London PCAG event
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General
- On Saturday, Feb. 25, players gathered in London for the much-anticipated PCAG competition, the follow-up to the New York PCAG event
- Starting at 10 AM, 25-35 people turned up for "Brunchfast", a pre-event social at JD Weatherspoon's pub (though no one brought a pink balloon, the pre-determined identification symbol)
- Meanwhile, nine players and representatives crammed themselves into a phone booth at Trafalgar Square for publicity shots with a professional photographer (by the way, the world record is 14)
- Doors opened at 12 PM for signing in 200 individuals, broken into groups of six (38 teams total)
- After an introduction by Adrian, the games began at 1 PM
- Goods including t-shirts, starter packs, mugs and posters were available for sale
- Each team received one special, light blue PCAG bag, and every participant received a PCAG Leitmark
- The members of the winning team received clear cubes as prizes
- After the games concluded, the top 8 teams were taken to the London Eye, where they intercepted a conversation (?) in morse code, flashed with torches on either side of the river; this has not yet been translated
- Later, everyone retired to the Horse and Groom pub on Great Portland Street for social interaction lubricated by alcohol
The Games
- Players received on Perplex City bag per team, containing a folder with challenge and information sheets
- Teams had until 4:00 PM to complete as many challenges on the sheet as possible. This included:
- Taking phone camera pictures of the task as evidence and sending them in via MMS
- Having helpers visually verify tasks
- and texting base camp if the challenge could be answered in words
- Teams would also receive trivia texts throughout the day, with points for each correct answer
- Other texts would be sent out if a new challenge was happening close by
Challenge sheets
- 16 questions requiring observation from walking round an area of central London (a triangle between Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus) that we had to text back to HQ for varying amounts of points (10-40). With hindsight the questions were in a good walking order, although those that did it backwards didn't get waylaid by the anti terrorism march and demonstration. (340 points)
Photo evidence
- Six photo questions that required you to MMS photos of your team in various locations (260 plus open-ended 5 points per letter photo)
These consisted of:
1) Photos of the whole team at the following Tube stations:
- Chancery Lane
- Picadilly Circus
- Charing Cross
- Leicester Square
Each of these was worth 20 points with an extra bonus 20 if you got them all.
2) Fit up to 6 people in a phone box. (5 Points per person)
3) Sit up to 6 people on a Trafalgar Square Lion. (5 Points per person)
4) Form a human chain between two diagonal Trafalgar Square Lions, with each end touching the Lion. (40 Points)
5) Form a human chain on the ground around Nelson's Column. (60 Points)
6) Spell out a real word using people, either standing up or lying down. (5 Points per letter)
SMS trivia questions
- Eight trivia questions texted through the day (7x20 + 1x10 = 150)
13:22:11, "Trivia - What year is it in Perplex City? Code: 601 Points: 20" Answer: 269 AC |
14:53:47, "Trivia - What surname is shared by Sente, Violet and Scarlett? Code: 602 Points: 20" Answer: Kiteway |
14:54:14, "Trivia - What's the tallest building in Perplex City? Code: 603 Points: 20" Answer: Ascendancy Point |
14:54:31, "Trivia - Which river runs through Perplex City? Code: 604 Points: 20" Answer: The Mazy River |
15:06:15, "Trivia - What is the leading newspaper in Perplex City called? Code: 605 Points: 20" Answer: The Perplex City Sentinel |
15:17:20, "Trivia - What is Scarlett's blog called? Code: 606 Points: 20" Answer: The Scarlett Kite |
15:28:25, "Trivia - Which Perplex City artist released an album on Earth? Code: 607 Points: 20" Answer: Viard |
15:43:38, "Trivia .-- .... .- - / .. ... / .--. . .-. .--. .-.. . -..- / -.-. .. - -.-- ... / -.-. ..- .-. .-. . -. -.-. -.-- Code: 608 Points: 10" Answer: "What is Perplex City's currency?" Lecks |
National Gallery trail
- A special National Gallery section that gave cryptic clues for a trail through the gallery with a bumper 250-point question at the end to tempt us. Also to be texted. (370 points)
Ranger verification
- Two questions requiring you to be witnessed either singing as part of a 6 team choir for 90 seconds in Leicester Square or playing various video games against other teams at the Trocadero Arcade. For free, too! (100 Points per team for the choir, 80/50/30 Points at the arcade, depending on how well you did)
Base camp
- Two questions that required you to compete against other teams building a biscuit tower or spelling backwords (60 plus open-ended 10 points per letter spelling).
