 – She! (0)
2860 – Effortless (500)
2708 – Nausea (0)”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Pinewood Lego Monkeyball II – Aerial Boogaloo

Dozens of brave Lego men kissed their Lego wives and kids goodbye to go forth and be launched from the Pinewood Lego Monkeyball II ramp in earlier this afternoon. Points were awarded per the color they landed the closest to.

Mark Seemann from the word filed this report:
“A wild set of entries graced the ramp of the Pinewood Lego Monkeyball ][ : Aerial Boogaloo event. From flying drones to boom arms to simple unaccompanied lego people, teams vied to land on gold for maximum points.

Nausea and Effortless struggled to find purchase on the points field; the Whom? had a clever plan to sneak in a quick landing for the maximum point area just below the end of the ramp, but failed to stick the landing.

The (Revenge of the) InterNerds teamed up to try out a last minute entry, succeeding in the end where others failed by launching a lucky solo lego person straight and true down the center to earn 600 points. For lack of definition, the head judge Kai E awarded both Revenge and InterNerds teams 600 points for their combined effort.

Then came Teh Awsumbs foray into Newtonian physics; a boom arm, counterweighted by a mostly full water bottle, suspended a lego person by a line which, when released from the start gate, swung out over the points field. Kai waited until the swinging slowed enough to judge that the lego person was sufficiently over the gold area, awarding Teh Awsumbs the maximum point value.

Not to be outdone, She! launched their simple vehicle. When it came to rest, a murmer went through the crowd as Justin H asked, “Is that it?” Then came the unique sound of an AR drone firing up, which (eventually) swooped down and magnetically attached to the vehicle, guiding it across the point field and over the gold area, past it, and off the board. Further attempts to regain the field were futile.

In later rounds, She! changed strategies and went with maximum dispersion, casting out the separated pieces of a lego person (or four, rather, as was learned after the event) onto the field. As the rules stated, if the lego person is in more than one area, the maximum point value of the fields is used, which earned She! 1000 points in the last round.

The overall standings after this event are:

4462 – Teh Awsumbs (event place: 1; event points: 1200)
3605 – Revenge (T3; 600)
3604 – The Whom? (5; 500)
3378 – InterNerds (T3; 600)
3294 – She! (2; 1000)
2708 – Nausea (6; 400)
2360 – Effortless (7; 300)

No lego people were harmed in the making of this event. Except for the four that She! used, which are currently in intensive care.”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Tile Tornado

On day 3, the Scrabble/Bananagrams nerds were up in a timed game of collective word making.

Mark Seemann from The Werd reports:
“Intense wordplay was at the center of the first attempt at the new game Tile Tornado. Two players per team in five minute rounds with three teams grabbed tiles to make three-letter or longer words. With each player having only one tile, teams needed to co-operate to make words. Longer words earned bonus points per tile – four-letter words earned one extra point per tile, and file-letter words earned three bonus points.

The first round had the InterNerds facing She! and Teh Awsumbs. After a painful wait while tiles were counted, Teh Awsumbs emerged with a one-point lead on She! with the Interns woefully behind. The second round had The Whom? up against Effortless and Nausea. With massive points in bigger words, Effortless walked away with a comfortable lead: 85 points. The Whom? struggled with game logistics, and chose to be part of the final round with Revenge of the InterNerds and Teh Awsumbs (who filled in pro-bono – earning no points). In the last round, The Whom? were able to better their score, averaged between the two rounds they played, and Revenge were able to put up a significant score, winning 13 points alone for a Q played on a five letter word.

Revenge fell only two points out from Effortless’ lead, placing second, with Teh Awsumbs holding on to a narrow third place with 76 points.

The overall standings after this event are:

3262 – Teh Awsumbs (event place: 3; event points: 1105)
3104 – The Whom? (6; 904)
3005 – Revenge (2; 1179)
2778 – InterNerds (7; 618)
2308 – Nausea (5; 914)
2294 – She! (4; 1094)
2060 – Effortless (1; 1200)”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: d20 Bocce Ball

Day 2 of the Summer Pentathanerd wrapped up yesterday with the game d20 Bocce Ball which is played exactly how you think it would be…

Again, Mark Seemann from The Werd summarized the results:
“A crowd of Nerds showed up to watch Tuesday’s event: D20 Bocce Ball, inspired by the winner of the user-submitted contest ideas in January, Rohit Patnaik (originally d20 Shot Put).

This event required contestants to roll or toss two jumbo-sized D20s – twenty-sided dice, for those unfamiliar with role-playing parlance – as close as possible to a D&D miniature. The team with the closest die, or dice, score the points showing on top of the die, or sum of two dice, if neither of the opponent’s two dice are closer.

Teams went head-to-head in two rounds of tosses, proceeding up a double-elimination chart. Although teams are knocked out in elimination format, the total points earned are what determine final point earnings.

Led by the lone Stuart A, The Whom? were able to handle the competition with grace, and no small amount of luck. She! struggled, and in the end were set as one of the first out of the event, along with Effortless and Nausea.

Teh Awsumbs made a run for the title, but were taken down by The Whom? and the InterNerds. Revenge of the InterNerds went into the finals with The Whom? without a loss; a natural-20 lead a massive 50 point pair of rounds for The Whom?, giving Revenge their first loss. In the instant rematch, Revenge scored 14 and 10, taking both rounds to win the overall title.

Although the winner of the event was Revenge of the InterNerds, the point distribution is dependent on total points earned in the competition. Thus, with 121 total points, The Whom? walks away with 1200 points to the Revenge’s 776.

