# February World Community Grid Team Challenge Planning!



## [Ion] (Jan 31, 2013)

Hey Team!  I'm excited to announce that a new Team Challenge is in the works!  This is my first time running a competition, so I'd like your input for the process!  My current plan is to start the challenge either the first or second week of February (perhaps either the 6th or the 12th) and then let it run for the remainder of the month.  Half-way through we would have a game giveaway as before.  I have an AMD Never Settle game coupon and an AMD Nexuiz coupon that I'd be putting up for grabs there.

I'm going to see if I can get Chicken Patty to put up an announcement a few days before we start--hopefully we can recruit some new members that way.  

While a competition where everyone throws in what they can is fun, prizes are all the better.  In addition to the game giveaway, I'm hoping to have some more tangible prizes like in our last big event.  I'm willing to offer up one or two cash (PayPal, really) prizes--probably something on the order of $20-25 each.  I'm also willing to offer up spare hardware that I have.  In terms of hardware prizes, I can offer up hard drives (a couple, probably), DDR2 RAM, and LGA775 CPUs.  *I may be willing to offer a full system--probably a Core 2 Duo-class system.*  Obviously, these aren't the greatest prizes, so I would love contributions.  If you have hardware (or cash) that you'd be willing to donate, it would be greatly appreciated--just send a PM my way!

As far as the requirements go, the plan was to run for either two or three weeks.  I'm thinking of requiring hopeful entrants to turn in points (as reported by Free-DC, unless errors crop up) at least half of the days during the contest.  I was thinking that I'd also aim for a small minimum requirement in terms of points completed--maybe ten or fifteen thousand points over the course of the event.  The introduction of the GPU WUs has admittedly complicated things a bit here--a HD7950 can do this in five hours, but I don't want to discount the contributions of volunteers just running a Core 2 Duo.  If I can figure out a way to do it, I'm thinking of a runtime requirement instead.

I'm going to see if there's an official WCG competition that we can participate in during this event--something that will go on our permanent record should be an inspiration to crunch harder 

It's a pleasure crunching with all of you, and I'd love your input so that we can make this competition as much fun as possible!  

And because we can never have enough landscapes, Moraine Lake:






*Prizes accumulated thus far*:

AMD Never Settle Game Promo (Ion)
AMD Nexuiz Coupon (Ion)
Misc DDR2 RAM, LGA775 CPUs, HDDs (Ion)
2x $20+ PayPal gifts (Ion)
2x Radeon HD7770 (mjkmike)
i7-3930k (mjkmike)
P9X79 Pro (mjkmike)
Misc hardware (Mad Shot)
$25 via PayPal (Bow)

The competition has now been announced on AnandTech and XtremeSystems--I'm hopeful that we can get a variety of other teams to join us


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## NHKS (Jan 31, 2013)

wow! This looks to be a fantastic initiative [Ion]
you can expect some contribution from me too

but not sure how you will track the scores of team members.. can it be done in WCG or calculated from free-DC?


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## [Ion] (Jan 31, 2013)

NHKS said:


> wow! This looks to be a fantastic initiative [Ion]
> you can expect some contribution from me too
> 
> but not sure how you will track the scores of team members.. can it be done in WCG or calculated from free-DC?



Thank you for the input 

I can certainly track it.  I'll get a list of everyone who wants to take part, record their score at the start of the competition (from Free-DC, BOINCStats, or similar) and keep it in a spreadsheet, and then record it at the end and find the difference.  And while I can track whether users have turned in points at least half of the days--it would be a pain in the ass, as I'd have to go through and look at every user profile on Free-DC, but again, it can be done, and I'll do it 

Stuff like that is merely tedious--certainly not much of an impediment with enough determination


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## Norton (Feb 1, 2013)

Great idea! - count me in for support and a donation or two -

IMHO it's easier to use the honor system and/or let the participant prove that requirements are met.... it's a far easier process 

FYI- Here's a sample of the rules used from the last competition:



> *Requirements/terms to qualify for a prize:*
> - Participate in both weeks of the HCC Challenge (CPU and/or GPU)
> - Earn a minimum of 25,000 BOINC points for Team WCG-TPU during the Qualifying period (see below)*
> * points do not have to be all HCC work units
> ...


