The Winner

The Grand Prize is a one-of-a-kind skydiving experience for the winner and his/her guest with the Red Bull Air Force.

Ok. So my story really begins 2 years or so ago when the original red bull stash was happening. Me and one of my old roommates started getting hardcore about it (e.g. going out until 3am with class at 8am) and found a bunch of the stashes. When it came time for the final stash, we worked together and were able to win the grand prize. HOWEVER, my 'Aero Structures II' teacher would not allow me to reschedule a test and I could not go to the final prize in NYC. Fast forward to last week. I'm getting swamped in school, I'm graduating in May, and on the way back from the library around 10pm I decide to check Red Bull Stash on my phone to see if any new ones are up. I had searched before but only gotten the 'too slow' stickers. Well lo and behold there is a stash literally 100 feet from where I am. I freeze, do a quick turn around and head towards one of our tunnels under the railroad through campus. After walking the entire tunnel 3 or 4 times, I decide to check the surrounding area when I catch an odd shadow in the corner of my eye. I run to this pylon shaped thing under a tree and boom there it is. I do a victory chug of one of the warm sugar-free red bulls (which isn't as bad as it sounds) and call my girlfriend with the good news.

After I entered the code I was able to access the final clue a few hours early, but I had a lab on Friday at noon so I was unable to start until about 3 pm. I also had a lab report due that night and was having a group meeting at 7pm, so I knew that I needed to work fast and try to get some of the final clues done before the meeting. I drive to campus and I get on one of the computers at the library to start my journey.

The first clue was a quick one, and after google searching the 'Not fried, not baked, think popped' and reading the part about face I knew it was the facebook page for popchips. My first clue that it was correct was the fact that red bull facebook had also liked the page. So I scoured it and found the image of hip chips and the redbull. Looking at the photo I noticed the weirdly named 'gorria sardinzarrak photography' and googled it. The page I found confirmed my suspicions and quickly made the jump with the photos of redbull, popchips and Vizio. I initially figured that there would be a photo to find, but when I scrolled down and saw the keyboard with 'Future' in quotes I knew that I needed to enter it. I obtained the new link and kept working.

I read the entire Craigslist ad over a few times and noticed that RATT and ER were in caps. I also saw the typo in the title and how the word 'tumblr' was used instead of tumbler. I figured that tumblr would be the address and went to the 'ratter' tumblr. This was wrong, and only after realizing that AM needed to be included I got the correct address of AMRATTER.tumblr.com. The tumblr page with all the letters was the first block I hit. It was around 530 PM and I was stuck on this page for an hour trying to find a combination of letters. I wrote them all down, I tried jumping from one to another, finding a cipher, or anything. It wasn't until I started looking at the : and the ) at the top that I noticed one of them moved when I re-sized the screen. I then noticed that the :) turned into a ;) when a specific URL was spelled out in the letters. This lead me to the infamous light game.

I was able to get to the 5th level of the game before my lab partner met up with me. Instead of working on the lab right away, I told him all about the red bull stash challenge and what happened to me last year and how I was doing pretty well this year but I was stuck on this game. We start trying to work together and he tells me there is a method to solve them known as 'chasing the lights'. He had played a game like this before I think but he was able to explain it to me and this greatly assisted me. So I need to thank Donovan Patterson for the help with this game. However I still was only able to get past level 5 using this knowledge and had to stop and work on my lab. After flying through the lab writeup, I sped back to my apartment and started working where I left off 2 hours prior. It took me another 1.5 hours to solve the 5th and 6th one, mainly because I think when I solved the 5th last time it was a fluke and I had to re-learn the method. So I get to the 7th puzzle and think "wow I'm screwed." Thankfully I noticed that there was a grid around the outside with alphabet letters and numbers, allowing me to use the coordinated located above the 'reset' button. After clicking each one of these, I instantly noticed the QR code and used my smart phone to find the next address.

The next step was the sudoku puzzle which I printed out and solved. I then took all of the numbers in the circles and started looking at them because I knew they were important. After looking at the photo again, I noticed the phone that was placed in the top of it. For each key on the phone there are letters that go with them. Each of the circled letters had a large background letter to go with it. I figured that this would be associated with the keypade number and the smaller one would go with the letter. Doing this gave me a problem. There is no letter for the #1 key. After working for a little bit I realized I needed to use the number 1. This gave me t1qcohdzl. I also saw the piece of lead on the picture made a / and the dot made a . so it turned it into a URL I could go to. I put the address into my browser and I get to the browser game. It was roughly 1 am at this time and I made the decision to keep working because I knew I was close.

After reading through the instructions and searching online, I found that this is an IF or interactive fiction game and it uses basic commands. All the websites I used suggested making a map so I messed around trying to figure my way through the questions and kept track of where I went. By this I mean that I made a circle where I started and drew branches off to the cardinal directions my character traveled. After exploring the entire map and working out every possible way to go I had a full map of the area. I then tried talking to the characters in the game and investigating the items laying around. After an hour or so I realized that the title of the game referred to what I needed to do: jump the gorge. I also knew that I was carrying a board, bolts and boots. Logically I could put them together and make a snowboard. I figured out where to go and was able to make the board. I then went to the top of the lift and rode the board down and across the gorge and won the game. But that was it. It didnt give me another clue so I knew I missed something. I went back and went over each of my steps 10 times over. I got very angry at 4am. I was about to give up and go to sleep when I noticed that the first time I rode the board I hit a snowmobile. Well I found out that there were marks on my forehead that felt like letters. This was it! Now I just needed to find out how to read them using simple commands and without a mirror. After another hour of trying to figure it out by trial and error and using the internet, I typed 'ask travis about marks'. There it was! So I continued my journey.

The next step took me to a backwards page and I immediately noticed the url could be reversed and kept going, I was on a roll! And then we hit the crossword.

I went through the clues quickly and was only able to get less than half of them after analyzing them for a while. I used google and searched and tried to think outside of the box but I was not getting anywhere. Hearing one of my roommates awake and actually noticing the light outside my window convinced me to head to bed around 8AM. I woke up at 1030 to take my girlfriend, to work and got myself back to work on the crossword, this time enlisting the help of my facebook friends to solve the crossword. I posted the clues I was having trouble with and had two people respond back almost instantly with help. Ironically, one of them was my partner from last year who won. After narrowing it down to 2 clues left, I decided to print it out and get it on paper to think about. This is where I saw how the letters in the crossword changed direction and were bolded or dashed line in some places. I instantly thought 'fold up cube' and started clipping it out. I folded on all of the bold lines and cut the dotted ones and then saw that all the letters lined up in the same direction on each side.

After looking at it for a while, I noticed a small / and small . on the corners of 2 letters. I wrote the address down and it didn't work. After looking at it again, I realized that I needed to use the number indicating the clue # on the top of the letters and this gave me the final URL and it got me to the final page saying I was the first one there. I put in my info and the rest is history as they say :) .

Some final things after this massive wall of text are just that Red Bull is amazing and I'm so thankful for winning the prize. It was very tough, and took me 15 or so hours to complete it working non-stop. I got help from some friends along the way, and my girlfriend put up with me locking myself away in my room on a Friday night. This contest is very fun and I enjoyed not only the tough internet final clue, but also the driving out late at night to find some stashes after work. Its been a wonderful experience and I can say that I have been given wings. Ok that was cheesy so I'll finish with: GO NC STATE!

The following individuals found the answers sooner than most. To you we say, well done!

To everyone else, we were truly impressed with your efforts. It was a joy to watch. This is why Red Bull Fans are the best in the world!

View the full list of those who completed the challenge