KK CHALLENGE 15

I've been organizing my KK Challenge treasure hunt series up to 14 times over the years, and the 15th edition was supposed to have been organized about 3 years ago. But even then it was postponed several times. The final time it was postponed, I had actually prepared everything and was just waiting for the day. I set all the Qs, secured and paid the deposit for the venue. The hunters were all ready to hunt. But just a few days before the event, it had to be postponed again because of the Covid lock-down. I was so tired of the postponements and I decided to wait until Covid is really over.

Three years later, the KK Challenge 15 finally happened last Sunday. It attracted 27 teams, but unfortunately 1 team had to withdraw at the very last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. The venue was changed from MPMS to Souq El Madinah. The format of the hunt was like this:

35 Route Questions @ 2 points = 70 points

6 Treasure Question @ 5 points = 30 points

Total Score = 100 points

Time Control = 5 hours 30 minutes + 30 minutes penalty time

Tulips were no longer used for our local hunts in KK. Instead, maps of the sectors are provided, and teams had the freedom to choose the order of which sector they wanted to tackle first. The names of those hunt sectors were clearly provided on both the maps as well as in the question paper.

Teams were flagged off a few minutes after the final briefing at the parking area of Souq El Madinah. It was a mass flag off and the official clock started ticking at 7am. We had the honour of Grandmaster Hunter V K Chong and Master Ashraf Sabri (Acap) from west Malaysia, as well as some of the familiar faces from our local hunting fraternity. However, there were also quite many new hunting teams.

I found it quite a challenging job to set the hunt to cater for the newbies and very experienced hunters, and I decided to set some very easy Qs to whet the appetite of the newbies, but also some very tough ones to live up to the billing of the word "Challenge" in the title of the hunt. These tough questions were nicely spread out between the easy ones to allow for sufficient recovery between sectors. I shall discuss some of the more interesting questions later in other posts in this blog.

KK has been experiencing rainy weather over the last couple of weeks. But last Sunday was a scorching day. I reckon that teams must have been badly affected by the weather to the extent that most of them underperformed. Some of the easier questions became tough for the seasoned teams somehow. I mean "easy" as those that even the newbies could solve.

Some statistics from the hunt was like this:

Only one route question was unsolved, but all the rest, including all the treasure questions were correctly answered. Assuming a passing mark of 50%, 15 teams passed the hunt, and that's about 57% passing rate. The lowest score of the day was 29 points, whereas the highest score was 89 points. I allocated token prizes up to 10th position with a special prize for Wooden Spoon (second last).

In the end, the winners were:

Champion: Methanol: VK Chong, Ashraf Sabri, Razwi (89 points)

Second: Main Tembak: Alvin Wong, Daniel Liew, Audrey Chin, Christine Netto (85 points)

Third: Kami Lawa: Lorenzo Hardy, Erik Abun, Debbie A Sitiol (79 points)

Fourth: Caritas: Edgar Peter Dabbi, Malinda Auluck, Jassinta Mirasol, Suzainawaty Armawansah (77 points)

Fifth: B+: Chan Mon Hueg, Joanna Stidi, Vivian Cham (74 points)

Sixth: LHQW: Dieny, Dominic, Faizal, Philip (72 points)

Seventh: Paamad Hunters: Malcolm Abidin, Talissa R.K, Callum A, Robinetta (72 points)

Eight: De StoneS: Frederick Samson, Teo Chen Lung, Tan Cher Kian, Leslie Yew (72 points)

Ninth: MCC: Ellen Yee, Liaw Yun Haw, Shirley Lim, Mary Lokupi (67 points)

Tenth: Piak Piak: Jude Julius, Juren Elip, Azreinna L Koungin, Stephanie Lantiham (63 points)

Wooden Spoon: Uncit Pancit: Gerogie, Diana, Olivia, Lita

Several teams arrived late at the end station, resulting in time penalty, some of them up to 3 points deduction. But most of the teams arrived before the end of time control with comfortable time buffer. It was such an exhausting event for me as the Clerk-of-Course, and I'm so relieved that it's all over!

I shall post some of the interesting questions later in separate posts to give proper treatments that they deserve. Stay tuned!