Is there a word for turning something into a competition?

Question

I'm looking for a word, expression, or more succinct phrase that captures the idea of taking something that did not start as or was not originally intended to be competitive, and making it into a competition.

Example:

"The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they ______."

It is a similar idea to "weaponization" of something - taking something that wasn't intended to be used as a weapon and transforming it into one.
"Competitionization" doesn't really hold water, nor does adding "-ization" to most of the synonyms for "competition."

Is there an appropriate word?

Answer 1

A term for taking a task and turning it into something resembling a game is gamification. Stack Exchange exploits this paradigm by awarding points and ranking the contributors in each space as well as answers. Answers are also tied directly to each contributor.

Merriam-Webster defines it as:

the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (as a task) so as to encourage participation

Answer 2

It can be expressed relatively succinctly using the term escalate.

"The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they escalated it into a competition."

"The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but it escalated into a competition."

ODO:

escalate VERB

1.1 Make or become more intense or serious.
[no object] ‘the disturbance escalated into a full-scale riot’
[with object] ‘we do not want to escalate the war’

‘Soon enough playful shoving escalated into an all-out war, which ended with Alex tackling Jamie to the floor.’

‘When you've made your point and the other party has made his point, please do not escalate it to a never-ending heated discussion.’

Answer 3

You could say that the learning exercise devolved into a competition:

to gradually go from an advanced state to a less advanced state

The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but it quickly devolved into a competition.

[Merriam-Webster]

Answer 4

Succint it is not, but far and away the most apt (and I daresay widely known) expression is "turned it into a pissing match (or pissing contest)." (Credit due to new user Robert Baugh for mentioning it first.)

The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they turned it into a pissing match.

"Pissing match" is defined by wiktionary as "a pointless competition, dispute or conflict, often over some trivial matter."

If you're open to a still more vulgar expression that is (normally) applied to men, especially in the case of absurd displays of machismo and braggadocio, you can use "turned it into a dick-measuring contest."

Alternatively, if brevity is more important than use of an established term, I suggest "competify/competification," both of which have seen some limited use but don't yet seem to be "official" words (they haven't even made an appearance in Urban Dictionary yet). I suggest these because they follow the word formation patterns and general meaning of gamify and gamification.

The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they competified it.

To lend the word just a bit of credibility, here is one of the few examples in which it actually has been used within the same context:

My wife's classmates were children of writers ... Columbia academics, publishers, doctors, and lawyers as well as socialites and product brand names -- most of whom have largely been replaced in my daughters' classes by the children of people in the financial industry. This clearly mirrors what has happened in the city itself -- banking, providing never-before-imagined levels of cash flow and vastly scaled-up net worths, has changed these schools as it has changed (sleeked up, amped up, intensified, competified) Manhattan life.

Source: New York Magazine, "The Price of Perfection" by Michael Wolff

Answer 5

I think any of the suggestions above for a verb plus competition (e.g. made it into a competition) would be fine and expected. However, if you really want a single word, there are a couple of existing words that might work.

Rivalize may be closest; it can mean something quite similar to what you describe. From Oxford Dictionaries:

rivalize (also rivalise)
VERB

no object With in, with. To enter into rivalry; to compete.

If your firefighters have rivalized, then they have entered into rivalry and begun to compete (with their fellow firefighters), thus turning a neutral exercise into a competition.

The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they (soon) rivalized.

Although the term is generally not used with an object, you could also stretch the term to rivalized the exercise and I think would be well understood.

Finally, adversarialization is a term that sees some use in a legal context¹, and that might suit your purposes.

The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they adversarialized (it).

This term typically refers to "getting lawyers involved"—i.e., moving a discussion, negotiation, or dispute into the adversarial system. But it seems that it would work for any situation where a once-non-adversarial activity becomes adversarial.

¹ For example,

The principal complaints center upon the adversarialization of the proceedings that proceeds from growing lawyer participation in the process.

(Thomas E. Carbonneau, Arbitral Justice: The Demise of Due Process in American Law, 70 Tul. L. Rev. 1945, 1959 n.42)

Answer 6

but the trainees turned it into a competition.

but the officers treated it more like a competition.

May we change the point of view?

but it quickly morphed into a competition

but it veered into a competition

("It" refers to the exercise.)

but the trainees' competitive spirit kicked in and it became a fight to the finish.

but the trainees found themselves competing to see who could complete the drill the fastest.

but the "Pearl Harbor" team challenged the other teams to see who could complete the course the fastest (or turned it into a challenge).

but the "Pearl Harbor" team injected some testosterone and the drill became a race to the finish line.

Answer 7

I would say they locked horns:

to become involved in something such as a fight or competition with someone

_{Macmillan Dictionary}

Answer 8

"They competed to outdo one another" is simple and to the point. This also has the benefit of being without gender connotations, especially if there are women in the cohort. If the firefighting class already had a competitive streak or pecking order, one could say "they brought their rivalries into it."

"They turned it into King of the Hill" would be a kinder colloquialism than "pissing match" if you want to play the machismo angle but avoid the minor vulgarity.

Answer 9

You might consider one-up:

do better than (someone).

"he deftly one-upped the interrogator"

Other forms are one-upping or one-upper.

The purpose of the firefighters' training exercise was to learn a new skill, but they started one-upping each other.

Answer 10

The word which came to my mind is "game" (but gamification I would avoid as it suggests a mechanical conversion process).
I work with multiple-handicapped children and I am coming to understand that games are important for social and emotional learning. Games are especially important when able-bodied kids join our class as helpers or peer buddies. The change and improvement in their regard toward the handicapped kids I work with is genuine and touching. During a school year, you can see how the kids play with each other change as the kids move along developing more sophisticated thought processes.

How about your remembering the original event you observed and describing in more detail what happened. Was it fire fighters? What would you say was the emotional or physical bond or skill being practised? Was it a physical activity or a social activity? What is the motor skill being practised? What did the players say? Was it an activity with a haptic component? Did the activity cause anxiety or excitement in the participants?

Answer 11

Whenever men gather for whatever activity, the alpha males, who only know how to relate through competition, will turn the event into a 'pissing contest'.