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## [Ion] (Feb 1, 2013)

Norton said:


> Great idea! - count me in for support and a donation or two -
> 
> IMHO it's easier to use the honor system and/or let the participant prove that requirements are met.... it's a far easier process
> 
> FYI- Here's a sample of the rules used from the last competition:



Thanks for the ideas and support 

I think those rules are good ones.  I think I'll accept them verbatim, except change the date (to reflect current conditions) and the "once all users hit 25000" (I'd rather just let it run for a time interval)


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## AlienIsGOD (Feb 1, 2013)

as always, im in


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## [Ion] (Feb 1, 2013)

Thanks for your support Alien! 

It looks like we have Chicken Patty's support, so the next step is to find an official WCG competition that we can take part in.  I'd like to find one that is HCC-related so that we can wield our GPU power


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## Norton (Feb 1, 2013)

[Ion] said:


> Thanks for your support Alien!
> 
> It looks like we have Chicken Patty's support, so the next step is to find an official WCG competition that we can take part in.  I'd like to find one that is HCC-related so that we can wield our GPU power



Any competition that utilizes HCC, results returned, or total points should allow us to utilize our GPU crunching effectively 

FYI- I've been looking at some of the upcoming challenges and the available ones don't seem to fit our Team as well as the 3 that we entered last November.....

Maybe we can issue our own challenge to WCG Teams this time


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## [Ion] (Feb 1, 2013)

Norton said:


> Any competition that utilizes HCC, results returned, or total points should allow us to utilize our GPU crunching effectively
> 
> FYI- I've been looking at some of the upcoming challenges and the available ones don't seem to fit our Team as well as the 3 that we entered last November.....
> 
> Maybe we can issue our own challenge to WCG Teams this time



My thought as well.  There are quite a few that run the entire length of February, but that wouldn't really be ideal.  And then there are a few one or two day ones that also seem odd.
I've sent Chicken a message asking if he could create a challenge once we decide on what we want


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## brandonwh64 (Feb 1, 2013)

Im in! What do we have to do? I can leave my 6950's on 24/7 (besides game times) for this duration since the BSOD has been fixed.


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## [Ion] (Feb 1, 2013)

brandonwh64 said:


> Im in! What do we have to do? I can leave my 6950's on 24/7 (besides game times) for this duration since the BSOD has been fixed.



Basically just crunch as much as you can.  I'm trying to arrange prizes to give out at the end.

However, if you have any suggestions of what you'd like to see, please offer them!


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## Xenturion (Feb 1, 2013)

Do we in some way have to "sign up" for the competition on WCG's site, or does it automatically attribute our points toward the challenge when it starts so long as we're apart of the TPU team?


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## Peter1986C (Feb 1, 2013)

@Xenturion: I think must say "I am in", because there are people in the TPU team who are not TPU members. Plus some use different names for WCG compared to their names used for their TPU accounts.

I might set-up BOINC to do GPU crunching if I am asleep, doing CPU-only crunching during the day (so that workflow is not hindered). I am definitely participating in the challenge, BTW.


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## [Ion] (Feb 1, 2013)

Xenturion said:


> Do we in some way have to "sign up" for the competition on WCG's site, or does it automatically attribute our points toward the challenge when it starts so long as we're apart of the TPU team?


Once the official challenge thread is posted, just chime in that you're interested.  That's it 


Chevalr1c said:


> @Xenturion: I think must say "I am in", because there are people in the TPU team who are not TPU members. Plus some use different names for WCG compared to their names used for their TPU accounts.
> 
> I might set-up BOINC to do GPU crunching if I am asleep, doing CPU-only crunching during the day (so that workflow is not hindered). I am definitely participating in the challenge, BTW.



That sounds like a great combination


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## [Ion] (Feb 2, 2013)

mjkmike has very generously offered a LGA2011 i7, X79 board, and some HD7770s as prizes for this competition


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## stinger608 (Feb 2, 2013)

[Ion] said:


> mjkmike has very generously offered a LGA2011 i7, X79 board, and some HD7770s as prizes for this competition





Leave it to Mike to donate such awesome hardware!!!!!!!!!!

