Team Blank Space (2024)
(sometimes simplified as ​ or Team Blank Space) is a MIT-affiliated Team that usually participates in Mystery Hunts. Since 2010, they have placed in the top 10 in eight Mystery Hunts. They won Mystery Hunt 2013 as the entire text of the novel Atlas Shrugged and hosted Mystery Hunt 2014 as Alice Shrugged. They also won Mystery Hunt 2003 as Kappa Sig and hosted Mystery Hunt 2004 as The French Armada.
The team is famous for changing their name every year to something completely different, resulting in chaos, and being harder to identify every MH. For consistency, they have sometimes been called Tetaputz/Putzazoo (A portmanteau of the two principal MIT East Campus residence halls that it is composed of, Putz (2W) and Tetazoo (3E)). On his Puzzlvaria blog, Dan Katz has referred to them as *A.T.T.O.R.N.E.Y (A Team That Obstinately Replaces Names Every Year).[1] Before phone callbacks were phased out in 2020, the team frequently used their name as a phone callback gimmick (for example, answering each callback with a different knock knock joke or reading out Atlas Shrugged one line at a time). See the table below for their other names.
The team Have you tried is a subset of that participates in online hunts. In 2015, the team released a practice hunt, themed after the 2014 Mystery Hunt that they ran, Alice Still Shrugs. In 2021, a subset of this team wrote for the Inaudible Hunt (back when their team name was We Can't Hear You, You're On Mute).
Mystery Hunt performances[edit | edit source]
| Hunt | Year | Placement | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2024 | 2024 | as . The name is a Zero-width space and has the canonical pronunciation of (no sound). During hunt, the team was often called ​ or Team Blank Space (referencing the song w:Blank Space) to avoid confusion. | |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 | 2023 | as The MIT Mystery Hunt ✅. The name is a reference to the paid verification system used by Twitter. | |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 | 2022 | 18th | as Setec Astronomy Total Landscaping. The name is a reference to Setec Astronomy and Four Seasons Total Landscaping. |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2021 | 2021 | 13th | as We Can't Hear You, You're On Mute |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2020 | 2020 | 10th | as United States Census[2] |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2019 | 2019 | 9th | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2018 | 2018 | 6th | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2017 | 2017 | 5th | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2016 | 2016 | 7th | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2015 | 2015 | 4th | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2014 | 2014 | n/a | Hosted the hunt as Alice Shrugged |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2013 | 2013 | 1st | Won the Hunt, as the entire text of the novel Atlas Shrugged (MH13, 1st) [3] |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2012 | 2012 | 3rd | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2011 | 2011 | 3rd | - |
| MIT Mystery Hunt 2010 | 2010 | 3rd | - |
