Kaleidoquiz has early sign-up date

Anthony Capps
February 25, 2010

Ames’ famous 26-hour-long Kaleidoquiz will begin in just more than two weeks, but to participate in every event, participants will have to sign up early.

Signing up must be done by Feb. 24, and those under 18 years — as of March 5 — will need a guardian’s signature to register and receive a wristband.

Those that do not sign up by Feb. 24 will not be able to participate in all events — such as the traveling challenge — and cannot have participants under 18.

However, the event will still include montages, scavenger hunts, odd challenges, a traveling challenge and, of course, a question to be asked every six minutes. Organizers plan to change little from what has been built on during the past few years.

The event is organized and put on by KURE, the local student-run radio station in Friley Hall on the ISU campus.

Trevin Ward, one of the organizers of Kaleidoquiz, said over the past few years, the event has been bringing back some older-style events that had been downplayed in year’s past such as basic events and the traveling challenge.

Last year, the traveling challenge sent some team members to Toronto, Canada, but because the weather was bad in Michigan, the teams were called back. After the event, the KURE team found out that one team made it to within minutes of the border and ignored the call back to Iowa, quickly crossing the United States-Canada border, Ward said.

Teams were also asked to create a video parody in the style of the movie “Be Kind and Rewind,” in which teams had to recreate a movie with only props they had available. Another event called for team members to go to the gyro stand in Campustown and dance to whatever music was playing.

There were the traditional movie and music montages as well as a scavenger hunt.

Over the past few years, the event has had to change with the times since web sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Twitter have all risen to prominence.

“We’ve had to adapt as our teams have changed with the technology,” Ward said. “The questions we ask are more like riddles than they are actual questions now.”

He said traditional questions are not often used because of search engines — most notably Google — have made so much information so easily findable within seconds. Now, when organizers create the questions, they use riddles that require time to solve.

Some early teams that signed up:

Magical McMagic and the One-Armed, One-Manned Polka Birthday Band

They’re Taking the Hobbits to Isengard!

Butterfly Bandit Gravy of the Dissonant Dent

The next 26 hours are the only time every year that Google’s DNS server gets more access than your mom.

See the rest of the team names here.