A team of business and engineering students faced an unexpected twist while competing in an international competition last weekend.The 6th Global Intercollegiate Case Competition was held at the headquarters of Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) in Plano, Texas. Competitors came from 46 national and international universities.Paula Steele, Joshua Garris, Aaron Christy and Douglas Torline represented Ohio State.The team role-played as a business consultant for a local symphony orchestra, said Torline, a senior majoring in accounting and management information systems. The team was to focus on using the Internet in developing solutions, he said.”The orchestra had a great deal of problems that we had to overcome,” said Christy, a senior majoring in marketing and management information systems. The orchestra was $6 million in debt and its market was stagnant, he said.The team’s solutions were to expand the target market and sell concert tickets and merchandise through the Internet, Torline said.However, a tornado struck the first night they were there and damaged the phone line of where the team was staying, Christy said. This prevented them from working on the project so they packed up their papers and computer equipment and drove in heavy rains to another apartment.”There were crickets crawling around all over the new apartment, so we kept stepping on them every time we got up to move around,” Christy said.The OSU team was the only to face such an extreme obstacle, said Garris, a senior majoring in finance. “But it made the competition more interesting to us,” he said.Despite the problems, the team placed in the top 10 and received a $2000 scholarship.This year’s OSU team is the best one yet, said John Stegman, director of management communication of the business college. Stegman has coached OSU’s team for six years. “Their presentation had more content than the two winners combined,” Stegman said.Christy said, “We were able to learn about overcoming unforeseen obstacles as well as learn about how to solve a difficult case from many different directions.” Steele, a senior majoring in international business, said, “The biggest reward is the new strong friendships that have developed between us.” This year’s title was shared by Queen’s University from Canada and Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico.