PHL team places 2nd in int’l web challenge

A Philippine team led by Paul Agabin, founder and CEO of the outsourcing firm Essays.ph, recently won US$5,000 for placing second in the 2014 Internet Scavenging Hunt, a worldwide contest that drew 45,000 registrants.

“We completed all tasks that we can accomplish given the resources available to us,” Agabin told GMA News Online on Monday. “Our team is composed of friends and family and we have worked together to accomplish as many tasks as we can.”

Ellen Lewis, media adviser of Freelancer.com, which organized the Internet Scavenging Hunt, told GMA News Online, “For the hunt, Freelancer.com released a list of 150 cryptic questions and challenges, which spurred thousands of teams from around the world to attempt these tasks and many more.”

Freelancer.com, the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace, gave away US$30,000 in cash prizes for the hunt.

During the two-week hunt, Lewis said the contestants submitted 16,000 entries that included videos, photos or written submissions.

“One example from this year’s challenge was to make blue breakfast. Teams submitted videos of them making blue noodles, blue eggs. Others submitted pictures of blue food they made. Judges from Freelancer will decide how much points teams will get based on their entries,” Lewis explained.

Agabin said, “Some of the challenges are really hard but we had fun completing them. Two of them are singing on top of a mountain and making our own version of an Old Spice video.”

Explaining that he was someone who was usually in his “comfort zone,” Agabin said he joined the scavenging hunt because he wanted to “try something uber crazy and adventurous.” He said the most difficult challenges they faced during the two-week hunt were “security and deadlines.”

In executing the tasks in public places for the scavenging hunt, Agabin said they often had to deal with watchful security guards.

After garnering the second top spot in the competition, Agabin said the lessons they learned were, “To think outside the box and never underestimate your competitors.”

Agabin’s Team CyberPaul lost only to Team Running Hunts from the US, which won US$20,000.

Asked what they intended to do with their US$5,000-prize, Agabin said, “We have a lot of things in our mind on where the money should go. As of now, we are assessing our needs and priorities.”

“Each member of the team will get their share of victory. As for me, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer so definitely, treatment will be our top priority,” he said.

To Filipinos who may be interested to join next year’s internet scavenging hunt, Agabin said, “It is a tough challenge. Let us show the world what Filipinos can do.”

The special category winners that received US$1,000 each were:

Best promotes charity of their choice: Team Diamond Kings (South Africa, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and India)
Best quality video that promotes their team and the Freelancer Scavenger Hunt: Team Awesome17 (Romania)
Best entry using mainstream media: GuerillaGorillas6 (Malaysia)
Entry that went viral on social media: Team Faust (Serbia & Montenegro)
Coolest celebrity endorsement: Team Running Hunts (USA, for enlisting Ron Jeremy, Penn Jillette, Carrot Top, and others)

Evan Tan, Freelancer.com’s Regional Director for Southeast Asia, said, “We wanted to connect our global community in a unique and fun way which is why we conducted the Scavenger Hunt, and seeing their entries was also a treat for us.”

Freelancer.com’s members include over 10.5 million professionals worldwide, specializing in nearly 600 fields.

Over 5.5 million projects have been posted on the site such as website development, logo design, marketing, copywriting, astrophysics, aerospace engineering and manufacturing. —KBK, GMA News