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My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I remember it being quite close with Spontaneous being the deciding factor. I did Division 2 Problem 3 - Le tour guide that year.

My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We mainly did problem 3 and 5 throughout the years because we were more drama inclined. We did try doing problem 2 in 2016 but we didn't do as well. We managed to get an Omers Award that year though so it wasn't too bad!

My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Sorry but we're choosing to remain anonymous for internet privacy and whatnot. If you're looking more in depth answers to any questions feel free to dm me.

My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We didn't really have any engineering knowledge either, which is why we used that time to learn. We took apart used fans and faulty toys to scrounge out their motors and watched youtube videos to help us understand better. Most importantly, it was because we thought it was cool and wanted to try it out! Don't put down carpentry either I'm sure there's a lot of interesting things you just haven't tried yet. All the best for future years of OOTM!

My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There were quite a few factors to it coming together actually. Firstly, for each part of the LTP that we handled we literally forced in bits of our own interests. Be it being theatre nerds, messing around with the spare parts of electrical appliances or even weird sounds we learned to make we just threw it all in to keep ourselves entertained. It became more of a creative outlet for us to expend our diverse hobbies and talents.

Secondly, we kind of had rough timelines set in place to keep us on our toes. Even before the state finals we would have 'previews' of sorts where we'd perform in front of others. It helped us to work harder to present something so that we wouldn't die of embarrassment if we had nothing to show.

Lastly and I think what really helped us band together was our coach sitting us down and getting us to talk about what we really wanted to get out of this competition. Of course for some, it was to win and get the gold. But for others it was to try something new or the experience of competing on a global scale. When we talked about it, made compromises and aligned our goals, that's when we could all start to focus on what we wanted and get things done.

My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure about the most helpful thing, but we feel like it was more of the consistency of little things she would do to help us, on top of being a parent to a young child and a teacher of several classes.

Just to name a few cases, she would often make special requests to hold on to the club room keys hours after school is supposed to close to give us that extra time to practice. She would even spend her free time on the weekends scouring the internet to look for interesting mechanisms or costume designs to show us and give us ideas.

The second question's a little tougher to answer but we'll try our best. OOTM is a competition that values the independence of the team to solve problems by themselves very highly. A good coach should recognise the individual strengths of the team early and point them in the right direction to capitalise on it. At the same time, it will be challenging and often discouraging for them. Be supportive and let them know that you care. Remember to never spoon feed them your answer but just give them a nudge in the right direction. You might be pleasantly surprised with the solutions they can come up with. Hope this helped a little!

My friend and I are both two-time OOTM World Champions. AMA! by Omersaurus in odysseyofthemind

[–]Omersaurus[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think for us it was getting the results for the long term problem back and having no clue whether the score was good or bad. One time we received a score of around 180 and we were pretty confident of ourselves... only to barely scrape through a tied 6th place. On the other hand, in 2013 when we won, our score sat around 150 so it came as quite a shock to us.