Here is how it used to work. The college radio station would ask a question and the players listening in would have 10 minutes or so to remember or figure out or look up the answer. Once they had the answer, they would phone the station and give their team name and their version of the answer. When the period had lapsed, the station would state the answer and the point value of the question. The contest began on a Friday at 6 PM and ran continuously until Sunday at midnight. Whoever had the most points won.
Then, along came computers. More importantly, along came Google. With Google's help and some other sophisticated tools, the contest changed. It got faster and covered a broader scope. By this year, the team had 15 or twenty computers networked in the basement to look things up all over the world wide web.
The contest is very popular and includes about 12,000 people in a town of about 24,000. The players however are scattered all over the country and in foreign countries, too.
Between the radio and computers, both electricity and the local signal for the internet were deeply relied on. So, when lightning struck in the middle of the night this time, cutting the power and losing the internet connection, it was a terrible blow. But this team is resilient and experienced. They found a nearby relative who still had power and the internet. They moved the really important pieces of equipment to the other house.
Out of three or four hundred teams, they usually placed about 33rd or so. This time, with all the troubles and disruption, they placed 27th. Near the top, passing even one additional opponent is very difficult so, of course, they are exuberant today. They are beginning to hope for a lightning strike next year.
