"Scammed!"

Today was the results announcement of the department Patent Competition. The team with the highest number of submissions by the end of Nov wins. The prize: RM3000. We won the previous round, which offered RM2000. This round, my team was engaged in a tightly contested fight with Ninja's team. Fight until lunch also skip :P In the end, we submitted 12 patents while they had 11. Hurray!

Or so we thought. Today, out of the blue came a dispute. The committee suddenly came up with another rule that in order to be counted, the submissions must have their Docket Number generated (which happens when the patent has been acknowledged by all parties). And based on that Docket count yesterday night, we 'lost' to Ninja's team 8-10! We went to check our Docket Numbers this morning. Turns out, we had all 12 generated vs Ninja's 10. So, there should not be any dispute, because either way, we win.

Not really. The committee put another rule that the Docket must have been generated by the 30th of Nov. What?! And to defuse this situation, they suggested that my team and Ninja's share the RM3000. And why? "Aiya, last time you guys won it already..." By this time, we were absolutely furious. My issue:

1. Why are more and more rules added to this competition? It's like they are trying to find ways NOT to let us win!

2. If you don't want us the previous winners to win, then just tell them upfront. All winners cannot compete in the next round. Then we wouldn't have to waste time writing those patents.

3. For me, it isn't really a problem of the money. It's the feeling of being scammed.

The final result is still not known, but clearly this totally unnecessary episode has left us feeling quite upset! :-S