The surprising lessons of the "GeoGuessr" world championship

[@korganrocks3995]

Kudos for covering a very internet-nerdy thing in a respectful, informative way.

[@TTarragon]

For real. I was preparing for the cringe... But it was actually well done!

[@korganrocks3995]

@@TTarragon At least when tv shows get it wrong they somehow manage to make themselves look more out of touch with regular people than the weirdos they're covering! 😄

[@jakelyonsgeo]

Thank you so much for this incredible opportunity CBS!!! It was such great fun to be a part of this :)

[@oopsgeo]

lets go jake

[@RidiculousReefing]

Jake!!!

[@UnofficialKoala]

Jake!!!!!!

[@flint818]

you killed it Jake!

[@ground.jordan]

🐐

[@oldschoolhousegardening8223]

Retired Geography teacher here…completely thrilled!

[@BlueFlash215]

Did you give it a try? One is quickly humbled by the game. Especially if you take the no move, no panning option.

[@jpppptrade]

@@BlueFlash215 lets be honest no the no move and no panning is just over the top thats not worth the time for

[@jaykafei4815]

I loved the 'it goes on forever' line from Jake at the end, that's a really beautiful way of expressing the vastness of the world and how much there is to explore.

[@MicahPotts]

He's right, it really is soooooooooo huge! Impossible to see everything just on this planet alone!

[@bunnypeople]

Rainbolt never beating the CIA allegations 😂

[@nuckels188]

CIA? Thailand brings to mind a different kind of allegations

[@Sheerspeechcraft]

They need to hire him if they haven't already

[@башарал]

​@@nuckels188actually the CIA did open it's first ever black site in Thailand

[@jp__878]

@@nuckels188Thailand literally where the 1st black site after 911 was 😂. U don’t know what you don’t know

[@ifkq]

​@@nuckels188what allegations would Thailand bring?

[@PROBLUM79]

Rainbolt finding that location for that adopted guy... 🤯🤯🤯 HOW? It was just some mountains in the background

[@harrybridgesBread]

That is a seprate but related skill to geoguessr, called geolocation, using OSINT (Open Source Intelligence). That fact that Rainbolt is so profiecient at both skills is mindblowing.

[@arvurebantra7639]

GeoWizzard also does this and it's really amazing to watch. Rainbolt is next level at it though.

[@EuropeanEmpireEU]

Bellingcat does this a lot too. I remember them finding the location of a war crime just by the mountain range in the background of a video.

[@Grawlix_Jungle]

Rainbolt is insanely good at this

[@AirLancer]

@@harrybridgesBread Just shows how important it is to maintain OPSEC when you don't want something to get out. What might be a completely nondescript photo to most people might as well be a giant flashing neon sign pointing at your exact location to another.

[@DiggOlive]

wow, this is better than any introduction to the geoguessr community that I could have imagined, they even showed a screenshot of geotips

[@neilamrelcastillo2929]

Congrats Blinky! 2024 Geoguessr World Cup Champion!

[@quahogteegie7176]

Blinky the goat, he’s so classic “no boos please”

[@de132]

This is why I love CBS Saturday and Sunday Morning. There's a level of sincere enthusiasm about human interest stories that capture a sense of wonder.

[@shiina29]

Great story! The reporter seemed very enthusiastic!

[@gotaplanstan]

16 hours after the Grand Finals of the World Cup they're talking about, the video for the final day had over a million views already. Kinda crazy how fast the game's esport has blown up in the last 2 years!

[@thecashier930]

I feel like it profits a lot from the fact that it's an easy to imagine skill, so it's watchable for the layman. Like watching counterstrike, you only really know how good someone is if you played counterstrike. And you need to have played at least any shooter to get an idea of the skill. But some grandpa living offgrid and online for 40 years somewhere could watch Geoguessr Esports and immediatley understand just how amazing their skills are.

[@PhineasGeo]

Well put together video :)

[@Masticore_]

🐐

[@uku5840]

"There's no street coverage in Laos, so everything we see is new!" 😂

[@GLUBSCHI]

Hold up his actual name is rainbolt

[@BasHasibuan]

Wait what? Rainbolt is his real name? How cool is that!

[@youtubechannel-bf8ig]

…doesn’t his name start with an S?

[@keinen.0824]

Trevor Rainbolt

[@RyguyRB]

Great to see mainstream media cover a story about a video game without sounding like a complete doofus. She clearly did the research and even went on location, twice? Great story!

[@sanj_lh]

Jake Lyons mention🎉🎉 Also the other pros mentioned (Radu C, Zi8gzag, CG, Rainbolt+ founders and other pros in World Cup clips) Love watching their videos and learning more about what they do

[@wickedpawn5437]

I watched the 2023 World Cup live. Stuck to the broadcast for 8 straight hours. Couldn't get off the screen. It's addictive.

