114 replies to this topic

[Nich337]

I think this is a topic that warrants its own thread--after all, there are a ton of different kinds of competitions on Big Brother. There's HOH, the Veto (regular, gold, diamond, etc), food & luxury competitions, and possibly a few more.

I'm not a fan of most of the competitions, and they tend to get pretty repetitive with the HOHs in particular, which makes sense since most of them have to fit in a pretty tight time limit. They do, however, occasionally come up with some great ones, like the BB3 sponge-soak food comp. Easily one of the funniest moments of BB, and I think I'm going to go rent the DVD just to watch it. From Miss Alli's recap of that episode:

Ah, people in funny costumes falling down. What a cheap date I am.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up my feelings about it.

[Mekias]

My opinion is that they need to pull out all the stops and make every single competition hard and torturous. No more of this crappy question & answer stuff (unless it's a question like "who's the most repulsive houseguest".) Bottom line, this is allstars. Every one of them have done this game before and won't be broken easily. That means no crying (unless Bunky's there) and no nervous breakdowns. They've really got to torture these hamsters or else it'll be boring.

[swsa]

I'm a fan of the ones that allow them to gang up on each other, work together, etc. The Chess Veto competition last season, where they were able to knock out Ivette and Maggie and then basically give the veto to James, or the TV Veto one, where they could work in pairs and only concentrate on one person's television or even sabotage someone else's effort. I'm not a Maggie fan, but I loved when she stopped working on her tv and instead aimed for James' to shut it off. Even the dull quiz show HOH's are more fun if they're allowed to knock someone out when they get a right answer.

And that's my suggestion for this season...better HoH comps. Seriously, the majority of them are either deathly dull or take virtually no skill or intelligence. I know that they're live and they want to make sure nothing goes wrong, but man, I'd rather have them on an hour delay if that would give the producers more leeway to find more exciting competitions where the wins felt earned and not like a total crapshoot.

[Nich337]

The luck-based ones ("Who can get the ball closest to the hole/edge/line") usually annoy me because the most useless players tend to win them.

Agreed. See: Chiara, Jee, Maggie.

[evil jesus]

Does the bowling one count? I remember Howie say he was worried about Beau's mad bowling skills when they were practicing. In the real competition Beau was in the lead until Howie made his rolls and won HoH.

[False Dmitri]

They can realistically only do a couple a season, but I like the all night endurance challenges. They are fair, show who really wants to win, and sometimes lead to interesting cross-alliance side deals among the last few competitors (unless Jenn's screwing over Kayser put an end to that for all time).

My favorite of all time was from BB1, where they put about 50 pugs in the backyard and the goal was to find the house dog Pugita. This was basically a luck competition and wouldn't have been good for later season's HoH or Veto contests, but for a simple reward or luxury challenge it was great. The dogs were going hyper with so many peers to play with and the HGs were loving it.

[Way Wes Jr]

False Dmitri

but I like the all night endurance challenges. They are fair, show who really wants to win, and sometimes lead to interesting cross-alliance side deals among the last few competitors (unless Jenn's screwing over Kayser put an end to that for all time).

I think the nail, she was hit squarely on the head. In fact, forget cross-alliance deals as well; J-Ho's move (and wink) may have well turned all of the endurance challenges into me-first affairs.

Damn, J-Ho has left a positive legacy (if it works out that way.)

[bmb654]

False Dmitri, I liked the S1 challenges too. I remember that they had some longer challenges--like the Tour de Big Brother, where all the HGs had to take turns riding an exercise bike for the same distance as the Tour de France, a giant puzzle, and the dominos. There was one that involved dancing somehow, too...anyway, they seemed more like actual games people would play, and it was interesting to check on the progress of a challenge over the course of a few days. I've been getting a weensy bit irritated with the challenges that are more about idiotic costumes or gimmicky-looking contraptions that we've been seeing lately.

[CitizenKang]

My puny brain can only recall comps from BB6 at the moment. One of my favorites was the chess competition, since that one required intelligence or at least some passing familiarity with how chess works. "Chess champion" Maggie got shot down by Kaysar and his alliance, resulting in the classic "I've sealed your partner's fate" line by Kaysar and providing one of the high moments for the Sov6.

My other favorite comp was the one where all the faces of the houseguests were mixed up and you had to guess which features belonged to which houseguest. A few of the facial combinations made for some ugly faces! Some of the nerd herd who thought they were so observant about people failed horribly at this challenge, while "shallow" Janelle kicked butt.

