Puzzle Hunt 8: The Hard Way (February 19-20, 2005)
- Theme: Las Vegas, complete with showgirls and a time-share presentation
- Participants: 57 teams, 643 players (6 teams finished)
- Hosted by: Staggering Geniuses (Amanda O'Connor, Mark L. Gottlieb, Sean Trowbridge, Mike Selinker, Matt Ruhlen, Greg Lewis, Jason Alcock, Matt Dixon, Ron Giesen, Matt Jones, Chris McBride, and Chris Pearo)
- Won by: Cracking Good Toast
- Awards: Giant dice
- Memorable Events/Puzzles: Teams were given a "Las Vegas" (transformed Microsoft Campus) travel brochure at the opening ceremony with seven puzzles and a metapuzzle embedded within. Each of the seven puzzles gave an instruction for cutting out and taping together buildings, cutting holes in the buildings, positioning them on the map, and shining a light through the buildings from a particular position over the map to cast the shadow of a phone number, which kicked off your meeting with the nefarious Mr. Big.
- Portions of this hunt appear in the November 2005 issue of GAMES World of Puzzles.
- Landmarks: Second largest win margin in hunt history (? hours). First three-time winner. First hunt to have a team (not the winning team) to solve all puzzles.
Read more about this topic: Microsoft Puzzle Hunt
Famous quotes containing the words puzzle, hunt and/or hard:
“—My good friend, quoth I—as sure as I am I—and you are you
—And who are you? said he.—Don’t puzzle me; said I.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Fluency avoids hard thoughts.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)