Episode 7 Challenges

Challenge 7.1: Wall Street

Objective: Earn as much money for the pot as possible.

It's no secret that the group's performance up to this point has been less than spectacular. So I'm giving you an opportunity to redeem yourself and earn some of your lost money back.

In order to do this, you will be investing in the stock market in real time. I am giving each player an imaginary $100,000 with which to invest. If you do not know how the stock market works, then I suggest you look into it online. On the most basic level, you buy what are known as shares of a corporation. The values of these shares rise and fall due to the basic premise of supply and demand in the market. The object is to sell your shares at a higher value than what you bought, hence earning money.

You will have four full trading days to play with for this challenge. Beginning Tuesday, March 27, each player will use their allotted imaginary $100,000 to buy shares of at least one company (no more than ten at any given time). Each player must have all, or at least $95,000, of their money invested at all times. At no time may a player have more than $100,000 invested. You may invest in any stock on a US market. If a player does not meet these requirements when the trading floor opens on any given day, that player may no longer participate in the challenge, all of their money is lost, in addition to a $1.00 penalty from the pot.

You may buy and sell shares once per day, when the market is not open. Trading hours are from 9:30 AM EST until 4:00 PM EST. Therefore, all buying of shares will be conducted using that day's opening price and all selling of shares will be conducted using that day's closing price. To buy or sell a number of shares make a post in the forums in the following format:
I would like to buy/sell ## shares of ABCD at $###.## per share.
Where ABCD is the stock symbol. You may buy any stock that trades on the US market.

After close Friday afternoon, this challenge is over. I will take whatever money you earned or lost and divide it by 100,000 and that amount will be added or deducted from the pot. If you earn more than $50,000 you will be compensated by an additional $0.10 for every additional 50% increase. (For example, if you have $300,000 at the end of the challenge you will have increased your money by 200%. You would earn $1.5 + $0.30 = $1.80).

Deadline: 03/30 @ 4:00 PM Eastern

Worth: Unlimited

Reward: None

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Challenge 7.2: Minesweeper

Objective: Successfully Uncover 10 Mines

For this challenge, you will be playing a turn based game of Minesweeper. If you are unfamiliar with the game, you can find it installed on almost any PC. The game consists of a grid of unlabeled squares, in this challenge a 10x10 grid. "Mines" are hidden randomly throughout the grid. The object is to flag all of the mines without uncovering any of them.

The game is played by selecting a square on the grid. If a mine is hidden in that square, it is uncovered and the game is over. If no mines are hidden in the selected square but one or more mines are located in a square that borders (including diagonally adjacent) the selected square, the number of mines that border that square is displayed in the selected square. If no mines are hidden in the selected square or any bordering square, the square is simply cleared, and all adjoining squares that don't have mines hidden in them are also cleared.

When you think you know where a mine is hidden, you can "flag" that square. You can also unflag a square at any time. If all ten mines are uncovered without any being uncovered, the challenge is a success and $3.50 will be added to the pot. If a mine is uncovered, no money will be earned. If the deadline is reached before all ten mines are flagged, but no mines have been uncovered, $0.10 will be added to the pot for every successfully flagged mine. However, $0.10 will be deducted for every flagged square that does not have a mine hidden in it.

Select and flag squares using the appropriate thread on the forums. You can find the gameboard, which I will update as often as possible, here. You are allowed to select or flag up to two squares in a row. You must wait for two other players to take a turn before making additional selections or flags of your own.

Deadline: 03/31 @ 11:59 PM Eastern

Worth: $3.50

Reward: None

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Challenge 7.3: In the Dark

Objective: Gather keys to unlock a vault filled with money.

