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The MacSurvivor contest was a grueling
battle for survivor in a virtual island environment known as Avalon Island. To qualify
for entry onto the island, each contestant was required to accumulate points based
on Mac trivia contests sent out to the Mac Guild. The 10 highest scores were awarded
spots on Avalon Island. The MacSurvivor contest lasted for 3 months, requiring energy,
stamina, Mac knowledge and patience from all the would-be survivors. Not all of them
would make it to the prize circle, and only one would make it to the end!
The Finalists:
| Place |
Prize |
Contestant |
City |
Prizes Claimed |
| #1 |
1,000,000 |
Moe
Bradley |
FLORIDA |
Apple Final Cut Pro
White EMR T-shirt
Muggy Bear |
| #2 |
500,000 |
Kent
Schwarz |
COLORADO |
Apple Sweatshirt
EMR CD
Apple: The Inside Story
Apple White T-shirt
Muggy Bear |
| #3 |
350,000 |
Mark
Waldmiller |
NEW YORK |
Wheel Mouse Optical
USB/PS2
Muggy Bear |
| #4 |
250,000 |
Joann
Cleer |
CALIFORNIA |
White EMR T-shirt
Rebirth of Cool Apple
Poster
Muggy Bear |
| #5 |
150,000 |
Julie
Reynolds-Grabbe |
CALIFORNIA |
Apple Black Globe
T-shirt |
| #6 |
100,000 |
Judd
Spitzer |
FLORIDA |
EMR CD |
Congratulations to Moe for outwitting,
outplaying and outlasting the 9 other survivors. For a complete list of the original
10 survivors, visit the Avalon Island web site. To see visuals on the awards handed out, check out
the Avalon Claims page.
HIGHLIGHTS
In the beginning: The 10 survivors were split
into two tribes of 5 members each: The Macadamia Tribe and the Pomorum Tribe. The
only thing the survivors were allowed to bring to the island were the points they
had accumulated in the Mac trivia contests. There were a series of challenges imposed
on the survivors, some which were Award Challenges (providing them a chance to increase
their bank of points), and others were Immunity Challenges. The tribe which won an
immunity challenge would walk away with the Immunity Mouse, and the tribe that lost
would have to attend a tribal council in which one of their members were voted off
the island.
The First Council: The Macadamia Tribe won the
first Immunity Challenge, forcing the Pomorums to lose a member. The first survivor
ousted from the island was David on a manic Monday, 10/9/00. The 2nd Award Challenge
put a face on all of the survivors, requiring each islander to create a GIF self-portrait.
The Pomorum Tribe won the challenge, with judging based on quality of the picture
as well as how well the specifications were met. The banks continued to grow, with
Mark of the Macadamia Tribe and Kent of the Pomorum Tribe holding the highest hands.
The next Immunity Challenge tested the survivors on creativity, workmanship and communications.
As a team, each tribe had to develop their own web page. There were certain specific
criteria used in judging, and it was too close to call. Helicopter Bob was brought
in to help make the call, and the Immunity Mouse was awarded to the Macadamia Tribe
once again. It was a frantic Friday as the Pomorum tribe ousted another member, Allan.
If you curious about the web pages, you can see them as they were judged: Macadamia
Tribe and Pomorum Tribe.
The Great Train Race: Perhaps the most intense challenges
of the 3 month contest was the next Immunity Challenge, the Mac Express Train Race. The Award Challenge setup the race, by testing the
resourcefulness of the tribes, and awarding them valuable resources for their trains.
It became a hunt through the Avalon hotline server, where the goal was to find your
resources before the other tribe did (stealing was allowed). As we entered into the
Immunity Challenge, amazingly the trains were about equal. The goal was to race each
train from San Francisco, California, across the US. The first one to reach Washington
DC and present the President with a full Mac system wins the race. The tribes plotted
their courses, and the race began. To travel from state to state required using up
resources, as well as trading some resources for others. The trick was to have enough
coal to make it across the country, and still have enough Mac software and hardware
to build a system at the end. Several states required the tribe to answer Mac trivia
tests in order to dock at their stations. To enter Utah, the tribe had to answer
the question, ""When booting the Mac, what key combinations do you press
to do the following: Start up without extensions? Rebuild the desktop? Zap the PRAM?
Have all previously open windows be closed?" The Macadamia Light Rail answered
correctly (Shift, Cmd-Opt, Cmd-Opt-P-R & Opt), and got a really good deal on
Mac Hardware.
One of the challenges posed to the Pomorum Express by Missouri, the Show Me state,
was "What is the 2-word terminology for the ratio between the physical movement
of the mouse on your mouse pad and the movement of the pointer on your monitor? Which
OS version did the Web Sharing control panel debut? With the advent of Open Transport,
which control panels replaced MacTCP and Network?" After correctly answering
(Mouse Tracking, OS 8.0, Appletalk & TCP/IP), the Pomorums get a secret clue
to help on their journey.
Other adventures included an attack by bandits on the Pomorum Express when entering
Arizona, and a derailment of the Macadamia Light Rail as they were heading over the
Colorado Rockies. To see the courses traveled by both trains, check out the Train Race Map
(Pomorum in Blue and Macadamia in Red). To get a full rundown of the challenges posed
to each train along the way, check out the Race Journal.
In the end, it was the Pomorum Tribe that got to the President first, presenting
him with a G4 Cube system. For full details, check out the Mac Express Press Release. The Pomorum Tribe walked away with the Immunity
Mouse, and this time it was the Macadamia Tribe that would lose a member. It was
a stormy Thursday evening on 11/9/00 when the news hit: Thomas was off the island.
