Raleigh Typhoon

Honestly, I’m really glad I competed in this year’s Raleigh Typhoon, but I’m not sure I’d do it again, or if I did I’d focus more on enjoying the drinks and games instead of trying to get it all done, because at the end of the day… it was about the journey, not the reward (because there was none).
Seriously, the deck was stacked against participants in the first place. After registering, we received a white sheet with clues on where we could find ‘challenges’ that would earn us blue puzzle pieces. Challenges ranged from a good ol’ crossword, to origami crawfish to more physical challenges like a team vs. team leap frog race. Once we had the blue puzzle assembled (before any other team we saw) we had an entire new list of 17 items we needed to find and paste to a 24×24 posterboard to get the $ 400 prize. The $ 600 prize puzzle was a ‘letters missing’ puzzle and the $ 1000 prize was a pictogram to find a key that would open a safe. So yeah, not easy.
Things that need work:
1. Attention to detail: Our blue puzzle, once assembled, was cut from different stacks so we had whole words missing (effectively eliminating us from being able to even compete for the ‘letters missing’ $ 600 prize).
2. Closing/​Prize Ceremony: I don’t know about you, but after I’ve been running around in costume for 9 hours in the heat, not stopping for food, but stopping for lots of drink, I want to pay for MORE beer and listen to LOUD Katy Perry/​Gaga pumping out of the same mic used to announce rules for submission of posters /​prizes. It took them 3 hours to even announce the winners. Tighten that shiz up! Then, we’ll party. AND… when it came time to submit the posters for the $ 400 prize, they chose the winner based on the first one they liked out of only 20 submissions. Our poster was complete, along with our other items at 7:30, when some people were still making theirs at 8:30. I know it’s not a race, this just seems unfair.
3. Confusion: We understood that we were supposed to get photos at every stop, save receipts and other such requirements, so we did it all. At no point in the prize ceremony were these items mentioned or considered, enhancing the feeling that we busted our butts for nothing.
GoodTimes:
1. Meeting other teams! There were some playing dirty (grab all the matchbooks… you know who you are…) but most people were happy and having a wild-​eyed good time.
2. Getting to see Raleigh! Businesses I’d never been to like The Union and Gypsy Jule made a great impression. Others were less welcoming (and that’s pretty interesting too).
3. Bonding with my own team! Raleigh Typhoon is a great way for a group of people to see many sides of each other, working together, keeping each other pumped and sacrificing your own comfort (feet & heat) with your eyes on the prize.

Hooray for the fifth annual Raleigh Typhoon Scavenger Hunt! It was a lot of fun, a lot of food and just a wee bit of drinking. A great chance to explore the City of Oaks and get silly with 500 other scavenger hunters criss-​crossing through the downtown area. But as Christina mentioned, the end was not quite what we hoped for in terms of prizes and how it was handled, bummer.
We played leap-​frog, passed a hula hoop, did word jumbles, hop scotched, counted crosses, rocked and scissored it out and more. Along the way we got to check out Ripple City, the Big Easy, Woody’s, The Oxford, Hibernian, Armadillo Grill, Noir, Jules and a slew of other sponsors. And yes, we drank some beer! But given the amount of ground we covered, we had to hydrate! ;-)
All-​in-​all a fun event that could use a little better organization. Just know that Team Unilocal was in it to win it. Puzzles: Finished. Drinking: Complete. Eating: Done. Next year we’re bringing home a big prize! And only 3 sombrero’s were sacrificed during the evening. Nice job peoples!

This was our first year on the hunt, and man was it a roller-​coaster ride! A 12-​hour one!
The Uphill Climb:
1) Strategizing our plan-​of-​attack, since certain clues were only available during certain windows of time.
2) Bartering with sponsors when team vs team was not available. Some of these were easy to negotiate. Some of them were Woody’s — which required 4 beers and 4 shooters to be purchased.
The Joy Ride Down:
1) Fun, silly games like passing a banana-​between-​your-​legs relay!
2) Successfully completing origami pieces and word hunts faster than opposing teams.
3) Getting all the puzzle pieces and finishing the puzzle!
4) Completing our final poster of scavenger items, and thinking we had a chance at the $ 400 prize.
The Loop-​di-​Loops:
1) Slightly unclear instructions. Did we really need a team photo at each location? Receipts proving required amount spent? Finished worksheets? This seem to be indicated, but these items were never reviewed for completion.
2) Since the puzzle pieces weren’t precisely cut, and each piece you receive may have come from a different copy of the puzzle, our put-​together puzzle was actually missing chunks of words in the «missing letter» section. So not only were we missing purposefully eliminated letters; we were missing other letters as well. This made it next to impossible to deduce the riddles.
3) Let-​down of an award ceremony. Firstly, there was no organized method to turn in your completed poster. A bunch of us sort of rushed the organizer once he announced he’d only be accepting 20. Ours was somewhere in the mêlée. Then it took a long time — 2 hours — for them to check and announce winners. Frankly, so many teams dropped off as the day wore on. And I think folks who finished the poster should have, at the very least, won some sort of prize…
4) The Typhoon did indicate that $ 2500 in prizes would be given throughout the day. I don’t know if others won anything during the actual hunt (we didn’t). But there were some gift card giveaways at the ceremony. Thought it would make more since not to randomly give away; but why not celebrate those that spent the most money during the hunt; those with the best costumes; those that completed the puzzle; and the poster? Those with the most creative team photos? Just a suggestion as a way to celebrate folks who made it to the bitter end! Instead of feeling proud about our success in the hunt; our team left feeling disheartened that, in the end, it didn’t amount to anything.
All that said, it was definitely a memorable experience full of great local businesses; enthusiastic teams; and some hilarious resulting photos!
Disclaimer: Unilocal was a proud media sponsor for Raleigh Typhoon 5