The panic starts to set in. The other four states in his GeoGuessr run went smoothly. So much so, in fact, that Gavin, more commonly known as Chicago Geographer, was a few minutes ahead of his desired time. But the final state presents a new challenge.
He knows he’s in a quaint neighborhood in Utah, somewhere near Logan—evidenced by the city’s name on the blue trash cans lining the street. That may seem like a glaringly obvious hint, but the suburbs can be particularly difficult to suss out, with no unique businesses or landmarks nearby. Chicago wants to be absolutely certain—he’s come this far, after all.
He frantically clicks down the street, scanning for any discernible hint. After what feels like an eternity for a speed run (mere seconds by normal standards), he stumbles upon a pair of signs featuring numbers that denote a specific state highway. He finds that intersection on the interactive map, retracing his steps from that point. He submits his guess: just outside a row of houses on East Main Street in Wellsville, a smaller town a few miles away from Logan but in the same county.
With that run in November, Chicago set a new world record with a Perfect USA Speedrun in 4 minutes, 28.65 seconds. He had been dropped into five random places around the United States. In less than five minutes, he accurately guessed them all. The records change almost daily, though.
On March 20, Chicago improved his world record by 15 seconds with a showing of 4:13.80. Four days later, user Icn15 came close to the throne with a time of 4:28. User Apollobo’s time of 5:38 holds the third spot. There will be plenty of challengers—Chicago’s a prolific member of a steadily growing community of GeoGuessr speedrunners.
GeoGuessr is a website that was created as a hobby project in 2013 by Swedish IT consultant Anton Wallen. You’re placed, virtually, into a random location around the world. GeoGuessr interfaces with Google Street View, allowing you to explore the surrounding area to use context clues to figure out where, exactly, you are. If it has a vehicle-accessible road near it, then it’s fair game.
