The team Crackers won with 375 points during this semester’s Brainstorm competition, hosted by the Honors Program. Christine Morte, a senior in biomedicine from the Philippines and member of the Crackers team, said, “I like that the Honors Program arranges this event so we can have fun. It can get really competitive, especially if you make it into the top five. It gets really exciting.”
Dr. Randal Allred, a professor of English and director of the Honors Program, emceed the competition. He said, “Brainstorm is the only competition that is actually based on knowledge and that it celebrates the fun of shared knowledge.” He said the questions range from history, geography, art, science, literature, pop culture, to LDS questions.
Brainstorm is a trivia game show held every semester. Participants can form teams of up to four players. All the teams are asked a question, and each team must write the answer on a board. If they answer correctly, they are awarded a certain amount of points based off of the difficulty of the answer or number of answers each question has
Morte’s team won with a 35-point lead. The team Currency of the Future Hydro Flask Crew came in second place with 340 points, and the team Koa Woodwinds arrived third with 295 points.
Spencer Grubbe, a senior music major from Oregon, jokingly said his reason to participate is bragging rights. He said he competed in Brainstorm his first few semesters at BYU-Hawaii but hasn’t in more than a year. He returned to Brainstorm this semester as a member of the team Bread. “It’s as exhilarating as the first time I played,” he said.
Morte said, “The prizes are really good reasons to participate. They include movie tickets and gift certificates to restaurants.” She said she didn’t do anything special to prepare for the competition because the questions asked are unpredictable.
Haley Pendergast, a senior in elementary education from Honolulu and member of the third-place team Koa Woodwinds, said, “Before the game starts, I’m on the edge of my seat focused and mentally preparing myself. During the game, you’re trying to concentrate and communicate quietly with your teammates.”
Pendergast said she is really competitive and has won Brainstorm twice in the past. She said she first played in Fall 2016. “I was in the Honors Program and heard an announcement about Brainstorm. I joined the Honors Council and helped plan and prepare for it. I was originally going to be a judge for it, but as time got closer I wanted to play.”
Brainstorm players ranged from seniors to freshman. Abbie Stout, a freshman in biomed from Oregon, participated in it for the first time as a part of the team Oregano. She said, “The math and geography questions were my favorite. I learned lots of new things. There was a question about which African countries border the Indian that totally stumped me.”
Stout said she would invite everyone to come and participate in Brainstorm. “Come with friends! Even if you don’t come with your friends you can still play. I didn’t arrange anything and I joined a team when I got here.”
Pendergast said, “Dr. Allred pulls questions from everywhere. There is a variety of topics, and it’s just a really good time with your friends. It’s low key and casual. Part of the [mission of the] Honors Program is to broaden your knowledge. Brainstorm is a great way to gather new knowledge and make new connections.”
Allred said Brainstorm started about nine years ago. It is based off of College Bowl, a student quiz show game that started in 1953. He said the Honors Student Council developed the rules. Although the Honors Program hosts it, the competition is open to all current students.
“Usually four to ten teams participate. Questions stem from a large pile of College Bowl questions, and there are new ones as well. Brother Tueller in the history department also throws in some questions. The team members can collaborate on their answers and are given 20 seconds to write down their answers.” said Allred.
Pendergast said, “It’s a great place to pull random knowledge and win prizes. You find out these weird things that your friends know. Dr. Allred is so funny, and the great thing is that it’s fair. It’s not just the first team to answer who gets the points. Every team that answers correctly gets the points. If people realized how fun it is, they would come. It’s a game night with your friends. There’s free food. Plus you get prizes.”
Members of the winning team Crackers:
Danielle Bagley
Christine Morte
Mikaila Sass
Cyra Olsa
Writer: Leslie Owusu