Poorly Run Event Stories

[AnimeScienceGeek76]

About two weeks ago, our school went to this very short meet (supposedly, you could only do three events). Even though the events ended at 12:30, it was a walk-in, so quite a few of us did 6 events.
I headed into Fast Facts with my partner (I'd never done Fast Facts before, and I was replacing her partner for whatever reason) and I had some skittles I bought on me.
We went in with the skittles.
All of the other teams looked completely serious and focused. We didn't. My partner even put down 'Magenta' for our team color.
We kept on eating the skittles through the event. The event supervisors didn't say a word about it.

We got first place.

Makes you wonder what the actual team of that school was doing xD

[Sliced Ham]

About two weeks ago, our school went to this very short meet (supposedly, you could only do three events). Even though the events ended at 12:30, it was a walk-in, so quite a few of us did 6 events.
I headed into Fast Facts with my partner (I'd never done Fast Facts before, and I was replacing her partner for whatever reason) and I had some skittles I bought on me.
We went in with the skittles.
All of the other teams looked completely serious and focused. We didn't. My partner even put down 'Magenta' for our team color.
We kept on eating the skittles through the event. The event supervisors didn't say a word about it.

We got first place.

Makes you wonder what the actual team of that school was doing xD

Your username made me think you WERE that partner xD

[Sasstiel]

This wasn't really an event, but my first invitational, the bus driver was an hour late...Turns out she thought we were supposed to go at 5:30pm We ended up missing impound, but my partner and I still got our blade assembly in. Also, during Food Science that meet, my partner and I brought this big box of stuff that the rules said we should bring, but we ended up using nothing but a calorimeter. Even though it wasn't the proctor's fault, I still would have liked to use some other stuff.

[wingsofdawn]

Idk if this counts, but for regionals this year, one of my events was Invasive Species. Now, my state (Florida) recently changed the rules regarding the test to be based off of the National list, rather than the state list. I was so prepared for this event, spending every second researching and perfecting my binder. I was so hyped for the competition, there was no way we weren't placing! Shocked me when the test had florida invasive instead. Turns out the test writer didnt get the memo of that change... Somehow placed anyways (lol)

As well as that, for WIDI, the room it was being hosted in had a glass window next to the door. The event was always held in that room, and the usually was covered by something like paper to prevent cheating, so that no teams could cheat. This year, the window didnt have paper on it... all sorts of shenanigans occurred. The event was, of course, thrown out.

We also once had an event supervisor who left before releasing the scores to an event. Everything was complete chaos when that happened...

[Magikarpmaster629]

Forensics at Northland Invite.

They didn't have much in terms of a crime scene. The suspects had names and jobs, but no motives or background. They had six powders and plastics, each relating to one of the six suspects. The problem is, they didn't mention which powders and plastics were found at the crime scene, which left only once piece of evidence, a footprint, as evidence for the one who committed the crime. Then the lab: they ran out of HCl and Benedict's halfway through the event, which made powder ID harder (They did provide flame test equipment which was nice, but I still preferred to burn my fingers with my own piece of nichrome wire ). Here's the worst part: we weren't given anything for plastics. No flame test results, no different density liquids, just density based off of water and its appearance. Since the footprint was super easy to see, points were just between powders, plastics, and well-written essays.

One other bad thing about the tournament. So during the Astronomy test, there was a question my partner and I had no idea the answer to: Who discovered SS Cygni in 1896? We decided to have fun with our answer, so we put down "Neil DeGrasse Tyson" knowing it was wrong. This was fine, however the problem is that when the got the raw test back, that answer wasn't marked wrong! Checking the answer key, it was 'Wells' however I feel that we should have had that answer marked wrong.

Otherwise, great tournament!

[smrt1337]

For Scrambler, they posted the length was 11 meters, but they messed up the measuring and the track was half a meter too short. I was lucky because I was part of the group that competed after they found their mistake.

[Joycegu99]

At MIT Invite last month:

Got to Rocks and Minerals and was sitting at a station with no specimen with my partner, who had come from forensics, which had been held in a location ~15 minutes away. She had sprinted over because of forensics having gone slightly over the time slot, but we entered the Rocks room in time and were ready to take the test. Another competitor in the room told the event supervisors that her partner wasn't there yet because she was also coming from Forensics, and the entire room waited about 10 minutes for that one partner to arrive. That meant that all of the teams sitting at stations with the real specimen had those 10 minutes to finish IDing before the test actually began.

Also, the labels on the specimen were very prone to falling off, and I think some of them ended up getting switched around :/

It was quite frustrating, and I kind of expected better from MIT

[Sasstiel]

At Grayslake:

The Experimental Design event supervisor told us to wear long-sleeves (which is NOT in the notes) so a couple people had to go back to their rooms and change. (At ED, we had to use bubble solution and other liquids which were VERY messy). At Rocks, (I wasn't there but I heard this from my friend) there were no specimens, just pictures.

[dragonfruit35]

At Grayslake:

The Experimental Design event supervisor told us to wear long-sleeves (which is NOT in the notes) so a couple people had to go back to their rooms and change. (At ED, we had to use bubble solution and other liquids which were VERY messy). At Rocks, (I wasn't there but I heard this from my friend) there were no specimens, just pictures.

The Rocks thing happened to me at Regionals in sixth grade, and a few of them were black and white (I think I posted that on this thread, long ago ).

[Iso_45678]

We were at an invitational, and my friend had told me that a guy had been kicked out of Dynamic Planet for obnoxiously yelling incorrect answers. Later that day I went into Experimental Design, where a team near us accidentally stole one of our lab sheets. It took us a while to get a new one, which wasted some time. Towards the end of the test, I heard him mutter, "I'm just going to make the rest up, the graders won't notice." Turns out it was the same guy.