[evil jesus]

There was one competition last season which really pissed me off. It was a POV competition in which the contestants had to dive into a pool, remove these little floating heads from a cable, and drop them in a box with each head's secret partner. James (who was playing for Beau) won it by a mere four seconds over Janelle. However, he dropped them all into the box, cables and all, which was against the rules of the competition. (I'm sure the Sovs didn't know it at the time because Maggie was always hiding the rules from them). The producers let it go, and it was right there that they threw the rest of the game to the Nerd Herd. Rachel had proven herself a strong competitor in the HoH competitions, but because they erroneously awarded POV to James, she was evicted. Where the hell were Arnold & Alison's brains? And after that, the remaining competitions favored Nerd Herders because they asked personal questions about other contestants. I hate those types of quiz competitions.

[HellfireClubGuy]

I really hope they bring the Food and Luxury competitions, they had it for the first half last year and then they stopped doing it. I realize that perhaps all the drama that was going on made them not concentrate on such trivial matters, but these people should work for what they eat!

And Juli said that the food penalty which has always been Peanut Butter and Jelly will be taken up a notch. What could possibly be even worse?

[Jumpermuffin]

I hope it's peanut butter and jelly.....sans bread.

[SK03]

I had the exact feelings that you had evil, but James won that one. Big Brother ruled that Janelle jumped in the pool at the wrong spot - a step or two beyond the carpeted jump in area. I guess BB could have DQ'ed both and allowed someone else the win. Would it have been Rachel? I know it wasn't "Clumsy" April.

[Packrat87]

I really hope they bring the Food and Luxury competitions, they had it for the first half last year and then they stopped doing it.

I thought they continued those competitions but it was not shown on television anymore but on the livefeeds...because it would be pointless to have Peanut and Jelly as punishment.

I also liked the chess Veto competition where they ganged up to eliminate Maggie.

They've have shown alot of house members teaching others how to dance. Maybe Big Brother all stars should have a danceoff competition, a giant Dance dance Revolution à la Big Brother style or an allnighter dancing endurance competition.

Edited by Packrat87, Jun 26, 2006 @ 6:27 PM.

[evil jesus]

I had the exact feelings that you had evil, but James won that one. Big Brother ruled that Janelle jumped in the pool at the wrong spot - a step or two beyond the carpeted jump in area. I guess BB could have DQ'ed both and allowed someone else the win. Would it have been Rachel? I know it wasn't "Clumsy" April.

I believe you, but I also believe that's something to producers made up to cover their mistake. If the jump point was so important, than I expect all of the stairs were also important. But virtually everyone was climbing those things from the side and jumping down off them.

Oh and third place was Howie. Rachel didn't do too well because she was distracted by a potential wardrobe malfunction. She should've done it topless.

Edited by evil jesus, Jun 26, 2006 @ 11:12 PM.

[Bobbalouie78]

My favourites are the HOH endurance competitions. The live feed reports keep coming in, and you can get spoilers about the winner. Although if I didn't have access to live feed reports, I would hate them, because i hate cliffhangers.

[ManeandTail]

Perhaps as a food punishment.. they could make it crunchy peanut butter..


There are some challenges I like more than others.. I think the endurance ones are great. I think they are pretty fair to either sex/physical ability etc etc.. all except for the dumb walk til you drop on a wheel type challenge last year that clearly favored the HG who's in better shape. Standing there holding a button down was a better option.

Janelle spent a great deal of time last year reminding us all that she had the show memorized. She knew how to dress for each comp. and pretty much what it would be. I have to think that all the HGs will be spending the next week studying the tapes as well. To this end, I really hope that the entire show is tipped on its side. Have nothing be the same.

and pleassssssse change the veto comp to elliminate backdooring.

[Deuce5000]

the dumb walk til you drop on a wheel type challenge last year that clearly favored the HG who's in better shape.

I actually don't think that there are enough challenges that test athletic ability or physical stamina. Too many of the HoH competitions that claim to be a test of knowledge or smarts are just random tests of people's ability to remember random stuff about competitions or how many mirrors are in a certain room.

I imagine that there will be at least one or two competitions this year that involve remembering facts about the previous seasons, winners, etc. That might be fun to watch.