Spot challenges
- Three or four other tasks texted through the day, including choir practice, Wacky Races and a conga line
Final challenge
- The final task was to purchase the largest object possible for £1, with receipt
- The undisputed* winner of the biggest item for £1 was the toilet roll bought by the CRT (Cube ReCoventry Team). With two 2-ply rolls for the bargain price of £0.95, and weighing in at an amazing 119.04 metres long, or 13.09 square metres in area, it truly was value for money! Toilet roll runs from left to right through the far doors in the photo and then some way up the stairs.
- (*may not have actually won!)
- The undisputed* winner of the biggest item for £1 was the toilet roll bought by the CRT (Cube ReCoventry Team). With two 2-ply rolls for the bargain price of £0.95, and weighing in at an amazing 119.04 metres long, or 13.09 square metres in area, it truly was value for money! Toilet roll runs from left to right through the far doors in the photo and then some way up the stairs.
Results
Rank | Team name | Points scored |
1 | The Puzzle Monkeys | 1200 |
2 | Perplex Monkeys | 1072 |
3 | Logic, Intelligence and excellance | 1062 |
4 | The Cube ReCoventry Team | 1017 |
5 | Team Jazz Hands | 1002 |
6 | Serpentine Road | 962 |
7 | Good Guys, Bad guys 'n' explosions | 957 |
8 | Reservoir Frogs | 937 |
9 | Chic Geeks | 892 |
10 | Random Genius | 880 |
11 | Anglo Irish Contingent | 827 |
12 | Simba's Waffles | 772 |
13 | NorfolkFour | 762 |
14 | The Klatchian Foreign Legion | 752 |
15 | The Red Folks | 752 |
16 | The Argonauts | 745 |
17 | Muddled to the power of 5 | 727 |
18 | The Sharkheads | 720 |
19 | The Minkies | 707 |
20 | The Wildcards | 702 |
21 | The Roofers | 672 |
22 | Viridian | 665 |
23 | Team Cambridge | 637 |
24 | Exit, pursued by a bear | 617 |
25 | thekipsclubb | 615 |
26 | The Goodies | 612 |
27 | lippy yank | 590 |
28 | kalimotxo | 527 |
29 | Smarties | 492 |
30 | The IT Crowd | 465 |
31 | Hunters with attitude | 455 |
32 | Sigma Chi | 450 |
33 | Noumenon9 | 435 |
34 | Violet-Harlow | 425 |
35 | Lill Baz | 390 |
36 | The Bells | 305 |
37 | The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad | 300 |
38 | And so it begins | 290 |
Facts
- 127 people in the conga line
- 3830 texts sent out
- 1153 texts recieved
- 27276 points earned
- 2 things going completely wrong
- The first was that culture wardens in Trafalgar Square wouldn't allow any "professional" filming of the events around Nelson's Column.
- The second was the huge angry protest march which gathered in Trafalgar Square, *on* Nelson's Column...about 30 seconds before the Conga Challenge started right in front of them.
- 0 arrests
- £1 challenge:
- 5 people sold for £1
- 3 countries
- 3 newspapers
- 1 toilet paper roll
The London Eye and Morse Code
Photographs
Please add a link to your photo galleries here. When adding images on flickr, be sure to tag them pcaglondon
- LHall's flickr photoset
- Mikey_J's flickr photoset
- number9dream's flickr photoset
- Daemon Kirjava's flickr photoset part one and part two
- guy_p's flickr photoset
- sotonrich's flickr photostream
- skenmy's flickr photoset
- buzman's flickr photoset
- amliag's flickr photoset
- brat-sampson's flickr photostream
- Gibbet's flickr photoset (No kloos here!)
- Crys's flickr photostream
- sherpa's flickr photostream
- SledgeCallier's flickr photostream
- Angelsk's photo gallery
- kksweety's flickr photoset
- Sequoya's flickr photoset
References
- Joystiq.com - "Gamers, flash mobs, and London -- the Perplex City Academy Games"
- Yembles' blog walkthrough of the PCAG for the team 'The Sharkheads'
- The Perplex City Sentinel
- article, 27-FEB-06, "Blafard in NY Crowned First Earth PCAG Winner" (link)