The Name: Team Fuck Yeah

The Players: Spacebug, S4, R0ckc4ndy and C. Wingert. 2 lawyers, 2 artists, 1 plan for domination.

The Stats:
Total Distance Traveled: 9.2 miles
Distance Traveled On Foot: 5.3 miles
Google Map
Tagged: 0 times
Buses: 3
Trains:1

The Stats: Team Fuck Yeah started with 4 people and finished with 4 people. We never split up or went separate ways. We got all 4 of our members through all 6 checkpoints and 3 bonus checkpoints. We earned yellow ribbons, and our team finished with all 4 blue ribbons and all 4 yellow ribbons. No member of our team needed or used a resurrection ribbon. We used feet, busses, tunnels, and trains.

The Robbery! One of the awards was for Team Unity. This awarded was granted to a team that was not ours. That team started with 6 members and finished with 5. There are reasons that they deserve the award, but there are some equally compelling reasons that in fact, Team Fuck Yeah actually deserved the Team Unity Award. There was no chance to put it to the crowd or have the two teams present their respective strengths and weaknesses. In light of the robbery of our award Team Fuck Yeah was forced to temporarily change their name to Team Oh, Hell No! However, Team Fuck yeah was mostly kidding around about our outrage. We know we ruled, and we don’t need no stinking awards to tell us so!

The Moments: The first bonus checkpoint was the hardest of all things! The star on the map didn’t really correspond to the location of the stamp, so we spent a pretty long and eventually frustrating time searching for the stamp. We ran into multiple other players also searching futiley. Thank goodness Danarchy located it and shared the location. While we strategized and waited for the bus we had the chance to tell multiple other frustrated players the location as well. This was our most stressful time because we almost didn’t make it to checkpoint 1 on time!

The third bonus checkpoint was at the top of a hill in Gold Medal Flour park. If you’ve never been there, you should totally go. It’s really pretty and awesome, and I live in MPLS and had never been there. It was also quite squishy due to earlier rain. My feet squelched with every step. Team Fuck Yeah was approaching, and we saw two figures at the top of the hill. Spacebug and R.C4ndy grabbed hands, prepared to make out and fool any chasers into thinking they were simply young lovers out for a midnight stroll. Dax’s team was approaching at the same time. So, basically, there were 9 people ‘sneaking’ up this hill towards the two people, ready to run at any second. But it turned out they were just a couple people making out. Shockingly, they decided to leave.

Oliver was a chaser at checkpoint 3. As we were approaching we saw his red/orange head start coming towards us. We booked ass through a parking garage and snuck around the block, then ran super-duper fast to the safe zone, which included a train station. We decided to wait for a train, and then run for a bus. Shortly before the train came Oliver joined us at the train stop and said he was going to take a train with us. Oh no! We strategized to get in a different car, or to take off running the second the train stopped. We hesitated to get on and then jumped on just as the doors were closing. Oliver was right behind us, with his face up against the glass of the closing doors when R.C4ndy turned around and yelled “SUCKER”. Which led to the whole train being like “yeah!” Oliver said he wasn’t actually going to take the train, he was just trying to spook us. It didn’t spook us, but it did lead to an excellent interaction with the public on the train, and they got really into the game. We ended up getting off on Nicollet because that’s where everyone on the train was getting off and it offered good cover.

The SpyHouse coffee shop was checkpoint 5. We did an excellent job sneaking up on it, including going between apartment buildings and down alleys. The SpyHoue was awash in chasers, the most heavily guarded area that we experienced. (Hard Times was more heavily guarded, but we were pretty lucky there). We wanted to catch the bus that ran right in front of the coffee shop, but bus stops were only safe zones for 15 seconds, during boarding, and only then if there was a shelter. R.C4ndy attempted to enlist the aid of a man that was very interested in telling her about how sweaty he was. All she wanted was for him to stop the bus across the street, then we would book-ass straight onto it, but that was faaaaaar too confusing for him. Plus, the chasers arranged themselves in front of the bus stop and in the street on the way, so it looked hopeless. When the chasers tore off down the street after some incoming players we tried to duck out the side door, but there was a player yelling frantically to get back inside, so we did. Except S4, who was in the alley, and couldn’t get back. He headed down the street to the Bad Waitress. R.C4ndy contacted the SpyHouse staff and got permission to use the service entrance and Team Fuck Yeah plus 1 (who’s name I never did catch) snuck out the back and over to the bad waitress to reclaim S4.

There was obviously much more to the entire quest, but those are the highlights. Using public transit was great because it got so many more people involved. On every bus and train we took people really liked hearing about it. Lots of people worked in bars and suggested that we use their bars as checkpoints in the future. Team Fuck Yeah meant to take shots along the way, but sadly forgot the plan in the midst of running and sneaking.

Personal Stories
R.C4ndy:
The bad: I had a couple of interactions with organizers and players that made feel personally not welcome. I also thought that the resurrection thing was a little too much. By going to bonus checkpoints you could earn an extra life, and that’s cool because you are working for it. But the resurrections were these endless extra-lives and it seemed like every other person was resurrected. On the bus we met a guy who’s been resurrected twice!
The Great! This was my first Journey and I really really loved it. I loved interacting with the public, I loved traversing the city, and sneaking through back-ways, I loved competing- but in a friendly way. This was also one of my first big fun things since the break-up and I remembered how great it is to chat with new people and flirt with boys (ummm…19 really is too young though) and only be responsible for my own fun. I liked running, and I wanted to finish strong, but I was also sort of disappointed not to get to chase, because it looked so fun and I had all these ideas about where to lurk and set up ambushes. I am excited to play in a city that isn’t my own! I would like to work on the next Journey in MPLS (provided I still live here) and be a chaser for that game.

S4
As it rained earlier that day, I wore a coat and then regretted it the entire night. Cool damp is great running weather. The damn thing ended up tied around my bag the whole night.
We got to see some really interesting parts of the city. My favorite new place was Gold Medal Park, a bonus checkpoint, with its blue lit park benches and spiral Grassy Gnoll. When we got there with Dax's team, we could see the silhouettes of a couple standing on one of the benches at the peak of the gnoll. It was impossible to tell whether they were chasers or not. We had no choice but to go up anyway. Turns out they were on a date.
I loved planning our approach to any given checkpoint. We tried to take the almost direct route whenever possible. Like the alley, or the Tunnels, or the parking lots, or a parking ramp. Though we never encountered a chaser en-route, it was still fun to stew in a certain level of paranoia.
My biggest dissapointment was the final checkpoint.

Spacebug
I wasn't sure I was going to make it to Journey at all, as I'd been travelling all weekend, my plane landed just before the meetup time, and I wasn't sure I'd be Up For It. I'm so glad I came, 'cause it was super fun! Since I hadn't know if I was going to come at all, I hadn't thought at all about logistics- I didn't have a team, I didn't have a plan, I didn't have bus fare, I was just gonna roll with it. R.C4ndy, besides being a favorite, tempted teaminess by saying she had a brilliant plan to start, but that I couldn't know what it was until I agreed to team up. Worked for me! Thus, Operation Bonus Checkpoint First got us started off. I'm excited that our whole team made it to the end all together all the way through; it would have made me sad for Team Fuck Yeah to get separated.
Highlights for me... I'd never taken the minneapolis light rail because it never went anywhere I did, so finally getting to be a passenger there was fun. It also means I had traveled on a plane, several busses, on foot, and on trains all in one day!
I also really enjoyed the hot tub at the after party.