We Played Hide And Seek Across Switzerland - Ep 4

Hello, and welcome to episode four

of hide-and-seek across Switzerland.

Right now, we're exactly halfway through the game

with two days remaining.

I'm about to start my first run as Hider,

and the stakes couldn't be higher.

If I can last until the end of the day,

I'll win the game right then and there.

There wouldn't be enough time left in our four days

for either Ben or Adam to get back into first place.

But that's not gonna be easy.

Ben and Adam are planning on playing aggressively this round,

so I've gotta hope that I've picked the right hiding spot.

And we are...

so back!

So I think it's worth narrating

what Ben and Adam are doing right now.

At least, I think, so, you know.

They're starting at the playground. We know that.

(softly) Hello, good morning.

We're talking quietly because

we're in an extremely residential area.

And we're just on a playground,

which feels creepy anyway. Yeah.

And Adam is probably starting by saying something like,

"Ben, the first train out of here is in five minutes,

and we're an eight-minute walk away,

so we gotta run."

And as soon as the clock strikes 7:30,

we gotta run to the train station

because there is a train in five minutes to Lucerne.

That's true. We know that from yesterday.

So they can make it,

but it's going to be tight and stressful.

(quietly) Alright, go, go, go!

Okay.

And...

I think there's maybe a 50-50 shot

Ben is clutching his hat like this.

Who knows?

(metal crashing)

(laughs) No!

Yeah.

(metal clattering) Oh dear.

I didn't even see that.

Okay, that's fine.

(wheezes)

Keep going, keep going.

I think they're gonna make it?

I think they're gonna make it.

But, you know, we'll see.

What?

Where our turn is, do you remember?

No, I think it's up here.

(breathes exhaustedly)

I totally got the wind knocked out of me.

And I ran into that sign.

It's okay.

Oh, it's so dark.

Alright, Ben, let's ask the rhyme question.

I still think that asking that first

is the best strat.

Okay, we're buying the rhymes.

Alright, they've asked for rhymes.

Which is not a surprising start,

'cause I think we agree that that's a very good start.

However, because of that,

I prepared for these yesterday on my way here,

and I already have the words.

One of the reasons I liked it here

was because it had a very common ending to its name.

That applies to a lot of other places too.

Anyway, we'll send it over shortly.

Luxembourg, Endomorph, Hawk,

Pen, Monsieur.

Doesn't rhyme with Basel.

Et cetera, et cetera.

Let's hit him with longitude.

Yeah, I mean, this is still going to determine

what direction we go next.

Right now, Ben and Adam have determined

that they just need to keep me under 250 total coins,

because that's when the likelihood

of rolling top-tier curses becomes too high.

But until then, they've decided to ask

whatever questions they want.

Let's hit him with longitude.

Alright, question number two: longitude.

Another thing that I thought about,

I've gone to an area that has...

quite a lot of train lines.

There are quite a lot of options around here.

So longitude, it'll narrow it down a bit,

but not massively.

Alright Ben, Sam is east of us.

Okay, well then we should probably head towards Zürich.

We should probably head towards the general Zürich area.

But unfortunately, east is

a little more complicated than if he had been west of us.

I was really hoping he was going to be west.

I had more of a plan for west.

I mean, one thing we could do, Ben...

We could do geographic region.

Find out if he's up here or down here.

Because I think we agree it's more likely he's north.

Well...

I think in that case,

what might be more useful is to do...

canton region.

No, because we're in this region,

and I don't think he's here.

And I'm saying if we just go up into the Zürich area.

But then we have to go to Zürich.

I know, but...

I think that there's a very, very, very good chance

that he's in there. And if he's not, that tells us

a lot of information.

Okay. We're in Lucerne.

Let's get off, figure out our next move.

Okay, welcome back to Lucerne.

I think the next thing that we really want to know

is just basically, is he north of us or south of us?

Is he in the sort of dense Zürich-y area?

Or is he way down in the far reaches of whatever?

