The Emerald City Expedition

• ORCA card with either a pass or at least $10 loaded on it
  Microsoft- and Amazon-issued ORCA cards suffice for this requirement
• A smartphone
  One team member must have an iPhone with Find My Friends enabled
• Joined the Signal group
• Either:
  • A bandana from a prior Seattle Transit Trek and a $2 participation fee, or
  • A $2.50 participation fee. In return, you will be given a bandana to be used throughout the game (and to keep as a souvenir and for future Transit Treks!)

Optional but recommended:

• Sunscreen
• Water
• Battery pack (for your phone)
• Snacks, if you might get hungry during the event

• Each task is worth a certain number of points
• Most tasks are relatively close to public transit stations
• 3 to 4 people per team
• 4 hours long competition period

Basic Gameplay Logistics

• The objective of the game is to earn as many points as possible in the allotted time.
• Every player (that’s you!; also known as a Transit Trekker) must have a fully charged mobile phone with Signal installed.
  • Signal will be used to communicate between participants and the organizers.
• At least one player in the team must have an iPhone with Find My Friends.
• Every player must be wearing a bandana provided by the organizers.
• For tracking purposes, one team member needs to share their location with the organizers on Find My Friends.
• Players must travel by foot or public transit operated by the City of Seattle, the Seattle Monorail, King County Metro, or branded as Sound Transit.
  • Absolutely no traveling on cars, trucks, boats, planes, bikes, scooters, or Segways. Doing so could result in penalties up to / including disqualification.
• Players must stay within the bounds of the game.
• Each team is required to take a 10 minute food/bio break sometime between the beginning of the 2nd hour and end of the 3rd hour. Failure to do so will result in disqualification.
• In case a bio break takes longer than 10 minutes, please inform the organizers so they can keep track of your team’s situation. Health and safety always come first, but it’s important for the organizers to keep track of exceptional circumstances affecting gameplay.

Completing Challenge Tasks

• The list of tasks will be provided once the game starts.
• There are two types of challenges that will earn you points:
  • Tasks. Follow the instructions provided. May require being at a specific location, potentially at a specific time.
  • Find This. Within the game area, try to find where a given picture was taken.
• Team members must stay together (within 10 feet of each other) at all times.
• To officially complete a task, they must be reported to the organizers via Signal as soon as they are completed (for verification and tabulation purposes).
  • If a task requires you to complete multiple stages/steps, you may report each stage/step to the organizers separately.
  • However, if you complete a task in its entirety, you must report it immediately. If you don’t report it within 5 minutes of completing it, you won’t be eligible for earning points on that task.
  • If the organizers inform the team that their task was not successfully completed, the organizers will not inform the team of what they did incorrectly, and the team may try to repeat the task at most two more times. After that, they cannot continue attempting to complete the task and must try another task.
• Tasks may be completed simultaneously with other tasks.
• If a task requires a certain item, it must be purchased after the game starts. Items you have with you won’t count unless explicitly permitted by the task.
• If a task requires pictures as proof (which almost all of them do), all team members must be in the picture (as a selfie) unless explicitly not required. When in doubt, ask the organizers.
• If a task says you can’t look something up, it means you also can’t ask a non-participating person to look it up for you or tell you the answer.
• If you are not sure about what counts for a task, ask the organizers. Failure to ask may result in you not earning the points if your actions don’t qualify as properly completing the task.
• If a task requires each team member to procure something, then teams which have more members than other teams only need to get the number of items equivalent to the smallest team’s size. For instance, if the smallest team size is 4, then teams of 5 will only need to get 4 items.
• When completing tasks, please do not do anything that might lead to danger. Safety first. If you are concerned that you or other teams completing a task may result in harm, please contact the organizers immediately. They may issue a notice to everyone that a certain task is removed from the game due to safety concerns.
• Be sure, when communicating with organizers, that you tell them what you are sending evidence for.

Interacting With Other Teams

• Teams may not have any intentional contact with each other during the game, unless they see each other in person, or as otherwise specified in the rules.

Concluding the Game

• Teams must arrive at the pit stop by the designated end time of the game, as determined by the organizers. If they do not arrive at the pit stop on time, a points penalty will be assessed based on the following rules:
  • Being late will result in a deduction of 5 points
  • For every minute a team is late, an additional 1 point will be deducted from their overall score
• At the end of the game, teams will be ranked by how many points they earned.
• All times are reported in U.S. Pacific Daylight Time.
• Clarifications are issued by the organizers and are final. When appropriate, the clarifications will be announced to all teams, not just yours.
• Tiebreaking rules
  • The amount of rules broken will be the first to break ties, with fewer rule violations giving higher priority
  • Next, a team who successfully completed more challenges will be given higher priority
  • All else failing, then it’s a fight to the death with rock paper scissors, best out of 3.

Miscellaneous

• You must obey all applicable laws, regulations, and rules during the game. (To be fair, it's probably also smart to obey laws outside the game.). This includes jaywalking.
• You must correctly pay the fare when taking transit. Note you no longer need to tap off of the Link.
• You may not obstruct any transit from operating along its normal schedule (by, for example, holding the doors open as they're closing).
• You may be filmed during the game for future promotional purposes unless you explicitly ask us not to film you.
• Rules can be changed by the organizers at any time before, during, and after the competition period. Whatever the organizers say can override any of the written rules. Rule changes will be clearly broadcasted on the Signal group.

The map linked below shows the official game boundaries:
Game Boundaries

The game will not require you to leave the marked zone.

Show up to McGraw Square by 1:00pm. Free parking is available in adjacent Amazon buildings. The closest garages are the Day One or Doppler parking garages. The nearest Link light rail station is Westlake Station, exit A. The rules will be explained and participants will have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions to the organizers before the game starts. You will also have the chance to meet your team and discuss basic strategy. The game will begin when everyone is present and the organizers announce the start. Take your time or hurry up. The choice is yours; don’t be late!

One member of your team should be designated as the primary representative, who will be responsible for communicating with the organizers. In addition, one member of the team (who may also be the primary representative) must share their location with the chasers. They will then be able to see the chasers’ locations too.

The ending point will be Asean Streat in Westlake.

1. Sign in with the organizers
2. Listen to the logistics overview
3. Pick a name for your team
4. Pick a representative for the team, who will share their location with the organizers
5. Get your bandana! (and pay for it if you haven’t already)
6. Read the rules and ask questions to the organizers for clarification
7. Take a group picture!
8. Decide as a team what the strategy is and how to start

You can keep track of the score on your team dashboard.