the winners of a "3 a.m. coin toss" selected one of three topics (two in the second season); the other team picked from the two remaining choices. each player had to talk continuously for 20 seconds (40 seconds total); stopping, stalling, stuttering, freezing, or going off-topic at any point penalized the team five points per violation. if a team said one of eight hidden key words or phrases related to the article, ten points were added to their score. after the first team ranted, the second team attempted their rant. however, both teams had to continually walk inside the wheels during both rants.