Rootles^® at St. Paul’s School - Spring 2007

Clue One Posted - www.rootles.com/onsite/09/20/dloof.html
Clue Two Posted - www.rootles.com/onsite/63/51/borybaekh.html *Another hint provided - Scoring deadline amended - see clue post date/time, below
Clue Three - www.rootles.com/onsite/20/07/buntradon.html *Clue updated
Clue Four - www.rootles.com/onsite/74/02/rackcrupem.html - Scoring deadline amended - see clue post date/time, below
Clue Five - www.rootles.com/onsite/17/17/lalwims.html

Final Scores - Updated 5/21 12:00PM

Instructions

As with instructions everywhere these should be read completely and thoroughly. Who knows what might be in here...

As it was last year, the hunt will be hosted from the Rootles^® web site. Remember that this means that, beyond the initial mailing with a link to this instruction page, and a final announcement of the winning house in chapel, members of the Dean’s office are not responsible for the actions of a meddling alum, so you should still be nice to them.

General Instructions:

Each round of the hunt will follow the same sequence:

1. Clue Posted on the Rootles^® web site
2. Clue solved by houses
3. Answer tag located on the SPS campus
4. Content of answer tag must be submitted to rootles from an "@sps.edu" address
5. Scores for all houses will be tallied and posted at the close of each round

When clues are posted, houses must decipher where they lead to find the posted answer tags. Clues may lead to a single specific location or a slightly more general area within which the tag could be posted anywhere. Answer tags will be in the form of a sticker with typed content. That typed content may include further instructions as to what must be submitted using the links on any of the clue pages. Do not remove, or tamper with, the answer tags. Any tampering will result in the discarding of that round's points and appropriate action taken to address any scoring issues raised by the interference. (response statement regarding tampering in 2006 hunt)

Clue Post Dates/Times:

• Monday May 7, 2007 @6:00pm
• Wednesday May 9, 2007 @8:00pm - deadline Thursday 8:00pm
• Saturday May 12, 2007 @7:30pm
• Tuesday May 15, 2007 @8:30pm - deadline Wednesday 8:30pm
• Friday May 18, 2007 @7pm

Clues will be posted as close to the time indicated above as possible. At the time of a clue posting, this page (rootles.com/sps/instructions.html) will update to indicate the location of the page where you can view the clue. These updates will be at the top of the page and will all be in the form: http://www.rootles.com/onsite/00/00/text.html, with the only difference being the “00/00/text” changing to direct you to the location of the clue. The “text” portion of these addresses will be anagrams that need to be unscrambled in order to determine the correct address. (For example: http://www.rootles.com/onsite/01/01/storole.html would translate into http://www.rootles.com/onsite/01/01/rootles.html

For houses that ask for help, by email to rootles, hints may be forthcoming. Any hints provided to one team will be posted on the page of the clue in question for all houses to view. Timing for the posting of such hints will not be immediate.

Scoring:

Each round will be scored individually, and each round’s points will be added to, subtracted from, or multiplied by, a house’s cumulative score.

In the first and third rounds the first correct submission that is received by Rootles^® will score 9.5 points, the second will score 9 points, the third 8.5 points, etc.

The second and fourth rounds will be subtraction rounds, with the points awarded being subtracted from the cumulative score, rather than added. Any house not submitting an answer in these rounds will be awarded points equal to .5 more than the last submitting house. (For example: if 7 houses do not submit an answer they will each loose 6 points. Of the remaining houses, the house that has the closest time stamp to the deadline, without going beyond it, will only lose .5 of a point, the 2nd house will only lose 1 point, the 3rd will only loose 1.5 points up to 5.5 points for the 11th for the house submitting furthest from the deadline, in this example.)

The last round will be a multiplication round, with the points awarded multiplied by, rather than added to, the cumulative scores of individual houses. The cut off for submissions in this round will be Saturday May 19th at 7pm.

The winning house will be determined by ranking the highest absolute value of houses' final scores. In this scenario it is possible for houses to follow dramatically different strategies in achieving the highest final score.

Submissions:

All submissions should be in the following form:

• Message must be composed from an @sps.edu email address
• House Name must be in the subject line
• Solution text must be in the body of the message
• The “time stamp”, the date and time connected to an email, will be the final factor in determining order of finish.
• Answers for the 1st and 3rd clues will be accepted up to 48 hours from the date of each clue's posting. Answers from the 2nd, 4th and 5th clues will be accepted up to 24 hours following their posting.

Rule Modifications:

If there are any modifications to these rules between rounds, an announcement will be made through a posting at the top of the instructions page. They will take effect immediately.

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