25
Aug'08

Lost Ring allies travel home as the Olympic athletes bid the Games farewell

   Posted by: thebruce

August 24th marked the end of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics – the XXIX Olympiad. What most still don’t know, is that it marked the closing of another Multiversal Olympics, celebrating what is known here as The Lost Sport of Olympia.

Without going into details, August 24th was the day that athletes, Agonothetai, from various parallel worlds would perform the necessary deeds open a portal and return to their home worlds, bidding farewell to ours.

To get to that point, they enlisted the help of many, many people in our own world – to learn the Lost Sport of Olympia, to train, and compete with the other worlds, and in doing so bring our worlds closer together, uniting them and allowing the portal to open and send them home.

By August 24th, the closing ceremonies, five teams around the world had trained and qualified to compete in the final olympic sport:
* Team London, Team Tokyo, Team Wellington, Team San Francisco, and Team Salvador.

While the world was focused on the closing ceremonies in Beijing, these teams ran 3-circuit and 7-circuit labyrinths – a blindfolded runner, and a number of individuals forming a living ‘wall’ to guide the runner and keep him/her on route (yes, they can be disqualified!). They competed for the fastest times, and claim to gold, silver, and bronze placements.

Preparations

The allies – the other-world athletes – were coached for their final training and big day by four-time Olympic gold medal athlete Edwin Moses. Once in Beijing, the group of them sent a greeting to the world, kicking off the Multiverse Olympiad ( Watch!). Edwin offered them advice and encouragement, and helped them prepare for their final tasks ( Edwin and Ariadne at the Bird’s Nest).

Messages from Edwin for each competing team can also be watched online ( Team London, Tokyo, Wellington, San Francisco, Salvador) along with introductions of each team’s athlete roster ( Team London, Salvador, Salvador, Tokyo, Wellington)

The night before the closing ceremonies, the allies camped at the Great Wall, saying their farewells, and mentally preparing for the trip home. ( Noriko, MeiHui, Diego, Markus, Markus, Monica).
James Mutters – a man from our own world who fell in love during a previous Olympiad to a girl who returned to her own home and has now decided to join the allies and travel in an effort find her again – helps the team create their 7-circuit and 3-circuit labyrinths on the great wall, ready to compete with the other 5 cities ( at the 7 circuit, making the 7-circuit, the rope protractor).

Game day arrives

Twitter is a-flutter with activity as each competing team organizes and synhcronizes their competition run. Below is a sample of the excitement and competition that ensued…

