After claiming our sixth Ballhype Golden Picks contest victory last week, we offered up our spoils, a free Ballhype t-shirt, to any site member who posted their user name, their favorite team, and their reason why they best deserved to wear the Blue and Orange colors of the Web's hottest social network centered around sports.We had four entries, from "dharr18", "McLovin", "Alan1066", and "Jason", the site's co-founder.
With the midnight September 1 deadline having passed, it was time to pick a winner!
Step 1: Create The Name Cards
I took some nearby construction paper (ooh, pink - pretty!) and wrote the names of the four entrants in equal sized squares (as pictured below).
The Four Entrants: Click for Larger Image
Step 2: Add Some Incentive to the Judge
As I already promised I wouldn't make the selection, I got four pieces of dog kibble, and assigned one piece each to the four entrants (as pictured below). As our aging hound is still scent-oriented and food mad, this made sense.
Four Small Treats: Click for Larger Image
Step 3: The Selection Process
Kristine took Molly, the beagle, out of the room, while I took the four squares and placed them on the floor, hiding the pieces of kibble. The squares were placed in equidistant areas from where Molly would be emerging, as to not curry favor with one over another.
Step 4: Molly Picks a Winner
With the squares in place, Molly darted out, but first headed to her food dish. Finding nothing, she came back to the living room, and ran by "McLovin"'s square, and missed it entirely. We saw her then sniff at the "Dharr18" square, and turn away, eventually heading to "Alan1066", turning it over and eating the kibble. A winner! Or so we thought... we then looked back and found the "Dharr18" square was missing its kibble. Somehow, she had eaten it without moving the square, and in fact, "Dharr18" was our winner! You can see Molly at Alan1066's square, with a little pink showing below.
Our Humble Judge: Click for Larger Image
Should we get the opportunity to win again sometime, a less likely event with baseball giving way to college football, I'd like to offer this contest again, just maybe with some more entrants. So congratulations to Dharr18. Erin should be in touch with you shortly to claim your prize! We hope to also soon see you win the Golden Picks contest legitimately in the near future!