Students compete for cash

Student Activities hosts a night of fast-paced trivia as a chance for students to win prizes

Students enjoyed a night of fast-paced competition Friday, Sept. 5 as they participated in the ThinkFast Game Show in hopes of winning one of many prizes. The event took place in the new LaHaye Event Space.

This was not a traditional game show, as questions were random and spanned a wide variety of topics, including sports, science, pop culture and entertainment, spelling and math. Some questions required participants to watch a video and quickly answer a question related to what they saw. Players selected their answers using a clicker, and one by one, wrong answers slowly disappeared from the screen.

Other questions were more survey-based and asked students for their opinion on a particular topic. These questions, known as Extrasensory Perception, tallied the number of responses and asked students to guess how many participants gave each answer. Guessing within four seconds and within four numbers of the correct answer resulted in more earned points.

Another type of question was the “Clue” question, in which puzzle pieces slowly revealed a scene from a movie, and players had to guess the movie’s title.
There was also a “Think Faster!” question, in which participants were given less time to respond.

At the end of the night, the three highest-scoring teams each selected one individual from their team to compete for the $200 cash prize.

The evening also included nontraditional challenges, including singing and dancing competitions and two mini-debates to determine who would compete for the “wildcard” position in the final, cash-prize round.

Two singers each sang 30 seconds of a song of their choice, while four dancers were given a chance to show their best moves.

One debate, known as the “Superhero Smackdown,” involved two contestants presenting their case for 20 seconds as to which one was better: Flash or Captain America. The other debate involved two contestants explaining how they would argue their way out of a speeding ticket. After each competition, the audience voted for their favorite argument using their clickers, and winners of both talent and debate competitions received their choice of a Starbucks or Chipotle gift card.

Each of the singing, dancing and debate winners then advanced to a quiz round, where the first person to answer three questions correctly was declared the winner and the wildcard competitor for the final round.

After the regular rounds were completed, there was a final question called the “Big Bid” where participants could wager
their points.

After the “Big Bid,” the top three teams were announced and team representatives, along with the wildcard contestant, were sent to compete in the final round. The top three teams were Tulips, Fireflies and Nebula.

In the final round, whichever contestant was the first to answer 10 questions correctly was declared the winner. However, if the wildcard winner answered any question incorrectly, he or she was out of the running and a new, random contestant was chosen to compete in that person’s place.

Many students participated in the game show as a way to try to earn some money. Freshman Shelby Edgell, who sang “I Dreamed A Dream” in the singing competition, came to the event in hopes of earning some of her tuition back.

For freshman Chandler Alder, who said he got really excited when he heard about the event because he had always wanted to be on a game show, ThinkFast was a way to earn money to pay for his normal college needs, like food for his dorm and books next semester.

By the end of the night, Matt Johnson was victorious for the second year in a row.

For more information about Student Activities and future events, visit liberty.edu/sa.