MIT Mystery Hunt

The 33rd annual MIT Mystery Hunt kicked off on Friday afternoon with over 1,000 participants. Throughout Day One of the weekend-long event, puzzlers scrambled to solve puzzles before ending the night in style. Teams will have until the end of the weekend to piece the puzzle answers together; doing so will lead them to the location of a coin hidden somewhere on MIT campus.

Pictured: Team Manic Sages, the reigning champions of the Mystery Hunt 2012, designed this year’s hunt. While there were 150 individuals on the team, about 80 participated in the design process throughout the past year.

Team Codex-Zouche Nuttall were the champions of the Mystery Hunt 2011. After designing last year’s hunt, the team enjoyed competing again. “We’re fine not winning this year,’’ said team leader Sam Klein. “We want to relax and have fun with this year’s hunt.’’ Klein said the team compared the exhaustion of designing the hunt to that of raising kids.

As part of this year’s theme, hunters will complete a number of puzzles in order to execute a heist that will gain back the Mystery Hunt coin from Enigma Valley Investment and Loan (EVIL), a bank who plots to ruin the hunt forever.

At the kick-off ceremony on Friday, hunters gathered to protest the evil that is EVIL, the bank that “stole’’ and locked away this year’s coin.

David Wilson (far right), a team member of a team whose name is the complete text of “Atlas Shrugged,’’ said he has enjoyed participating in the Mystery Hunt for a number of years. “It’s fun,’’ Wilson said. “It’s an interesting challenge.’’

Ben O’Connor of the team whose name is the complete text of “Atlas Shrugged,’’ said there are about 150 members on his team. His major role is to upkeep the computing infrastructure, which enables members to access spreadsheets, chat servers, and puzzles as a team.

Michael Thomas (left) of Team Plaid Thong has participated in the Mystery Hunt for six years. He was drawn into the hunt by his friends. “You feel like an idiot while you’re here, but after you have time to unwind, you’re able to look back an see how interesting it is,’’ Thomas said.

Team Plaid Thong cheered as they got the call notifying them that they had successfully completed their first puzzle. The puzzle took them about 45 minutes.

Team Left As An Exercise For The Reader has about 40 members. They said that they take shifts throughout the weekend, and even have a room for sleeping. Some members can only participate for a few hours, and others only take a few hours off for sleeping during the entire weekend.

Members of Team Left As An Exercise For The Reader utilized both computers and the chalkboard during the opening day of the Mystery Hunt.

Lance Nathan, of Team Immoral, Illegal and Fattening, addressed his team during the opening day. He has participated in the Mystery Hunt since 2000. “I spend so much of my life trying to solve problems that don’t have answers. It’s nice to solve some that do,’’ Nathan said.

Team Central Services has about 40 members working on puzzles in their room at any given time. They also have hunters working from San Francisco and Zurich. Leader Marc Tanner said his favorite part of the hunt is the “Aha!’’ moment, when he finally sees order in complete nonsense.

Hunters looked at a puzzle for awhile, trying to decipher the answer.

The Raucous Raucous Raccoons have used the Mystery Hunt every year since 2003 as a reunion. The MIT alumni lived in the same hall in East Campus, 5th West. “We’re not super organized, and the hunt happens every year,’’ Eleanore Pritchard (right) said. “We enjoy the hunt and the social aspect of it.’’

The opening day ended with a Casino Night, where two representative hunters from each team arrived, dressed to the nines and ready to solve a puzzle.

Hunters watched the dealers handle the cards, trying to discover the puzzle and its answer.

The atmosphere got serious as hunters tried to decipher the card-based puzzle.

Champagne glasses filled with water were more than a thirst-quencher at Casino Night. Hunters quickly realized that the glasses were actually part of the puzzle.