Ultimate Fan Challenge Revealed

The Ultimate Fan Challenge

The follow post outlines the rules of TheRealTrain Ultimate Fan Challenge. It’s a lot to take in so if you have any questions at all I suggest you either comment here on the blog, shoot us a message on twitter or email us at jarrettfelix1130@gmail.com. We will try and clear up any questions by adding/editing this post throughout the year.

The Challenge

Think you and your school are the biggest TheRealTrain fans around? Well now is your chance to prove it with a season long trivia contest.

Who Can Participate?

Anyone (besides the writers themselves). Our suggestion is that you compete as a team with the rest of your high school to maximize your chances of answering questions correctly. No matter the size of your school, we will make an effort to make sure all members of your team who are helping you move up the standings get a chance to receive the grand prize if you win.

The Questions

Questions can cover a wide range of topics, but all will focus on what makes someone a true blog fan. There will be questions about PA related stats, questions about different areas of the site, questions about the writing staff, etc. They will test your enthusiasm, dedication and research skills. You should be able to answer most if not all of the questions simply by viewing the correct blog post. But we won’t always tell you which one to check.

Questions will vary in their styles as well. Some questions will be announced ahead of time on the blog, others will just appear randomly. Not all will appear on the front page and some will be hidden across the site. Sometimes points will only be rewarded to the first team to answer the question correctly. Other times multiple people will have the chance to gain points.

Point values will also vary accordingly. The team with the most points at the end of the season will win the grand prize.

Other Ways to Earn Points

As we progress throughout the year, we may come up with other activities that can get you points. For example, participants in our Prediction Contests will have a chance to gain additional points for their team if they predict well. Other competition aspects may be decided on by the writers at a later date, potentially even unannounced competitions that the writers will secretly be scoring.

Key Things to Remember

When answering a question, remember to include your team name in your response so that the points will go to your team. We understand the importance of anonymity, so it is not necessary to use your own name. School name will do fine. Also, if you don’t want to share what school you are from, your high school can come up with a code name to use throughout the competition. But remember, to tell all your team members about the code name, otherwise the points may end up split between your actual high school and the code name. We suggest you use your high school name to prevent confusion (especially if you expect alumni to be helping your team), but understand if that is not what you prefer. As long as there is some name attached to the comment, we will tally the points.

No teams will be allowed to consist of groups of readers from multiple high schools unless the team is approved by our blogging staff. Runners from particularly small schools may be permitted to team up and work together, but runners from large high schools will not be allowed to team up and create super schools.

Parents, coaches and alumni from schools are not only allowed to participate, but encouraged to get involved. You can join in with your high school or create your own teams if that is preferred. Just make sure that you talk to the final team representative to be included in the grand prize.

Also, although this probably doesn’t need mentioning, make sure any code name you pick is appropriate. If your comments aren’t getting published on the blog, you won’t be getting any points.

Time Frame

The competition will start immediately and will end on Sunday May, 14^th. We hope that the competition will end early enough that the winners will be able to receive their grand prize before the school year ends. If you anticipate problems with this, please reach out to us via email.

The official point standings will be posted on the blog and updated continuously to reflect the latest results. Even if you are out of the competition early, remember that it is a long year and the point totals for questions will vary based on the difficulty of the trivia. Comebacks are definitely possible!

Grand Prize

Alright and now the moment you have all been waiting for. The Grand Prize. The Grand Prize for this year’s competition will be a set of customized, limited edition etrain shirts. They will be sent to your school free of charge with colors selected to match your team’s specific color scheme. We will be open to your suggestions.

To accept this prize, we really hope that high school teams will have either a parent or coach representative work with the blog to organize the order. If this is really not possible, we will work with you to try and create an alternative. Note that these representatives will only need to be selected if you win the competition. We don’t need to know who the representative is until May 14^th.

Questions, Comments, Concerns?

In case you didn’t see the above, shoot us an email, send us a tweet or just leave a comment and we will answer any questions you have about the set up of this competition. Hopefully everyone will get involved and have fun with it! It should be a great year!

Question #1

And just so you know, the first question in the competition will be revealed on Tuesday afternoon at my freshman year 1600 PR. Only the first commenter to respond will get receive points for their team. Best of luck!