GSB To Host First Nerd Olympics
Other Nerd Schools Set to Follow
By: Robert Bachmann, '07
Issue date: 4/1/06 Section: GSB News
The University of Chicago is a well known institution for several reasons: Nobel winning faculty, the invention of the nuclear bomb, and of course the wonderful catch phrase "the place that fun came to die." However, due to a recent trend, the University of Chicago has decided to distinguish itself in one other way: by hosting the first annual Nerd Olympics. Spurred by the popularity of shows such as "Beauty and the Geek," along with cult classics such as "Mythbusters" on the Discovery channel and "Robot Wars" on Comedy Central, the nerd has made quite a comeback in today's culture. After also noticing the increased popularity of the national spelling bee, the University of Chicago decided to capitalize on intellectual competition and nerd culture and came up with the concept of the Nerd Olympics.
So this begs the question, "What events will be in the Nerd Olympics and who will participate in this grand event?" The participants are still not completely determined, but will include stereotypical nerd schools such as Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago, CalTech, MIT and Florida State (not sure how they go in there). So, on to the events. The events are broken down into two different categories: physical characteristics and intelligence competitions. The physical characteristics categories will include such impressive competitions such as who has the thickest glasses (or highest power contact lenses) and who has the palest skin (I personally have been training my entire life for this one).
The intelligence competitions is when the fun really begins. The full slate of events has yet to be determined, but several events have already been agreed upon. One that is sure to create a flurry of excitement is the event dubbed Pi, in which participants battle to see who can remember the most digits in Pi, everyone's favorite number (the current Vegas odds on this one are for the winner to recite between 1,000 and 5,000 digits). Several other planned events center around the speed of participants. These include speed reading and who can solve 1,000 piece jigsaws the fastest. Another type of event being considered is video games. Featuring classic video games, preliminary events include who can perform the longest combo in Street Fighter II (of course, participants will need to their opponents to be on the infinite health setting or the maximum combo will be limited at only 20 hits! Duh!), who can finish Super Mario in the shortest amount of time, and who can win Mike's Tyson Punchout while sustaining the least amount of hits.
The Nerd Olympics will be an annual competition, with participating schools conducting tryouts in early May of this year. Similar to the real Olympics, the school with the highest "medal" count will be declared the grand champion. Also, instead of receiving gold, silver and bronze medals, participants will receive gold, silver and bronze TI 85 calculators. So I encourage everyone to practice for these games during the upcoming months -- this is another chance for the U of C to prove that it's number one!
So this begs the question, "What events will be in the Nerd Olympics and who will participate in this grand event?" The participants are still not completely determined, but will include stereotypical nerd schools such as Harvard, Stanford, the University of Chicago, CalTech, MIT and Florida State (not sure how they go in there). So, on to the events. The events are broken down into two different categories: physical characteristics and intelligence competitions. The physical characteristics categories will include such impressive competitions such as who has the thickest glasses (or highest power contact lenses) and who has the palest skin (I personally have been training my entire life for this one).
The intelligence competitions is when the fun really begins. The full slate of events has yet to be determined, but several events have already been agreed upon. One that is sure to create a flurry of excitement is the event dubbed Pi, in which participants battle to see who can remember the most digits in Pi, everyone's favorite number (the current Vegas odds on this one are for the winner to recite between 1,000 and 5,000 digits). Several other planned events center around the speed of participants. These include speed reading and who can solve 1,000 piece jigsaws the fastest. Another type of event being considered is video games. Featuring classic video games, preliminary events include who can perform the longest combo in Street Fighter II (of course, participants will need to their opponents to be on the infinite health setting or the maximum combo will be limited at only 20 hits! Duh!), who can finish Super Mario in the shortest amount of time, and who can win Mike's Tyson Punchout while sustaining the least amount of hits.
The Nerd Olympics will be an annual competition, with participating schools conducting tryouts in early May of this year. Similar to the real Olympics, the school with the highest "medal" count will be declared the grand champion. Also, instead of receiving gold, silver and bronze medals, participants will receive gold, silver and bronze TI 85 calculators. So I encourage everyone to practice for these games during the upcoming months -- this is another chance for the U of C to prove that it's number one!
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