MERIT supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers, The Chartered Institute of Building, CITB Construction Skills and Loughborough University the annual international construction business game being played for the 23rd time as MERIT 2013 attracted 89 teams. The teams were sponsored by 31 companies and were from the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, UAE, Ireland and The Netherlands.

MERIT simulates the management of a construction company and allows teams of up to six acting as a board of directors to run their own simulated company. Decisions stretch from: the staffing of head offices  with marketing, estimating, measurement and other support staff; through bidding for work and manning projects with project managers labour and sub-contractors; determining the size of the company by the amount of capital invested ; to disbursing the profits to shareholders or re-investing in the company or other investments. MERIT has a record of providing training in company, business and financial management all in a construction context.

Alan Crane President of the CIOB says: "Having been involved with the Merit Game for 10 years, I know it's an excellent way to apply business management skills into a technical construction environment and giving people skills that a classroom environment or even a day-to-day job not always can. Not all construction professionals get an opportunity to participate in a simulation that allows them to pick up financial, resource management, strategic thinking and teambuilding skills and that’s what makes the Merit Game so special."

The format of the game is that each team starts with an established company and play eight rounds remotely competing against the simulation for work and staff.  At the end of eight rounds the top six of the 89 teams attended the final at Loughborough University on 11th and 12th of April  where, over two days, they played a further eight rounds. In the final the competition is greater as they not only compete against the simulation but also each other.

The teams who qualified for the MERIT 2013 final were from the Mass Transit Railway Hong Kong, Arups, Atkins India and Mott MacDonald. Twelve MTR staff travelled from Hong Kong to participate and two of Atkins India staff travelled from India.

The starting position for the final was:

Narrowly missing the final were teams from Amey, UTM, Aurecon and Atkins Hong Kong. The UTM team, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, was the highest placed student team ever in the history of MERIT.

The final was one of the most closely fought competitive finals, with three different teams holding the lead as it developed.
'MTR New Lines New Minds Enginetic' held onto the leader's position in the first round, but 'They think it's all Ove' overtook them in the second round and held on to the top place in the third round only for 'MTR New Lines New Minds Enginetic' to once again take the lead in the fourth. They were then surpassed by their colleagues 'MTR New Lines New Minds' in the sixth round with 'They think it's all Ove' lying third. In the penultimate seventh round 'MTR New Lines New Minds' held on to their first place and 'They think it's all Ove' moved up to second.

After a dramatic final round, the positions were:

With 'MTR New Lines New Minds' slipping to third, Arup's 'They think it's all Ove' were crowned the MERIT 2013 Champions receiving the ICE's Silver Salver from David Kyte Chairman of the ICE's Management Board and a cash prize of £1200. The runners up, 'MTR New Lines New Minds Enginetic' received a cash prize of £500 presented by Hugh Ferguson on behalf of the ICE.

David Kyte presents the Silver Salver to the MERIT 2013 Champoins,
Arup's 'They think it's all Ove'
(Bernard Travers, Coline Deplanche, James Hughes and Mike Magnier).

They were also presented by the CIOB cash prize of £1200
by Michael Brown Deputy Chief Executive of CIOB

Runners-up, 'MTR New Lines New Minds Enginetic'
(Sonjia Leung, James Fung, Candy Leung, Matthew Man, Joe Sit and Clara To)
receive their prize from Hugh Ferguson

Paul Gaze of CITB ConstructionSkills presents the Sponsors Award to John Border of Arup

Arup also won the Sponsors Award for having the three best performing teams. John Border accepted the Sponsors Award from Paul Gaze of CITB Construction Skills. John is a MERIT graduate from 1991.

Arup were reigning Champions having won MERIT 2012 and they also won the Sponsors Award in 2011. This brings Arups record in MERIT to Three Championships and two Sponsors Awards making them the most successful company in MERIT's 23 competitions. The second most successful is Mott Macdonald with two Championships and two Sponsors Awards followed by Atkins with one Championship and three Sponsors Awards.

This was the first time that MTR had entered teams in MERIT and their performance was remarkable.

Aurecon who participated in the 2011 and 2012 finals narrowly missed the 2013 final but have enjoyed their own internal final played remotely involving all the 10 Aurecon teams. 'Aurecon Global' were crowned Aurecon MERIT 2013 Champions.