Starting Location Solution

(Back to the teams)


We asked each of the first twelve teams to be accepted to encode a specific word in their team photo (the photos bordered in red), and we supplied a grid of letters, numbers, and symbols. Each of the words that was encoded had a synonym that included an x and a y. (This was hinted at by the words FIND and SYNONYMS in the grid, as well as by the five elements [earth, air, fire, water, love] forming an X and a Y [kind of].) By using the positions of x and y in each synonym as Cartesian coordinates pertaining to the grid, and ordering the letters alphabetically by the original clued word (the first letters of the words ran in order L through W) a message was spelled out.

Thanks to Team Snout for making such a nice chart and letting us use it!

The origin of the letter grid is (1,1) in the lower left corner (letter "C").

Team Media Solution Synonym (X,Y) Letter
Grover Cleveland Steamer H Q P 2 L P W H R A
F Y E . % O F $ I 8
I I L A C I V R Z S
N N B 5 R & G E P Y
D A * E B T I T V N
K R A U 7 L H A 3 O
# : B A P @ N W C N
I A L R X S M P H Y
L 6 G 9 Q F I G D M
C R F U J T $ I K S
ALBANY BULB @ 9
Red5 JPEG image LX sixty (3,5) A
Briny Deep MP3 audio MARRRRRIMBA xylophone (1,2) L
coed astronomy JPEG image NEBULA galaxy (5,6) B
Blinded by Science JPEG image O2 oxygen (2,3) A
Here Be Dragons JPEG image PRECISELY exactly (2,7) N
Mystic Fish JPEG image QUINTESSENTIAL exemplary (2,9) Y
SNOUT MP3 audio RAVISHING sexy (3,4) B
The Longshots JPEG image SUBSTITUTE proxy (4,5) U
Blood & Bones animated GIF TAILBONE coccyx (6,5) L
SharkBait PNG image UNEASINESS anxiety (3,7) B
Flying Taxi PDF doc VOICEBOX larynx (6,4) @
Snakes On A Plane JPEG image WILDCAT lynx (4,2) 9