Holding a Quest Across Europe During the Pandemic

Many projects did not take place this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, but these circumstances did not stop the organizers of the Moscow cultural and historical quest, HSE RUN . From May 13-24, for the first time in the project’s history, Ingroup STS conducted an online quest across the cities of Europe.

HSE RUN was planned to take place in April 2020 in two cities simultaneously – Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. However, the pandemic changed these plans. This time the quest participants went on an online journey through four European cities from the comfort of their own homes.

On particular days the organizers opened a series of riddles concerning one of the four cities. Each series included 15 logic puzzles and 15 field tasks, so participants not only learned about the sights of the given European city, but also about the city in general.

More than 500 participants solved 120 puzzles about various places in Stockholm, Rome, Prague, and London. The quest was conducted entirely in English.

When Russia’s quarantine measures are lifted, HSE RUN will return to its usual offline format, but the organizers still plan to develop further project activities online.

Bayrta Nimgyrova
3rd-year student, Business Informatics

My friends and I love participating in the HSE RUN, but sometimes we were unable to make the time to participate in it. It is much easier to take part during quarantine, so our team was happy to participate in all four quests.

For me personally the best thing about the new format was the fact that I didn't have to run (I can't stand it). We liked the online ‘journey’ so much that we decided to visit one of the quest cities together. I’d like to thank the organizers for making such interesting puzzles. Even our parents got interested in the project and helped us solve some of them.

Polina Shmatova
3rd-year student, Advertising and Public Relations

HSE RUN is a great project, because it gives your brain a workout while allowing you to have a good time with your friends. I am very glad that the organizers managed to hold it online, and it didn’t change the quality of the quest. It was even more interesting, and the geography of the quest was expanded.

I'm looking forward to the next quests, where you can walk around the city like in the good old days.

Alina Loshkareva, Project Coordinator
3rd-year student, Law

It was nerve wracking—doing the quest online was more difficult than doing it offline due to website and creative development, so it was difficult to predict if the project was going to be successful or not.  My team and I did almost the impossible and prepared 4 quests in 1.5 months – this is an incredible achievement for us. We plan to develop the online format further. Everything went well, and we would like to continue the tradition. We will be waiting for you at our classic HSE RUN after the pandemic!

Alina Bolozneva, Junior Creative Manager
1st-year student, Journalism

HSE RUN that is not just an interesting, but also an informative project to work on. While searching for places, you’re constantly learning something new, discovering unknown places, and find places you’d like to visit.

One of the features of the online format is that we have replaced visiting a location with taking a ‘walk’ around it on Google maps. Of course, working on the riddles, we carefully looked at each place and ‘walked’ around the neighborhood, so we also managed to travel. We worked hard, often going to bed at 4-5 am, but it was definitely worth it.

Veronika Solodovnikova, SMM Manager
2nd-year student, Business Administration

To be honest, at first it was not clear whether what we were doing would be of need to anyone. We planned an online format of the quest, which had always been offline, and included new cities, new rules, and, as a result, a lot of doubts about whether people would get it.

It was difficult to explain the new rules and features of the quest even to each other: we had to clarify them a hundred times, because by the time someone explained the rules, everything had already changed ten more times. But it turned out that everything was not so bad; we received incredible feedback from the quest participants. And the final number of teams and their points is our overall victory and proof that our work was not for nothing.

The next HSE RUN will be held in September (hopefully, offline). You can and should come with friends, parents, or anyone else - or alone - the organizers will find you a team. For more news about the projects please follow the project group page.

June 09, 2020