I think he's in the dense Zürich-y area.

I think he's almost definitely around there.

But even then, it's a matter of figuring out...

Yeah. Is he near Winterthur,

or is he in one of the suburbs?

Yeah. Alright.

I actually really need to go to the bathroom.

Okay, you do that.

Alright, well, it seems like

they're holding off on additional questions for now.

So, let's talk strategy.

So, I have one very major disadvantage in this game,

which is that, at this point,

it seems almost impossible that I'll get a second run.

The one advantage that I have, though,

is I have two rounds that I have learned from.

And I feel like I've learned a lot

about how to position myself in the right place

to make it as difficult as possible for them.

One thing that I noticed is both of them,

they went basically to the maximum theoretical distance

that they could go, based on their transition time.

I didn't. I could've gone further than this.

Not by too much, but I'm not at the theoretical limit

of how far I could go.

The long game, I don't think is going to be too difficult for them.

The medium game, though...

That's going to be tricky.

'Cause there's just so many rail lines

around this area of the country.

So many places.

It's one of the densest areas.

Even once they narrow it down to here,

I've come to a city.

I saw how difficult it was to narrow down

in just that small place with only so many streets

yesterday with Ben.

I've come to a place that has way more streets, way more density,

way more options for where I can be.

So, it's gonna be tricky. We'll see.

Adam, welcome back from the bathroom.

How was it?

You know, a life hack.

Always go to the bathroom on a train

because they made me pay.

Okay Ben, what do we want to do?

I mean, maybe we should just ask a question

to confirm that he's not south.

I think we definitely need to confirm he's not south.

Okay, in that case,

if we really want to confirm that he's not south,

then I do think that the...

geographic region question

will cleanly eliminate basically all of that.

Yeah, but we have to wait another nine minutes

before we can ask that question.

Well, they've made it to Lucerne.

So it'll be interesting to see where they go next.

I mean, the correct place

for them to go next would be Zürich.

And that would be fairly intuitive.

And I wouldn't be too concerned

because there are just so many options out of Zürich.

I'd only get concerned, kind of,

if they get on the right line out of Zürich.

Do you want to...

hop on a train toward Zürich?

(huffs) I mean, it's a little risky.

But I think that the chance

that he is that direction is very high.

Okay, when's the next train to Zürich?

It's in three minutes.

Oh goodness, okay.

So, why don't we go for it?

Okay, right here, right here.

Okay, so...

Our train to Zürich is leaving.

But we need to ask a question now

to confirm whether or not he's north of us.

So, we're buying the information

of whether or not he's in the same geographic region as us.

So, like, if he says he's in the Alps,

that does mean that he's south of us, but...

If he's in the Plateau,

then it does mean that we're going the right way.

Alright, new question.

No, it went away. But they asked

whether we're in the same geographic region.

I'm not actually sure. Let's check.

Alright.

He should be answering us any second.

Yes, he's in the Plateau.

Okay, that's good to know. Okay.

And that significantly limits his region.

(marker scribbling)

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean...

We've given him, you know,

a decent number of coins, but not too many.

Look, he might even be celebrating right now.

He might be like, "Great, I have all these coins."

But we're coming for your ass, Sam.

I'm already at 90 coins,

'cause that's two comparative questions

plus an oddball. That's 90 coins.

I'm almost to a two-dice roll curse.

I'm guessing, based on yesterday,

they're gonna take an approach

of asking a ton of questions to try to narrow me down,

which means that I can just pepper them with curses,

and potentially roll a pretty devastating one.

We'll see.

Alright, well, it seems like they're on a train out of Lucerne,

I think to Zürich based on the timing.

Not 100% sure.

But, I'm gonna use this opportunity

to start surveying my zone.

You know, looking for hiding spots.

What do I get here?

You know, all that.

And, my first destination,

which I think might be a great hiding spot,

is right in front of me.

The forest.

So again, we're sort of playing Guess Who here.

You ever play Guess Who?

