Moosehead Challenge

Hi Challengers! Wow, there are a lot of you this year.

Your official welcome packets will be arriving shortly, via email. In the meantime, The Great Moose himself has awoken & begun tweeting his daily challenges @thegreatmoose on Twitter, as well as the MHC homepage itself.

Don’t panic if you get a weird broken internet error when visiting this site – we haven’t been hacked, we’re just offline. Our webhost has been experiencing an unusually high amount of downtime this week, which people think has something to do with the internet craziness currently happening in Egypt. (I wish I was kidding.)

But: have no fear, keep taking those pictures, and bookmark http://twitter.com/thegreatmoose just in case.

On behalf of the entire MHC steering committee, we look forward to kicking your ass this year.

Cheers,
Moosemaster D

Dear friend,

You are cordially invited to join 86% of the world’s elite for the Eleventh Annual Moosehead Challenge, which kicks off Tuesday, February 1 at the time and place of your choosing.

If you’ve never done an MHC or are straddling the fence of your life, wondering if this is the right challenge for you, here’s the executive summary, with some important changes from previous years that should have you going “Damn:”

- It’s a month-long, share-and-vote photo contest, wherein teams and individuals submit pictures of themselves drinking Moosehead beer in unique locations. This is honestly a thousand times more exciting than it sounds. (Past winners can be viewed here.)

- We encourage weekend warriors to participate alongside the hardcore competitors. There are enough of the latter to keep league play going strong; what we want more of are the people who duck in for a day or two each week and blow our minds with their sheer moositude.

- It’s worth emphasizing that, while this is technically a monthlong drinking contest, we’re really only talking one beer a day on the days you want to participate. This meshes well with a high-functioning adult lifestyle. It arguably makes it function even higher, as you’re no longer spending February staring at the wall muttering “When in God’s name is this month going to be over.”

- The website now features *full* smartphone integration, which means you can upload and caption pictures directly from your iPhone/Droid/whatever. Which is huge.

For more information, including a 12 page rulebook that rivals the Magna Carta in elegance and clarity, point your internet at:

http://www.mooseheadchallenge.com

Registration is officially open through Saturday 1/29, so register via our signup page with your preferred moose/herd name and we’ll get you all set up and ready to hit the ground running.

May the Antler shine favorably upon you.

Cheers,
Dan and Dave
MHC Steering Committee
Former Olympic Hopefuls

 /\/\__/\_/\      /\_/\__/\/\
 \          \____/          /
  '----_____       ____----'
            | 0 0  \_
            |
          _/     /\
         /o)  (o/l \_
         \=====//

Good news! Posting from an iPhone has gotten way easier since last year, so if that’s what you’re using, skip ahead to Step 8. (Sorry Androids & Blackberriers.)

Otherwise, read on for instructions on how to upload pictures from your computer.

Dear friends,

You are cordially invited to join 86% of the world’s elite for the Tenth Annual Moosehead Challenge, which kicks off Monday, February 1 at the time and place of your choosing.

If you’ve never done an MHC or are straddling the fence of your life, wondering if this is the right challenge for you, here’s the executive summary, with some important changes from previous years that should have you going “Damn:”*

- It’s a month-long, share-and-vote photo contest, wherein teams and individuals submit pictures of themselves drinking Moosehead beer in unique locations. This is honestly a thousand times more exciting than it sounds. (Past winners can be viewed here.)

- We encourage weekend warriors to participate alongside the hardcore competitors. There are enough of the latter to keep league play going strong; what we want more of are the people who duck in for a day or two each week and blow our minds with their sheer moositude.

- It’s worth emphasizing that, while this is technically a monthlong drinking contest, we’re really only talking one beer a day on the days you want to participate. This meshes well with a high-functioning adult lifestyle. It arguably makes it function even higher, as you’re no longer spending February staring at the wall muttering “When in God’s name is this month going to be over.”

- The website now features *full* smartphone integration, which means you can upload and caption pictures directly from your iPhone/Droid/whatever. Which is huge.

For more information, including a 12 page rulebook that rivals the Magna Carta in elegance and clarity, point your internet at:

http://www.mooseheadchallenge.com

Registration is officially open through Friday 1/29, so register via our signup page with your preferred moose/herd name and we’ll get you all set up and ready to hit the ground running.

May the Antler shine favorably upon you.

Cheers,
Dan and Dave
MHC Steering Committee
Former Olympic Hopefuls

 /\/\__/\_/\      /\_/\__/\/\
 \          \____/          /
  '----_____       ____----'
            | 0 0  \_
            |
          _/     /\
         /o)  (o/l \_
         \=====//

*apologies to Strunk and White for this whole sentence.

