Mauri’s delayed strategy

Mauri starts out matching David’s times very closely, until the maths portion of the task.

While David works on the sum, Mauri re-reads the task brief. He does actually try to solve the maths problem, but comes up with the incorrect answer of 5,300 (rather than 5,356), which sets him up with an incorrect code for later in the task. At this point, Mauri is 2 seconds ahead of David.

Mauri either realises that he has solved the maths problem incorrectly, or else does not realise that the answer is the code for the combination lock, as he decides to stands up and lean over the table, to watch David enter the code on the lock. Despite David’s best efforts to keep Mauri from peeking, Mauri is able to see the code, and retrieve the gloves from the box. However, it seems Mauri had some trouble with opening the box as, by the time he does, he is nearly a full minute ahead of David.

While David makes his balloon dog, Mauri turns to the camera and informs viewers that he has a strategy. David’s balloon dog making actually closes the time gap significantly, leaving Mauri only about 15 seconds ahead of David. When it is Mauri’s turn to make a balloon dog, he picks up the balloon, loudly announces that he has failed, and immediately hits the timer, purposefully taking the penalty.

Instead of popping his balloon, Mauri once again announces that he has failed and hits the timer, incurring another penalty.

Mauri’s timer ends at 5:51, while David’s is at 5:36.

In the studio, David theorises that Mauri misunderstood the penalty system, suggesting that Mauri believed that the penalties would be subtracted from his final time, rather than added.

After 20 seconds worth of penalties, this results in a 35 second difference, and Mauri earns joint second place.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by Karl Craven)