There was a game show on Amazo'n Prime where contestants are competing for $5M. I haven't been here too long but my hunch is that you guys are some of the brighter folks that I know and would like to hear your thoughts on the following:
One of the challenges to whittle down competitors was that a team of 50 was up against another team of 50, and the challenge is to end up with less people than the other team, via team members leaving. The catch was that players had to voluntarily leave. The other catch is you do not know how many players from the other team are leaving. A third factor was that the opposing teams could call each other from a 1-person telephone booth. There was 30 minutes to decide who leaves, and at the end a count of the team members will determine who wins.
Is there any way to increase the odds of your team winning, as well as maximize your chances of staying? Assume that none of the team members on your team are willing to leave (because they are motivated to stay & win the prize) and because of that you are guaranteed to lose if you don't think of something.
My two thoughts:
One of the challenges to whittle down competitors was that a team of 50 was up against another team of 50, and the challenge is to end up with less people than the other team, via team members leaving. The catch was that players had to voluntarily leave. The other catch is you do not know how many players from the other team are leaving. A third factor was that the opposing teams could call each other from a 1-person telephone booth. There was 30 minutes to decide who leaves, and at the end a count of the team members will determine who wins.
Is there any way to increase the odds of your team winning, as well as maximize your chances of staying? Assume that none of the team members on your team are willing to leave (because they are motivated to stay & win the prize) and because of that you are guaranteed to lose if you don't think of something.
In the show both teams relied on volunteers. I think 3 left from one group and 4 left from the other group. This is clearly not optimal because you're literally leaving it up to chance IMO
My two thoughts:
Have players play rock paper scissors, with only the players that lose having to leave (ties can stay). This ensures that everyone on the team has a 2/3 chance of staying and also ensures that ~17 people will leave, which will beat any "volunteer" strategy. Might seem like a reasonable alternative to the stubborn people who refuse to leave but also realize that they will 100% lose if they leave it up to chance/volunteers). Also, for the memes, with the phone tell the other team that you've sent out 10 people and that they're going to lose, just to eliminate even more competition.
Go in telephone booth. Call the other team, put phone on but put hand on speaker so they don't hear, and say that we're eliminating 25 players & wish them good luck. Your team will now hate you because they believe they have to send 25 (or more players) out, and they can't call the other team because you are in the phone booth (and you won't leave it), so it's literally they send out 25 players or lose. Downside is nobody on your team may leave out of spite, and you'll be a target for the rest of the show.
