University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt

The University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt (or Scav Hunt, colloquially Scav) is an annual four-day team-based scavenger hunt held at the University of Chicago from Thursday to Sunday of Mother's Day weekend in May. The list of items, usually over 300 items long, encompasses cryptograms, competitions, build challenges, a 3 course meal, and a 2,000 mile road trip. "Scav Hunt" is well known for its quirky, strange, or impossible items. Scav held the Guinness World Record for largest scavenger hunt from 2011 to 2014.

The Scavenger Hunt is held annually over four days in May, such that the final day's judging of items (known as 'judgment day') is held on Mother's Day.

"The Hunt" begins ceremoniously at midnight of the Thursday directly preceding Mother's Day weekend, with an event known as "List Release." The ceremony surrounding the unveiling of the list usually begins a few hours before midnight, as teams slowly assemble on the ground floor of Ida Noyes Hall. These teams (ranging in size from 1 to over 250 each) then participate in what has been described as collective effervescence, as they chant various team-based and humorous slogans, eventually coalescing into a repeated "we want the list". Then, at midnight, the judges (members of the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt Organizing Committee) run into the center of this gathering, and announce that year's list release challenge.

Each challenge is designed to delay teams in acquiring a paper copy of that year's list of approximately 300 items. Previous examples have included the pages of the list buried under sand at a nearby beach, team captains kidnapped and forced to transcribe items onto their bodies with Sharpies, and copies of the list suspended from a wall six feet high ten feet away from a team representative, because "the floor is lava." Once a team has obtained the list, they travel back to their headquarters (usually a dorm lounge or apartment living room) to begin working on the list of items. Several hours after the release of the list the judges publish it online (usually around 3:00 A.M. CST on the Thursday of the Hunt), thus making it available for teams unable to attend "List Release."

The 2015 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt List

...
Wikipedia