“The Encounter” in September

September 8–9, 2007

If I’m in Moscow and if I can be bothered, I play in the field.

It all kicks off in the evening. Moscow can be astoundingly beautiful.

It’s actually obscene.

Traditionally, level one involves a flashmob. I despise flabshmobs. Thankfully, I don’t have to put on bunny ears and run around in an apron clutching a hare (it’s imperative that its legs are torn off) and reciting children’s poet Chukovsky’s rhymes to passers- by.

Immediately after the flashmob, darkness falls. What would I do without my trusty ISO 3200. They’re setting off fireworks across town.

Groups of people with flashlights are rummaging around in an abandoned hotel. Its windows overlook a park, beyond which you can see the aforementioned fireworks. This hotel probably costs a billion, which is why its sole occupant is moss.

By the bonfire on the other side of the building there are strange people packing a rifle. For some reason, they don’t shoot me dead right there on the spot. It seems that they have nothing whatsoever to do with the game.

One of the local residents called the cops — a very common occurrence. The coppers assume that I’m the one in charge here. I explain what the game’s all about and they move on.

Next to the Kremlin — glamour, Moscow-style.

Headquarters couldn’t come up with anything for us to do on this level, so our crew (each team has several crews, which consist of several people in a car) nibbles on our homemade hamburgers,. Those out in the field are often of the view that people sitting at headquarters are total knobs.

The next level takes place in an abandoned chemicals plant. However, the level is called off because the security guards who were paid off refused to share the money with the ones who weren’t, so the latter group called the cops.