Poorly Run Event Stories

For anything Science Olympiad-related that might not fall under a specific event or competition.
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JoeyC
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by JoeyC »

Thermodynamics. TX State. The exam portion wasn't on thermodynamics, the beakers were allowed to cool, the water was outside the temperature range, and/or not the announced temperature...... it was one of those things where if you got lucky, you won. That cost me and my team a place.
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by Jacobi »

Source Code Trial at Solon 2018: I think that some computers were not turned on...? I just remember that it was messed up.
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by ethanm13 »

This was not me but it happened to my team. At our invitational the Source Code team was really hyped up because they were super well prepared. Then, a couple minutes before competing, they found out that the hosting high school had nixed Source Code and replaced it with Game On!, the event that their team had been practicing for (and that none of the other SC teams had even looked at) so that their Game On team would have a decent chance of winning.
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by pb5754 »

ethanm13 wrote:This was not me but it happened to my team. At our invitational the Source Code team was really hyped up because they were super well prepared. Then, a couple minutes before competing, they found out that the hosting high school had nixed Source Code and replaced it with Game On!, the event that their team had been practicing for (and that none of the other SC teams had even looked at) so that their Game On team would have a decent chance of winning.
Just curious... Which invitational was this at?
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by pikachu4919 »

pb5754[] wrote:
ethanm13 wrote:This was not me but it happened to my team. At our invitational the Source Code team was really hyped up because they were super well prepared. Then, a couple minutes before competing, they found out that the hosting high school had nixed Source Code and replaced it with Game On!, the event that their team had been practicing for (and that none of the other SC teams had even looked at) so that their Game On team would have a decent chance of winning.
Just curious... Which invitational was this at?
Game On at least was an official event at the time tho... if this was in a state that actually replaced Game On with Source Code, then that's def poorly run but like...if not, then that's...odd to... call it poorly run.
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by ethanm13 »

Actually, in Michigan, Game On was a trial event, and only MI had Source Code
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by ethanm13 »

It was at West Ottawa Invitational
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by pikachu4919 »

ethanm13 wrote:Actually, in Michigan, Game On was a trial event, and only MI had Source Code
ethanm13 wrote:It was at West Ottawa Invitational
Ah. West Ottawa Invitational is in MI, but at the same time, for one, you can't necessarily say they ran it because their team was prepared for it unless you have hard facts on what actually happened. If that change truly wasn't communicated that far in advance, that is not good on their part. If it was announced a while in advance before the tournament, then it would be on the teams who didn't know because in my honest opinion, attending teams should be checking for tournament updates very frequently to avoid miscommunications at all. But another thing: even if they did really well while everyone else failed (which could give you reason to believe what you thought) and even if MI made the mandate to demote Game On to a trial event and put Source Code in its place, two things: 1) it's still a HUGE speculation to think that they ran that instead of Source Code to give their team a better shot, and 2) it's their invitational, they can do whatever the heck they want, and attending teams need to bend to that. It's unfortunate, but true. Benefit of the doubt, I guess?

EDIT: Listen to what Richardsim says, he knows MI SciOly really well and I don't :P
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by John Richardsim »

Y'know what, I just figured this out: West Ottawa must have been running things to regional specs, and Region 12 was running Game On as the official event with Source Code as the trial.
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Re: Poorly Run Event Stories

Post by megrimlockawesom »

does it count if it is poorly run in our favor?

At regionals when impounded our coaster they let us tinker with our coaster until event time and even then they still let us tinker with our coaster. We were able to work out the kinks and we got our best time and gaps since cornell. We ended up medaling 1st :D
Ok this is epic 8-)
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