[@GeoPopo]

Jake is the sweetest! Such a lovely person and it was a pleasure meeting him all the way in Stockholm!!

[@jakelyonsgeo]

@@GeoPopo likewise :)

[@AirLancer]

This is basically the internet version of those dudes in movies who can sniff some dirt and find out what the person that was standing there a week ago had for lunch.

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

This man is GPS.

[@MarjaMariachi]

Missed opportunity: Instead of having shirts with their country's names, they should have been blank, then have the audience figure out where everyone's from.

[@jimallen8238]

CBS, thank you for doing your homework on this subject and not succumbing to the urge to dumb down a nerdy topic as so often done by the U.S. news media.

[@nalo1728]

Rainbolt is worth 10000 CIA Agents lmao

[@ninjanerdstudent6937]

4:14 - He is the one I watched.

[@jcnbw01]

Law enforcement should be hiring them as consultants or full-time assets if they're not already doing so.

[@ArJayDM]

Rainbolt really deserves everything. Such a good dude.

[@jessali_]

Yoooo, Jake on television! Thanks, CBS, for highlighting this incredible game. I hope it reaches many more people! ❤

[@AnimalStomper]

Creepy mainstream TV didn't even do geoguessr dirty? Strange

[@soccermono]

hopefully with this increase in attention (and site visits), they reconsider the monthly subscription to play the game

[@jonathanknapp2206]

Google charges quite a lot to use their API, they could not afford to run the game on ads alone.

[@PowerNGlory]

It's only $3 a month for crying out loud. You are lucky they are not charging at least $10 or more like most basic online services these days.

[@Joemamahahahaha821]

Nah with GeoGuessr how it is this will bring popularity to this local news channel.

[@soccermono]

@@PowerNGlory having a family changes priorities of monthly expenses, but i get what you're saying. i'd just rather put that money towards my kids.

[@zeroyuki92]

​@@soccermono That is fine, even 3$ could be an important decider for some people. Hopefully your finance will improve so eventually 3$ extra expenses is nothing for you.

[@realhawaii5o]

3:10 come on, it's global knowledge that Järve Keskus is a mid shopping centre in Tallinn 😅

[@mirra_xo]

we freaking love you jake

[@therandomcommander2975]

WoW! He helped that woman find the location. AMAZING!!!!

[@MrMadvillan]

the plethora of ways in which one can waste their time on the internet is truly inspiring.

[@MutherFIFA]

Great piece!! Thank you

[@waldyeti3744]

This is actually a very wholesome and nice report. Well done!

[@_MaxHeadroom_]

If you see the best players play this it will absolutely blow your mind. There are people that can see a location and pick the spot where it is on a world map within *less than a mile*

[@binchamers]

Plonkit on cbs mornings 😮

[@EdwardEmoryPhoto]

Glad to see Rainbolt get his roses.

[@iceflame360]

GeoGuessr with the lads is so much fun

[@turtlemanforeva]

Damn Geoguessr made it

[@kagepoker]

Rainbolt ironically reminds me of the movie Rainman. Also, Nancy Chen is a cutie.

[@RichardsWorld]

Nancy's smile is..... a beautiful thing to see.

[@danielreed5199]

I always presumed that Rainbolt was a username, awesome that that is his actual name :)

[@grimcity]

Great story. Geo guessers amaze me... this was really well done.

[@thedarkflowkiller]

2:00 that LOST hatch sound

[@Luca-tm6dy]

Jake Lyons my goat forever

[@TrainerAQ]

The World is so vast and huge. You can spend your whole life exploring it, and you will never see it all

[@peregrinecovington4138]

CBS coming thru with the optimized KZbin style title

[@picknroll929]

These guys are legit.. I discovered this game last year watching last year's Geoguesser world championship. One dude guess the country right based on the color of the soil its absurd.

[@Alexandros.Mograine]

One thing none of these stories ever mention, is that almost all of these guys were inspired by geowizard.

[@Jane-sw1zh]

This dude is a deep intellectual

[@after_midnight9592]

Rainbolt's passport bro?

[@benz7427]

rainbolt:fire

[@opinion56]

this is a great news segment.

[@Pallethands]

Rainbolt on TV? How did this happen?

[@okoritefubara8748]

the World Championships just concluded, so this is the best news coverage

[@GigglyardoYT]

i remember when geoguessr was free

[@katlis]

With all the time & money they spent to develop & maintain it, surely it couldn't be free forever. It's 3 bucks a month for unlimited plays, or you can still play the free daily game (kinda like wordle).