Where you're trying to be like, "Are you bald?"

It's that game. Yeah.

Mark Rober made a great video about Guess Who.

And what he said is, the best way to play Guess Who

is with each question, try to eliminate

50% of all possibilities.

Yeah, and so, with every question,

we're just trying to cut off half the map, and...

I do think that the best way

of cutting off the next half of the map

is to ask a 25-mile radius right about now.

I think that that is right.

Because that would basically tell us,

are you here, or are you out here?

Right.

Either way, I would quite like to know the answer.

It cuts about halfway through the northern Zürich suburbs.

Right, but again, I think we're being right to just...

don't fear buying information.

No.

Buy the information immediately.

We will worry about curses later.

As long as we keep it under 300 coins,

I think we are not really in danger.

Yep.

Ooh, they've asked for a radar.

And they've asked for a 25-mile radar.

I think I'm outside of that. Let me check.

Ooh, okay, it's gonna be a miss, but just barely.

Oh, that's gonna be really misleading.

Because it's like, they clearly thought

maybe I was in the greater Zürich area,

and I kind of am.

Anyway, I think this is gonna trip them up.

That's lucky.

Okay, so...

This is interesting. The radius was a miss.

I actually think that's really good news.

I think that is really helpful information.

That means he is not...

in Zürich.

And he's not in sort of the northern Zürich suburbs.

Okay, I need to try...

I think I think that means we want to go to Winterthur.

Probably.

Yeah, this is looking promising.

So, from here you can see

the other key advantage of my zone.

Not only are there woods here, but over there too.

So there are two zones of woods

that they're gonna have to search.

Okay, I'm gonna poke into these woods a bit

to see... what it would look like

to hide in them.

I kinda like this spot.

I'm gonna take a mental note of it, but...

Let's go poke around our zone some more.

Okay, welcome to Zürich.

For the first time in the game.

Well, maybe. Sam might've been here.

That's true.

Was he here?

Let us know.

He almost certainly went through Zürich,

wherever he went.

Yeah. He's up here.

We've boxed him in pretty good,

but now there's...

dozens and dozens and dozens of towns.

Lots of places he could be.

I mean, I really hope he's not here.

Probably not. Probably not.

That would be annoying.

There are a few options.

We could ask the canton question

and eliminate all of this.

Yep. Or confirm it.

I think that would not be a bad idea.

No, I mean that gets us pretty close to half the—

Or we could go to Winterthur

and do a 10-mile radar.

Yeah. Which is slightly cheaper.

There's a good chance, I mean,

I feel like one of our top theories at this point

is that he's in one of the weird towns

outside of Winterthur.

One other thing we could do is

we could split the remaining territory down the middle

by asking if he's near the same

International airport. 'Cause there's one in Zürich,

and there's one in St. Gallen, here.

And we could find out if he's here or here, but...

(squacks)

I don't know! I mean...

Maybe we just need to stick to our guns

of eliminating 50%.

I agree.

And eliminating 50% would mean

the airport question would eliminate closest to 50%.

But the thing is, it's 50% of the area.

I don't know that it's 50% of the options.

Ugh, let's look at the maps again.

Look, we're at the point where

we have to be very careful about the questions that we ask.

Well, looks like they made it to Zürich.

Which is...

I don't think I should be too concerned about that,

'cause it was kind of the most obvious train

to the east from Lucerne.

So it'll be interesting to see which train out of there they take.

I don't think they have nearly enough info

to figure out where I am yet,

unless they had a really good guess.

I feel pretty good about asking the canton.

But, I don't know, it's like, there's all this (bleep)

But I guess he couldn't be in any of this.

I don't think he could quite be in any of this.

But— I think he could be here.

Yeah, I like canton.

That's expensive, but I think it's the most useful question.

I think that that's probably the closest

to eliminating 50% of possibilities.

(sighs) Okay, let's do it.

Alright, new question.

Same canton?

I'm not sure, let's check.

