FROM - ctelle - 68.161.172.253
TOPIC -
07/30/08 18:54:55 - MESSAGE #200
What is this Prototype 161 Thing? Did anybody go on July 12th?
FROM - Red Warrior a world of snow - 216.254.74.147
TOPIC - Team Red is Playing
07/05/08 04:41:08 - MESSAGE #199
What is this Prototype 161 Thing? Did anybody go on July 12th?
See: http://www.prototype161.com/teams/6
I think it's something a little different. Gothamist posted a link to this:
http://urbanprankster.com/2008/06/upcoming-prototype161-in-new-york/
which is a site run by the Improv Everywhere guy. I guess he got contacted, too. (The letter we received is shown.)
Maybe they found people via some other means or mailing list?
I didn't get the e-mail. Could someone post it?
I hear the last year's winning team isn't going to host MM this year. I thought they stepped up to take things over?
Yeah, it seems like someone is looking to make an actual company that runs mm style events? But who? I didn't think that gc was passing any torch, but then where did these guys get our email addresses?
I received it, too. Might it be a spin-off, or perhaps GC has passed the torch?
FROM - curious - 67.159.44.138why so quiet here this afternoon? no one else got that email?
Any word on MM2008?
FROM - surripui Portland - 64.122.42.219The answer was "Caesura." -- think OSCON 08' -- think Scott (as Michael Fox) -- think FREE as in BEER!
TAKE IT TO THE MAX -- BYATCHES!
PROJECT 03 TEAM PINK RULEZ!
WHITEWATER IS BETTER THAN BLACK! TEAM USA! ;-)
ASU IN DA' HOUSE! RED-WHITE-BLUE-BLACK 99 BITCHES AND A BITCH AIN'T ONE -- LOOK FOR THE KEY 9 TEAMS 1 COMMAND CENTRAL! FREE BEER!
FROM - ybouqlba ybouqlba - 213.203.146.95 smzqhrjl [URL=http://ncppagxg.com]ygaaxtlr[/URL] rdhovmzr http://kqaszmtd.com fcqypkmg avyftzwy
FROM - cwhvvsdx cwhvvsdx - 209.162.39.229 [URL=http://qmjyviud.com]hmypwkqd[/URL] oyfjjfbz http://ktxiqxto.com ogojgubs ynfotbgk uytbijij
cccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Pink 12:01
Black 12:18
Goldenrod 1:16
Red 1:27
Lava 1:32
Spicy Mustard 1:34
Plaid 1:37
Ochre 1:38
Midnight Blue 1:41
Cerulean 1:49
Baby Blue 1:51
Off-white 1:59
Clear 2:01
Heliotrope 2:08
Lavender 2:12
Copper Rose 2:17
Marmalade 2:22
Maize 2:28
Poo Poo Brown 2:30
Puce 2:32
Raw Umber 2:40
Olive ~2:45 October 21st, 2007
Opening Gambit Results (teams were given next clue at Union Square in secret in the order of their performance in the opening gambit)
All of gambit solved
Spicy Mustard 11:37
Pink 11:54
Most of gambit solved
Goldenrod 11:26
Marmalade 11:38
Lava 11:39
Baby Blue 11:39
Cerulean 11:40
Red 11:42
Midnight Blue 11:46
Puce 11:47
Buttercup 11:47
Clear 11:48
Off-white 11:50
Some of gambit solved
Black 10:03
Ochre 10:21
Poo Poo Brown 10:38
Plaid 10:43
Lavender 11:03
Heliotrope 11:03
Maize 11:26
Copper Rose 11:49
Olive 11:49
Little of gambit solved
Raw Umber 9:20
Now that Olive has finally finished we can post the results...
Hey everybody. Speaking of victory movies, Team Olive has finally finished the game, and also, we made a movie of it. Should we receive first place by virtue of being the best documented? Perhaps. We'll let game control be the judge.
Enjoy.
http://www.dailymotion.com/cleveraltoid/video/5361107
Well, I have them on film granting the "technical" victory to Goldenrod. Maybe they want us to sort it all out amongst ourselves... muahhahahaha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdEE1RHth9U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZZSK-S88rQ
love ya!
Seriously - over a month after the game? Unprecedented!
Where are the final times and results and commentary from GC?
Still I had three dongles
FROM - Jedi Goldenrod - 71.126.236.166Well, it looks like the flame war I was trying to start has sputtered and died. It seems everyone has realized that this is all just petty rhetoric; it's just a game; in the grand scheme of things, none of it matters outside of an excuse to abuse out brains and bodies in an all night quest to find somewhere - *anywhere* - to pee. I have to admit though, I was having lots of fun being an asshole. It's something I rarely try out in real life.
Congrats to everyone that finished. It's not easy. Thanks to GC for the absurd amount of time, money, and effort you all put in to make this thing happen (and I will never understand why you guys do it).
Maybe we can all do this again next year somehow. Or just all get togther and get drunk in Union Square.
Cheers.
FROM - Druid NYC - 71.249.210.27I missed this year because I was on vacation, but wanted to chime in with:
OMFG THANK YOU FOR MM!
I enjoyed the years I played with cerulean immensely, and thank everyone behind the scenes and all the players for the awesome memories.
www.stonedcoder.org - there is always CTF and wargames!
www.pulltheplug.org - more complex puzzles you can play to figh the post MM depression
some observations at the finish line
Let's also keep in mind that in only using the notes to find one answer, we made it real obvious what we had done. I knew we would finish *hours* before everyone else, after it had become clear that we had 3 of the 4 things needed to assemble the final doodad.
What we *could* have done was just use the notes as our own hint sheets the whole night and then no one on my team or anyone else would have any idea that we had them at all.
Everyone's talk about the spirit of this game is nauseating. It's a race to the finish line. I don't care if you think I'm a bad guy or you don't like me or whatever. We're all a bunch of losers who come all the way to New York to totally geek out for 20 hours straight. You think there's some kind of nobility in this?
I love this game and I think GC are utter geniuses for creating it each year. But they know that the game isn't all about solving clues. Remember that one year where we had to beat a video game to get the next clue? What the fuck did that have to do with this extreme puzzle solving you all are getting wet about?
Jed's right - I'm an asshole, and I'm fine with it. But even he admits it: we schooled everyone this year. You all lost. Pink was the number one loser. It was a great second place finish. Whine about it all you want, but we were at the finish line long before anyone else was. This isn't a marathon, to whoever said that retarded statement. This isn't a linear game. Get over it - you got beat because of a sneaky and shady move. It happens every day in the real world, too.
Oh and whoever is talking about how you could beat everyone up and then win - I mean clearly you're an idiot, but does anyone else remember last year when a team got extra points for getting arrested? Or public nudity? The game is all about crazy shit that many times is illegal. So whoever got naked last year - you are bad bad people and you shouldn't have done that because that's not the spirit of the game because that's against the law. Unless of course you solve puzzles better and smarter and fairer with your cock hanging out.
I kind of liked the potsuck. There should have been beer, and it definitely could have been shorter. It was a nice break though.
And yeah... Team Pink. I agree with Dan. Let's not forget about them through all this bickering.
FROM - Jedi Goldenrod - 71.126.236.166Oh, fuck you Team Black. I still remember the giant hard-ons you guys got from breaking the street cred system last year (five hours after someone else, who chose not to brag about it, had already done it, btw). You guys even camped right across the street from the "safety" zone knowing you could maximize your petty strategy there. Yeah, that's respectful to the game and other teams.
I hear some other team went ahead and photocopied piles of "money". People commented on these things, but no one seemed to be too concerned.
The notes scored us *ONE* answer and not the one that let us skip clues. One clue was inadvertently found. One was gotten by following another team. Everything else was solved by our own brilliance. (Even with sirrix disappearing half the night. He's an asshole, but he's also consistently one of our top puzzle solvers.)
Why the fuck am I even bothering to justify what happened? Everyone takes every advantage they can get, whether through serendipity or a clever idea. We got some inside information through sheer cussed luck, and I don't believe for a second that there is no one among you who wouldn't have abused these notes considerably more than we did.
You. Are. Being. Whiney. Losers.
One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned:
The "potluck" "party" "meaningless pause" was extremely boring and lame. Everything else rocked.
There is something called the Spirit of the Game! No cars and no tampering are the rules. Looking at GC notes is not clever, it is not fun and destroys the spirit of what the game is all about!
As far as I am concerned, no matter what GC states, Team Pink came in first, Black second and whoever came after golden rod third! Goldenrod, you are the Barry Bonds of MM! Even if GC states you came in first, you will never be first in the eyes of the other teams.
There is no rule stating you can't look at or steal GC notes, but there should not have to be. Looking at GC's notes to get to the finish line destroys the spirt of the game and I hope you are happy. If you were real sports you would come on this site, post a message and remove yourself from the finish line.
You guys do realize that followed other teams in the movie were the bad guys, right?
Ok, at the risk of turning this into even more of a Charlie & The Chocolate Factory morality tale, stealing the map was definitely not the greatest caper in MM history. Well maybe the most controversial, but definitely not difficult or clever. I personally don't think you should feel bad about it (again, only my opinion; whoever said this isn't the presidential election is right), but I don't think you should feel particularly good about it either.
And in case other teams' achievements are getting lost in the noise right about now, I'd like to take this moment to raise a glass (ok, late night bottle of coke) to Team Pink in particular, who rocked the house this year by any standard; and to all the great moves by all the teams that made them, in this year's MM and the ones past.