The overall standings after this event are:

2200 – The Whom? (event place: 2; event points: 1200)
2160 – InterNerds (3; 910)
2157 – Teh Awsumbs (4; 657)
1826 – Revenge (1; 776)
1394 – Nausea (T5; 694)
1200 – She! (T5; 300)
860 – Effortless (7; 360)”

Summer 2011 Pentathanerd: Bug House

Because chess isn’t nerdy enough the organizers of the Pentathanerd brought the game to a whole new level of nerdiness.

Here’s what Mark Seemann from The Werd had to say about the action:

“The Bughouse finals wrapped up with with fast action and heated matches.

In the Loser’s Bracket, the InterNerds – Scott G and Shaomeng Z – struggled against She! (as Justin H has renamed the team), with Michael H filling in for Scott S. With a checkmate on the board, She! went on to face the loser of the Winner’s Bracket.

Teh Awsumbs cracked out a near-instant victory over the Revenge of the InterNerds – John Thompson and Jonathan Huff – with Sai X dropping a pawn backed up by a knight for checkmate within a dozen moves.

She! were doing pretty well against the Revenge, but Michael H let his king open to check at a vulnerable time – when the opponent could notice – and dropped the game. This led to a rematch of Revenge against Teh Awsumbs.

The final match was well fought, and arguably the best match of the competition. With several trades and subtle threats, Teh Awsumbs’ Sai spotted the king move into a knight-check, taking the king, the game, and the victory.
The overall point totals after the Bughouse Event:

1500 – Teh Awsumbs
1250 – InterNerds
1050 – Revenge of the InterNerds
1000 – The Whom?
900 – She!
700 – Nausea
500 – Effortless”

Pentathanerd Winter Games end in Nerdery Feud

After competitions in Floppy Disk Golf, Rubik’s Assist, Pun-on-Pun, and Lego Luge II, Pentathanerd’s 2011 Winter Games came down to a winner-take-all Nerdery Feud  between Suite CC and Frak Yeah QA, the two teams that were the biggest point-mongers in events held Monday-Thursday. About 180 Nerdery nerds were surveyed for Nerdery Feud. Richard Dawson/survey says:

Pentathanerd Winter 2011: Nerdery Feud from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Big congrats to Pentathanerd champs Frak Yeah QA. Can I get a Frak Yeah?

Are you ready for The Summer Games? Training and scheming are already underway.

Lego Luge II: Pentathanerd’s slippery slope

It was less than zero outside for the only outdoor competition at this year’s Winter Games:

Pentathanerd Winter 2011: Lego Luge II from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Somehow “winning” Lego Luge ll, !Cheaters rolled their way to Pentathanerd Gold, followed by Team Confidential (Silver Medal) and Suite CC (Bronze).

Standings through four events (Floppy Disk Golf; Rubik’s Assist; Pun-on-Pun; Lego Luge II:

1. Suite CC (3600 points): Jon P, Jon R, Matt T, Adam R, Ali K, Minh V
2. Frak Yeah QA (3460 points) Matthew E, Sara T, Sean K, Phil, John S
3. !Cheaters (3340 points*) Justin “Pete R” H, Annette “Tanya H” J, Ken “Brutus” S, Gillian R
4. Team Confidential (2880 points): Mike D, Brianna G, Jansen P, Den D, James M, Andrew W, Mark S, Paul M
5. Ad Hoc (1750 points): Greg W, Matt L, Paul T, Brett
6. 312 (660 points) Tom O, Dan S, Kelly M, Dave K
7. Team Solo (zero points): Chris L, Harrison F (not confirmed)

OK, time to settle scores. No BottleCap Talk this afternoon (per usual, our Friday@4:30 show-and-tell of a recent cool project, w/beer), as instead it’ll all be decided at Nerdery Feud – the 2011 Winter Games finale (and emotional closing ceremonies). It’s team Suite CC vs. Frak Yeah QA and it’s winner-take-all.

If you’re anywhere near The Nerdery, get here while good seats last. If you’re nowhere near The Nerdery, drive fast and take chances. Complete coverage coming Monday.

Lastly, Lego lore: From our last Summer Games, Pinewood Lego Monkeyball remains an undisputed fan favorite, but with all due respect nothing compares to Lego Luke.

* questionable, under review

Puntathanerd

While most Pentathanerd competitors are obviously finely-tuned physical specimens with enviable combinations of strength, speed, agility and guile, others can wordplay their way onto the medal stand and into Pentathanerd legend. But some Pentathanerd skeptics warned that a Pun-on-Pun competition would lose some of its action-craving audience. See below to see who gets the last word.

Pentathanerd Winter 2011: Pun-On-Pun from The Nerdery on Vimeo.

Sticklers on Pun-on-Pun rules can refer back our opening ceremonies post. Others, like the self-proclaimed !Cheaters, have their way with said rules –  but somehow don’t get caught and “win” a Pentathanerd Gold Medal. Asterisk, anyone? The Pentathanerd Committee suspects them of … something, but for now, congrats to Annette and Ken (don’t leave town, we have more questions). Silver goes to Brianna and James of Team Confidential, and Bronze Goes to Matt and Jon from Suite CC.

Next, we step outside for Lego Luge II.

Sports Fans: Is there an event you’d like to see at a future Pentathanerd? Got a nerdy knack the sporting world should know about? A sport you’d have lettered in were it only offered in high school? Post the name and a brief description of your proposed contest at Facebook.com/Nerdery. The top three (as determined by the Pentathanerd Planning Committee) win an exclusive Pentathanerd collector t-shirt (typically reserved for Pentathanerd participants), AND, a chance for your event to be featured in The Summer Games (a challenging time for Neilson ratings – gotta give viewers what they want). Mark Seemann, founder of Pentathanerd, suggests your idea must be conceivably completed within an hour with a clear method for determining ranking. Details, details…