The 4/20 Event

We asked all the teams to sign up for a 20-minute slot between 3 and 8pm on Friday, 4/20. They were instructed to meet us at a group of benches in Duboce Park in San Francisco. This spot was visible to us from the deck at Game Control. At the scheduled meeting time, a "delivery man" ran up, asked for the team, handed them a Fed-Ex envelope, and disappeared. Inside was a cell phone, and the person at Game Control immediately called it, so that the phone was ringing as the team opened their envelope, just like in the scene in the Matrix. When they answered, they were instructed to move in a certain way, possible because the person on the line could see the team through binoculars, eventually ending up on Steiner Street, where they were instructed to enter The Mystery Machine driving up to meet them.

Inside, the teams learned for the first time what their mission would be. They piled into the back of the van, and while it drove around the city, one of the recruiters read a statement explaining that they would be preparing the people of the world for revolution against the machines enslaving humanity. This was the first time the teams learned about the true theme, The Matrix. Click here to read the statement. This contained instructions about the beginning of The Game the next day, and at the end, the team was offered a red or blue pill, again like in The Matrix. The teams all took the red pill, of course, accepting the challenge before them.

Lastly, the teams were given a packet containing important information. It contained a copy of the DVD The Matrix, a document outlining the rules and other important information, and information about an algorithm they would need to know.