Dm
I noticed reading back over my note that I left out something I started to say, probably b/c I feared I was starting to get too cheesy as I got more and more tired writing. My eyes are still sticky but here goes.
I don't think I articulated well the other things things that upset me about what happened, in addition or more so than E and Sirrix spoiling the game for the rest of our team and bringing dishonor to our house.
First, there's the meaningless explicit reading of the stated rules. There may not be a rule around being respectful of each other but people tend to be because that makes for a better experience. Whether or not you are breaking a rule, you can draw a line between having scruples and just being full of scrapple.
I'm sorry, Jed, but I don't buy for a second that E just happened upon or _found_ the notes. I think that once he discovered notes existed, he looked for an opportunity to get a hold of them.
I know no one from GC needs protecting, but I think a lot of us feel GC is off-limits. Maybe it's because I am personally fond of people on GC and I know how hard they work not only to put the game on, but what they juggle in their lives to bring the game, that I feel it is particularly wrong to take advantage of their weaknesses during the game.
I need to sleep. I just came out to Cali for work and to visit my momma. Momma, who loves to garden, showed me this saucy flowering plant called a Quyen - a common name for Vietnamese girls. The flower is famous for only opening for 15-20 minutes every night.
Two, possible more, counterpoints about NYC Midnight Madness. We'll see how far this goes:
(1) "It's in NEW YORK CITY."
-Congratulations, unlike most U.S. Americans, you know geography.
"we even beat people up. That's just how things get done in Gotham."
- So, although it is technically within the rules of NYC Midnight Madness, you could effectively hobble your opponents at the beginning of the game, win by default, and that would be ethical?
"Don't compare us to preppie Boston, backcountry Hot Springs..."
- Believe me, we don't want to be compared with you either.
(2) Game vs. Race.
"Games are more fun because there exists the possibility or at least the illusion that you could use some TACTIC (following, strategic use of hints, etc) to get ahead at ANY POINT during the game to improve your standing."
- Following is not a tactic. Being able to use wit and intelligence to give yourself an edge over another team is what makes this game fun and exciting. Following is for lemmings.
"Just finishing is fine, but the possibility that you could sink a three-pointer from the other end of the court and come out the unlikely underdog winner.THAT'S FUN.
- Yet, to win by hitting the proverbial three pointer, you have to be within two points of the leader. what you're thinking of is a teleporter that transports you to the finish line of a marathon. Midnight Madness is a slow grind. It is not some amazing sprint to see who is the fastest. It is something to be savored, to be siphoned out, getting small advantages here and there that add up to a winning finish in the end, not some ego trip through the night in an attempt to win at all costs.
Now, if you want to see how civilized human beings play this game, come down to Hot Springs this Christmas. You won't be disappointed. You can follow all the winning teams around all night, because, and here's the finishing move: if you're truly good at this game, there won't be anyone ahead of you to follow.
FROM - Jedi Goldenrod - 71.126.236.166ummm... yeah...
That last post made me sound like a total dick. I'm not. Ask Tam. Or anyone else that knows me. sirrix is an asshole. He knows it; he's cool with it; so am I. I am not an asshole.
I still think *anyone* getting their hands on GC's notes should be considered the greatest caper of MM history, even if it is extremely unethical. No one has ever done it before and (if the game does end up continuing) I doubt anyone will ever do it again.
Remember, this isn't the 2000 presidential election. It's just a game.
FROM - Jedi Goldenrod - 71.126.236.166I really want to stop talking about this, but it's just too much fun. Now that Tam has given the official version, I feel free to ramble on about my own thoughts. It will probably be boring, long, inconsistent, and meaningless. Really, you should stop reading here as most things I have to say, in general, make people dumber, not smarter.
First off, I had nothing to do with any of the shit that went down. When I first figured out what had been done while sitting in the park the first time we got there (it wasn't until a couple days later that sirrix told the team the full story), I was seriously pissed off. Now, I'm just annoyed. Not because it cast any aspersions on our team (I don't give a fuck what you fuckers think of us.) but because it ruined some of the fun for me. Solving puzzles is much more exciting than finding them.
Tam, I solved the origami puzzles. I solved it at almost the exact moment that sirrix came running up with the packet that clue led to. This was annoying. I spent half an hour folding that goddamn piece of paper this way and that, and at the end, my glory was killed.
Just for the record, sirrix and E get drunk every year at the start of MM. Well, I feel like 'lubricated' is a better way of putting it. Drunk implies that they were stumbling around being jackasses. They were coherent and solving puzzles like fiends. It took sirrix < 10 min. to notice how to find the solution for the craigslist ad puzzle. (Of course, going through and finding the actual solution took quite a bit longer.) Hell, for the first time, I decided to go ahead and get 'lubricated' along with them. It always seemed to help them solve things in the past. Alas, it did nothing to improve *my* cognitive abilities.
As far as I'm concerned, E found the notes. There was no torture involved, no picking of pockets, no sneaking into bags, no use of chloroform. Someone from GC foolishly left them lying on a park bench. (This person from GC was undoubtedly exhausted. But c'mon guys. Be a little more careful where you leave that kind of stuff lying around.) If E hadn't been there to snag them, some other team would have come across them, and we'd all be arguing about whether they deserved to cross the finish line at 10am. Well, that statement isn't entirely fair. There are many who, upon realizing what they had, would have promptly returned it to GC. Of course, in the figuring out of what they had, they would have garnered the information on the sheets. And seriously, this doesn't apply to everyone who played. Many of you would have taken as much, if not more, advantage of those notes as we did.
Note that everything in the last paragraph is based on what sirrix told us. He has no reason to lie at this point, but who knows. *shrug* Thinking of which, some of what I'm going to say in the following paragraph is also based on what he told us.
Finally, if I remember right (anyone on my team feel free to correct me), we solved all the puzzles but three - yes, we even solved all the puzzles at Columbia. I don't feel like Tam stressed this enough. Of the ones we didn't solve, someone (not sirrix) followed another team to the solution. Sirrix inadvertently came across the sandwich coupon - the final puzzle that allowed us to finish at 10am. (I believe him on this one. The story he told about how it happened was crazy enough that I don't think he could have made it up. Especially compared to the incredibly half-assed tale he told of how he "found" the schematic. [sirrix, you and your friends really need to come up with better lies.] Truth tends to be stranger than fiction.) And finally, the schematic was found using GC's notes. sirrix was bringing us other solutions through the night but only getting them to us after we had already solved them (e.g. the origami puzzle). Just to make this point clear: GC's notes scored us ONLY ONE solution, and that wasn't even the one that let us skip way ahead. (Once again, based on sirrix's veracity.)
In the past few days while my teammates and I have been shooting emails back and forth and I've been thinking about what happened, I decided to think of this as THE GREATEST CAPER EVER PULLED IN MIDNIGHT MADNESS HISTORY!!! We got our fucking hands on GC's notes! Who cares how we got them! (Okay, we would all care a great deal if anyone had been threatened or hurt or if someone did something that was literally illegal [i.e. theft or robbery].) We got our hands on GC's notes!!! It's just so much more fun to think of it that way, and I'd like to think that if any other team had done it, I would feel the exact same way. Face it. If this were a movie, you would have thought it was pretty awesome. In fact, I think I would have enjoyed it more is some other team had done it. Then I could have unabashedly cheered for them. And none of my fun would have been ruined.
Anyways, who gives a fuck about all these stupid justifications and arguments. We kicked all your fucking asses!!! That's right! I'm going to state it loud and proud for the record! We are the winner. The rest of you are the losers - whiney fucking losers at that. So go ahead and do whatever it is you need to do to protect your frail little egos. Tell yourselves whatever lies you want. We still beat you. And we beat you by *a lot*.
I was one of the people at 9 Clinton who saw the guilty Goldenrod guys loitering in front of the building. It was unclear what they were doing there. In our brief time intereacting with those guys, they were rude and obnoxious. However, my teammate did erroneuosly tell them to knock on a door on the top floor of the building. Hilarious karma in retrospect. However, their possible following of us did not lead to the coupon clue, because we all went to the Dunkin' Donuts to solve the spiral 103 Norfolk puzzle and have a delicious breakfast. They probably knew exactly where they were going all along.
Next game I'll just abduct a member of gc and hurt him until he tells me where the puzzles are at. That doesn't violate either rule. Damn that would be an amazing play.
in the game structure description below, ? is -->
Hey,
Just thought I'd chime in about Goldenrod's early finish from my perspective. When we figured out that that team was about to wind up in East River Park at 10am (and guessed pretty quickly that their pattern of gameplay could only have been done with a stolen map), the several members of GC got together and realized that between us we had a total spectrum of opinion: ranging from "disqualify" to "whatever."
Obviously it's undisputed that they got to the finish line before anyone else.
Now what follows is only my opinion- there is no consensus about the following among GC, and there are good reasons to disagree.
For me I feel that once you know how it was done, then whether you consider that first arrival "winning" ... or whether you feel stealing a map is honorable or not ... are things that everyone can decide for themselves based on their own approach to MM.
What would have really pissed me off would have been if Goldenrod had told other teams where the finish line was, or inadvertently been followed-- that would have been more like "tampering with the clues" since it could have destroyed major chunks of the game for other teams. At least that didn't happen.
-D
TGBTG, I understand your concern. It’s true that what happened was complicated and some things were done out of order. And yes, we did save some time by not having to retrieve for a second time the Voltron pieces E and Sirrix found. But we also took a big chunk of extra time (at least an hour) to get to the finish line the first time, to deliberate with GC, and to get back to the game area. We figured that adding all that extra time we would be pretty far behind but we kept playing anyway.