 Man, I got to get my systems all set up for this!!! I could really utilize a 7770 for one of the crunching rigs!


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## [Ion] (Feb 2, 2013)

stinger608 said:


> Leave it to Mike to donate such awesome hardware!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Man, I got to get my systems all set up for this!!! I could really utilize a 7770 for one of the crunching rigs!



I was astonished when I got the PM--I thought that he was just saying he's crunch on them for the duration of the event! 

I wish you the best in your pursuit for a HD7770


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## AlienIsGOD (Feb 2, 2013)

Though i've had luck winning games, i would really like to win a physical prize for once  cheers to everyone thats donating stuff for this comp


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## [Ion] (Feb 2, 2013)

AlienIsGOD said:


> Though i've had luck winning games, i would really like to win a physical prize for once  cheers to everyone thats donating stuff for this comp



Well, we have several prizes from Mike, I plan on offering some HW and PayPal prizes, and I'm optimistic we can dig up more between now and then, so I'd say your chances are decent


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## manofthem (Feb 2, 2013)

I don't know how I've missed this thread for several days now :shadedshu :shadedshu

Anyway I'm excited to do so most definitely, count me in  

I can offer up a few games for some winners; I'll have to take a look and see what I have available. 

 *[Ion]*


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## Norton (Feb 2, 2013)

[Ion] said:


> mjkmike has very generously offered a LGA2011 i7, X79 board, and some HD7770s as prizes for this competition



 Holy Crap!!! Amazing donation from mjkmike!!! --


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## [Ion] (Feb 2, 2013)

manofthem said:


> I don't know how I've missed this thread for several days now :shadedshu :shadedshu
> 
> Anyway I'm excited to do so most definitely, count me in
> 
> ...


Thank you for your support Manofthem!  This is just a planning thread, I'll start a new thread in a few days (maybe four or five) announcing the dates and requirements and the prizes accumulated thus far.  But you're certainly welcome--and games are appreciated.  I have my Never Settle coupon and Nexuiz, but more is always better 


Norton said:


> Holy Crap!!! Amazing donation from mjkmike!!! --


I'm simply floored


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## theonedub (Feb 2, 2013)

Big thanks to Mike for his continued contributions. That hardware should evolve this into a 1+ month giveaway.


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## [Ion] (Feb 2, 2013)

theonedub said:


> Big thanks to Mike for his continued contributions. That hardware should evolve this into a 1+ month giveaway.



So you'd like me to stretch this out a bit?  Maybe ~8 February until ~10 March?


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## theonedub (Feb 2, 2013)

That would be a nice extension.


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## Peter1986C (Feb 2, 2013)

There is merit in that. An Endurance Race would indeed be better considering the value of the prices.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 2, 2013)

Great ideal guys.  I will go through my stuff. I should be able to come up with some stuff to donate.


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## Bow (Feb 2, 2013)

Count me in, no parts left but I could kick in some cash/PayPal
PM me and let me know what would work.  PP or a gift card or something.


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## [Ion] (Feb 3, 2013)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Great ideal guys.  I will go through my stuff. I should be able to come up with some stuff to donate.


Thanks!


Chevalr1c said:


> There is merit in that. An Endurance Race would indeed be better considering the value of the prices.


I've asked Chicken Patty to give us a month--February 8--March 8


Bow said:


> Count me in, no parts left but I could kick in some cash/PayPal
> PM me and let me know what would work.  PP or a gift card or something.



Thank you!  I really appreciate it!


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## ZakkWylde (Feb 3, 2013)

I'm in!


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## [Ion] (Feb 3, 2013)

Is there any interest in DDR2 RAM, LGA775 CPUs, or HDDs as prizes?  I'm willing to offer any of this stuff, but I'd like to know if there's interest before I accumulate it


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## theonedub (Feb 3, 2013)

I'd throw everything in there, the more prizes the better


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## [Ion] (Feb 3, 2013)

theonedub said:


> I'd throw everything in there, the more prizes the better



Cool.  I don't actually have very much ATM, but I'll be making a run to pick up more stuff on the 16th, and I'll get more stuff then.  HDDs in particular seem like they're always useful


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## stinger608 (Feb 3, 2013)

[Ion] said:


> Cool.  I don't actually have very much ATM, but I'll be making a run to pick up more stuff on the 16th, and I'll get more stuff then.  HDDs in particular seem like they're always useful



 Yea hard drives seem to always be in need. 