We should be prepared to go to Winterthur.

Yeah, I honestly think we should go to Winterthur,

kind of, no matter what. Okay.

Sam? Ugh.

Are you in the same canton as us?

Sam? What do you hope he says?

I hope he says yes, probably.

Okay, well that's unfortunate.

They got me.

It's a big canton though, with a lot of stuff, so...

That still could take 'em a bit,

but that really narrows it down for them.

Anyway.

That's how the jets lag.

You wanna go?

Yeah, yeah. Alright, let's go.

Let's do it.

Alright, off to Winterthur.

Alright.

Okay.

Ben, he is in the same canton as us

which continues to be useful information.

I mean, that cuts off a big old chunk.

Well, you're probably seeing a motion graphic version of this,

but he's somewhere in here.

I think that is quite useful information.

We're zeroing in on him.

I think once we get to Winterthur,

maybe a 5-mile radar or something.

I mean, certainly if he's not within five miles of Winterthur,

then, I don't know where...

I don't know where he could be.

I think that the real question is...

what is this rough size of the place that he is in?

Right.

A photo of the train station might be helpful for that.

I like photo of the train station regardless.

'Cause it's a great way to check.

'Cause you can check...

It's always useful to check.

Okay.

Let's ask for a photo of the train station.

I think that, you know,

we're gonna need that photo at a certain point.

Yeah, might as well get it now.

Might as well get it now while we're on our way.

Yeah.

We're still in safe territory.

Mostly safe territory.

To be clear.

Mostly safe.

Okay, well, I basically just made it

to wood zone number two,

and was gonna start surveying, but...

they asked for a photo of the train station.

And I think I have some ideas about how to make it

...not that indicative.

Okay, so here's my thinking.

Outside of this station is all kind of

the same style of brick and windows and everything,

so I think any exterior shot is going to be pretty indicative.

But...

We are allowed interior shots.

And you can see in here.

And I looked on Google.

There's not a single photo of this interior.

(camera click)

Much like Ben's yesterday,

I don't think that a shot of that would be useful

until they're here, which is what I want.

So I think I'm gonna try that.

See how that works.

Hello, and welcome to Winterthur.

(coughs)

Okay, well Sam just sent us a picture,

and I think it's pretty useful.

This is a picture of the train station.

Well, it's telling... Which tells me...

It's probably not a super rural station.

(sighs)

Maybe he's here?

I mean, there are ways we could find out if he's here.

(sighs) Well...

Okay, small problem.

Actually, you know what? I'll change that.

I might characterize that as major problem.

Eeehhh...

They're downtown.

How did they guess this place?

Aw, man.

That is bad.

I think I'm gonna start walking towards the forest.

Just in case, you know?

I think what we should do is,

I think about half of the remaining train stations

are within five miles of here.

I think about half are outside of it.

I agree.

It's certainly densest closest to right here.

So I kind of think... we hit him with the radar.

Either way, we then make a list

of every remaining train station that also rhymes.

I think then, we find some clever way

to use an oddball or photo to eliminate half of those.

I think that's... That's kind of my opinion.

I think that that's doable. But I agree.

I think that probably the most sensible thing to do

is just to drop a small radius here

Yeah. and just see...

Is he close to Winterthur,

or is he in the sort of outskirts?

But I will remind you. I mean, 30...

A radar puts him at 205.

I don't want to let him get to 250

if we can avoid it. I agree.

I think under no circumstances can we let him get to 300.

Because if he's at 300, he has a 50% chance

of being allowed to move his hiding spot.

Which would be a true disaster.

Let's go ahead and put down that...

You want to. Put down that radar.

Okay, let's do it.

They did a 5-mile radar.

I don't think I'm escaping this one.

How did they guess here first out of everywhere?

That— There has to have been

some luck involved in that, right?

Oh, man.

Alright.

I'm gonna let them know.

Alright, answer should be coming any minute.

Mmm, I'm hungry.

You wanna get some food?