Also, you had to go an unleash the nerd in me. If we’re going to be technical about it, we might as well be accurate. I may be missing something, but here’s what I believe the to be MMX’s structure:
1. Opening Gambit (total of 4-5 puzzles, depending on how you count the 2 parters):
*Cut-Out Map Crazy Bottle Scientist Part 1 (Hi Mark! Love the hair as usual.)
*Opaque Block (way cool and futuristic, go Sally!) Scientist Part 2
Solving the chemistry puzzle led to the nasty Craigslist Ad puzzle (hilarious) – if you solve that you get just the word ‘gambit.’
2. After the party (total of 15-16 puzzles):
*The photo card puzzle lead you to 9th and C (?) where you find a new game map and 3 puzzles which themselves led to 4 puzzles:
*Outback puzzle Alligator clips (not a puzzle necessarily, just a component used for the final puzzle)
*Fonts Playground Shapes Celebrity Trash Game (the board itself)
*Statements Animals Celebrity Trash (fused pictures, hilarious)
Combined, celebrity trash led to 2 puzzles which led to the 6 last ones:
*The Spiral (raising roof motions for Josh) the battery pack
*The 4 letter word Titled Crossword + Revolution Night Zero (very poetic, Mat – should have played this at the midnight party) Bicycle and Dance Video (respectively) Volton
I am pretty sure (though I was on the 4 letter route at this point) that other team members solved the Spiral puzzle entirely separately from Sirrix b/c they were nowhere near each other and likely not in touch.
Also, I was there when we worked on the crossword and poem and I can assure you we did not do any back-solving – do you mean we might see if we could get the puzzle to say things like “Houston”? Never even crossed our minds. There are obviously a number of streets one can guess and sometimes you do once you start to see the pattern but taking what we thought were some of the solution locations and using those to solve the rest of the puzzles was not what we did.
After crossword and poem we realized just how close we had been to finishing the game. B/c the only puzzles left were the Dance Video (very fun), the bicycle (hello old kona bike of Josh!) and Voltron – so, at the point when we first crossed the finish line, we had not solved 5 puzzles out of 19-21 puzzles (if I am counting them correctly). That’s not the middle of the game. That’s the last quarter. And no, we did not reverse-solve.
That was fun. I geeked out before the game, wondering what the structure would be this year. I’ll see if I can post diagrams I made to help train my team. I don’t have access to a server right now.
Math equations?
You can't get disqualified unless you tamper w/ a clue or use a car. STOP WHINING. It's perfectly within the rules and the spirit of the game to steal anything you need to win.
Since when did this message board turn into one big episode of The View?
As soon as I got out team's first hint at the park on Delancey and Chrystie I knew that the game was going to end in the East River Park. It was pretty obviously the only awesome place for a large gathering just outside the new "suggested" zone.
I had a similar intuition about the game being in Brooklyn 2 years ago when we had to meet at Tomas Payne Park just on Manhattan side of the bridge.
I knew it without a shadow of a doubt where we were going to end this years game as early as 2am, but I didn't walk over there and just wait. Spicey Mustard also knew.
captain g,
thank you for your detailed explanation of what happened with MMX. i wish (and probably you do too) that you'd sent the drunken teammates E and Sirrix home at the beginning of the night. then none of this would have happened. i agree with your sentiment early in the game when you found that E and Sirrix had stolen GCs notes and i'm happy you returned them. well done there.
BUT, when you LEARNED where the finish line was (i.e. the final solution) through your teammates E and Sirrix -- no matter how much you disagreed with the way they obtained their information, and no matter how diligent you were about completing all the unsolved puzzles -- your team was disqualified...at least in my book. your efforts to complete unsolved puzzles were well-meaning and i commend you. and i understand how much it must upset you to have almost done so well and then have this shadow of doubt and dirtiness cast over your team. but it's there.
you say E and Sirrix's info didn't help your team since you returned to solve the mid-game puzzles, but i'd disagree. knowing the final solution/location is knowledge that affects prior puzzlesolving.
consider this simple math equation as an analogy to what i'm getting at. say the clues were numbers and the the final location/solution was the sum of the numbers. consider:
(clue)5 + (clue)6 + (clue)7 + (next clue) X + (next clue) Y = Z (Finish) ...and so on.
in this case, you CANNOT SOLVE for the final location until you have solved ALL THE CLUES.
now look at your team's situation:
(clue)5 + (clue)6 + (clue) 7 + (next clue) X + (next clue) Y = Finish (Sum)
by knowing the finish line (i.e. final sum), you can backsolve for solution "Y" once you've solved clue "X". in essence, by Sirrix and E's cheating, your team had much less work to do on AT LEAST one clue because they could work from both ends.
and for this reason, it would seem to me that a DQ is in order. but who really cares about a DQ? you guys didn't win, most of your team played very well, with great enthusiasm, and in keeping with the spirit of the game. i would be proud of the strong finish against adverse circumstances involving some rogue teammates. i'd probably also ask that E and Sirrix play on a different team in the future (or not at all). i hope you understand where i'm coming from.
tgbgbg
Hello Everyone,
The following is a detailed account, to the best of my knowledge, along with my views on what happened, views shared by many though not all of my teammates. I use here the simple, not Senate Judiciary Hearing, sense of statement – as in, I want to say something. I do not want the poor judgment of 2 team members to taint the entire team or the memory of our participation in MM. These 2 members acted on their own, not only keeping me and the rest of the team in the dark but going against an ethic I had established earlier in the evening. Again, the only reason I am writing now and not 4 days ago is I have been extremely busy at my day job.
I will first just write down the sequence of events and try to hold my commentary until the end.
Around 3:30 or 4am, I and a few members were getting a hint from Josh of GC. We sat in a circle around Josh listening. I was focused on Josh. Sirrix and another member (I dunno, let's call him E) were in my peripheral vision. After Josh got up to leave, I turned to the group and saw something in E's hands. E said something like "Look what I have." I said something like, "What are those?" or "Are those Josh's notes?" b/c they were a thick folded stack, just like the one Josh had been holding. I think E sorta shrugged. I instantly grabbed them out of E's hands and ran them back to Josh saying I think he left these behind or somehow E had them. He thanked me for being honest. E seemed disappointed that I took them back to GC. I expressed disapproval and annoyance at his behavior. He had arrived late and drunk and I was very close to asking him to go home but a few minutes later, he and Sirrix left to go work on another puzzle. Though I could not see for certain how long E had the notes, I don't think it could have been more than a few seconds and I don't believe he actually got a chance to look through them.
For the next several hours, the only contact I had with Sirrix and E was through occasional phone calls from Sirrix. The rest of my team were split into two groups working on about 2 puzzles at a time (playground shapes, statements, animals, the celebrity trash two-parter, etc.) moving from location to location per usual. Sirrix calls from time to time to say he's trying a strategy of following teams to gather intelligence that might be helpful – I just figured he was taking a break from puzzle-solving b/c he
was frustrated. Meanwhile, the other two subsets of my team have gotten to the point where we have finished the Spiral, 4-letter word and Tilted puzzles so we start working on the crossword and revolution night zero poem.
At this point, I get a call from Mat on GC asking if we have a rogue, splinter team that may be aquiring puzzles in a suspicious way. I immediately call Sirrix for an explanation since all I knew at this point was that he had been following teams around to no concrete avail. Sirrix then tells me part of the story, that he followed a team to 103 Norfolk where there were about 3 teams looking around and he found the puzzle in a UPS box on the sidewallk. Sirrix also says that he followed a team to Houston and Clinton where they told him go into an apt building and knock on a door. This being meaningless, Sirrix followed that team around the corner from this building, and this is where he says he and E spot the sandwich vouchers flapping on a board down a set of stairs. I relay this story to GC and they say they are not sure yet if there's a problem and they'll get back to me.
Sirrix then arrives at the Starbucks where the rest of us are working on the crossword and poem. He explains that by luck and some following we may have solved the final puzzle. He said that when he presented the voucher to GC, they were surprised and said he wouldn't know what to do with what they're going to give him (the sandwich) but then he produced the battery and schematic. He then used the alligator clips, battery, schematic and sandwich to get the final codeword. He said that texting in that codeword gave them the east river amphitheatre park location and he had already one of our bikes there. I tell GC this and GC says they have already dispatched a GC member there to meet us and figure out what’s going on.
At this point, we're all pretty confused and worried that something untoward has gone down. So, some of us make our way to the park, some of us still working on the crossword and poem as we walk to the park. The folks taking the lead on the puzzles ask to stay behind. We're not sure what to do since we don't know how far the park is. We figured we could keep working while we figure out what's happening and talk to GC at the park.
We get to the park and Kamalesh is there. He tells me about a clue location Sirrix had not mentioned – a puzzle hidden in a tree. At this point, before Sirrix and E arrive at the finish line, we vote unanimously to go back and solve any puzzles we have not solved. When Sirrix, E and another person from their group arrives, Kamalesh asks them about the puzzle in the tree in particular. The way they answer his question raises suspicion in my mind and with others on the team. When Sirrix and E realize we have decided to go back, they decide to go home. The rest of us continued working the puzzles at the park before walking back to the game area. With the help of hints, we solved the crossword puzzle which would have taken us to Clinton & Madison where we would have found the schematic in the tree. We solved the poem puzzle which took us to the dance video. Solving that one took us to the bike puzzle. Working with other teams to solve that one directed us to 251 Houston (the voucher). Because we could not take second copies of these puzzle pieces and because we had already formed Voltron, we then asked GC if we could proceed again to the finish line.
