Stats first: 1 checkpoint passed, 3 chased runners, 12km by foot, 4km by U-Bahn

Now some details:

The first time I heard of the game was in summer when it took part in Vienna. At the end of November I heard that it will take place at the end of the year in Berlin. But until the minute I placed my foot onto Alexanderplatz I was not sure if I will take part into such a strange thing. Outdoors. With other crazy people. Looking somehow strange. Being not normal any more. But all doubts were blown away when I saw those masses of people who were waiting for instructions!

I decided to do most of the challenge by foot, as public transport seemed to be quite insecure for me. Directly after the start at Alexanderplatz a friend asked, if I want to share his company. But I rejected and ran away from him directly into the Nikolaiviertel where I met the first chaser. I hid behind some pillars and felt how my breath and heart ran faster. After crossing the Viertel I took the bridge named Mühlendamm. As I was too frightened I ran over the bridge and walked fast afterwards. This course would take a longer way, but I guessed that quite no chaser would cross. So I could walk unseen to the Holocaust Memorial and entered it from the south. Some other runners helped to find the agents, so I could quickly make my way out.

Walking west of the Brandenburger Tor was not an option, as the complete area was totally crowded by people who want to see the New Years Eve fireworks. I could not pass the security with my backpack filled with hacker stuff like a laptop and two kind of knifes, so I had to pass the Brandenburger Tor east. This means, I have to walk against the stream of people, being an easy object for chasers. But I could make my way through, crossed the Spree agin at the bridge of Luisenstraße, went east to the S-Bahn station Friedrichstraße and passed some backyards. Walking at the Friedrichstraße towards Tacheles, I tried to find a way to access it from the back – as I walked down the street, looked at the other side, I recognized something behind me in a door entry: there was a person with two orange ribbons! I tried to run away into the safezone only 20 meters away, but he tagged me. Damn!

Being a chaser now (but with instructions not to chase before I reached checkpoint 3), I did not walk into Tacheles but took the direct way to Volkspark walking down Linienstraße. Some meters before Koppenplatz a very loud fire-cracker exploded in an underpass to a backyard – I stood directly in front of it. I could not hear anything for 30 seconds or so. Being totally irritated I saw a group of four runners walking on the other side of the street. As I was not allowed to chase yet, but wearing an orange ribbon, and still confused, I just stood still, watched the group, when they saw me and they ran away separated. I kept an eye on one single person, just stared at him and he looked like an animal which knows that it is hunted and will be shot soon. That was a completely new experience to me! But I let him run away, walked into the Volkspark and met the agents there while they did some hackerspace space training. They gave me some information about the way most of the runners took.

So I left Volkspark into the direction of Zionskirche, but took a zig-zag way between Zionskirchstraße and Fehrbelliner Straße. The group of runners I hunted before crossed my way – regrouped again. I hunted them down one corner, but running in heavy boots with the backpack is not my best sport. So I was just "happy" with the way how I scared them off. When I left the park at Teutoburger Platz I met another group of three runners which I instantly started to hunt. They were fast, but I did not stop until we reached the safezone in front of Café Chagall where they fled into, as they did not understood the concept of safezones.

Passing checkpoint 4 I took my way to the next one not so far away. This seems to be the most fun part, as those two checkpoints where only separated by one block. This means: A lot of chasers! In front of the Wasserturm I had some smalltalk with Mitch until we saw a group of roughly 10 runners. They tried to escape, but we could tag at least 3 of them, but I slipped badly on the snow and hurt my left knee. So I decided to walk back to the U-Bahn station and drive to the last checkpoint c-base, now in company with another chaser I knew from 26C3. On the way to the U-Bahn station there was another runner who we tried to hunt, but he escaped into a construction area which I did not want to enter. The situation for people on the street must have been looked quite strange: three persons start to run instantly when they meet in the streets. I let him go, walked to the U-Bahn station and met some more runners who wanted to take the stairs up, not down. They ran back and escaped into a waiting train which I also entered. Inside the train I recognized that one of the runners is my neighbour of my hometown… We also recognised that the train is riding north, the wrong direction! So I stepped out the next station Eberswalder Straße and took the next station back to Alexanderplatz. Later I heard from my neighbour that he did not pass checkpoint 5 yet and that we pushed him in the complete wrong direction…

At Alexanderplatz we met another runner on the platform. We shared some drinks and took the train to Jannowitzbrücke. The runner stayed inside the train. We took our way to the c-base, as we were totally out of breath.

There are some interesting experience during the game: I did not walk to the corner of a street when I waited at a red traffic light, but staied in the shadow of a building and started to run when the light switched to green. Also, I'm not from Berlin, but somehow I have been to often to that town that I quite never used the map to find a way, but even better I knew a lot of shortcuts or ways through backyards; this seems to be quite handy for such a game. Playing the game at New Years Eve makes it even more realistic, as there are a lot of people on the street walking in one direction and a lot of fire-crackers which gives the game a touch of "war". Running on snow is also quite evil, as you can slip quite fast – probably I should use spikes next time. First I was quite disappointed that I have been chased before checkpoint 2, but after a time I had a lot of fun being a chaser!

This was the first, but definitively not the last time for me taking part in that game!