Every other month Director Tom Bowden brings the team together to compete in the Footprint Digital Apprentice Challenge. This year the Footprint Digital team has split into two teams: The Powerpuff Girls and The Michael Scanlon Jazz Band Experience. This is the account of how the first of many challenges went for the teams. To the winners…glory. To the losers… you’re fired!
With fresh team members, having never before experienced the Footprint Digital Apprentice Challenge, the out-of-the-blue announcement of a fresh round of challenges was met with curiosity and intrigue; with a healthy mix of instantaneous competitiveness from team members who had been through it all before. If this latest series of challenges started as it intends to go on, there will be sparks, insults and an incessant series of cheating accusations.
The Drawing of the Teams
Integral to the overall process, teams were decided by a traditional pull-the-names-from-a-hat scenario after Michael and Taya unwittingly, or so they liked us to think, volunteered themselves as captains. After a few swift team selections, fate had spoken. At one point it looked like the flawless names-from-a-hat method may have lead us to a battle of the sexes, with a very uneven spread between teams. The teams decided via the sorting hat, it was time for names.
Thus the Power Puff Girls were created to oppose The Micheal Scanlon Jazz Band Experience. Let the challenges begin.
The 77 quiz
The first round consisted of a quiz. Seven sections, seven questions. Insults and accusations were exchanged on a common basis, as each team strained the recesses of their brains for answers. Section one saw the teams pitch their celebrity knowledge against one another; there was undoubted peeking.
Next, it was general knowledge where age-related heckling was introduced to the mix. Section three was not for the easily offended, in a – what should be customary – guess the omitted swear word round, the teams deciphered complex song lyrics in a bid to be swear masters; some complaints of ear assault were made. The next section was word association where one team, by the complete fault of their own, were not aware of the pattern that emerged immediately to their opposition; this turned out to be decisive in the result. What followed was a map, and some geography knowledge was required; some more peeking ensued.
For the penultimate section, we had to surmise what was the common denominator between answers for each round which bought us onto our final challenge, which undeniably had flickers of Tom B’s genius running through it. It turned out that what linked the answers from each round, also came together to reveal what Footprint would be doing for their Christmas Party. Unfortunately, neither team could make any sense of the assortment of words and therefore neither team were awarded points for the final section of the quiz!
The quiz over, all that remained was to tally points and announce this year’s apprentice round one winner…
Victory!
It all accumulated to a resounding first-round victory for The Michael Scanlon Jazz Band Experience, and in true sportsman-like fashion they heavily mocked their defeated counterparts whilst they became momentarily ageist in their loss.
With more challenges waiting around the corner though, there will be plenty of opportunities for the Power Puff Girls to make a comeback. With first-round excitement behind them, the teams sit once again side by side in Footprint unity, not-so-secretly awaiting their next opportunity to turn against each other in an obviously friendly capacity.
Haven’t read round two or round three yet? The competition continues to rage!
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