April 19-21, 2002:  Jackpot!

Game Summary:
Just Passing Through, LLC set the bar for the gaming community with Jackpot!.  First of all, it was played in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas and teams (or at least some team members) came from all over the country, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, New York, Boston, etc.  The application process was pretty involved - teams had to make a 3-5 minute video that showed off their skills, and the cost was $420 per person.  Let's just say it was worth every penny.  During the Game, we listened to a time-share seminar, drove a boat on Lake Mead, visited a strip club, got a tattoo (yeah, it was fake), visited a gold mine, got married at a drive-through wedding chapel, played "perfect" blackjack in a casino set up in the middle of the desert, and much, much more.  It pretty much had everything you could ask for in a Game at a very high production value.

My favorite part of the game was the way hints were handled.  Rather than allowing teams to call for hints, and sort it all out later, teams were given a NEO (their name for their customized Handspring Visor) that would give timed hints after pre-specified amounts of time after receiving a clue.  Not only did this keep the Game moving, but it made it nearly unnecessary to come up with arbitrary time penalties for hint calls.  This also created a situation where your relative position with other teams was realistic.  If you and another team pulled into a clue site at the same time, you could bet you were really tied with them, and not that you might be hours apart based on the amount of help received to that point.  This really lended itself to some great competition, especially at the finish.

This also was the best showing ever by Blood & Bones in a full length Game.  Playing as the "Bloodstone" family (see logo at top of page), we led for the first few hours of the Game, dropped back into fourth or fifth near the middle of the game, then made a late charge in the early morning to take us back into the lead going into the final clue.  Despite reaching the final clue site in first by about 10 minutes, due mainly to some bad luck, we ended up crossing the finish line 3rd - only four minutes behind the veteran teams Advil (playing as the "Asbestos" family) and The Doh! Boys (playing as the "Doh!lomite" family).   Luckily for us, however, we were still rewarded for our efforts: though we crossed the finish line in 3rd, we were the only team not to ask for any help besides that which was given to us on the NEO, so after some minor time adjustments were made, we officially finished in a 3 way tie for first!!  Exactly one year after our first Game of any kind (420), we now had our first victory in a full-length Game!!  It doesn't look like we will be sneaking up on anyone anymore...

Team Logo: 
Team Members:  Rich Bragg, Robert Cheng, Dave "Rico" Fisher, Mike Holzbaur, Scott Krueger, Kate Saul
Internet Support Team:  Chris Cheng, Chris Dyrby, Kristen Bragg, Sarangan Narasimhan, Victor Garza, Mike's Dad
Start Time:  April 20, 2002, 8:00 AM
Finish Time:  April 21, 2002, 10:15 AM (26:15 elapsed)
Clues:  Solved 16 of 16 clues
Awards:   Gold Medal (Co-Winners), Fewest Help Calls
Result:  1st out of 12 teams (3 way tie)