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:
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“To hunt tigers one must have a brother’s help.”
—Chinese proverb.
“Acknowledging separation feelings directly and sympathetically is the best way of coping with them. It is actually helpful to tell a toddler “I’ll miss you,” or “I will think of you during the day,” or “It is hard to say goodbye,” or “I can’t wait to see you at the end of the day.” These messages tell the child that he is important to the parent even when they are not together and that out of sight need not mean out of mind.”
—Alicia F. Lieberman (20th century)