spyVspy 3: Rat Race Rules
Not Following These Will Disqualify You
This is our 3rd year of running this contest, and we've had 0 issues with any of these in the past, and don't expect any issues this year. Thanks for being awesome!
- Stealing/removing/moving caches.
- Just generally not being cool.
Gameplay
At each appointed time in the below schedule, a new set of challenges ("Rat Races") will be opened on the CTF site, with the first starting at noon on Friday. Each Rat Race will contain a handful of puzzles. Once your team solves every puzzle in a Rat Race, a new dead drop (geocache) challenge will appear. When you find a dead drop, enter the flag on the CTF site. If you are the first team to find it, great - you're in the Final! Come to the contest table and collect your pass! If not, come to the contest table anyway and have a chance to win a slabbed card for your team! Rat Races will remain open and continue awarding a chance for a slabbed card until the contest ends on Sunday (with a break during the Final).
Requesting Hints
Use the hint-requests channel on our spyVspy Discord server to request hints on any puzzle or dead drop. Other spies are welcome to jump in and give any hints they want in that channel. We will keep track of what hints are being requested, and what puzzles and dead drops might need hints. If we decide to give any hints for any puzzles or dead drops, we will drop those in the hints channel during one of the Possible Hint Drop slots in the below schedule. We also aren't above being socially engineered out of hints at the contest table.
Making The Final
- There will be 8 slots available in the Final.
- The team that wins each Rat Race, by being the first to find its dead drop, will earn a spot in the Final.
- A team may only earn one Final spot. If a Rat Race is won by a team that has already earned a spot in the Final, that Rat Race will not award a Final spot.
- At the end of the initial contest, if any of the 8 Final slots remain open (either a single team won multiple Rat Races, or one or more Rat Races were not won), the empty slots will be filled based on total points of the teams that did not win a Rat Race. So if there are 3 open slots in the Final, the top 3 teams that are not already qualified will fill those slots.
- Positions in the Final will be based on total score, with Rat Race winners being ranked above points qualifiers.
Schedule
Friday
- 10am - Contest Opens. Several introductory categories open (no Final spots available, but slabbed cards can be won).
- 12pm - New Rat Race Begins
- 1pm - Possible Hint Drop
- 2pm - New Rat Race Begins
- 3pm - Possible Hint Drop
- 4pm - New Rat Race Begins
- 5pm - Possible Hint Drop
- 6pm - New Rat Race Begins
- 7pm - Possible Hint Drop
- 8pm - New Rat Race Begins
Saturday
- 10am - New Rat Race Begins
- 11am - Possible Hint Drop
- 12pm - New Rat Race Begins
- 1pm - Possible Hint Drop
- 2pm - Initial Contest Ends
- 2:30pm - Final Begins
- 5:30pm - Final Ends. World's greatest spy team awarded the Whack Badge.
Sunday
- 12pm - Contest Closes