Up to the point where we crossed the finish line the second time, I did not know how Sirrix or E might have gotten enough time with GC's notes to do anything with it. The one time they had possession of them seemed too brief to be useful.
On Monday, still feeling suspicious, I asked Sirrix for the full story and he filled in the rest: He said according to E, 30 minutes after E first came into contact with GC's notes, he witnessed a GC member leave some papers on a bench and along with 2 other people, walk away from the area completely. E grabbed the papers and studied them for over a half hour before telling Sirrix about them. Sirrix says the notes only explicitly helped them to know to go to Clinton & Madison where they still had to look around to find the schematic in the tree. The schematic found there, combined with following a team to 103 Norfolk (the battery) and another team to Houston (the sandwich voucher), allowed Sirrix and E to gain the additional pieces (we already had the alligator clips) needed to open the sandwich which lead to the finish line.
I'm not sure which pages were actually useful to them or how much they referred to them. I don't believe the rest of the team benefited from any information from the notes to solve other puzzles.
I know this note is getting too long, but I include these details so that you can direct your hatred and criticism appropriately. Because I and many on my team felt we might not
have reached the finish line appropriately and because we wanted to finish honorably, we went back and solved the puzzles. Given the time and diligence we employed solving and
locating puzzles and the extra time we took to go the finish line the first time and the extent to which the notes were used, I do feel that our close to the top finish was real. The only thing I feel bad about regarding the second time we crossed the finish line is how generous Kamalesh was when we came to get hints.
So now let's go back to what E did and Sirrix condoned. I understand teams can be sneaky in many ways and have 'cracked' GC systems in years past. I think the occasional and judicious use of spying or tailing is a hilarious part of the game – it's like being in a cheap thrill-dram-edy without having film industry connections. That is the only sneakiness my team has ever employed – our strategies have always focused on teamwork and solving and find puzzles efficiently. I don't know what got into E or Sirrix this year. What they did felt rude and lazy to me. Ok, so a GCer left his notes behind…maybe that’s because they've been up for several nights setting up the game – for us!
Though Sirrix and I are very different people, from the first year when he was invited onto my team by another player, he has always shown tremendous enthusiasm, love and skill for the game and puzzle solving. Though I have been uncomfortable with some of his interactions with other teams (and have told him such) and we disagree regularly, his actions had seemed overall to be harmless. E, whom Sirrix invited in Year 7, has also contributed strongly to the team. This year he showed up very late, drunk, obnoxious and annoying. I was very close to asking him to go home. But I let him play thinking he would sober up and again, that his buffoonery was harmless.
What upsets me most about what happened is how it might overshadow the good work and good people on my team (even Sirrix and E in their finer moments) and how it robbed us of a truly glorious victory based on hot-damn puzzle solving, teamwork and hauling ass. This was the first year where I felt we really had a shot at winning. We had an amazing group of gung-ho puzzle-solvers and scouts and we were doing really well. We kicked ass on the first segment and were among the lead teams during the second half. We could have won or come in the top 5 which is the best we would have ever done.
Now, instead of being remembered as the little team that could – from newbies starting in Year 6, finishing usually around the half mark or third from last in the toughest year, to finishing in the top 5 – now, I fear we'll be remembered as a team that plays dirty. If you knew most of us personally, you'd know that we are an honest, good-natured bunch who love the game and deeply appreciate what GC brings every year.
All right, I started this late last night and have been finishing it up in btw meetings today. I hope it’s coherent. I think I covered most of it, but you’re welcome to ask questions.
Closing off, I hope we didn't cause too much grief (to GC especially). Although the team members responsible are part of our team, I and the rest of my team were not part of their decisions. I hope the actions taken by the rest of my team show we are conscionable group who value the game and people involved.
Sincerely,
Tam
Captain G
(p.s. This was the pic I was trying to post last time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10239227@N04/1246672810/ I share this not so your hearts are melted by our sheer adorability, but as an expression of why we are glad we went back, b/c puzzles are fun.)
I went to public school in Arkansas. We didn't even take the SAT, we took the ACT.
In light of all the drama going on, I thought it might be a good time to say that everyone on Team Maize had a great time. Each year we start the race looking to have fun, and Matt never lets us down. You can see some of our pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/umeditor/sets/72157601782203080/
FROM - PVP Brooklyn Baby! - 68.161.227.2Two points about the Midnight Madness Game in NYC:
(1) It's in NEW YORK CITY.
We lie here, we cheat, we indulge in conspicuous consumption, we don't use brakes on our bikes, we even beat people up. That's just how things get done in Gotham. Don't compare us to preppie Boston, backcountry Hot Springs or frackin gods forbid hippyville San Fran, flannel Seattle, etc. Clue skipping, snooping, etc. is what gives this game that NYC edge year after year. Team Black is the best example of this. They are very New York. And, accordingly, we love to hate 'em. They're like the MTA that way.
(2) Game vs. Race.
Games are more fun because there exists the possibility or at least the illusion that you could use some TACTIC (following, strategic use of hints, etc) to get ahead at ANY POINT during the game to improve your standing. Flat races are demoralizing, especially when you're near the end. Just finishing is fine, but the possibility that you could sink a three-pointer from the other end of the court and come out the unlikely underdog winner. THAT'S FUN. And that possibility - or illusion thereof - is why we stay up all night. Even though we know that standout shot only really happens in the movies. The race thing alone is like the SATs - a servicable measure of intelligence sure, but not indicative of more complex skillz. I bet pink all did very well on their SATs.
Are you saying that you found clues that were out of sequence for you but you did nothing to jump ahead? We found the batteries on Norfolk St just by running into some teams... So... that was the last clue in that sequence. Are you saying that just for shits and giggles you decided to try to solve all the clues because you thought it was the right thing to do?
This conversation is getting retarded. This game is all about espionage. Each year people get an advantage from doing something that has nothing to do w/ solving clues, such as the street cred system from last year, or tailing other teams. One year, a team actually told me that they were going home because most of their team had quit. I lied, telling them that we were quitting too, and what did they get for the answer to such and such a clue? They gave me all the answers they had to any clue they solved, thinking I was on my way to Penn Station to go home. That is not only COMPLETELY legal, it was an AWESOME feat of clandestine operations.
So all of you who are saying that following people or whatever isn't in the spitit of the game can honestly fuck yourselves. You're obviously either completely new to the game, or you are so scared of doing anything that isn't 100% within the guidelines that you've probably never experienced the rush of driving over 65 on the highway. This game *has no rules*... That's what it's all about.
Nabbing secret info from GC, as somsone suggested to me, could quite possibly be the best caper the game has ever seen. But you're free to disagree - but seriously... stop talking about how following people is evil. Jed's right - if you wanted to do that, you could sit around and solve clues in a room, or you could play MIT's mystery hunt. It takes like 3 days to do so there's no chance of being followed. God I hated MIT.
Jedi -- Goldenrod's 10am finish wasn't even listed on the timesheet that GC had at the finish line, but your third place finish was.
And in regards to your statement about stumbling upon clues, I think all the teams stumbled on many clues this year, as the zone wasn't all that big. It was inevitable this year. But we knew that we still had to finish everything prior to any new clues and text in the correct codewords in the correct sequence in order to get credit for our progress. So while we knew where we'd eventually end up, there was no point in jumping ahead.
Many people are certainly waiting for the official Goldenrod statement, and I'm definitely waiting to see what you all have to say before passing any judgment. But as 5 days have passed since the game ended, it seems quite strange that nothing has been said, so it's quite natural that speculation will run rampant. Remember -- we are all problem solvers, so we're going to try to figure things out for ourselves!
*sigh*
Are you saying that if you saw a mob of people huddled around a location that you would walk on by saying to yourself, "Well, haven't solved the puzzle that leads to that clue yet, so I'll just let it lie."? Or if you stumbled upon a clue you hadn't gotten to yet, you would forget you ever saw it? That would be "cheating", right?
If the game was *solely* about solving puzzles, we might as well just sit in a big room solving them like we're taking a test and not bother going anywhere. There are aspects of the game that go beyond solving puzzles which make it more fun.
Anyways, back to what really has your panties in a bunch: no one stole anything from GC.
Ugh... I really would like to go into more detail here, but we all agreed to let our captain write up a full account so everyone can know what really happened and people can stop talking out of their asses about it. I'm sure you all want to hear the whole story, and once you have, let the flaming commence. ;-P
Concerning GC, they didn't and haven't (as far as I know) come to any consensus concerning wether we did anything wrong. No one has called us cheaters (except a few people on this board).
I have noticed that GC hasn't released official results yet. I'm venturing a guess that they're not sure what to do about our 10am finish.
