I flew into Vegas on Thursday night. It was to late to get badges for Defcon that night. We were told that they had a limited supply, so me and Jeff just stayed up all night. We met up with a friend of his, and did some BlackJack for a bit. I got 3 blackjacks in a row at one point in the night, I count that as a hax.

At about 6 we decide that we should go back to our hotel area and get food to keep from falling asleep. We tried resting at Denny’s while waiting for food, but that didn’t work to well. After eating, we end to the hotel to wait for a while longer. We go to where they were selling badges last year, and there was only one other person waiting. So we sit and talk with him for a bit and talk about ghosts and other random stuff. We tried to kill a Goon for his badge when he went into the bathroom, but by the time we had our plan ready he was already out.

We find out about 20 minutes after sitting there, that the badges are being sold else where. So we run to where they are at, and only about 8 people are standing around. PHEW. So we wait like an hour or whatever, and they finally open up to sell them. After me and Jeff get our badges we follow the line to the end. Holy crap, was it long. Like tons of people streching forever. It started by the registration desk (duh) and ended all the way past the pool and elevators. I tried to find a map that had that part but couldn’t, those of you who have been to the Rivera might know what I’m talking about.

After that we head to our hotel. Maniac and Jesus are just waking up, so me and Jeff get to sleep. So we sleep from about 9:30am to noon. Maniac comes into the room to wake us up intime for the Mystery Box Challenge. After everyone in the challege is checked in, we all get our box. This is only the first part of the contest.

All teams run to different areas around the con and break open their box. Inside we have 25 pieces of round paper with a book and letter of the alphabet on it. All letters are represented except for “E”. Then we have a memopad with 60 sheets of paper, but only the 1st one is used. It has “1×21″ written on it. Then the last part if an image of “Charlie Chaplin and the Kid” as well as a encrypted message. I will try to get pictures of the objects up soon.

I will not be posting any solutions or anything more specfic about the mystery box just incase someone stumbles upon this blog and is actually trying to complete the challenege.

Also that whole undercover reporter thing happened around this time, but that’s for another post.

So we work on it for many many hours, trying as many things as possible. Thanks to Jeffs awesome ruby programming skills, we decrypt the message. So now it is time to collect the real box. We try to use the elevator but it is impossible as it is out of order now. Me and Maniac run down 27 flights of stairs to get back to Defcon. When we got down the stairs and outside, we have two possible paths to take. I take the more direct straight line path, Maniac takes the walk around the fence and bushes and tress and cars and steet path. After hopping to fences and running around tress and bushes and dodging some cars I make it to the competition area, before everyone else. I present what we got, only to be told we need another part. When the rest of the team arrives, we all work on the last part and get it in about 3 minutes. So, after that we get taken into a dark spot and are told details about our box.

End of Day 1.