This is turning out to be an awesome contest. I know I have a Left4Dead 2 Steam to contribute, and will most likely have a Borderlands2 Steam to also contribute to this. Not sure on hardware yet, but there may be a bit of that as well. 

 [Ion] your going to have your hands full listing all the prizes.


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## Peter1986C (Feb 3, 2013)

Shipping an HDD to Europe from the USA would cost so much (probably) that it is scarcely worth it (I think). Middle-class HDDs of 500 GBs are like 50 euro here. But for folks on your continent it should work.


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## KieX (Feb 3, 2013)

Amazing prizes by mjmike 

My only suggestion would be to delay the start till you can have perhaps a week or more of promoting the challenge. I would also suggest this may be the best time to post a thread about the challenge on the WCG forums themselves to recruit wandering crunchers to our team in the process 

Good work Kai.


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 3, 2013)

Alright fellas, made this a challenge on the WCG site, all teams can enter.  This should make the competition more fun.

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/challenge/viewTeamChallenge.do?challengeId=5579


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## Norton (Feb 3, 2013)

Chicken Patty said:


> Alright fellas, made this a challenge on the WCG site, all teams can enter.  This should make the competition more fun.
> 
> http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/challenge/viewTeamChallenge.do?challengeId=5579



Awesome!!!  Now we have about a week to do some recruiting and get our farms in order.

Did you announce it over on the WCG forum?


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 3, 2013)

Norton said:


> Awesome!!!  Now we have about a week to do some recruiting and get our farms in order.
> 
> Did you announce it over on the WCG forum?



Going to now...

Okay, posted in the WCG Forum.  Here is the link:

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,34677_lastpage,yes#411126


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## Norton (Feb 3, 2013)

Chicken Patty said:


> Going to now...
> 
> Okay, posted in the WCG Forum.  Here is the link:
> 
> http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,34677_lastpage,yes#411126



Cool! 

Just a thought- may want to put an edit into the 1st post of this thread that the challenge prizes are participation rewards for WCG-TPU Team members and not for other Teams.


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 3, 2013)

Norton said:


> Cool!
> 
> Just a thought- may want to put an edit into the 1st post of this thread that the challenge prizes are participation rewards for WCG-TPU Team members and not for other Teams.



Thanks for the heads up, post updated.


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## Nordic (Feb 3, 2013)

Chime in here? If so I am in. Is this all about total points accumulated or about run time?


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 3, 2013)

james888 said:


> Chime in here? If so I am in. Is this all about total points accumulated or about run time?



Total points for the competition.


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## Nordic (Feb 3, 2013)

Chicken Patty said:


> Total points for the competition.



How do cpu only crunchers compete with gpu crunchers?


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 3, 2013)

james888 said:


> How do cpu only crunchers compete with gpu crunchers?



There is a minimum amount of points you need to enter for the drawing of the prices.  Once you are in it don't matter, anyone can win.  The minimum is also pretty low so that mostly everybody can meet it.  First post has all the details.


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## KieX (Feb 3, 2013)

james888 said:


> How do cpu only crunchers compete with gpu crunchers?



I think the Team competition will be seperate in a way to the prize one. So between TPU and other teams in that challenge it's a Total points race. For the prize though, the rules are that the members need to be part of TPU and if I understood correctly from this post by Norton there will be a minimum qualifying score with which you would be entered into the prize draw.

Speculating, hope someone can clarify that. But at any rate I'm sure that CPU only contribution would not be penalised 

Edit: CP types as fast as he drives


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## Nordic (Feb 3, 2013)

Chicken Patty said:


> There is a minimum amount of points you need to enter for the drawing of the prices.  Once you are in it don't matter, anyone can win.  The minimum is also pretty low so that mostly everybody can meet it.  First post has all the details.



First post had the details. They just don't seem set in stone.



