If you were blindfolded and left at a random spot in the world, could you navigate your way home?
Gavin Atack of North Center thinks he could find his way.
His friends have jokingly presented that scenario a few times because Atack, a geography buff and competitor in the esports game GeoGuessr, can almost precisely find where he is on a map using only a still image from Google Street View.
“It’s definitely come across my mind. I feel like I’d be able to do it,” Atack, 23, said.
He is known as Chicago Geographer in GeoGuessr, which held its first World Cup tournament last year at the game’s headquarters in Stockholm.
Atack failed to make it out of his group stage in last year’s tournament. The outcomes of his matches at the Americas Regional Finals through Feb. 25, also in Stockholm, will determine his qualification for the second World Cup in September.
To practice for tournaments, Atack spends “at least a few hours” each week playing GeoGuessr with others while live streaming the rounds on Twitch.
The game drops a player in a random place in the world — that is, anywhere Google Street View has been — and the objective is to pinpoint its location on a map as accurately as possible down to the exact coordinates.
Players receive up to 5,000 points per guess. In head-to-head matches, each player starts with a certain amount of “health” points. Health decreases for the losing player of each round by varying amounts, depending on how close their guess was to the winning player, and the game ends when a player’s health reaches zero.
Tournament games are played as head-to-head matches, which could last a quick few rounds or an intense 20 to 30 rounds. The fast-moving games are usually less than 10 minutes long.
GeoGuessr can be played in three modes. The easiest allows a player to move around on the street view and look around for clues like street signs. The next format doesn’t let a player move, but zooming and panning are allowed. The hardest mode, which Atack prefers, restricts moving, zooming and panning, and leaves a player with only a still image from which to guess.
“The first thing I look for is generally what kind of signs we have on the road, the kinds of road lines that are used, and then I look at the foliage, types of trees and different grass, flowers, whatever is right there,” Atack said.
Atack’s best area is, of course, Chicago. He’s “pretty proud” of once earning a perfect score there (25,000 points in five rounds) in about 40 seconds, he said.
Other times, he plays his own “blink mode” challenge, giving himself 0.1 seconds to see the street view and then make a guess. He guessed 19 of 30 countries correctly in a recent try.
Outside of Chicago, the U.S. still remains his strong suit.
“Definitely the U.S. I would say, sometimes I’m decent at the U.K.,” Atack said. “I’m a dual citizen with the U.K., my dad is from there, so I know quite a bit about that. Generally, places in Europe and the U.S. are probably my strongest.”
Growing up in Chicago influenced Atack’s interests in geography and urbanism, which led him to graduating last year from the University of Chicago with a degree in urban studies. He plans to pursue a master’s degree or start working, but “as of right now,” GeoGuessr and posting geography videos on his YouTube channel and other sites are his focus.
A deep enjoyment of geography and learning about new places has driven his success. Atack picked up playing GeoGuessr as a hobby during his high school days at Lane Technical College Prep, then later realized while playing smaller tournaments that he “was starting to get pretty good,” he said.
“GeoGuessr is sort of a unique way to learn about different places,” Atack said. “Street view is just one single snapshot of any one random day and time in these countries, and you get a unique glimpse into everyday life around the world. I think it’s really unique to be able to not only see that but then also make a game out of it.”
