CPS Student Competes in Budweiser’s National Best Friends Competition (Pt. 1)
Best friends. Everyone has one. Someone who they share everything and anything with. Someone who is there always, no matter what. But not everyone has a group of best friends. A crew, if you will, of friends so close that they know everything about each other and could prove it in front of the country. But that’s exactly what I did, along with three of my closest friends at Budweiser’s 2nd annual Band of Buds competition.
The competition began online, with Budweiser posting video and photo challenges that we had to complete and upload, which you then got points for. Your crew was also awarded point for having fans and Facebook ‘Likes.’ At the end of that portion, the top ten teams in each of the 20 regions were awarded a spot in the regional casting call parties, which consisted of a red carpet walk, text voting, and various other games to determine the top team in each region. We ended up in 2nd place for our casting call, but luckily Budweiser chose five wild card teams from all the casting calls and The 80’s Babies were chosen for the top 25 crews in America.
The finals took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Budweiser flew each of the teams and put us up in the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Each team member was also given a $400 cash card for any extra expenses. We arrived Wednesday to a limo waiting to pick us up at the airport. Right away it was all glitz and glamor as a camera and sound crew followed and interviewed us on the drive to the hotel. As we stepped out onto a red carpet, camera men began shooting photos. Did I mention we had a Budweiser in our hand the second we sat down in the limo? That evening the welcome party took place, where each of the crews began to get a feel for everyone.
Thursday morning marked the official very early start to the competition as we boarded buses to take us to a breakfast and interview session hosted by the competition emcees, Covino and Rich from XM Radio. Afterward, we were all hoarded back on the buses, destination unknown. As we drove farther into the desert, military planes from the nearby airbase flying around, the Las Vegas Speedway began to rise. An hour later and we were all suited up, learned up on pit crew techniques, and speeding around at 180 MPH in a full on Nascar race with our professional driver. Twenty four laps, six laps for each crew member while the other three had to pit crew the car. We won our heat, and came in second overall; it was intense to say the least.
Dressing to the nines and spending lots of cash was the theme Thursday evening, as Casino Night was the second challenge in the competition. The crew with the most coin wins. Simple. Four games were played: Craps, Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette. Again, we placed well.
Friday was our day to sleep in before challenge #3. The Budweiser Run of the Buds relay race saw us in bad form. The race consisted of a mini putt golf hole, charades, wheel barrow race, bottle cap toss, and finally a foot race serving bottles of Budweiser. Despite all our preparation, we got stuck in charades.
Come Friday night,every crew knew it was time to cut the top 25 teams to the six. We drive out to the Stratosphere and waited on the deck of the bungee jump as they announced The 80’s Babies as the sixth team! After one of our crew members got to bungee jump, we had to literally sprint into our next competition: the scavenger hunt.