By Parvi Anand
At Lovett, March Madness isn’t only about basketball. This year, students and teachers are competing in a different kind of bracket: a GeoGuessr tournament organized by English teacher Dr. Brice Ezell.
GeoGuessr is an online game where players are dropped into a random location on Google Street View and must guess where they are in the world. Using clues like road signs, landscapes, and languages, players try to place their guess as close to the real location as possible.
According to Dr. Ezell, the idea for the tournament started last year with a former student.
“The inspiration really came from Brendan Pitfield, who graduated last year,” Dr. Ezell said. “He had seen a TikTok about the game and started playing it. We began playing together and decided it would be fun to build a club and eventually a competition.”
The GeoGuessr Club then created a tournament inspired by the excitement of March Madness brackets. Before the tournament begins, players compete during a regular season to earn points based on how often they attend meetings and how well they perform. Those points determine their ranking, or “seeding,” in the final bracket.
Once the bracket is set, players compete head-to-head. Each match includes five rounds where players have 30 seconds to guess the location shown in a Google Street View image. The closer their guess is to the real location, the more points they earn.
As the tournament continues, the rounds become more difficult. In earlier rounds, players can move around the map to search for clues. In the semifinals, they can only pan or zoom. In the final round, players cannot move, pan, or zoom at all; they must guess based on a single image.
Success in the game often comes down to small details. “Some players look at things like the color of road lines or what side of the road cars drive on,” Dr. Ezell said. “Others might look at the trees, the language on signs, or even the time of year.”
While the game is competitive, Dr. Ezell believes it is also a great way for students to learn about the world. “It’s a game where you naturally learn geography,” Dr. Ezell said. “You start noticing things about different countries and landscapes.”
Interest in the tournament has grown since last year. The first competition had 17 participants, while this year nearly 30 players showed up to compete.
The tournament also includes both students and teachers, something Dr. Ezell believes makes the competition more interesting. “I think both groups would be surprised by what the other knows,” Dr. Ezell said.
Last year’s final match came down to Dr. Ezell and Brendan, with Dr. Ezell eventually winning. This year, however, Dr. Ezell says the outcome is much less certain. “At the end of the season, I was in the lead,” Dr. Ezell said. “But players like Colin Summers, Nathan Shaw, Baker Weeden, and Jack Kilroy have been winning more recently.”
Senior Colin Summers has been playing GeoGuessr for about a year.
His experience traveling has helped him recognize locations more easily. “I’ve traveled a lot around Western Europe, about once every other year,” he said.
When trying to figure out where he is in the game, Colin looks for small but important clues. “I look at license plates, Europe has some with blue stripes,” he explained. He also pays attention to “what side of the road people drive on, the nature around, and road signs.”
For students interested in trying the game themselves, Colin recommends starting with the free options. “You get three free guesses,” he said, adding that students can also “join the club.”
Because the final round includes 15 guesses and the tournament uses a single-elimination bracket, Dr. Ezell says anyone could take the title this year.
No matter who wins, Dr. Ezell hopes students leave the tournament with new knowledge and a stronger sense of community. “It’s amazing how a game can bring people together,” Dr. Ezell said. “And this one helps you learn about the world at the same time.”
(A quick update: Dr. Ezell was the champion, which is a little sad for the student competitors. But there’s an upside for Dr. Ezell: “I now at least get to keep my money!”)
