Novice Hunt 2

The Novice Hunt 2, which came to an end this afternoon, saw some interesting surprises. Prior to the hunt, the hunters in 2 new teams, Timbak Bukan Sembarang Timbak (TBST) 1 and 2 had told me that they felt confident that they would secure a top-3 finish. Although I knew that they were quite good in the game, I thought it wasn’t so easy to achieve the top 3 positions because there were several other regular teams in the fray. But when the hunt ended, TBST 1 and 2 made good of their boasts.

I designed the Novice Hunt 2 as a pure hunt, comprising 40 route questions, and 4 treasure questions. From a scale of 1 to 5 difficulty levels, I’d reckon that this hunt was a level 3. In the end, the majority of the teams scored 70% and above. But although I gave a fair number of easy questions, I also threw in some very tricky ones—not tough, but tricky!

An example of a tricky question which was meant for a sector wherein 3 signboards, SAWIRA TEXTILES, SAWIRA TRADING and RESTORAN SAWIRA were found, was like this:

Q) Found in the middle of Sawira, they are the name of this eatery.

But in the end, the answer had nothing to do with Sawira at all. Instead, the required answer was: RESTORAN WANDI.

I also set another interesting question in Inanam:

Q) Dalam tingkap ini kelihatan nama untuk kedai makan.

KEDAI KOPI KAPIN (Dalam tingkap ini...) is very famous for their food catering business. Many people in KK would know this shop. I think what really happened in this hunt was that most of the teams actually solved the question long before arriving at the sector. And because they were so sure of their answer, when they finally did arrive at the sector, all they needed to do was to make sure that the board was still there, and then trying very hard not to stare at that board, breeze through quickly. Ordinarily, solving questions “ahead” is a very good policy. It is good to just pass the sector quickly, because that can probably prevent rival teams from “stealing” your answer.

I, of course, saw that coming, and so I set the trap with that in mind. I did not expect my trap to be very successful though, but I thought it would at least be a good lesson for the new teams. This was after all a “novice” hunt.

And true enough almost all the teams, including the top 3 winners, took KEDAI KOPI KAPIN as the answer for the clue! Only ONE team saw the significance of the words “kedai makan” in the clue. Underneath that huge board with KEDAI KOPI KAPIN on it, there’s another signboard bearing KEDAI MAKAN KAPIN!

One strange thing I noticed about this hunt was that many of the regular teams made uncharacteristic mistakes. I’m not sure what really happened to the teams. I did not think that I gave them too little hunting time. 5 hours for 40 route questions (at least half of which were easy ones) and 4 treasure questions over an approximate distance of 36km. There were some traffic jams in some sectors, but even after allowing for those, 5 hours did not seem to be too little. But somehow all the regular teams were not performing up to strength. I must make it a point to find out which specific factor during the hunt that caused the psychological distraction.

After the hunt, as usual everyone had a lot of fun, laughing out loud, during the answer presentation. I could tell that everyone had a good experience today. I hope we have infected the new teams with the addiction to treasure hunting!

Results (Maximum score: 100 points):

1) Bernard Liew, Alvin Wong, Christine Netto, Benjamin Liew (87pts)

2) Jude Ripin, Victoria Jingulam, Irene Lee, Norazimah (83pts)

3) Ernie J Ripin, Roland Ripin, Maxentius Donysius, Jennifer J Topin (78pts)

4) Masri Khan, Ag Sarpuddin Ag Kassim, Ag Ahmad Ag Samad, Zurinah Hanafiah (76pts)

5) Ellen Yee, Dr Liaw Yun Haw, Shirley Lim, Mary Lokupi (76pts)

6) Teo Chen Lung, Leslie Yew, Sam Lee (74pts)

7) Harry W Koh, Buddy Jiliun, Wendy Liew, Sophia Lai (72pts)

8) Francis Omamalin, Eileen Yeoh, Lee Tze Jim, Moina Liew (70pts)

9) Shirley Chai, Winnie Chee (70pts)

10) Richard Stidi, Joanna Stidi, Suzanne Stidi, Nicole Stidi