So, please wait until you have more information before you all start mercilessly flaming us. :)
ummmmmm, far be it from me to take the moral high ground, but i'm going to go out on a limb here... i think stealing the solutions to all the clues constitutes cheating. maybe following people (which is still cheating in my opinion) isn't cheating because it isn't explicitly spelled out in the rules....but cheating IS cheating. it's a no-brainer. you steal the answers to the clues, then you're a cheat. who could you even defend that?
the slippery slope this messageboard has been on for the past few days is awful ugly. there seems to be this constant defense of "nefarious" means for progressing through the game (aka cheating). i disagree with all of them. but even the folks that DEFEND team red for stalking team pink will probably understand the difference between trying to cheat off another team and trying to cheat off game control. even when you cheat off another team, you run the risk that they will be deceiving you or just plain wrong on a solution. it's OBVIOUSLY still wrong to trail a team, but there is something INHERENTLY different about stealing FROM GAME CONTROL. the fact that game control didn't let the cheating stand is even MORE evidence that stealing from GC constitutes cheating. but wait, there's no rule against it you say! well, there are countless unthinkable things that there are no rules against that could benefit a team in MM...but that don't make them legal. use some common sense.
the fact that it's taken your team days to "make a statement" about what happened is a testament to the shady lies that transpired and the bullshit explanation that is to come.
good for whoever it was on the team or on Game Control that had the moral compass to think: "Maybe stealing the answers FROM GAME CONTROL is cheating!". way to go.
Hello Everyone, I apologize for the delay in getting my statement and full story to everyone. I assure you this is not due to negligence or taking the issues lightly but to working nonstop and traveling for work. That and I had to investigate and get the full story myself. I will post as soon as I can, probably this evening. I have been in close touch with GC and my team. Sorry for the delay. -tam, goldenrod captain
Let's also just get it out there because it hasn't actually become crystal clear what it was that some of our team did.
One of our team members (I know.. Everyone's *shocked* that it wasn't me...) Managed to snatch a copy of GC's notes without them looking. He did this twice. The first time, the notes were quickly returned and we didn't look at them. It was just a "hey - you guys might want to keep a closer eye on these things." About a half hour later, he found another opportunity and he took it. We went on the premise that 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...' and we kept them the second time around. After possessing them for about 2 hours, GC still (as far as we know) did not know they were missing.
Now we can all agree that that doens't break any of the "rules," but clearly there are many people who have a big problem with it. Anyhoo - our captain is planning on writing a lengthy message, as indicated, so stay tuned... The drama continues!
I'm not speaking for my team here. I'm just speaking for myself. This is a sort of unofficial statement.
Just to be clear, we aren't pretending nothing happened. Not everyone on the team was aware at the time of what actually transpired, and we've been talking a lot about how we feel about it. We wanted to come to a concensus before posting the full story on the bbs.
During the game itself, we had lengthy discussions with GC, and the people of GC spent quite a bit of time talking it out amongst themselves. As you all know, GC intentionally structures the game to encourage sneaky tactics in addition to pure puzzle solving prowess. The only rules are: don't tamper with puzzles, take only one copy per team, and no motorized vehicles. This is why we all look over our shoulders when solving clues and make sure no one is trailing us when going to a new location. It adds to the fun. (btw, shout out to team Pink for finishing first without resorting to any sort of nefarious activities and relying solely on your puzzle solving brilliance.)
Back to the topic at hand, neither all the people in GC nor all of our team members were able to agree as to the rightness of our actions. We didn't break any of the short list of rules, but some might say it went against the spirit of the game; some might say it was fully within the spirit of the game; most people felt uncomfortable about the whole thing. Regardless, even after having our entire team spend hours going to and from the finish line and hashing things out with GC, we still decided to go back, complete all the puzzles we skipped, and returned to the finish line in third place having thoroughly finished the game.
We're still working out all the details of what happened different people being involved at different levels. You all will get a full account soon.
"We're all talking about what constitutes bending the rules and how GC often applauds those who bend them in creative ways but I think it is important to point out that GC did not allow Team Goldenrod (who have been either silent or pretending that nothing screwy went on, they are the Alberto Gonzales of MM10)to get away with their bogus 10am finish."
I have to respectfully disagree that it was a "bogus" finish. Nothing that violated the rules of the game took place. Was it in the "spirit" of the game? Certainly not. Was it dignified? No. But it was NOT against the rules. There was a wide range of opinion even with our own team as the how we felt about finishing the way we did at 10am, and I don't think it's necessarily fair to cast aspersions on the whole team, or even on those who orchestrated the "cheat". I can certainly understand those who feel it was not the most honorable thing to do, but event those have to admit it didn't break either of the game's rules.
Now, that said, whatever decision Game Control makes on this matter is their own to make. I certainly won't argue with it. If Game Control decides that the earlier finish wasn't within the rules of the game, and therefore should not count, then so be it.
Even with the delay in having to go all the way down to the East River Park and back and forth one more, we still finished third, solving all of the puzzles in order, and I think we're proud of that.
Finally, I don't want to speak for my whole team, but I hadn't posted anything here on this topic for two reasons. One, that there isn't really so much to discuss - Game Control will put out results when they decide to (or they won't), and that will be that. As I said before, despite what some of you may think about the actions of certain members of our team, I'm proud of our strong finish (yes, the "official" third place finish), and it doesn't really matter so much to me what others think beyond that. Second, I personally haven't posted here because most of the "debate" is just some strange sort of hypercompetitive vitriol that usually ends in "(color) IS TEH AWSUM!!" or something along those lines. I don't really feel like having some strange sort of trash talking debate with people I don't know and will never meet.
At any rate, I hope none of this has offended anyone. I had a great time this year, and my dealings with other teams were, on the whole, friendly and good natured. Congratulations to Team Pink for their great finish, and to all of the teams who finished as well.
Best,
Joe
Team Goldenrod
P.S. I know that Tam, Captain of Goldenrod, plans to post a message here in the next few days, so I would look out for that if you want the official Team Goldenrod POV.
We're all talking about what constitutes bending the rules and how GC often applauds those who bend them in creative ways but I think it is important to point out that GC did not allow Team Goldenrod (who have been either silent or pretending that nothing screwy went on, they are the Alberto Gonzales of MM10)to get away with their bogus 10am finish.
That is the ultimate test of whether or not a team's "tactics" are ok: if GC has issues with what you've done, then something's fishy.
Should the whole team have been disqualified? Maybe. But it's GC's call. Those of us who know better can just move ourselves up a slot on the finishers board.
What? we didn't follow you to the video clue? I think we just happened to be going there at the same time.
I think everyone understands that some following and spying is part of the game. I think it makes it more interesting.
Anyway all this talk of following has gotten silly.
the other half is playing... i would never take a flowchart of the game.. but having three dongles for a 6 hours was damn nice and besides 100 percent of the fun is playing the game.. solving the clues.. the sense of accomplishment.. seeing parts of the city in a new way... winning would be nice but i would never trade my experiences with mm for anything. this year was by far the best...
just i wish i could have solved the clue that was on my own block. or at least i wish i had walked down rivington to get to the train rather than delancey.. if i saw .. who knows what we could have accomplished
Wow team pink, what short term memory we have? Following huh? Remember your team following us to the dance video clue? You did! We were there first and you had someone follow us!Everyone does a little following. You seem to be sore winners. As far as goldenrod goes, I know how they got to the finish line at 10 am and it is pathetic. 3rd place huh? They should be disqualified for what went down!!!!!
Look, a bit of discreet spying and countermeasures against it are a completely legit part of the game. I certainly was peeking over other teams' shoulders to see if they'd somehow come up with something on E. 9th St., and there were a couple times I idiotically talked into my phone way too loud and anyone would have been absolutely right to sneak up and try to hear what I was saying.
But there's an assumption (not part of the rules, certainly), that if the targeted team calls you out for spying you leave them alone. That was the issue with our pair of stalkers--even after we started clowning them getting them to look at random lampposts or take pictures of empty parking lots, they were still trying to eavesdrop on our puzzle solving, so we had to go a few blocks out of our way to my apartment to get a locked door between us and them.
At the time we were somewhat annoyed, and rather amused, so we decided to post our photos of them on the message board after the game. In hindsight they only cost us a few minutes and given that we ended up winning we probably should have kept it to ourselves and there was definitely no call to call them losers. On the other hand, it's easy to see that a determined stalking strategy, taken to the extreme (again, not what happened here), could break the game pretty badly.
To answer some other questions, you absolutely needed to text in all the passwords in order to finish. Goldenrod crossed the finish line at 10am, but they'd skipped a big portion of the game so they didn't actually finish until 1:30 or so. Similarly, someone from Black tailed our stragglers to the finish area but they didn't actually solve the last clue until almost an hour later.
Do you know of a previous year where a team that relies on spying/stalking did win? For future games, I'd like to know what strategy works.
"Spying and following other teams may be legit, but it doesn't make for very impressive strategy and it didn't lead a single team to victory here."
I love how a first-timer (the player, not the team) happens to win the game and then extrapolates all sorts of victorious philosophy and sanctimony out of it.
In the spirit of keeping The Game alive on the east coast, would folks be interested in an event in Boston? I'm not saying that I want to host the game, but I'm curious if there's interests.
Game Control - Thank you. This is my fourth MM and it was definitely the best yet. The opening gambit threw off our team strategy. The puzzles were amazingly well executed. Your numerous uses of the dongle were totally cool. I'm amazed. I bow to you.
When will we know the finishing times and order?
On this stalking thing - what do you think GC? MMIX we finished the flip book without finishing the penny thing - and GC wouldn't let us move on without all the code words. This leads me to believe that just getting to the finish line w/o all the code words doesn't constitute a win?
Thank you. My NYC summer will not be the same without you.
To "the guy behind the guy"... to be fair, nobody followed anybody around all night. Two guys followed us from one clue several blocks to our apartment. It was funny, we were laughing about it, and we posted their photo to tease Team Red.
Calling them losers was over the top, but so was calling us cockbites, so I think we are all square now as far as that is concerned.
I do think this is a fascinating discussion, though. I truly never realized just how much was tolerated and permissable.
