Red Bull are known for action sports, challenging the status quo and doing incredible things – remember when they put a man in space to jump back down to earth in order to break the speed of sound?
Now they have just wrapped up the first ever escape room world championship involving several countries and I were there to witness the final round. Think a lot of puzzles and mind bugging challenges which required a great deal of calmness whilst under pressure. It tests your communication skills and the ability to work well within a team.
This championship series is in the form of Red Bull Mind Gamer and it took over two years of planning and design from bright minds over at MIT gaming lab and top game developers; a company called fox in a box then spent hours bringing the vision to life – the trophy alone is a puzzle in its own right.
Outside of the real life challenges, there’s also an online platform for people to get involved. The Red Bull Mind Gamers online platform is all about thought-provoking challenges of the mind; it challenges six skills – logic, strategy, creativity, visual thinking, musical intelligence and memory – and serves up innovative games and online experiences for fun, to provoke thinking and to train the brain’s potential.
After battling out for several weeks in the Red Bull Mind Gamers, the world’s brightest minds are then put through their pace over three days to reach the finals, and as if competing in the finals is not enough, they were also watched live by thousands of people.
Having tried some of the challenges myself, I can imagine how stressful it must be and it would require a great deal of composure to fully get involved or have any chance of surviving. For example, the USA team qualified with a time of seven seconds, 616 milliseconds and let’s say it took myself a lot longer than that on one challenge alone.
The scale of the championship series itself is incredible and I look forward to where Red Bull Mind Gamers take it next and the future challenges to come. The initiative gives voice to a group of people you usually don’t know about, they are bright people who think in ways no ordinary people can. Next time you take part in any Escape Room challenge, think of these guys!
Anyway, watch the video below to get an idea of what it takes:
