Two e-cards

[NeilC]

Neil, you do seemed to have spent a lot of time thinking of all the different ways of cheating. Is there any reason for this?

Beats marking end of term essays.

[SLOWGeek]

For a few I could re-program the splits on your SI Card in the car-park before download... (organisers never have the time to check the boxes themselves)

[Guest]

Take a spare Start box and punch it a minute after the start (depending on the length of the first leg).

In relays, discuss your course with a later leg runner.

In long relays (eg Harvester) run more than one leg. (And to be really devious, takeover from your weaker runner just after the start, and swap back again just before the finish)

In team competitions, (eg CSC) swap e-cards after the start with a club-mate if that is likely to improve the club score, swapping back before download.

[NeilC]

For a few I could re-program the splits on your SI Card in the car-park before download... (organisers never have the time to check the boxes themselves)

Why bother re-programming when you can run the entire course from the comfort of your car. The hard bit is choosing a split time for each leg that will give you a good time without looking too suspicious on Winsplits.

[PeterG]

Write an email virus that alters the SI software to give you faster splits by around 20% than every other runner then set it loose on the internet

[Ed]

do some training?

nah, stupid idea. it'ld never work.

[Adventure Racer]

Thanks for all the tips guys

(on the basis that hacking the SI software sounds a lot easier to me than improving my orienteering!)

[FatBoy]

do some training?

I always thought that was cheating! Everybody should turn up unfit and hungover to provide a level playing field.

[badger]

* Insert G joke here *

[J.Tullster]

*insert song here*

[SLOWGeek]

The hard bit is choosing a split time for each leg that will give you a good time without looking too suspicious on Winsplits.

I normally use someone elses splits for this; using the bit of paper they get at download. Just reduce the each leg by 10%.

[SLOWGeek]

Not cheating strictly but we were wondering about avoiding EOD queues and getting a free run...

The idea here is don't bother entering the event... just turn up on the day, go to the start, claim to be EOD, pick up a map, have a nice run, go home.

Doesn't get you in the results but saves all the hastle of entering or paying; even saves having to go to download and with the right technology (i.e. a SI Master Unit) you can print your own splits at home.

[Adventure Racer]

...and worries event organisors

http://www.nopesport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4995

[graeme]

The idea here is don't bother entering the event... just turn up on the day, go to the start, claim to be EOD, pick up a map, have a nice run, go home.

..and of course steal a car so you don't even have to pay for transport. Nobody prosecutes theft any more.

Graeme

[Guest88]

More cheats - go for runs in an embargoed area prior to a major event, hide a control if you are having a bad run to get the course DQ-ed (obviously not one you have just punched).

Cheating in chess....another good example (which has been tried, I believe), is either to secrete a small but powerful computer about the body, or have a radio/wireless link to a powerful computer in a nearby location. You furtively transmit the opponents move to your computer. Computer transmits your move back to your wristwatch display.

Maybe a secretive computer/gprs system could help in orienteering as well. Scan in the map/course on the way to control one. Computer tells you which way to go to find the controls, and analyses the paths and contours to give you the fastest route - without even having to worry about using navigable routes with attack points as the gprs will make sure you find the control.

More practically....Graeme's useful analysis on following would seem to suggest that top orienteers would get faster times if they form factions and then if they are ahead or behind one of their faction members in a world champs classic final, the first runner to start would wait for the second runner at a short distance from the start. They then run together - giving them both a faster overall time. (It would even out over time as to whether you were the first or second runner in such a pack.)