I just want to clarify that if folks are going to continue to debate tactics and gameplay, that none of this has anything to do with what ACTUALLY transpired during the game. I wouldn't want someone to get the wrong idea about Team Red.
to the person that wrote this:
To the "guy behind the guy" - if a team won by managing to trail another (otherwise winning) team all night, and then beat them to a finish line in a mad dash, it would not only be defensable - it would be an example of AMAZING PLAY.
you should be ashamed of yourself. i personally would not think it was an AMAZING PLAY to follow some team around all night. and if the winning team had to design the game for the following year, the self-selection process of having the team that solved the clues the best (and fastest) is the best way to keep the game solid. a team that won by your AMAZING PLAY would probably design a crappy game.
At least in one instance, where we had to figure out "hymn" based on the four letter codes that we had, we texted our answer into game control.
That's not correct. The codewords to text to GC were visible on each clue. If you didn't solve a thing but somehow shadowed another team all night, they would lead you to every answer. I personally agree that's lame but evidently many applaud such a strategy, including GC, whose rules encourage these things.
That's the game you played. It's partly a game of chess and partly a contact sport with no ref. Accept it and love it.
Maybe I'm confused, but I'm fairly certain that you have to actually solve all the puzzles to win. Not all of the puzzles simply involve finding the location of the next clue- you often had to text solutions to game control to move on. How could you win the game without solving those?
We won this game without following or copying anyone (even when we were totally stuck at the gyroscope we couldn't figure out anything by watching other people who also weren't solving it). At least for me, the win is a lot sweeter for knowing that it is entirely a product of good strategy and good team work by the members of our own team. We didn't need the other teams to do our work for us.
Spying and following other teams may be legit, but it doesn't make for very impressive strategy and it didn't lead a single team to victory here.
So if a team had just hung around GameControl and then followed them to the finish line when it was time, does this count as winning?
To the "guy behind the guy" - if a team won by managing to trail another (otherwise winning) team all night, and then beat them to a finish line in a mad dash, it would not only be defensable - it would be an example of AMAZING PLAY. In years that Lava won, we had to resort to solving clues quickly, but that was by circumstance and not choice. All is fair in MM except clue tampering; things that would be considered cheating elsewhere are encouraged.
GC was not as explicit this year as they have been in the past, but this has always been a key part of the ethos.
P.S. A team that lets themselves be followed all night and can't shake the other team through indirection, then loses in a last minute foot race, does not deserve to win the game!
Thanks for a great time, game control and worthy competitors.
Sorry for the late post, but I'm still working on the celebrity game and I swear I've almost got it figured out. I think each celebrity corresponds to a hexagram in the I Ching. Most of my team has left, but some of the bums I met on the street are helping me out. I suspect some of them are MM players from ages gone.
Anyway, MMX has been an amazing undertaking on game control's part and I don't think any of us can thank them enough. Awesome job, guys.
Team Olive Prevails.
i must say, the defense of tailing other teams as a strategy is ridiculous and i'm appalled by it. the "gathering as much information from as many sources as possible" sounds like double-talk for "we cheated when we got worried that we couldn't solve clues".
i look forward to the day when the winning team stalks the leading team from start to finish, never solving a clue, only to beat them out in a footrace to the finish line. anyone up for defending that strategy?
team red was in the wrong here.
you follow a team around and don't solve the clues (in a game based on solving clues!), you get called out on it. live with it. you're the ones that did it.
Game Control,
Once again, thank you for all your ridiculous hard work. This was the best MM in the past 4 years. I played with team Pink (who were a remarkable team and, recent flame wars aside, a class act) and everyone had a nonstop fabulous time.
I thought that the general level of play was extremely positive this year. My encounters with other teams were almost always friendly and cool. I attribute that to the fact that everyone was having such a damn good time.
Every puzzle I worked on was extremely well set. We never got screwed by broken clues or compromised locations. Everything was fun to solve. The neighborhood choices couldn't have been better.
As for the puzzles, the folding strip was a particular favorite for its aesthetic appeal, and the animals for its simplicity. (I was completely convinced that the LES deli Noah's Ark was the answer.) I also liked the combination puzzles (madman photos and celebrity game) that required our dispersed team to reunite and put everything together.
I literally walked on top of the clue under the sidewalk at La Plaza Cultural for the better part of an hour. How anyone found that I will never know.
And of course the sweet, syrupy, Pepto-Bismol-Pink victory made the whole night go down easy.
So thank you!
-----
And most importantly, GC:
Are you really, really sure you want it to be over?
Don't you want to pull the puppet strings and make your minions dance once more?
Don't you want to see the teams cry and groan and cheer their way along once more?
Game Control, roll back the stone and speak to us one more time.
FROM - Myrcell NYC - 24.193.58.236Hey,
Missed the fun this year but I'm looking for a team to join for next summer. Love puzzles, and I know the city like the back of my hand. It doesn't hurt that Im pretty f-in cute too. Any teams recruiting please email molly.r.campbell@gmail.com
I'll never forget the moment during Spiral when several of my team's captains, upon solving the technique, just paused to marvel at the absolute beauty of the puzzle. I'm sure others can agree that that was one of the best. So from this newbie, thanks to Team Red for having me, and thanks to Game Control for putting so much heart into their swansong. Fagabeefe!
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/cas/404450451.html
For those of us that missed it, could someone post a link to the craigslist list clue?
FROM - Kevin Cerulean - 64.221.253.195THANK YOU GAME CONTROL!
FROM - Kevin Cerulean - 64.221.253.195I've uploaded all the photos I took from MMX and put them in a flickr group. Everyone should have access to all sizes of the photos and I would like to request that people make comments on the actual photos as to WHO IS IN THE PICTURE.
I was the blonde guy from Cerulean, camped out @ GC when it was in it's downtown local on broome st.
I had fucked up my foot, so I stayed there to play hint liason and snapped quite a few great photos of other teams sitting around solving clues but I never asked names or who they were, most of the time I'm not sure if anyone even saw me.
But yeah.. if you could let me know Team Name's in comments, that would be awesome. Thanks guys!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orin/sets/72157601715811078/
I don't agree with your characterization of my reaction, but I apologize for offending you. (I won't even characterize your reaction as an overreaction.)
P.S. We were nice to your stalkers when we confronted them. A tiny bit of name-calling on my part (referring to them as losers) seems pretty mild, but again, I apologize.
Members of our team are veterans of Midnight Madness, The Haystack, the MIT Mystery Hunt, the Stanford Game, and many other games around the country. Not our first rodeo.
The whole thing was supposed to poke fun at you guys. No one on Team Pink was in any way seriously upset that you were following us. Team Black followed us, too. It just wasn't as comical because in this case you guys followed us for a really long time and we were only headed to someone's apartment.
As "photographer" stated before, while following other teams is an accepted Midnight Madness tradition, so is teasing other teams on the message board after the game.
Clearly we have crossed some kind of line where we are no longer busting chops and have hurt some feelings.
In my opinion, Team Red shouldn't worry that anyone thinks they cheat. Like you've already pointed out, your consistently good results speak for themselves. Don't be defensive just because we posted a funny picture from a funny moment during the game. Everyone still loves you, including Team Pink.
Photographer - Flame wars aside, following other teams is a strategy employed by MANY teams...not just Red. And, frankly, I think there are other teams that (at least in the past) have done it way better than us (hats off to Black and Cerulean).
If you think that we followed you because we thought you were in the lead, you are mistaken. There is no way of knowing who is ahead or behind...there are only (mostly) nameless faces with backpacks, bikes and flashlights.
Sometimes, following actually turns out well for both teams: take the Rat's Nest puzzle at MM8. We arrived at the clue at the same time as another team and a team that was following us arrived just after. We realized that the clue was difficult and required lots of connecting wires, etc. and decided to work together. Then we all went on our merry way.
Was this your first MM? If so, I suppose I understand your overreaction. Still, posting those pics pisses me off a little bit.
anything goes....play fair and be fair.
stop the whining. you won, others didnt.
but we all had fun.
Blame me for taking the photo, not Dave. You're free to think I'm wrong for disclosing your stalking strategy here, but it seems like a fair response to me, especially considering the extent to which you stalked us.
We have always played fair and have always been friendly toward the other teams, even on this forum. We didn't sacrifice that to win; we just solved the puzzles quickly.
i was only being halfway sarcastic. but honestly, you're probably right about posting the photo. and as far as team red goes, even this dumb flame war notwithstanding, you guys are allright in my book. i've had nothing but positive interactions with your team in the past and have no reason to believe that following people is the way you win. i was just fighting back was all.
hope nobody on red is offended beyond repair from the photo. we need you guys to come play in the game we're putting on next year.
love,
dave
I can't tell if you're being ironic, but slack given as far as I'm concerned. Congratulations.
It's not like Red just sat around tailing people as our sole strategy. The strategy was "gather as much information as possible from all sources".
I think it's far creepier and low that a person from your team took a photo of my friends and posted it on a public messageboard for the purpose of ridiculing them.
This was our first year to win, so you have to excuse us. We never had any idea of all the tools that winning teams use! In past years, we always tried to solve the puzzles on our own or with hints from Game Control, just like we did this year. We were totally unaware of the standard protocol.
I hope that everyone cuts me some slack for putting Team Red on blast. I'm embarassed at my own naivite. I swear to you if there were another game next year, our team would be much more relaxed about teams trying to follow us from clue to clue instead of solving it themselves now that we understand that it is an acceptable and fair way to play the game.
