After claiming our sixth Ballhype Golden Picks contest victory last week, we offered up our spoils, a free Ballhype t-shirt, to any site member who posted their user name, their favorite team, and their reason why they best deserved to wear the Blue and Orange colors of the Web's hottest social network centered around sports.We had four entries, from "dharr18", "McLovin", "Alan1066", and "Jason", the site's co-founder.
With the midnight September 1 deadline having passed, it was time to pick a winner!
Step 1: Create The Name Cards
I took some nearby construction paper (ooh, pink - pretty!) and wrote the names of the four entrants in equal sized squares (as pictured below).
The Four Entrants: Click for Larger Image
Step 2: Add Some Incentive to the Judge
As I already promised I wouldn't make the selection, I got four pieces of dog kibble, and assigned one piece each to the four entrants (as pictured below). As our aging hound is still scent-oriented and food mad, this made sense.
Four Small Treats: Click for Larger Image
Step 3: The Selection Process
Kristine took Molly, the beagle, out of the room, while I took the four squares and placed them on the floor, hiding the pieces of kibble. The squares were placed in equidistant areas from where Molly would be emerging, as to not curry favor with one over another.
Step 4: Molly Picks a Winner
With the squares in place, Molly darted out, but first headed to her food dish. Finding nothing, she came back to the living room, and ran by "McLovin"'s square, and missed it entirely. We saw her then sniff at the "Dharr18" square, and turn away, eventually heading to "Alan1066", turning it over and eating the kibble. A winner! Or so we thought... we then looked back and found the "Dharr18" square was missing its kibble. Somehow, she had eaten it without moving the square, and in fact, "Dharr18" was our winner! You can see Molly at Alan1066's square, with a little pink showing below.
Our Humble Judge: Click for Larger Image
Should we get the opportunity to win again sometime, a less likely event with baseball giving way to college football, I'd like to offer this contest again, just maybe with some more entrants. So congratulations to Dharr18. Erin should be in touch with you shortly to claim your prize! We hope to also soon see you win the Golden Picks contest legitimately in the near future!
We're drafting Molly to settle ties in future contests. I hope she'll do it for Cracklin Oat Bran instead of kibbles.
ReplyDeleteErin, Molly would love to be involved. And trust me, she loves Crackin' Oat Bran as well. We literally finished our box of it this afternoon (kid you not). If it's edible by people, Molly is hip with it. She would prefer our food to hers any time.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to register a complaint. My kibble appears smaller than the others, and the fact that Molly didn't even consider it is very fishy ...
ReplyDeleteThank you Molly.
ReplyDeleteI guess Molly is a closet Pirates fan. I would like to invite her to be an editor on Bucs Trade Winds, can't be any worse than me.
@ Jason, it would have been more suspicious had we run the same contest three times and had the same outcome. We just had to trust the beagle on this one. It really says something when you can't even win your own contest. Should we discuss it?
ReplyDelete@ Dave, Molly appreciates the offer, but she has a competing option from the Ballhype Contest Decision Committee. She'll get back to you.