Technicians from Cable One and Comporium Communications took home the top prizes at last week’s Cortex Olympics, held in conjunction with the SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver.
Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017
Kevin Troub, an IP specialist with Cable One in Phoenix, won the IP Challenge, a Jeopardy-style event that tests contestants on their knowledge of IP technology.
Troub’s colleague, Douglas Van Gessel, an IP Specialist II with Cable One in Phoenix, finished second, and IP Challenge 2014 champion Jamie Griffin, director of technology, Full Channel (in Barrington, R.I.), placed third. Troub, Van Gessel, and Griffin got into the final by winning preliminary IP Challenge contests held the prior evening.
Meanwhile, Greg Brakefield, a cable line technician with Comporium Communications in Rock Hill, S.C., captured his fourth Cable-Tec Games title since 2011.
Greg Babinski, Tech III, Line/Plant Maintenance with Charter Communications of New Port Richey, Fla. (and the 2016 Cable-Tec Games champion), took the silver medal, and Nathan Sidlinger, a technician with Mediacom Communications in Moline, Ill., took the bronze.
The Cable-Tec Games comprises seven individual contests. Brakefield won gold in Meter Reading, Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR), Cable Splicing, and Metallic Time Domain Reflectometer (MTDR). Shannon Cameron of Ritter and the Razorback Chapter, Region 8, won Fiber Splicing. Jerry Kennicott of Comcast and the Bonneville Chapter, Region 2, won Drop Connection. And, Kyle Halverson of Comcast and the Mount Rainier Chapter, Region 3, won Cable Jeopardy.
For their winning efforts, Troub received a complimentary pass to Cisco Live 2018 and a complimentary registration to Cable-Tec Expo 2018, and Brakefield received a complimentary registration to Expo 2018.
For the first time, the event, held last Thursday (October 19), was run in concert with Expo Evening and collocated on the exhibit hall of the Colorado Convention Center.
Cable-Tec Expo 2018 is set for Oct. 22-25, at the Georgia World Congress Center.
