Gather around kids. It’s story time!! Let’s talk a little bit about a “sweet thing we’ve been doing for a year or so”; The Cup.
The “Triple-D Cup”, better known as The Cup, is the trophy that is used in what is called “The Cannonball Run”, a friendly competition between University of Toronto Engineering Society, McMaster University Engineering Society, and University of Waterloo Engineering Society. The purpose of this competition is to get to know the other EngSocs, build relations, foster spirit and community-building, and simply have a good time.
The idea for The Cup started at ESSCO AGM 2010, that’s Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario Annual General Meeting 2010, in University of Ottawa. My memory fails me here, but I think it was Spencer McEwan, a Waterloo Engineering graduate and the President of ESSCO then, who told the delegates about this sweet thing that University of Calgary and the University of Alberta do. Basically, the university that has the cup will call the other university at any time during the term and invite them to hang out and party with them by saying the keyword; “shenanigans”. At that point, the university has 4 hours to get some of its students to go all the way to the host university and have a good time. The cup is passed to the visiting university, and the whole thing is repeated a couple of weeks or months later.
Waterloo, U of T and McMaster loved the spirit behind this tradition and decided to make their own. Soon after that, the three EngSoc’s created a document called “The Gran Turismo Accord” which outlines the rules of the competition. Here are some of the key points and rules:
- The competition must be held at least once per academic term
- The keyword is “The Cup is Up”
- Once the cup is up, the contesting societies must reach the host university in less than 24 hours
- The society that reaches the host first is declared the winner. If both societies reach the host within 3 hours, they must compete for the cup. The nature of the competition is up to the discretion of the host university.
- Upon a university winning the cup, much celebration shall be had, and shenanigans may be ensued
- The cup will travel back with the winner, who will host the competition the next time
And guess what? Waterloo has the cup!! That means we are hosting the competition this term. We are not saying when, nor the nature of the competition, but we might leave a few hints lying around. So keep your eyes and ears open, because it may be coming soon.
Or not.
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