Looking back actually on the previous years you can see Dave from Pink always comes in to complain about something. So this is just par for the course. This year the stars aligned and they won, so he has to find something to bitch about.
This speaks to a bitter emptiness at the core of his heart. That should earn only compassion, not scorn.
Dave, sorry that you are the person you are.
Pink, you are the most ungracious winners ever. Get over yourselves.
Who new Pink were such cockbites, especially after winning? What aplomb you guys have.
I never said it was against the rules or cheating or anything like that. I was pointing out that we never had to do anything like that, or anything like any of the examples you gave, in any of the games we played.
In fact, I think each example you gave, while not a violation of any rule (except the breaking of the box, which was clearly against the rules), is still lame.
I suppose Barry Bonds isn't breaking any rules either. He's still a loser.
Stalking may not be against the rules, but neither is ridiculing you for it. It's a clear acknowledgment that you have no confidence in your own team.
I guess that's your legacy now.
Yes, Mr. Pink, those two guys were members of Team Red.
We've been a strong, consistent team for the past three years (as have many others, like Black). Since when is following another team against the rules? We've had other teams follow us before, on foot, on bikes and on rollerblades; we've seen teams break lockboxes open and physically sit on a sticker that had a code word on it; last year Team Black practically won the game at 4am by ferociously ambushing people; another team went to Kinkos and xeroxed the street cred money...and apparently, this year, someone actually found GC's crib sheets and used 'em to try and win the game...so in the grand scheme of things, I don't think two guys on foot following you is that big of a deal. Sorry.
I SAID TEAM RED WAS NICE.
Team Red was nice.
Team Red was nice.
Ha! Those two losers look like Melio and Barf from the original film.
i'm pretty sure those guys are on team red. they followed us for blocks and blocks. we would take photos of random crap like fire hydrants and empty lots, then they would run over to look at whatever decoy thing we were taking photos of. they followed us all the way to our teammate's apartment.
it mostly sucks because we have to waste time trying to lose somebody who is trying to piggy back off of the hard work you've already put in, especially you think the game is tight. but it also sucks because it is embarassing for team red. i thought they were supposed to be good. they won two years ago, but at least we never follow anyone.
at least they picked a good team to stalk. i'll give them that.
Here are the losers that refused to stop stalking us.
Yes, it was Arial and not Helvetica. I'm kind of disappointed you didn't catch that it was Dingbats and not Wingdings. And you call yourselves typography nerds. For shame.
can anyone tell me where #0 was?
Er, that link didn't come through,
For future reference:
http://www.ms-studio.com/articlesarialsid.html
The game was great and I want to thank Game Control for all of their hard work, but I'm absolutely certain the font clue contained Arial and not Helvetica!
For future reference:
Jed, don't judge me.
Re: Photos
I remember speaking with a guy from Team Cerulean (w/ long blond hair and a baseball cap) who was stationed at GC all night, taking pictures...so hopefully he'll post some.
One of our team members took a few...I will have him post the flickr link here...
BTW GC...if there were any year to have a post MM happy hour, this would be it...
Thank you a million times over to Game Control. It was, as everyone said, brilliant, organized impeccably, fun, exasperating, exhilarating.
This was my third MM, and we might be the only team that didn't finish this year, even though we felt we could have but when we arrived for hints around 1:30, GC had packed it in and Mat told us to come to the finish line. We were only four people by that point, and had a blast. We were gratified to at least have the finish line in sight, after losing approximately 20 members over the course of the night!
Thank you to Chris from (I think?) Team Marmalade, for being so sweet & explaining the trajectory of the last four clues to us so we could experience them vicariously and for (hopefully) returning our dongle.
Thank you to the kind boys of Team Red, who helped us solve the ???? clue that would have been impossible otherwise since most of our earlier texters had gone home & to bed, and who didn't make fun of us for being two hours behind them at 103 Norfolk.
Two questions:
1. Who was responsible for the identical red "jelly toast" stickers at 9th Street and 14th & C?
2. Who left the (store-bought) pack of celebrity scandal playing cards on the curb outside Freeman's Sporting Goods on Rivington around the corner from the clue in Freeman Alley?
Thanks again to the other teams who were so generous to us, and to Game Control for actually wanting us to solve the clues & not treating us like the Bad News Bears when we called in.
I had so much fun. I'm sad that it's allegedly over. I will be waiting with baited breath next summer for the surprise second coming.
Hi All! I posted some photos on flickr - lookup up the tag MMX. Anyone else have any shots from the evening??
Hey, thanks Team Spicy Mustard for the shout-out! Team Heliotrope was comprised entirely of MM newbies, & even though we only got there with gobs of help from GameControl, crossing the finish line still felt like a huge accomplishment.
I can't imagine how much time & effort GameControl put into preparing all the gadgets & puzzles for this event. Thank you so much for doing it, & I hope like crazy that you'll consider doing it again some time.
Thanks Game Control for a great game. Great puzzles, great locations, great flow, great hint system. Seriously well-composed.
Can I suggest that people include the tag MMX when they post their pictures to flickr? And because of all the Pentiums people like to photograph, also include "madness" somewhere in there?
FROM - Mike D, team clear Brooklyn - 64.236.245.243This was my first and (apparently) last year of Midnight Madness and all I can say is how glad I am to have been part of this institution.
Thanks to Game Control for putting it together and staying awake long enough for us to finish.
And finally, thanks to Team Clear for being amazing, supportive, and most of all principled. You guys rock.
FROM - Chuk-GoldenRod DC - 65.201.149.22Hey Everybody,
I was a newbie this year on Team Goldenrod. Better late than never, and I'm glad I could at least make it to the funeral of this beloved game.
I'm still in awe at the preparations everybody went into to make such an incredible, creative, exhausting event. (I have game control to thank for a 4 hour Chinatown bus ride that I don't even remember; for that, a very sincere thank you) It was a lot of fun to run along side so many of you guys, trying to look nonchalant to nearby players after finding a new clue, overrunning the Starbucks, having a drunk Scotsman join our group momentarily for what he thought was a 3AM curbside vigil, et cetera.
It felt great to find a pattern after staring at the same damn piece of paper for an hour, and it felt amazing to complete all the clues and cross that finish line. Congratulations to everybody who worked so hard to put this all together, and to everybody who slaved through those clues.
I've been part of this for all of 48 hours, so I'm especially sad to see it go. Anyway, thanks again to everybody.
Cheers!
Chuk
just another voice adding to the chorus of THANK YOUs to our noble Game Control leaders. you've made the 5 MM's I had the pleasure of running the best of times, as well as the worst. luckily, by the time I've sat down and enjoyed a cocktail, the worst has usually been forgotten. this year was no different.
and a resounding huzzah to the 8 members of Team Clear: we started together, we finished together, and we did it with honor. I'm proud to be counted among you.
plus plus building equals death,
w
Thanks Game Control for our 9the year of late night puzzle solving (all 9 that Mat ran)...it's truly been a GREAT experience year-in and year-out! There are more spots throughout the boros that I see only in terms of MM clues/locations then you c an possibly imagaine!
On this years game, it was so flawlessly run and the clues so well done we might just declare this one of the best ever (only missing 'zombies')! GREAT job Team Pink for somehow beating us to the finish line and great job sirrix once again showing what a gigantic pos you are!
We will sincerely miss MM and hope to be involved in a ny future gaming experience moving fwd!
@R!N
GO TEAM BLACK!
Wow this one was so great. Thanks so much Game Control. I'm really sad you guys aren't putting on another one. Hopefully this is just like the end of a concert where we just chant "more! more!" a few times and you guys come out and do an encore.
Everything puzzle seemed flawless this year. Really great job.
I also need to apologize to whoever I pushed out of the way during the spectrum dongle puzzle. I was on the verge of meltdown since we were working on that thing for so long and I had finally gotten it to register. Also I knew that you would realize how to solve it immediately. Anyway sorry.
Awesome job to everyone on our team. Such a great change from 3 years ago when we were DFL and game control just called us and told us where the finish line was because they were tired of waiting. Dreams really do come true!
BBW seems reasonable to know someone on our team instantly knew what VGL was?
Did anyone solve that hangman puzzle?
Thanks again!
FROM - tam, goldenrod cp'n dc - 141.156.172.228I will write a proper note when I am more coherent. Just got home.
I want to sincerely thank GameControl (Mat, Josh, Kamalesh, and Tamara in particular we worked with us throughout the night) and fellow teams for another unparalleled experience and for five years of huddling over papers on sidewalks, arguing over whether we are definitely seeing some gary sinise, being offered coke on Avenue B, spirit/bone-crushing moments, and the heart thumping excitement that comes when you see one of your team members (and it really can be anyone) getting that spark of inspiration that leads to the answer. What makes all of this so memorable are the people involved and what unfolds when you set up conditions for this much fun and pain. MM has been an exhilarating chapter.
Speaking of pain, I will cap this note for now by saying I am really going to miss the weary smiles at the finish line, particularly from GC who never fail in their genius, creativity and good nature, and it is because I love this game and the people involved that I am personally disappointed by some of what transpired this year. To start, I was looking forward to the potluck...
For now, one of my fav pics from the night:
MMX rocked, it was a classic finale. We had a great time in Spicy Mustard.
Sure, there were some frustrating moments too but hey at least there weren't any pennies or poster-compares this time around.
