Nils Won Divisionals!!!!!

Fort Myers is Southern Division CommTech Jeopardy Champion



The Ft. Myers Ed Parsons Project ponders a question at the Commtech Jeopardy Division finals in Jacksonville.

After two days fielding questions on light wave lengths, telephone acronyms and just about every other conceivable fact on Comcast, the Fort Myers’ Ed Parsons Project won the CommTech Jeopardy Southern Division finals held in Jacksonville on Wednesday.

“Our team worked very hard and came well prepared for this competition,” said Barb Hagen, vice president and general manager for the Ft. Myers market. “We are thrilled with this win.”

Indeed, the Ft. Myers players studied for months before the event, even drilling themselves with a five-foot stack of 2400 flashcards. Six Southern Division teams competed for the division title including the Atlanta Metro Scramblers, the Houston Terminators, the South Florida Region Davie Tugboots Extreme 3.0, the Mid South Region North Alabama All Stars and the West Palm Beach Region North Triple Playerz. More than 120 Comcasters attended the competition at the Sawgrass Golf Resort in Ponte Vedra, Fl, near the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers and Houston earned a place in the final round. But in the end, Ft. Myers gained a narrow win over West Palm Beach – 8198 to 8201 -- on the most important query of the competition: Name the seven points of the Comcast Customer Guarantee.

Both West Palm Beach and Ft. Myers got the question right, but it was Ft. Myer’s point wager that edged out the West Palm system by three points.

“This game is about taking a risk to go for it all,” said Doug McMillan, senior vice president of the Coastal Region, who hosted the event. “There is no second best.”


Doug McMillan, senior vice president of the Coastal Region, welcomes Comcasters at the kickoff of Commtech Jeopardy Southern Division finals in Jacksonville.

Based on the popular television game show Jeopardy, Commtech Jeopardy pits the best of the best system techs from each region against each other in a two-day battery of questions on Comcast and the cable business.

Scott Callaway addresses the Commtech Jeopardy Southern Division finals. “Your leadership the conviction is what makes Comcast great,” he told team participants. “You are the future leaders who will lead Comcast.”

“This competition demonstrates the amazing level of dedication and knowledge of our employees,” said Scott Calloway, southern division vice president of operation. “They are the future leaders we look to to beat our competition.”

While the Southern Division title is great accomplishment, the work of the Ft. Myers team is not over. In January, they travel to Charleston, S.C., to represent the Southern Division at the national Comcast Commtech Jeopardy competition. This is the second straight year the Coastal system represented the Southern Division at nationals. Last year, Augusta won the Southern Division title.


Shown (L-R) Front row: Nils Laufer, James Grantham, DJ Simms,Tom Weisend. Back row: Ken Sapp (coach), Chuck Blaisdell (coach)Andy Schickowski. Below is the final Jeopardy question on the Comcast Customer Guarantee, which put Fort Myers over the top and locked in the win.