[swsa]

Well, and plus that endurance competition really wasn't just about who was in the best shape. I don't think anyone had Ivette pegged as the most in-shape person in that house. Janelle had a better challenge record and Maggie was the one who worked out constantly. I actually loved that challenge just because it was so difficult. I think the whole competition only took like 4 hours, which considering the earlier endurance comp that season went on overnight, tells you how hard it was. And in the end, I think all of their times were within like 20 minutes of each other, weren't they? So, it's not like anyone was hugely outmatched there.

[ManeandTail]

I guess the reason I dont like those walk til you drop type comps.. is because I'm sick of seeing bathing beauties in the house. I'd for once like to see a size 14+ female in there or another guy with a beer belly. In that case, I would rather a 'who can touch a piece of ice longer' .. than I would a 'who can hop on one foot longer' type contest. For fairness sake.

Janelle starting her period that day went a long way to her 'slipping' off the wheel. But again.. picture someone who looks like Roseanne Barr trying it. Not a pretty picture to begin with.. and no way that body type would outlast the daily exerciser.

I like the puzzle type games.. and the memory ones too. Not so fond of the relay race type crawl through a maze of ropes over the jungle gym bars carrying a teaspoon of water ones.

[Genius]

I kind of thought the opening HoH comptetition was semi-clever, what with the "falling stars" and the knocking someone off their pedestal. But I wish we could have seen how the two halves were chosen. If it was a random draw, Julie should have said that.

Edited by Genius, Jul 10, 2006 @ 11:00 AM.

[Way Wes Jr]

Veto Competition 2006 07 11 : Big Brother Dump

And the word "dump" has a couple of meanings here. A basic "find the hidden object(s)" scramble with an unnecessary Fear Factor, pour crap on the contestants element.

(1) I was appalled at the PB&J sandwich dump. Not to go all "there are children starving in Africa," but, there are children starving in Africa!

(2) As I said above, the dump on the contestants bit was unnecessary, and had NO effect on the competition.

(3) As always, the rules (to the viewers) seemed incomplete. The players had to take the veto and place it their rack before they could look for another, but could they give another player a found veto? If they couldn't *give* another a veto, could they throw it at someone’s feet? (Janelle found her fifth (of six) veto immediately as she left her dumpster.)

Add-> There are a couple of comments in the episode thread that mention that Janelle's good luck was probably due to her finding two veto's, and dropping one in the "find stuff" zone close to her dumpster. With Will calling out competitors names every time he spotted a veto in their hands, it wouldn't have been easy to assist each other. (Good strategery there Dr. Will if that was your plan.)

Edited by Way Wes Jr, Jul 12, 2006 @ 4:05 PM.

[I Rock Steady]

Good question Wes because I heard on the feeds Jase said something about Alison trying to rip something from his hands (a veto?). I don't remember what he said exactly but when I was listening to them talk about, I got the impression it was a veto where people would be wrestling/tackling each other.

They probably edit the reading of the rules so it only pertains to what we'll be shown in order to cut down on the time and boredom of hearing them read.

[Way Wes Jr]

HoH Competition 2006 07 13 : Alison Rules

Standard HoH quiz. Each eligible hamster in a semi-isolation cubby, using a True-False spinner to answer the question, until there can be only one. (Decapitations as eliminations, if ever there was a season, or a contestant...)

The twist? Alison answered the questions during the commercial break, and the hamsters have to guess what Alison was thinking. (Shudder) It looks like we are going to head to the usual white-board tiebreak, with almost all the hamsters, when, "True or False, the houseguest Alison saw as her biggest threat coming into the house was Erika," <Answer, True,> clears out everyone but Kaysar and Nik. Kaysar eventually winning on a Toilet + Toothbrush question.

While I can logic out how Erika could have been the correct answer, (coming into the house, Erika could have had a vendetta, and thus was a threat,) methinks Alison was messing with the hamsters on that one.

[annex]

While I can logic out how Erika could have been the correct answer, (coming into the house, Erika could have had a vendetta, and thus was a threat,) methinks Alison was messing with the hamsters on that one.

I think it was a pathetic attempt to try to get a message to the rest of the Hamsters that Erika is a threat. She has to know that Erika was one of the ringleaders in getting the rest of the house to change their votes from Dani to her, and probably wanted to see if she could get the house to associate the word "threat" with "Erika." Doubtful that it will work, though.