Yeah.

I mean, here.

Is this a coffee shop?

Yeah, okay. Looks like it.

Ooh. It's a hit, Ben.

Folks, it's a hit. It's a hit.

So that means we are within five miles of Sam right now.

Look, we're two hours in.

We're within five miles of the man.

I feel pretty good about that.

Here's what I'll say. We're two hours in right now.

I'm doubtful that he'll make it ten hours.

Unless it takes us eight hours to figure out—

Just don't say anything. Yeah, you're right.

Just don't say anything. Let's sit down

and make a list of where he could be.

Okay.

To be honest, I don't think this is going to be a winning run.

But, I actually have the money

– or the coins rather – for four dice.

He's going to be very excited about all these coins.

With four dice, pretty good chance

that he could roll something pretty good.

The curses start getting bad around 17,

they start to really get messy.

I think he has a pretty solid chance

of hitting at least a 17 with 4.

Yeah.

So, I think I might as well see what curse I get.

See if that can at least get me a little something.

Here we go.

This is kind of the last Hail Mary.

Oh, that doesn't look good.

Swiss cheese curse.

Before you ask your next question,

you must acquire 8 ounces of Swiss cheese

and fill in all of its holes on the outside

– you may break it open to make holes –

with other types of cheese.

You may not advance in the game

until you have a solid block of cheese

from outward appearance.

(sputters)

I feel like... again...

They have to have gotten at least a little bit lucky, right?

Okay. Well...

We were about to sit down for some coffee,

but he's hit us with a curse.

Which to me, incredible news

because it means he has spent at least two dice.

We actually don't have to do this curse right now

because this is just before we ask our next question.

Yeah, but let's just knock it out.

There's a cheese shop right there.

(laughs uproariously)

Sorry, Sam.

Aw, dude, that totally sucks for you, man!

Thank you. Thank you.

You ready to look like lunatics?

Yeah, that's what we do best!

You gotta imagine he was not pleased with that.

No, that's... (laughs)

That's a brutal roll. It's also like...

I don't know if he rolled two dice.

I don't know if he rolled three. I don't know if he rolled four.

I kinda bet he rolled four.

There is a chance that he rolled four.

And if he rolled four, I'm so sorry, Sam.

This sucks.

Ah, damn it.

Another thing I would say for Sam, unfortunately,

and maybe he's in Winterthur,

maybe that's why he did this, but...

Don't hit us with a curse

when we're in the middle of a dense city.

That actually makes me think

that he might be in Winterthur.

Maybe he thinks that we're in the endgame now.

If he's hitting us with a curse now.

It's possible.

Do you want to do it, or shall I?

Okay, here we go.

We're opening our cheese.

It turns out in Switzerland, they do not call it Swiss cheese.

Yeah, we were in the store, and we were like,

"There's not one labeled Swiss cheese.

What do we do?"

No, only America has the audacity

to name a cheese after itself.

And now there's a problem.

As you can see, it's full of holes.

Right. Seemingly a manufacturing error,

I would assume.

But we are gonna go ahead

and fix that for you, Switzerland.

Wow, you really can smell that cheese.

Yeah.

Alright, your hands are gonna get a little messy.

Yeah, I think that's just,

you know, an occupational hazard.

And we're just gonna go ahead and...

fill up our holes here.

I hope it makes him feel better

that it's kind of unpleasant for you.

Yeah, well...

No, it's pleasant.

Alright, I believe...

We've done it.

That's a solid block of cheese.

Switzerland, you are welcome.

We have gone ahead and fixed your cheese.

We went ahead and fixed your cheese.

Now it's good for eating.

Yeah.

Curse complete.

That took, what, ten minutes?

Yeah.

Alright, I think now let's go to the coffee shop

and figure out what to do next.

Alright, well...

I would say so far, things have gone quite well.

I mean, the fact that he used those cursed dice is...

I would argue, great for us and a massive mistake for him.

But honestly...

Unless he's here.