The agency has received intel regarding a suspicious research facility that is believed to be a threat to national security. The CIA has assigned our taskforce to investigate and retrieve a significant sum of cash from the operation's headquarters. We have found a note with some information about the location of a few things inside the building. We know there are four entrances to the building, and that there is some kind of safe area in the building. In this safe area no player can be attacked by a guard or other player (more on that later), but only one player may be in this space at one time and a player can only occupy this space for one turn (more on that later also). However, there is some bad news. We were unable to retrieve the pinch and it has unfortunately been activated, disabling all electronics in the area, including this headquarters. The entire building will be in pitch black during the mission. Also, due to the agency's recent lack of success, has only enough funding to bring along a box of 16 matches to illuminate the area.

Each player will be equipped with four matches, because that’s how the 16 matches are equally shared.

In order to navigate through this dark space, the group will use the floor plan which depicts a 4x4 grid:

As the group makes their final preparations to enter the building, another note is found. This note is not smudged and is easy to read. It talks of 4 keys obtained by accessing 4 combination safes located around the building which are needed to unlock a vault and gain access to the cash. The location of these safes are unknown. The note also tells the group the safes can be accessed using some 3-letter combination of the letters O, M and C. (Letters will not be used more than once in a combination.) Inside of each safe is a key that will be used to unlock the vault. Once all four keys are acquired by a single player, the vault panel must be found and all four keys must be put into it.

In addition, the notes tells the players that there will be a guard patrolling this building to foil any plans to retrieve the cash. If a player encounters him, you must fend off this guard. If you defeat the guard they will be forced to immediately retreat to the safety area specified on the map, and they will be forced to surrender everything in their inventory (if any) so they can make a quick get away. If you encounter the guard and lose the battle with them, they will take all of the items in your inventory and you will be forced to return to the entry point you came in at. But if you are defeated by the guard three times, you will be unable to continue to try and retrieve the cash.

Turn order will be selected by the order that players enter the live challenge. The players will be able to choose their entry point, but it will be first come first serve. Players get 1 turn each per round. Every two turns, the guard gets a turn (unless there is only one player left in the game, in which case that player and the guard will alternate turns back-and-forth).

At the beginning of your turn, you may perform ONE of the following actions:

• Strike a match and see everything bordering your space
• Move one space N, E, S or W (no moving diagonally)
• Stay put and do nothing
  

After that, I will tell you whether you are able to perform one or more context-sensitive actions. If a context-sensitive action is available to you, you may perform that context-sensitive action at that time. If more than one context-sensitive action is available, you may only perform one of those actions, but you get to choose which one.

• If you are in a space with a safe, guess the safe combination
• If you are in a space with another player, exchange matches and/or keys with that player (both players must agree to the terms of the exchange)
• If you are in a space with another player, throw one of your matches into that player's face, forcing that player to surrender to you all of the KEYS (not matches) in his inventory and forcing him to run back to his original entrance point to receive medical attention
• If you are in a space with the vault panel & have all 4 keys, open the vault
• If you are in a space with the guard, you must engage in combat. This combat is in the form of Rock, Paper, Scissors. If a RPS tie occurs, another round of RPS will commence until there is a winner.

NOTES:

• Whenever you enter a space with a safe, fellow player, guard, safety sink and/or vault panel, Ryan will immediately inform you.
• At any time, you may ask Ryan the coordinates of the space you are in.
• If a player is not present at the challenge except for emergency or other good reason (since everyone agreed on the time), or players are not trying their very best for any reason, they will be punished in a way I'll decide later.
• I recommend copying down the floor plan and adding stuff to it as we go along so you can keep track of where you, other players, the guard, safes, and vault are located as you learn their locations. Also keeping track of tried combinations would be helpful. There will be a task tracker on the site for your convenience, but there may be other things you may want to take note of that aren't on the tracker.

The guard will be a third party that has absolutely no inside information relating to the game, players, or special roles, in fact their knowledge of the game as a whole will be minimal at best.

The mission is a success if a player can acquire all 4 keys and open the vault. It is a failure if all of the players are eliminated before the vault is opened. The player who opens the vault will win the last exemption of the game.

Time: To be decided, please check forums or emailed schedule for details.

Worth: $4.00

Reward: Exemption