It took four days, a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a visit to the world’s largest ball of popcorn, and an inordinate number of unseemly “side-mullets,” but Scav 2012 is finally, suddenly, over.
Snell-Hitchcock’s team took first place, reclaiming its seat at the top after losing last year to Burton-Judson, which was bumped back to second this year.
Judges announced the winners from Ida Noyes Hall on Sunday night, bringing to a close a Scav Hunt that boasted one of the longest lists in the tradition’s 25-year history.
Following Burton-Judson were MacPierce (representing Maclean and Pierce), Breckinridge, Max Palevsky, Blintstone (of Broadview, Stony Island, and Flint House in Max Palevsky Central), the graduate student and alumni team GASH, South Campus, International House, and, in last place, a team of first-year physics graduate students.
“It’s really you against the list,” said Snitchcock captain John Bobka, a third-year who was around to see both the heyday of his team’s dominance and its momentary fall from the spotlight. “You just try your hardest to conquer this monumental document.”
“I wish all the other teams the best.”
With a 351-item list that called on Scavvies to find the tackiest roadside bric-a-brac in the world’s largest truck stop and engineer a power source for a laptop using only materials available in 15th century Europe, this year’s hunt was the biggest on the books, tied with that of 1996.
Judges announced the winners from Ida Noyes Hall earlier tonight, bringing to a close a Scav Hunt that boasted one of the longest lists in the tradition’s 25-year history.
B-J was one of the teams which managed to complete item 107: secure a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
It was a strong showing for a few of the smaller teams. Breckinridge surprised other teams with its place in fourth, its first time breaking into the top four since 1994, when only three teams competed.
The road trip component of Scav also went smoothly, said third-year China Whitmeyer, who hit the road with other B-J residents.
“There were no accidents, which was fabulous considering last year,” she said, referring to the two accidents that befell the road teams of Max Palevsky and Blintstone in 2011.
The B–J team also created a Twitter account on the road, tweeting inside jokes in hashtag form, such as #watchthethrone and #64ouncestofreedom.
“We only missed one item, which was unfortunate,” Whitmeyer said. “Whatever.”
Third-year Andrew Fan, a lieutenant for B-J’s team, was hardly bitter.
“I know, from the outside, you think about it as, ‘Who won scav?’” he said. “To us, that’s sort of beside the point.”
