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Context Recap / MITMysteryHunt2021

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1The winner of Recap/MITMysteryHunt2020, ✈✈✈ Galactic Trendsetters ✈✈✈, flies over to an alternate campus during the COVID-19 pandemic!
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3In this ARG/MITMysteryHunt, the kick-off is a conference presentation of Yew Labs that announces the discovery of parallel universes. However, Barbara Yew got trapped in one parallel universe home to the Perpendicular Institute of the World (⊥IW). Teams first hooked up the Projection Device in Yew Labs to enter the parallel dimension themselves, which is in the format of an MMO game. However, the parallel dimension itself has a lot of problems and interferences due to the presence of items from another universe, so solvers traveled around the area to solve problems. The teams later found Barbara Yew and recovered a coin, causing the universes to stop interfering with each other.
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5The first team to do so was Palindrome, who went on to do Recap/MITMysteryHunt2022.
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7* AlternateUniverse: The universe with ⊥IW serves as a parallel, err ''perpendicular'', universe to the real-world MIT.
8* AnimateInanimateObject: In the storyline of [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/squee-squee/ "Squee Squee"]], the PiggyBank that teams got comes to life to join the team in the puzzlehunt, and teams interact with it in multiple ways to solve that puzzle.
9* FetchQuest: Naturally arises from the MMO-like format of the Projection Device.
10** Students need to be found in the overworld in order to unlock the corresponding puzzle from the Students round.
11** One of the puzzles, [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/can-you-deliver-60-eggs/solution/ "Can You Deliver 80 Eggs?"]], is a virtual egg hunt.
12* GridPuzzle: The puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/fun-with-sudoku/ "Fun with Sudoku"]] has a lot of sudoku and its variations.
13* {{Infinite}}: Taken literally with the alternate universe version of the real-world Infinite Corridor.
14* JustifiedTutorial: According to the writer's notes, the intro-round puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/hey-can-you-give-me-a-hand-with-this-puzzle/ "Hey, Can You Give Me A Hand With This Puzzle?"]] serves as this.
15* LudicrousPrecision: [[spoiler:A major premise in the puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/exactly/ "Exactly"]]. Solvers need to complete clue phrases that solve to one of the numbers in pop culture displaying this very trope.]]
16* RebusBubble: A major premise in [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/✏/ ✏️✉️➡️3️⃣5️⃣1️⃣➖6️⃣6️⃣6️⃣➖6️⃣6️⃣5️⃣5️⃣]], which [[spoiler:include actual expressions and equations to solve and need not involve mathematical symbols.]]
17* RoomEscapeGame: The puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/escape-hayden-library/ "Escape! Hayden Library"]] is a digital version of an escape room that takes place in the Projection Device.
18* ScavengerHunt: The puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/mit-⊥iw-experimental-evidence/ "MIT/⊥IW Experimental Evidence"]] serves as this, where teams submit photos or videos of things representing various things related to actual things from the MIT campus.
19* SelfCareEpiphany: Mystery Hunts have gotten so long and extensive to the point that there are yearly reminders to stay healthy, hydrated, and get enough sleep during the hunt. This year also has the puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/stay-hydrated/ "Stay Hydrated"]], where the premise is entirely a second reminder to do just that ''in the middle of the hunt''.
20* SequenceBreaking: Backsolving has been a common approach to puzzle solving, but one round is entirely built on that. [[spoiler:The [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/round/giga/ ⊥IW.giga round]] has the metapuzzle already solved from the start, but one feeder puzzle is essentially blank. To progress in the round, solvers need to back solve that feeder puzzle based on how the metapuzzle would have been solved.]]
21* TakeMyHand: The puzzle [[https://puzzles.mit.edu/2021/puzzle/dont-let-me-down/ "Don't Let Me Down"]] is based on this very trope appearing in other media.

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