TIPial Pursuit
TIPial Pursuit is a trivia competition that every TIPster takes part in. It consists of several rounds of varying types of trivia. Some are related to TIP (including RCs), some aren't. Each RC comes up with their own category. Usually, TIPsters ask their RC and some adjacent RCs what their category will be. Most RCs are glad to tell them, but the questions are a closely kept secret until TIPial Pursuit actually begins. If you're wondering, TIPial Pursuit bears almost no resemblance to either the board game Trivial Pursuit or the TV show with the same name.
Supposedly, only Duke West, Duke East, and Davidson hold the event, and it has been going only since 2014. *EDIT*This event has held at Trinity Term 2 2017(also Rice Term 2 2018) (and possibly others). It did not hold the same name, simply being called "trivia", but had the same rules and tendencies.
General Rules of TIPial Pursuit
- Each "round" consists of 4 minutes for students to answer as many questions correctly as they can or complete all the questions an RC has. After the 4 minutes is complete, students have 3 minutes to travel to their next category.
- Along the way, students may encounter certain staff members. Asking these staff members for a question may result in a bonus point if answered correctly.
- Most RCs require the visiting RAG to come to a consensus as to the correct answer. However, some RCs have been known to simply accept the answer if they hear it.
- Interrupting the RC will have only negative effects; the most common penalty is the question not being read until the RAG is ready.
- Each correctly answered question results in one point (bonus questions included), and wrong answers bear no penalty.
- After all RAGs have visited all RCs, the results are finalized and revealed to students. The RAGs with the 3 highest scores win a predetermined prize.
- Instead, Davidson had a Boy's Winner and a Girl's Winner, along with runner-ups for both. The Girl's Winner got to choose their prize first, then Boy's, then Girl's Runner Up, then Boy's.
- No help from outside sources, including the Internet, is allowed. Students attempting to violate this rule will usually receive a 0 score in the category.
2014
No data available. If you remember what the categories and/or results were from your campus/term, please add them here! You are more than welcome to copy my formatting from the 2015 section. KJ4UBL (talk) 08:46, 22 May 2016 (EDT)
2015
Duke West Term One
TIPial Pursuit created much buzz around West, at least among students. Many students attempted to "study" for the competition, but since the categories provided by some RCs were vague, attempting to study was considered futile.
Categories
Several RCs kept their categories secret, even to their own RAG. The categories (in no particular order) were as follows:
- TIP History
- Movies/Cinema
- Tennis
- How well do you know your tennis champions? The tennis category was weighted heavily on record-holders and championships, but knowing strokes and rules will also be helpful
- Broadway
- Most questions came from the 2015 Tony awards ... which were aired during move-in. As such, all RAGs performed very poorly.
- Sports
- Cartoon/Anime
- Story from West Term I: Tim's RAG worked so quickly on this category that the RC ran out of questions. She gave us 1 point for every Anime show we could come up with. We scored a bonus of 26 points, smashing the record in the category.
- Ryan's Opinions
- Many students, including those in Ryan's RAG, felt that this category was very unfair. After all, the people that knew the most answers were the TIPsters in Ryan's RAG. They got 20 out of 25. All other RAGs scored less than 8.
- RC facts
- Many of these questions were VERY obscure. However, if you study each RC closely/get to know them, you statistically stood a much higher chance of success.
- Duke University trivia
- The Office (U.S. Version)
- US History
- Know your Presidents! It may also help to know major facts about certain wars.
- Computer Science
- Computer history was also a big subset of the questions. Make sure you're current on pre-1975 computing!
- Also know what companies make which products, as well as any applicable acronyms (AMD, for example)
- Video Games
- Kids' Stuff
- Rugrats appeared several times in this category, but other kids' TV shows were included.
- Celebrities
- The RC gives the celebrity's real name, and you provide them with their popular name. For example, if the RC said "Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson", you would reply with "Katy Perry".
- Hip-Hop
- Pop culture
- Harry Potter
- This category was based more on the books, not the movies.
- David Bowie
Bonus Points
-
Roman for a bonus point: "What were my SAT scores?"
- Various correct answers included "Why should I care?" and "It's not my business!" and "That's not relevant to my human." One notable answer involved an unknown TIPster yelling "arrgh!" and walking away. Says Roman, "that counts as the correct answer!"
- Joel the TA for a bonus point: "What is the capacity of Cameron Indoor Stadium within 100 people?" Correct answer: 9,314
Results
After the final questions were asked, all RAGs made their way to Few Quad while the admin staff tabulated the results. There was so much buzz going around the various RAGs regarding which categories they did well on, the bonus questions that they answered, etc. that the staff member reading the results had to yell for a full thirty seconds to get everyone quiet!
-
- Third Place
- Peter's RAG (Prize: privilege of dressing up an RC of their choice)
- Second Place
- Cannon's RAG (Prize: privilege of choosing Wednesday's Spirit Week theme)
- First Place
-
Ryan's RAG (Prize: priority of evening activities for the week)
- This victory caused much controversy among every student on West. After the result was revealed, nearly every student (with the exception of those in Ryan's RAG) could be heard booing or loudly yelling "that's not fair". The staff justified this by explaining that those TIPsters had a lead outside of Ryan's Opinions.
Duke East Term Two
Categories
- Taylor Swift Lyrics
- Lord of the Rings
- Astronomy
- Improv
- Gender & Sexuality
Results
-
- Third Place
- Second Place
- First Place
Davidson Term Two
Categories
- European History
- Engineering/Math
- Authors of Books
- Disney Characters
- Musicals
- American History
- World History
- Doctor Who (Only Classic Who, which was unfair)
- Superheroes (Scott G is famous for this section.)
- Fast Food Restaurants
- Food in General
- Sports
- Literature
- Biology
- The Office/Parks and Rec
- Lastly, there was an RC who just had everyone write thank you notes to any of the RC's, TA's, or Teachers. Each note was worth one point.
2016
Where do we go from here?
As I will be attending a campus that will likely not have TIPial Pursuit (sadness), I look forward to seeing TIPsters populate this section! Please copy my formatting from section 2015 to maintain an orderly page. Thanks, and good luck to all!! KJ4UBL (talk) 14:26, 8 June 2016 (UTC)
2018
Davidson Term One
This year was probably “untraditional” because we used kahoot, but heck I don’t make the rules.
Categories
- History
- Geography
- Science
- Pop Culture (Disney Channel)
- Art
- Children’s Literature
- Food
- Sports
Results
-
- Third Place
- (I don’t remember, hopefully someone else can fill this spot)
- Second Place
- Dove’s group (They competed against themselves)
- First Place
- Grace’s RC group (We’re the best!)