Welcome to the GEOVISION Challenge! I have been trying to figure out a way to make an interesting, unique twist on the "go to another country" type challenges. Ultimately, I decided to smash my love of Geocaching and Eurovision together into this Frankenstein's monster of a cache.
What is Eurovision?
This international music competition started back in 1956 as a radio program. The competition was one of many projects with the goal of uniting the continent after two world wars. It was also a way to test the ability to simultaneously broadcast across a continent. From those humble beginnings at a Swiss ski lodge, one of the biggest television spectacles in the world was born and would go on to launch the careers of household names like Celine Dion and ABBA.
That’s right Canadian Celine Dion is a Eurovision champion. She competed in 1988 under the flag of Switzerland with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" (written by Swiss lyracist Nella Martinetti and composer Atilla Şereftuğ). She managed a score of 137 points and won the trophy by a single point! Who ever said one vote doesn’t matter?
Generally, this is how the contest works (there are always exceptions and caviats)
- Any public broadcaster that is a full European Broadcasting Union (EBU) can submit a song to represent their country (the number of countries varies by year)
- They don’t have to be European (i.e. Australia competes in the competition despite being on the other end of the world and Canada will debut in 2027)
- All songs are randomly placed in two semi finals to compete for spots in the Grand Final
- The winner of the previous year and the “Big Five” countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain & United Kingdom) automatically qualify for the Final
- You can't vote for your own country!!
So how do I win?
Assuming you qualify for the Grand Final, you are going to have to preform your heart out to convince a lot of people that your song is the best.
- National Juries: Every country that submitted a song forms a jury of musical experts to rate their top 10 songs. They can’t vote for their own country (Juries count for 49% of points)
- Televote: The public get to weigh in by voting from home after all songs are performed. Every country gets a set of points to distribute based on popular vote. You can’t vote for your own country! As of 2023, viewers from a country not competing join the “rest of the world” vote (Televote counts for 51% of points)
The unique point system
- Deux Point! If you come in first with a country (jury or televote) you get 12 points! The biggest honour!
- 10 points go to the song in 2nd place
- Remaining top 10 receives 8 points to 1 point in descending order.
The song with the most points at the end of the night wins! You will have to show off your technical abilities to impress the juries and be popular with the people to take the televote.
Summary of how the Geovision Challenge works
- You need to score 137 points to qualify (Celine Dion’s magic number)
- All past finds count
- You score points based on countries you have geocached in
- Finds in Canada do not count for your Jury or Televote scores
- Every other country recognized in Project-GC can be used.
- How you earn points:
Jury Score (You can earn up to 12 points per country, excluding Canada)
- 1 point for every find up to a maximum of 6 points (any type)
- 6 points for finding an earth cache
Televote Score (You can earn up to 12 points per country, excluding Canada)
- 6 points for finding a virtual
- 6 points for attending an event
Rest of the World Score (Max 12 points for worldwide total)
- You earn 1 point for every webcam up to a maximum of 12 points (Canadian webcams do count towards your total)
Big 5 Bonus (12 points)
- You earn a bonus 12 points if you have found Geocaching HQ
Examples:
I have found 17 caches in Bulgaria (4 earth caches, 3 virtuals and 1 event) therefore I get the maximum 6 points for total finds, 6 points for an earth cache, 6 points for a virtual and 6 points for an event. Earning the maximum 24 points from Bulgaria.
Meanwhile in Switzerland I have 4 finds (1 earth cache and 1 virtual) which would earn me 4 points from total finds, 6 for earth cache and 6 points for a virtual. Earning 18 points from Switzerland.
For “Rest of the world” I have found 20 webcams, that earns the maximum 12 points
You can also just use the Challenge Checker below
Feel free to sign the logbook before you qualify for the challenge, but make sure you post it as a note only. You need to win the contest before you can claim the find! I will delete find logs that do not complete the challenge.
Best of luck on your quest to become Geovision Champion!