/r/PictureGame
/r/PictureGame is a subreddit that plays a succession game where the winner of the previous round posts the image to the next round. Round images should have a well-defined condition of correctness and are usually geographical identification, though sometimes puzzles are posted. /r/PictureGame also often fields several teams to various puzzle hunts.
Subreddit[edit | edit source]
The subreddit's history started with a post on /r/pics[1] on February 15, 2014, with an account /u/PictureGame posting an image with instructions that the password to the account was the city of the location pictured. This established the succession nature of the game, with the winner taking over the account and posting the next image. After four rounds, this game was moved to a dedicated subreddit in /r/PictureGame.[2] The password-sharing system was eventually phased out in favor of a system that uses a bot that gives out approved submitter permissions when the host marks an answer as "+correct".[3]
Rounds are usually identification-based, but sometimes standalone hunt puzzles are posted. With the improvement of reverse image searching tools, identification rounds often include "masking" in order to fool these tools. Occasionally, an entire puzzle hunt (puzzles with a meta) is posted, either as a single round or spread out over multiple rounds.
Team[edit | edit source]
/r/PictureGame first started competing in online puzzle hunts in 2017, with their first hunt being Galactic Puzzle Hunt 2017 under the name OP_Plz. /r/PictureGame often fields multiple teams for smaller online hunts and a single team for larger hunts, such as the MIT Mystery Hunt. Typically, the team names follow the format E... C... of /r/PictureGame (a tradition that started in 2018), with a thematic phrase with initials EC at the front. Additionally team members often follow the EC phrase format as well. This originated with a Discord nickname gimmick, where users would change their nicknames to EC phrases, as a reference to the user /u/Elite_Canadian. This naming scheme is sometimes subverted.
/r/PictureGame first competed as a standalone team for the MIT Mystery Hunt in 2021, previously hunting with teammate and ✈✈✈ Galactic Trendsetters ✈✈✈. Some members have contributed to MIT Mystery Hunt 2021 (written by Galactic) and MIT Mystery Hunt 2023 (written by teammate) as well.
In 2022, the ECs of /r/PictureGame announced that they were hosting their first public puzzlehunt, Exploring the Countryside. The hunt ran in mid-October the same year.
Past team performances[edit | edit source]
| Date | Hunt | Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-12-01 | Huntinality 3 | 6 | as Exploring the Countryside with r/PictureGame |
| 2023-07-28 | Shardhunt | 5 | as Eighteen Crystals of r/PictureGame |
| 2023-06-02 | ABCDEFG | 12 | as Extended Cosmos of /r/PictureGame |
| 2023-05-06 | Microsoft Puzzlehunt 2023 | 8 | as Escape Characters of \r\PictureGame |
| 2022-10-08 | EC Puzzle Hunt 2022 | Host | |
| 2022-08-26 | Galactic Puzzle Hunt 2022 | 9 | as Extra Credit for r/PictureGame |
| 2022-06-18 | Huntinality 2022 | 23 | as Enterprising Campaign of /r/PictureGame |
| 2022-04-15 | Quantum Online Puzzle Hunt | 23 | as Explosive Charges of /r/PictureGame |
| 2022-01-14 | MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 | 22 | as Entire Contingent of /r/PictureGame |
| 2021-12-18 | Puzzle Rojak 1 | 9 | as Enticing Cuisine of /r/PictureGame |
| 2021-12-04 | Silph Puzzle Hunt 2021 | 30 | as ❄️ Eis Cues of /r/PictureGame (Team ❄️) |
| 2021-10-01 | Teammate Hunt 2021 | 14 | as Clown Entourage of /r/PictureGame |
| 2021-09-10 | QoDE Puzzle Hunt | 22 | as Extracting CoDE of /r/PictureGame |
| 2021-07-23 | Galactic Puzzle Hunt 2020 | 13 | as Eye Candies of /r/PictureGame |
| 2021-01-02 | UMD Puzzle Hunt 2021 | 4 | as Entering Capital of /r/PictureGame |
| 2020-12-12 | CRUMS Puzzle Hunt 2020 | 27 | as Eraser Crumbs of r/PictureGame |
| 2020-10-23 | Teammate Hunt 2020 | 28 | as Esoteric Coteries of /r/PictureGame |
| 2020-07-25 | Smogon Puzzle Hunt 2020 | 18 | as Exegg Cuties of /r/PictureGame |
| 2019-08-07 | MUMS Puzzle Hunt 2019 | 17 | as Exotic Chrysanthemums of /r/PictureGame |
| 2019-07-20 | Smogon Puzzle Hunt 2019 | 9 | as Everything Caught By r/PictureGame |
| 2019-03-15 | Galactic Puzzle Hunt 2019 | 8 | as Enter Cticans of /r/PictureGame |
| 2018-11-30 | Caltech Puzzle Hunt 2018 | 7 | as The Extremely Confused of /r/PictureGame |
