The 2008 Winter Scripting Games
International Challenge
The 2008 Winter Scripting Games International Challenge
From the beginning the Winter Scripting Games have included an international flair: we’ve always given people the opportunity to choose a country to represent, and we’ve always kept track of scores per country. However, that’s pretty much all we’ve ever done: just keep track of scores. This year, however, that’s going to change.
For the 2008 Winter Scripting Games the Scripting Guys are introducing the International Challenge. For purposes of the International Challenge, we’re going to keep track of the number of competitors from each country who participate in at least one event. We’re then going to compare that number with the expected number of competitors for a country. For example, suppose your country has more competitors than all but 5 other countries. At the same time, your country is only the 25th-most populous country in the world. Based on population statistics, we’d expect your country to have the 25th-most entrants; instead, you had the sixth-most entrants. Is that good? You bet it is.
Using an algorithm we haven’t decided upon (but will publish as soon as we have made a decision) we’ll give each country a score based on number of participants vs. the expected number of participants. The country that receives the highest score will be declared the winner of the International Challenge.
But wait, that’s not all. In addition to being declared the winner of the International Challenge we’ll also – what’s that? Present an award to everyone from that country? Well, unfortunately, the Scripting Guys budget won’t allow for that. (No, not even for a small country like Lichtenstein.) However, depending on our budget and depending on the number of entrants from the winning country we’ll consider awarding something to all the actual participants from that country. (No promises, though; money is tight these days.) What we will definitely do, however, is this: for the month of April, 2008 we will dedicate the Script Center to that country.
Now, admittedly, we’re not sure what that means yet (and we’re even less sure what TechNet will let us get away with). However, every day we’ll feature something new about the winning country, be that interesting facts and historical anecdotes; recipes; songs and customs; whatever. And yes, we will definitely solicit help from the winning team when it comes time to put together the tribute to the International Challenge winner.
Good luck everyone; we hope to see you – and all your compatriots – on February 15th, the day the Games officially open. If you have any questions about the Games, or about the International Challenge, please email scripter@microsoft.com.