KieX said:


> I think the Team competition will be seperate in a way to the prize one. So between TPU and other teams in that challenge it's a Total points race. For the prize though, the rules are that the members need to be part of TPU and if I understood correctly from this post by Norton there will be a minimum qualifying score with which you would be entered into the prize draw.
> 
> Speculating, hope someone can clarify that. But at any rate I'm sure that CPU only contribution would not be penalised
> 
> Edit: CP types as fast as he drives


That is quite helpful. I somehow missed that post in my skimming on everything past the OP, even though it is bold and quoted.


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## [Ion] (Feb 3, 2013)

Chevalr1c said:


> Shipping an HDD to Europe from the USA would cost so much (probably) that it is scarcely worth it (I think). Middle-class HDDs of 500 GBs are like 50 euro here. But for folks on your continent it should work.


Yeah, things like the disks are primarily intended for US48 crunchers--they're otherwise probably not worthwhile for me to ship.


KieX said:


> Amazing prizes by mjmike
> 
> My only suggestion would be to delay the start till you can have perhaps a week or more of promoting the challenge. I would also suggest this may be the best time to post a thread about the challenge on the WCG forums themselves to recruit wandering crunchers to our team in the process
> 
> Good work Kai.


Thank you!  I'm really excited about all of the excitement that this is creating.  I'm optimistic that we can get a few more teams to join on in 


Chicken Patty said:


> Alright fellas, made this a challenge on the WCG site, all teams can enter.  This should make the competition more fun.
> 
> http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/challenge/viewTeamChallenge.do?challengeId=5579





james888 said:


> How do cpu only crunchers compete with gpu crunchers?


I set a low minimum points requirement for expressly that purpose.  The thought is that anyone should be able to manage 25k points (even a C2D 2GHz would do that in a month)--and then that is all that is needed to be eligible for prizes.


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## Norton (Feb 3, 2013)

james888 said:


> First post had the details. They just don't seem set in stone.
> 
> 
> That is quite helpful. I somehow missed that post in my skimming on everything past the OP, even though it is bold and quoted.



The final version hasn't been finalized (?) but as others have said:
- there is a relatively low qualifying score
- "participate" means crunching for the duration of the challenge*
* hitting the qualifying score to get a prize and then shutting down isn't the intended goal... every point is important

Hint- keep an eye on the 1st post for revisions, changes, prize announcements, etc...


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## manofthem (Feb 3, 2013)

Norton said:


> The final version hasn't been finalized (?) but as others have said:
> - there is a relatively low qualifying score
> - *"participate" means crunching for the duration of the challenge*
> * hitting the qualifying score to get a prize and then shutting down isn't the intended goal... every point is important*
> ...



Does that include certain days when we experience technical difficulties?  I'd assume that those off days wouldn't discount us


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## Norton (Feb 3, 2013)

manofthem said:


> Does that include certain days when we experience technical difficulties?  I'd assume that those off days wouldn't discount us



We're not that kind of Team 

On a side note- I hope we keep the new member welcome thread very busy for the next month or so


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## [Ion] (Feb 3, 2013)

manofthem said:


> Does that include certain days when we experience technical difficulties?  I'd assume that those off days wouldn't discount us



Everyone has technical difficulties or extenuating circumstances sometimes.  So no, that certainly wouldn't impede you.  I think I might actually have to shut down my farm for the last week--it depends on when Spring Break here is.  I don't want to, but IIRC we're gone the first week of March


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## stinger608 (Feb 3, 2013)

God this is sooooooooo awesome!!!! 

Team TPU is going world wide! 

We need to create a TPU news caster. LOLOL

This is going to be so cool. And as Norton stated, hopefully our new team member thread will be really really busy!


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## HammerON (Feb 3, 2013)

Way to go [Ion]
Thanks to mjkmike and all the other prize contributors
Thanks Captain for creating the challange
I am proud to be a member of such an awesome team


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 3, 2013)

Norton said:


> We're not that kind of Team
> 
> On a side note- I hope we keep the new member welcome thread very busy for the next month or so



I hope so too, and it probably will be.


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## Chicken Patty (Feb 4, 2013)

ALRIGHT ALL, LETS HEAD OVER TO THIS THREAD!

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2837059


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