On July 30, De La Salle University’s (DLSU) Society of Young Engineers Towards Achieving Excellence (SYNTAX) hosted the final round of AGSIKAP: Tagisan ng Talino—its flagship nationwide math competition. After an elimination round held two days prior, five teams made it to the finals. These were Mixed Nuts from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Adamson University, and DLSU; PSU Pi-Rates from Pangasinan State University; Cocomelon from Bicol University; MatChElino from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD); and MAACM from UPD and DLSU.
On the board of judges for the competition were Psalm Josiah S. Tan, SYNTAX’s former vice president for creatives and the Chemical Engineering Society’s current executive vice president for internals; Civil Engineering student Japheth Jeuel M. Guico; and Jan Joshua Cruz, former SYNTAX Human Resources officer.
The nitty-gritty
The final round of AGSIKAP was a modified Wheel of Fortune setup wherein the five teams raced to attain the most points by answering a series of questions. Five categories of questions were displayed on the wheel and covered topics such as algebra, physics, analytical geometry, differential calculus, and probability.
To make the competition more exciting, the teams also had the opportunity to choose one of five power-ups: Block, to steal another team’s question; Double Time, to twice the allotted time for a question; Lucky Two, to double the number of points for a question; Snatch, to block all teams from answering a question; and Bounty Hunter, to steal points from another team. It was also highlighted that no team must have the same power-up. Mixed Nuts claimed Snatch, PSU Pi-Rates took Bounty Hunter, Cocomelon chose Lucky Two, MathChElino picked Block, and MAACM was left to take Double Time.
Game on!
Mixed Nuts kicked off the competition by correctly answering a probability question worth 400 points, putting them in the lead. PSU Pi-Rates and Cocomelon followed and were provided with physics and analytic geometry problems. However, they failed to garner points in the first round due to wrong answers. MathChElino and MAACM, on the other hand, earned 200 points from the algebra and probability categories.
The teams followed this chronological order for the rest of the competition. Mixed Nuts continued to thrive throughout the game, with the other four teams attempting to catch up. Wrong answers opened opportunities for steals while the teams strategically used power-ups.
After all 25 questions were completed, Mixed Nuts emerged victorious with a landslide win of 2,560 points over the four other teams and were awarded a P4,500 cash prize. MAACM received P3,000 after coming in second with 1,000 points, while MathChElino ended up in third place with 200 points and a cash prize of P2,500.
Certificates of appreciation were awarded to Tan, Guico, and Cruz for being judges in the event. Afterward, project head Richelle Edusada concluded AGSIKAP with her closing remarks.
