-snip my Tournament of Minds sob story-

> that sounds exactly like Oddyssey (Odyssey? Oddysey? i can never spell that) of the Mind here
> in the US.

I think the Odyssey of the Mind was the inspiration.

> I was in that 4 times, but the farthest i ever got was *sigh* city wides. oh well. that's because
> there are some schools that have done it for yeeeears so they know exactly what to do and stuff.

All the years I was in it, competition started at the State level. First year I was in it (first year it was run in Australia), my team came third in the state, thanks in no small part to my scriptwriting skills.

Pa"oh, and the technical and problem-solving abilities of everyone else in the team :)"ul