With teams competing from Thailand, Indonesia, Hawaii, and the good ol’ US of A, and with some of the most creative pictures we’ve ever seen, MHC ’09 has forever left its mark in the annals of Moosen lore. Gaze upon your glory here with the Best Pictures of MHC ’09.

The Moose Challenge Of The Day is a randomly generated noun that earns you +1 Bonus Point if it shows up anywhere in that day’s picture.

February 1: elevator
February 2: snobbery
February 3: mousse
February 4: degeneracy
February 5: hoosegow
February 6: mana
February 7: knobkerry

February 8: core
February 9: innovation
February 10: ravine
February 11: paroxysm
February 12: comber
February 13: topi
February 14: cohobator

February 15: fire
February 16: barrel
February 17: booster
February 18: steeplejack
February 19: prosthesis
February 20: artiodactyl
February 21: espantoon

February 22: reflection
February 23: injustice
February 24: omen
February 25: goldbricking
February 26: dazzler
February 27: entasis
February 28: aeromancer

UPDATE: In an unprecedented move, the MHC Steering Committee has added the following addendum to the 2009 rulebook: Any competitor who is unable or unwilling to drink Moosehead for the duration of the challenge may pick their own substitute brand (hereafter, “The Moostitute”). There is a 20 point penalty for this, and competitors must stick to their Moostitute exclusively for the duration of the Challenge – no switching beers mid-game.

Will this ruin the sport? Or save it? Only time will tell. For now, pick your poison and GET READY.

—-

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that the MHC Steering Committee invites you to participate in The Ninth Annual Moosehead Challenge. Returning competitors, welcome home. New recruits, check out our FAQ and last year’s best pictures.

The rules:

1. Drink one bottle of Moosehead lager every day for the month of February.
2. Take pictures of yourself doing this.
3. Upload your pictures to our gallery-which-is-really-a-forum.
4. Vote for your favorite pictures when asked to do so.
5. Win incredible prizes and/or honor.

Fiendishly simple…yet fiendishly complex.

Think you have what it takes? Send us an email at 2009 [at] mooseheadchallenge [dot] com and we’ll add you to this year’s roster.

Cheers,
Dan and Dave
MHC Steering Committee
Former Olympic Hopefuls

 /\/\__/\_/\      /\_/\__/\/\
 \          \____/          /
  '----_____       ____----'
            | 0 0  \_
            |
          _/     /\
         /o)  (o/l \_
         \=====//

PS: The Portland area kickoff party kicks off at 9pm January 31, location TBA. Be there.

Here they are! Compiled for your perusal: the Best of the Best of the MHC 2008.

The Moose Challenge Of The Day is a randomly generated noun that earns you +1 Bonus Point if it shows up anywhere in that day’s picture.

February 1: depth
February 2: trunk
February 3: crag
February 4: concomitant
February 5: vorticity
February 6: pavis
February 7: paralyzant

February 8: burying
February 9: don
February 10 deer
February 11: bulwark
February 12: luxuriation
February 13: bourn
February 14: ejusd

February 15: flashing
February 16: daylight
February 17: meteor
February 18: pulchritude
February 19: toyshop
February 20: botanomancy
February 21: rolypoliness

February 22: opposite
February 23: plant
February 24: hazing
February 25: nonmember
February 26: mistranslation
February 27: antineutrino
February 28: callithump

You drank. You photographed. You drank some more. For thirty-one consecutive days the Moose consumed your life. And in return, you consumed the Moose. Well done. However, all good things must come to an end and, in turn, so has the 2007 Moosehead Challenge. Thank you to all the noble bucks and buckettes who made this year such an unexpected success. We hope you’ve learned a little something along the way.

Final Scores have been posted on the Rankings page. There’s even detailed spreadsheets of how each team did. Print them out and hang them on your wall! And for those who earned prizes, they will be coming to you in the next few weeks. Truly, you’ve earned them.

Please hit us back with your comments and suggestions for next year! This year was something of a beta run, so your feedback is incredibly important in shaping the MHC’s future. What was lame? What was awesome? The choice is YOURS.

Thanks again. May the Moose always be with you.

The Moose Juice flowed true this year. Check out the top rated pictures of 2007!

March 1: pack
March 2: horn
March 3: trickle
March 4: exhibitionist
March 5: viking
March 6: triskelion
March 7: Angevine

March 8: package
March 9: railroad
March 10: boating
March 11: copycat
March 12: obscurantist
March 13: curch
March 14: jaculus

March 15: thousand
March 16: tunnel
March 17: weaponry
March 18: squaw
March 19: slavishness
March 20: nutlet
March 21: dortiness

March 22: audience
March 23: legend
March 24: puppet
March 25: skywriting
March 26: jarful
March 27: jink
March 28: suplex