Some high points (a very incomplete list):
* Debate amongst the team as to whether or not we needed to hunt down a black light to place behind the fuzzy-imaged St John cube being quickly silenced by an authoritative wet finger (go Jordan, you rocked on this and set the tone for the zone).
* The awesome, awesome HQs set up by Menashe, Irwin, Dan and others, and our superhuman HQ'ers.
* A bike team that was everywhere they needed to be, always.
* The increasingly common refrain over our email channels at different times during the night: "security throwing everyone out!".
* One of our team being more certain that we'd, um, expected him to be on the definition of BBW in the personals ad clue.
* Finishing the opening gambit before midnight!
* The woman selling water aggressively at Union Square, keeping countless teams of MM'ers hydrated.
* Accidentally mis-addressing a team email at 4am, and sending a non-MM senior business colleague an urgent message insisting that he "proceed with caution but send the pictures at the jungle gym ASAP!!"
* The look of horror on Mat's face when he saw that we intended to hook up the alligator clips and batteries to the dongle.
* Our team's next best idea, sending folks to examine the Manhattan bridge, since - like the alligator clips - this was a piece of metal that electrically connects things.
* Wondering if the squares in the "folding origami" puzzle were blotter art, and whether or not that might not just help the situation.
* The amusing (but incorrect) hunch some on our team had that the skull turning into a smily face on the bike/dongle clue could only mean that the finish line was at a bar called "Happy Endings".
* Seeing lots of new players on our team really deliver -- you guys gelled very fast -- and seeing new teams like Heliotrope power through their first MM and finish!
Lastly, GAME CONTROL, you guys have been simply unbelievable year after year (I'm fortunate to have been playing since MMV when Irwin first told me about MM), and MMX was no exception. THANK YOU for all the games and all the fun, GC.
Props, kudos, and thanks to Mat, Nicole (original Team Pucer), and all at Game Control for a great night of fun.
Okay, maybe we were a little pathetic (my own low point was trying to return the flash card to Mat because I didn't even realize it was a clue), but we had a wonderful time. Good game, good fun. Thank you for six great years of Puce-i-tude.
Thanks too to Team Red for being nice to us. Hey, it wasn't like we were going to jeopardize you position, and you were gracious and great.
PS, it was also a special treat to see Von. He's still the soul of Puce as far as I'm concerned.
Apology for what? The game has two rules and neither was broken.
I will say that the game was great and the clues were particularly engaging. It's been a great five years - some of the best memories of my life!
P.S. Fuck team Red! You guys smell :)
Thanks G.C for another fine game! I just want to say that you guys are awesome, and I look forward to the "rebirth" of MM in the future.
Major props to Team Pink "aka the only team to finishing ahead of Team Black" for first place.
As for goldenrod, I suggest you cut ties with that criminal you call a teammate. I do not feel sorry for your team as you know what type of player he/she is and you deserve everything you get! I think you all owe everyone (especially G.C.) an apology.
Team Black will always rule the planet!!!!!!!!!
No one was disqualified and no one cheated... But we did finish at 10am...
I have a total crush on Game Control...you guys were great...I'm devastated that I won't see you next August. One of our beautiful ladies even shed tears at the end of the game...we love that you make us stretch our brains in all sorts of crazy ways. I promise I'll go back to bashing teams soon but I'm honestly heartbroken that this is the last MM.
P.S. Team Black Smells!
Hey Goldenrod...I hear that half of your team was disqualified for cheating...care to elaborate?
Thanks again to the GC gurus for a great night.
The more I learn of the intricacies of the game and its components the more honored I am to have been challenged by your wicked talent and wit. Hats off!
Where on earth did you find our dear friend VON?! Ha!
Surely one mystery is best left unsolved...
Catherine here from Goldenrod.
THANKS GC for such an awesome game!!! ALL the puzzles were flawless and the dongles were funny and amazing and a super awesome way of integrating the idea of a meta puzzling with the hints. Seriously brilliant and fair and fun and well-executed! I love getting the hints face to face cuz we see that you are people too (and tired too)!!!
Also, thanks to Goldenrod for taking me in as one of your own. You guys were all really awesome to work with. Lots of laughs (and just enough tension for no sleep). I felt inspired, challenged, and AWESTRUCK ;-) by all of y'all and all of us as a unit too!
Also a big thanks to all the other teams for being fun and funny!! Sorry that I tried to psych some of you out by talking about finding puzzles in the trash and stuff like that.
Speaking of, I'm sad that our team's good luck and spying abilities ended up blowing everyone's minds because then we had to cross the finish line twice (i.e., I had to bike to that park and back twice!!!!). Nonetheless, it was fun to go back and hammer through the fun endgame puzzles - I want to take dance lessons now! And now we were the first team to cross the finish line, the 3 team to finish all the puzzles, and possibly the only team to cross the finish line twice? Sorry - I gotta brag a little, that's what we're competing for right???
Giid luck with life GC!!!!!! Thanks so much for the 100% awesomeness.
I just want to say thank you to GC for so much hard work. Once again your diabolical minds made for an amazing night of adventures. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the finish line, but I bow before you anyway!
I love that team black had to be given extra time at the start of the race because they are so old.
Hey Sirrix,
First off, what kind of team name/color is Goldenrod!? What are you playing with crayons again?
Second, there will be no 40oz for you from Cyco this year or any other year...Team Black will be drinking them ourselves at the finish line and tosing the empties at your sorry ass team hours later when you finally cross the finish line.
GO TEAM BLACK!
I'm sure yoiu are all wondering what the deal is with the party mentioned in GC's email tonite at midnight?
This will be thrown in honor of Team Black successfully completing their run of each Midnight Madness from birth (year 1) until it's death @ midnight tonight (we assume we will finish earlier than that honestly, so we'd happily help GC set up for this) when we will cross the finish line victorious!
See ya at the end suckaz!
GO TEAM BLACK!
Attention Midnight Madness Players
The starting location tonight
at 8:00pm
is in Riverside Park,
west of the 103rd Street stairs.
In case it's helpful, a map is here:
http://www.midnight-madness.org/mmx_start.jpg
See you there!
Also:
You're all invited to a party tonight at midnight to celebrate the
birth and death of Midnight Madness. The party will be outdoors,
in a crowd, and it's potluck. Bring anything and come ready to celebrate!
Game Control
Haven't heard anything, either. Are we all watching our inboxes?
Jess Keating is fucking with us.
You have to decode the first email to get the location of the start point.
Um, our team captain hasn't gotten any more info about the starting location. Anyone else know?;
Starting location info was sent to team captains, with exact details to follow. Stay in touch with your captains - no need to check the email every two minutes!
CycoSteve - I will wear an orange Mets hat. Please bring a fo'ty.
Red.
do yourself a favor and stay home. no one cares what you're wearing. especially when you come in last.
Is everybody else checking their email twenty times an hour, looking for location details?
Sirrix, my love, have you never heard of silk jersey fabric? And as far as things SARTORIAL are concerned, I'm talking about http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com not Monsieur Jean-Paul...however the fact that you're trying to impress the lovelies of Team Red with your knowledge of French literature is duly noted.
Everything you wear is seamless? I had no idea an entire wardrobe could be constructed using only pantyhose. Fascinating.
Also, I'm not sure what French existentialism has to do with the game, but if you want to be Sartreial, that's up to you.
Not to pooh pooh you, Poo Poo...but we are not only the best looking team out there (Team Black is secretly in love with us) but we are the sartorial darlings of MM. We know exactly what's appropriate, clothing wise, at every moment of the game. Everything we wear is seamless, practically weightless, classic and wrinkle-free. Don't be surprised if you see Anna Wintour riding a bicycle in her Manolos as a proud part of Team Red.
i think that team red's claim to the best looking team title is somewhat premature... kind of like the timing of their ejaculations.
everyone knows poo poo is the prettiest team out there, puh-lease.
Ah, Black...no one denies that you guys are great competitors (at least, Team Red doesn't...you are crafty SOBs)...but that makes it even more fun when we watch you cross the finish line AFTER us.
Can't wait to see you on Saturday night...We'll be the best looking team there, as per usual.
Wow, congratulations on all that overcoming and understanding new elements, Black!
I have to point out, though, that the goal is technically to be the first team at the finish line. Probably just a miscommunication and, you know, your way is pretty good too, so don't beat yourselves up.
That is right that each year G.C. introduces a new element and team black figures out the best way to overcome it. Team black went on such a rampage last year that G.C decided mid-game to change the rules to be fair to the other teams! Team black has and always will be the greatest team to ever rule the planet known as M.M.
"Back to the beginning" is a red herring, methinks. There are people who've done the first MM, so why a repeat? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of what GC has been trying to do every year? Each MM introduces a new, different element...a retread would be beneath them.
Though I know Team Black is hoping it's in the same place...because then they'll actually have a shot at winning.
Though that brings up another interesting question: Has GC ever held midnight madness in the same place twice?
The first MM was held in the neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill and the adjoining parts of East Harlem. If we're right that this is going to be a repeat, you better study area street maps and business locations carefully - you wouldn't want to be disadvantaged vs us old timers!!
To MM Super-Veterans:
In what neighborhood(s) was the first MM held?
I played in all kinds of Games when I lived in California. I'd love to play in Midnight Madness. If you have space on your team and are potentially interested, mail me at: heading.to.dc at gmail dot com. Thanks!
If anyone is looking to add another to their team, I'd be interested. I've never participated in midnight madness before, but I've done (and won!) several GoGames in Seattle and The Amazing Race in Brooklyn. Hit me: littlestcabbage at gmail dot com.