ariadnelost) chalked and ready to go! a little nervous but excited!!
mrjudkins) Us too!
DavFlamerock) Multiverse Olympics here we go. Time to do the ultimate synchro.
redbanshee) Good Luck Multiverse Athletes!!!
ariadnelost) it thunderstormed last night & made our wall very wet & slippery! we’re practicing now but about 10 seconds off our best time
ariadnelost) @unagisune696 good luck in tokyo! noriko is so proud of you for camping all night at the park!!
ariadnelost) 5 minutes everybody!!! first 3 circuit race!! GOOD LUCK!!
Ari0ck) we’re ready in san francisco
lauraehall) The Multiverse Olympics are about to start… excited and actually kind of emotional. ;_;
rangerd) SF trial 1 3 circuit 9.56 sec
mrjudkins) 8.88 seconds for Wellington!
ariadnelost) trial 1 3 circuit 14.19 seconds for team beijing!
mrjudkins) 9.31 sec for wellington
rangerd) SF trial 2 3-circuit 10.91sec
ariadnelost) trial 2 for 3 circuit 14.28 seconds
mrjudkins) last 3-Circuit labyrinth Wellington: 9.1 Seconds!
rangerd) SF trial 3 3-circuit 8.56
ariadnelost) 11.22!!!!!! our best time yet. good enough for bronze??? team tokyo team salvador CHECK IN!!
DavFlamerock) YES 8.56 is our best time! WE WIIIIIIIN
mrjudkins) Whoah! Congrats for the 3-Circuit Time SF!
unagisune696) 8s43 for 3rd run!
lauraehall) how’s Team London? Amazed at Wellington’s 9.1 vs. SF’s 8.5 vs Tokyo’s 8.43… it’s on!
mrjudkins) Whoah! Go Team Tokyo! 3-Circuit Gold Winners!
ariadnelost) CONGRATULATIONS TEAM TOKYO! lets see what omphaputer says if we beat other worlds you win gold, SF silver, NZ brone
ariadnelost) great job team london!!! best time in europe! new europe world record!!!!
ariadnelost) team london set new european record with 22.07 s
ariadnelost) getting ready for 7 circuit way slippery we are sliding everywhere wait til you see video
rangerd) SF trial 1 7-circuit 53.00 sec
mrjudkins) 36.25 seconds from Wellington 7-Circuit Run 1
ariadnelost) 1:00.72
mrjudkins) 38.1 seconds from Wellington 7-Circuit Run 2
ariadnelost) trial 2 for 7 circuit 1.02.84 slip slip slip!!!
rangerd) SF trial 2 7-circuit 48.91 sec
ariadnelost) wiping wall sludge off shoes last try!!
ariadnelost) yay 54.19
mrjudkins) Wellington Last 7-Circuit Run = Fault! Ran through the wall at the last turn!
rangerd) SF trial 3 7-circuit DQ
ariadnelost) congratulations team wellington!!!
ariadnelost) unless salvador kicked our ass
ariadnelost) unlikely though you set a crazy world record NZ!!!
ariadnelost) looks like NZ gold SF silver Beijing bronze??!!! hopefuly omphaputer updates soon. any friends online to check??
ariadnelost) i can’t wait to see videos!! ours are awesome. sad other allies won’t get to see videos tho
mrjudkins) We’re online now – will try
ariadnelost) noriko is so proud team tokyo more proud than if we won
DavFlamerock) darn Tokyo. WHY. I wish for foul play… but .08 seconds. Wow.
ariadnelost) amazing job team london you are so awesome can’t wait to see your in the dark laby!!
ariadnelost) kai is going to leave us now at the wall he will post videos we will stay to help the allies travel home tonight. PLEASE POST VIDEOS ASAP!
ariadnelost) nervously awaiting omphaputr updates
DavFlamerock) proof of synchronization between Wellington and SF: Both of us ran thru the wall on the last turn.
mrjudkins) we are talking about our synchronicity! ha!
ariadnelost) WOW!! gaea wins!!!!!!! EVERYTHING!!!!111
ariadnelost) UPLOAD VIDEOS to JAMES’ DROP BOX FOR kAI tO PICK UP
lauraehall) @mac_monkey Looks like NZ gold, Tokyo or SF silver, Beijing bronze? Not sure what the Japan time was but apparently they did really well.
lauraehall) @mac_monkey That’s got 12 hrs to go! :) Also SF and Wellington were so synchronized they both ran thru wall at the end of the lab! So cool.
ariadnelost) kai called he is back and uploading our videos
unagisune696) Congratulations NZ team! 36.25 sec for 7-circuit is unbelievable!
mrjudkins) Team Wellington’s videos are uploaded! Now to go grab some lunch… Thanks to all for a great global event!
mrjudkins) @unagisune696 Thank you unagi! Hearty Congrats from us too for that amazing 3-Circuit Time! Hope you all went out for a great breakfast!

After all the excitement, videos began trickling in of each team’s races.

According to the official Omphaputer results (across each of the multiverse worlds), the final standings were:

  • 3 Circuit Medal Results:
    Gold: Gaea|Tokyo
    Silver: Gaea|San Francisco
    Bronze: Gaea|Wellington
  • 7 Circuit Medal Results:
    Gold: Gaea|Wellington
    Silver: Gaea|San Francisco
    Bronze: Gaea|Beijing

In the end, another friend from our world and key to making so much of this possible for the allies, Kai bids the team farewell as he heads back to Beijing for the closing ceremonies. ( saying goodbye)

Closing ceremonies

As the world watched, the allies waited.
But even as the world watched, the strangest thing happened – Kai and the allies could be seen in the stadium during the olympic ceremonies! But… they were supposed to be at the Great Wall awaiting their passage home! Kai reported on this phenomenon via twitter with his theory:

kaitown) whoah. the most insane thing happened @ the closing ceremonies. the power of the bird nest omphalos & the synchronisation…
kaitown) i was alone in an empty row where the allies would have been & the megascreen showed EVERYONE here with me. vision of a parallel world???

As the Codex explained, every choice we make results in a new parallel ‘reality’ where our parallel selves make a different choice. Perhaps what we saw was an effect of the multiversal synchronization, allowing us to see a world where the athletes had decided to stay rather than travel home. Alas, in our reality, the athletes had decided to travel home.

They had each recorded their farewells, to each other and for us, the night before. ( Diego, Monica, Lucie, Markus, Ariadne, MeiHui, Noriko, Kai, Ariadne, Larissa, Noriko)

And finally, while tens of thousands of people simultaneously performed the ‘flare’ – the official Olympic cheer created by the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee – the portal was opened, and our allies traveled home.

Watch the final images of the allies as their trip is completed –

Goodbye athletes! Diego, Markus, Lucie, MeiHui, Noriko, and James! Until we meet again! And best of luck James, in your search for Toria :)

And that ends the Alternate Reality Game, Find the Lost Ring, created by Jane McGonigal and San Francisco’s AKQA, officially partnered with and sponsored by the IOC and McDonalds.

Tags:

Categories: ARGs General

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