Posted by See Part 1 for HealthyWagers—the big daddy of them all
See Part 2 for 6% Individual Jackpot Challenges
See Part 4 for Step Challenges (coming soon)
See Part 5 for $10,000 Team Challenges (also see here for ribbons discussions and here for other supporting information)
(Hopefully you like Downfall parodies! If not, please just scroll down if you don’t share this guilty pleasure of mine)
Here we go with the description of the 6% Team Jackpot Challenge (6TJC).
What is it?
Form a team of 2-9 and lose an average of 6% or more in 12 weeks.
How often is it offered?
Generally monthly, and generally concurrent with $10,000 Team Challenges (TC).
If you join a 5-person TC with a plan to win a top-3 prize, that means you intend to lose at least 16.59% of your weight during that time. So if you have some extra money and so does at least one TC teammate, you could join a 6TJC as well and automatically pick up some profit when you complete it.
What is the fee?
$70 per player.
What are the team sizes?
Anywhere between 2 and 9 inclusive.
Do ribbons matter?
They have no effect on winnings.
What pitfalls are there?
This game is the only one in HealthyWage in which you do not control you own destiny when it comes to recovering the fee you paid.
When you sign up and pay the $70, you are at least partially reliant on your teammate or teammates to perform.
The lowest risk option is to go in with a spouse or best friend and lose 12% on your own. Then what the other person does doesn’t matter—provided that he or she does a verified weigh-in. (If the other person actually gains weight, he or she would refrain from doing a verified weigh-out; and his or her contribution to the average would be zero rather than a negative number.)
On the other hand, you are taking a significant risk when you join a team with people you find on the Internet. You can’t control them if they have real-life adverse influences. While in the TC the bet is ultimately recoverable and you can generally earn prize money for maxing out your personal ribbons (including registering 10% weight loss or more), in the 6TJC your $70 better be mad money, because one or more of your teammates can cause it to disappear forever.
If you sign up without an agreement to be on a team with anyone, lots of luck!
When are weigh-ins required?
Within the first 2 weeks of the challenge. All team members must do a verified weigh-in. If anyone does not, that team is S.O.L. because no weight loss average can be calculated.
When are weigh-outs required?
Within the last 2 weeks of the challenge.
All team members who lose weight should be weigh out. If weight drops after the weigh out but before the 12 weeks is up, you can weigh out again and overwrite the original weigh in. I did this multiple times in my challenge to ratchet my weight down and the team average as well.
If a team member gained weight over the duration of the challenge, he or she should not weigh out. A zero weight loss is better for the average than a negative number.
How much can you win?
This can vary. I would think it would vary more widely than the individual jackpots do, in part because there are fewer of them.
In the game I was in, there were 60 players, and the pot was $3,150 after Healthy Wage took its cut. There were 37 players on winning teams. When 37 is divided into $3,150 you get $85.14.
To clarify, the pot money is not first divvied up amongst the teams, and then amongst the members of each team. Instead, all players of winning teams are put into a group and counted, and then this count is divided into the pot.
There were 21 teams in the standings. Our team had the 9th best average at 6.26%. The top team was a 2-person team at 14.41%, with one player getting 16.59% (maximum that HW will count) and the other getting 12.23%.
Of the 13 teams that made it—#13 has an average of 5.97%, rounded to 6.0% for the win—there were 37 players. Seven of those weighed in at less than 6%, and another player—on our team—did not weigh in, because he had gained. All of them got paid, because their respective teammates picked up the slack.
The 8 teams that lost comprised 23 people. Only 5 of these players weighed in at over 6% weight loss. But these five did not get paid. Most of the 23 did not do a verified weigh-in, so they were counted as zero. Either they gained weight or they realized their teams were going to lose.
The top team amongst the losing 8 posted a 5.32% average. The component percentages were 8.58%, 7.31%, 6.41%, 4.98%, and -0.67%. Take that last one out and you get a 6.82% average. (Not weighing in only raises the average to 5.46%.)
What strategies are good for winning?
Quoted from the linked story:
Pick your team members well. If you don’t know them personally, see if they are heavily active in you social media groups.
Make sure you know the rules and take advantage of them–ratcheting down weigh outs, not weighing out when you gained, adjusting your team composition in the beginning when you are able to, etc.
Stay in touch with each other and have fun! It’s only $70 gone if your lose; don’t get too frustrated about it.
Links to official rules and FAQ
Coda
You can’t expect to make a lot of money in this one. If you want a good return for sustained moderate weight loss, do HealthyWagers and jackpot challenges as an individual.
If you want a team experience but don’t want to lose 1.5% a week for 12 weeks and worry about selfies and ribbons, this is for you. Being on a weight loss team can be fulfilling. Just be prepared to have to play Ghostbusters to protect your investment if your teammates are not in your meat space!
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