The first & epic catchathon - full report!

by Egle (seplute)

Date: July 22, 2017
Catching START: 16:45 UTC
Catching FINISH: 17:45 UTC
Duration: 1 hour

Teams: 18Countries: 13Continents: 6
Total vessels annotated: 9973NEW one-hour record!
Real vessels annotated: 4311

Research question: Link between high fat diet & stalls in the brain of mice (read more here)
Equivalent lab research achieved: up to 1 week

Worldwide:

Thanks again to everyone who joined our FIRST ever Catchathon & made it an epic event that it was!

We're here to bring you the final leaderboards, and - most importantly, teams' best moments & pictures from the event!

Winning teams by points:
🏅GOLD: University of Florida 🏅SILVER: Sopaipa 🏅BRONZE: Science Soup
Winning teams by annotations:
🏅GOLD: Sopaipa 🏅SILVER: University of Florida 🏅BRONZE: Science Soup
TOP Catchers:
Teams said:

Gracias por la invitaciòn, fue un gusto poder colaborar.Alz Voluntarios ES (San Salvador, El Salvador)


PepeTeam, lead by Jaume Piera, gained most annotations per member! Jaume said:

The name of PepeTeam is in honor of my father, Josep Piera, who died a few years ago because of Alzheimer's disease. In Spain the people with the name of José (Josep in Catalan) are called familiarly "Pepe".PepeTeam (Barcelona, Catalonia)

Science Soup from Vilnius, Lithuania, won both bronze "medals"! Here's what they said:

Despite connection problems, it was good fun!! The team cared about nothing more than to beat the Kaunas* team, and kept shouting "Kaunas is catching up with us!!", and only competed with them 😂😂😂Science Soup (Vilnius, Lithuania)
* Vilnius & Kaunas are ancient rival cities in Lithuania!!

Some of the Science Soup's members (who are mostly the team of "Mokslo sriuba" science popularization show, "Science soup" in English) played from Paris! Apparently, Monika & Laurynas, team members who are based there, were really into the game too, kept encouraging each other, and therefore both ended up in catchers TOP 10! Way to go Science soup !!

Live moments from #catchathon in Vilnius, Lithuania.Team "Science Soup" - @mokslo_sriuba won 3rd place 🎉🎊 #citizenscience #StallCathers #mokslosriuba #eyesonalz #playing #game #science #vilnius #vu #alzheimer

A post shared by EyesOnALZ (@eyesonalz) on

The team in Kaunas - Kaunas Makerspace - in turn were happy to finish in "fourth & a half" place 😂 They took 4th place in points, and 5th in annotations. Kaunas pushed hard to catch up with Vilnius, but it seems they weren't as set on destroying the other, as Vilnius were ! 😜

Similarly, a lively competition was happening between the two Australian teams too, in Gold Coast & Brisbane 😛

Team Sopaipa (Santiago, Chile), who won gold & silver, sent us this wonderful group pic after the event!!

And what helped University of Florida (Gainesville, US) win the catchathon must be this super awesome catching poster they made ahead of time for their team! 😛

Ugacatchers from Kampala, Uganda, also had some connection problems, but nevertheless were present for the zoom hangout AND catching the entire time! Rumor has it, they spent they pizza money on data 💜 We're honored to be catching with you, Ugacatchers!!

UniqueMappers from Port Harcourt, Nigeria gathered a large crowd for the catchathon!! Despite the rain & having to relocate at the last minute, the catchers were still able to join & compete!

This Is Our Life team from Watertown (MA, US) took honorary bronze! That's what they said:

No one wonders why we (as family and friends) are working as hard as we can to find a cure for Alzheimer's. Please join us today - online -between 12-2 (Eastern Standard) and be part of global event using an online game that helps with research for a cure! Log on - on your phone or whatever device you are reading this on and be part of making a difference! Kelly Corrigan, This Is Our Life team

Thanks again to all teams who participated & everyone who helped spread the word and make this event happen! We couldn't have done it without you 💜

Here's more...

Replay the catchathon live stream here:
Check out the catchathon infographic!

Click to zoom!

Want to organize your own local catchathon? Go for it! You can find the relevant resources here.