The final immunity challenge between the Macadamia and Pomorum tribes would be the
battle of the reviews. Both teams needed to download freeware and shareware software
from the Avalon server, and perform as many reviews as they could. Individual participation
was crucial! It was another Macadamia victory, and another loss for the Pomorum tribe.
On 11/21/00, Jay's torch was extinguished.
The Tribes Merge: A great storm hit the island,
and the camps of both tribes were wiped out. The survivors wandered the island until
they met in the middle and formed a new tribe, The Macaroons. If the survivors made
it this far, they knew they would be awarded something from the Island Vault.
Now it was the individual survivors who would battle for the Immunity Mouse, and
a tribal council meeting after each challenge to extinguish another torch. There
would be just 4 challenges before the final Tribal Council.
The first challenge was another web page contest, this time designing a page for
the newly formed Macaroon tribe. Joan won the contest with a very creative design
which would become the official Macaroon page. With immunity, Joan went to tribal council without
much concern. The others would wonder if they would be next. In the Macaroon tribe,
the survivors were now allowed to use their bank to purchase immunity potions at
each tribal council. The cost was high, and there was only one potion for sale, so
it was the first one to request it. Kent purchased immunity at the first council
for 650 points.
The survivors have now been here a long time, outlasting even the time the TV version
survivors! This round was a very interesting round. The potion took a big role, as
2 votes actually came in for Kent, which had to be re-cast for someone else. It made
the difference in the final tally, and changed the outcome.
As fate would have it, Judd was voted off the island. Judd walks up to the council
fire with his torch, Don Merlin snuffs out the flame. It became more difficult to
watch a contestant leave now, as each of them had been here so long. We are now down
to 5 survivors.
The Barter: The next challenge was a Barter Relay, involving
active use of the Avalon Hotline server, as well as deals made behind the scenes
by each of the remaining survivors.
Points in the bank would play
a role in this challenge. The relay starts with the one with the lowest points, and
cycles towards the one with the highest points.
The first round is worth 50 points, the 2nd 100, the 3rd 150, and so on. Each round
is a 5 letter word, Mac related (although the relation may be quite general, e.g.,
MOUSE). Each survivor must discover their pre-assigned letter, share it with the
group, and come up with the secret word. Once the secret word is revealed, the points
are won, and the next round begins. A clue will be given as to where to find a letter.
Each survivor may use that clue to locate the later, or choose to purchase the letter
at 50% of the award value of that round.
Bonus points, and bonus barters:
Each round will also include a secret object (not necessarily related to the secret
word). Each survivor receives a partial description of the object (such as color,
size, etc.). The first person to discover the object wins bonus points (equal to
the value of the round). The survivors may barter amongst themselves to gain information.
There are a few dynamics involved in this challenge. The relay portion involves everyone
participating, and participation (or lack thereof) may affect how people vote in
the final tribal council. Survivors can focus on helping other, or focus on building
up their own point base. Finally, negotiations with other survivors on the bonus
quests may impact the final council voting as well as your point totals.
The challenge took the survivors on a safari through secret words and secret objects
(such as Omaha Filet Mignon). With a total of 4 rounds, the survivors built up the
points through active participation and wit. In the end, however, only one survivor
would walk away with the Immunity Mouse, and that survivor was Mark. No one opted
to purchase the immunity potion. Tribal Council this night dealt a hard blow to Julie,
as the tribe snuffed out her torch.
Mac Experts: The 3rd challenge takes our 4 remaining
survivors on a blitz through the Avalon Hotline server where real-time interaction
and Mac knowledge will be the key to winning the Immunity Mouse. These would be live,
on-line, using the Hotline protocol, and each question would be timed. Moe won both
the first and second rounds, but it was Mark's overwhelming victory in the third
round which gave him the highest score for all three rounds. Mark proved his worth
as the Mac Expert and won immunity. The immunity potion went untouched once again,
and this time it was Joann, on 12/26/00, who was voted off the island.
In Memory Of: Gearing up for the New Millennium,
it was time for the final Macaroon Challenge. This time the final 3 survivors would
be tested on their memory of what had transpired on the island over the past 3 months.
This was another live, on-line challenge, again on the Avalon Hotline server. Each
question asked tested their memory of island life, such as who was the first to be
voted off prior to the merge. Each time the survivor answered correctly, they moved
up a square. The final square was the Immunity square, and the first one to reach
it would win immunity. It was a heated race, and the survivors were neck and neck,
but it was Kent who won immunity. For a visual of the final challenge and how it
played out, check out the Final Challenge Animated GIF. It was now time for Tribal Council, and
this time no immunity potion was offered.
There were rumors of deals and alignments, but what really happened behind the scenes,
perhaps we'll never know. It would be Mark, however, that would be voted off the
island, leaving Moe from the Macadamia tribe, and Kent from the Pomorum tribe. There
would be just one more tribal council to determine the winner.
The Last Tribal Council: For the final Tribal
Council, the last four survivors voted off the island would return to decide the
winner of the contest.
AND NOW THE RESULTS...
After everyone spoke their piece, the votes were cast. Note, in the case of a tie,
the winner is the one with the highest points. Kent ended the last challenge with
3371 points, and Moe ended with 3253 points. That would make Kent the winner in case
of a tie.
The first vote goes to... Moe
The second vote goes to... Kent
The third vote goes to... Moe
And finally, the last vote. If it goes to Kent, he wins the whole shabang. If it
goes to Moe, she walks away with the $1,000,000 loot.
The fourth vote goes to... Moe!
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