[@nzeug]

Good and respectful coverage! ThoughI I wonder why there was not the obvious question where the female players are. (i really don't know, as in chess I know at least some personalities but no one here)

[@thecashier930]

It's an interesting question. Especially because Geoguessr doesn't really have a community per se, where social pressures could function. Like, you play anonymously online. Unless you watch Social Media content, you don't need to see a single person. Maybe it's simply too nieche and nerdy? Who knows...

[@Wyrdwad]

That is a good point. I only know of at one female Geoguessr pro, and she only really specializes in Japan -- though she has played other country maps before and done quite well. Her real name is unknown, but she goes by AZKi, and is a Japanese vtuber with the Hololive agency. Her Geoguessr streams are a lot of fun, and she's really adopted Geoguessr as a major part of her content offerings, but curiously, she is the ONLY female Geoguessr pro who comes to mind.

[@Charles-yi3mx]

Also worth noting that people on average prefer being with people who are similar to them, and so a male-dominated community will attract more men than women. It's sort of this feedback loop that keeps going on and is also why certain real life professions are male or female dominated when there really shouldn't be a reason why one gender is better at the profession than the other.

[@thecashier930]

@@Charles-yi3mx That's kind of the thing though that I wanted to point out: Compared to other games Geoguessr doesn't really have that much of a community at all. And you can compete quite fine without interacting with other people.

[@katlis]

@@thecashier930 Maybe it comes down to reaction time for games like this (where men have the biological advantage)? Having that sort of handicap, for lack of a better word, makes it harder for women to be in the top 5% of a leaderboard where you can be anonymous.

[@adrianlikins1314]

Great story! Well done!

[@davissae]

This is Boston. Nice.

[@arxligion]

I'm #6 on the geoguessr California map... Never knew the thing about the triple yellow bars lol

[@ryzasnegrius8728]

Its litterly one of the most common known pole

[@oisinquinn9469]

I don't do it but clearly involves critical thinking, problem solving, Learning about the world. If my kids took it up I would be happy.

[@L.Spencer]

My brother plays geoguesser, he's really into it.

[@noitallmanaz]

No mention of the GOAT? Tom Davies is the Original GEOWIZARD

[@maxwellerickson7066]

respect for OG Geowizard streams

[@GrrliinaK]

I love this game!

[@finnster3276]

this is so sweet

[@justaguy-69]

cool, i do that with movies for fun, i drove over the road trucking in usa,canada and i can spot where a movie is filmed in usa pretty fast, i've traveled to guam,philippines,japan,s.korea and i can spot a lot of places and i dont even play this game.

[@willb3636]

How about you ask Daniel Antell why they took away every single free version of the game. I used to be an avid player, but I’m not going to pay monthly for a browser game.

[@keef5]

Yea rainbolt took an online cia test. It was too easy

[@robertosutrisno8604]

He passed his test and send his acceptance letter to the CIA Director safe house

[@javautube]

Wish they remade Three Days of the Condor but with GeoGuessers.

[@huntno]

Wow they really made it

[@stefanschneider3681]

Great game! But when I got to the point where I would have had to learn all the street signs, all the license plates of every US state, electricity poles by heart or even different languages to get better, then it started to bore me. Because I wasn't ready to go that path. But a fun way to virtually get to learn different place! And you don't just see the pretty areas, on the contrary, you see lots and lots of streets and places way out of the main streets.

[@nawwk79]

2:12, Nancy looks so cute.

[@AssyriacUnitarian]

Too late bruh, married

[@RichardsWorld]

@@AssyriacUnitarian a divorce is possible.

[@mchjsosde]

​@@RichardsWorldunhinged 😂

[@Lubecgeo]

🐐

[@alepuller]

so great seeing my old community get on CBS

[@schwamforfreedom]

Great story about a great game!

[@werdwerdus]

probably around Tamworth, idk

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

I wonder how many law enforcement and intelligence groups seek the services of geoguessrs.

[@motox2416]

Law enforcement already use a similar crowsourcing to hone in on the locations of child abuse images. But in that case they post parts of the images, like furniture, wall sockets, etc.

[@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive]

@@motox2416 Yeah, I was impressed by the investigators that managed to find and capture Peter Scully and his accomplices from the few clues the interior decoration, utilities, and architecture showed.

[@ramoraid]

several, a crowdsource group used images from a north Korean factory to guess it location and other info a few years back.

[@sydneykillian3685]

Where is rainbolt on this?

[@sheldonthomas8773]

Some of the views from the street view can be found using a google search , but I guess if you try that your competitor might guess correctly while you’re doing a google search.

[@joesharpe160]

Goat

[@ysmaelroyo9316]

my GOAT Jake

[@MrMusicanddedication]

This guy marketing his game😂

[@jackburton2680]

Is it open book? Are they allowed to google the name of a building/business?

[@jacobdaniels3246]

nope

[@thomaslindell5448]

Rainbolt scares me

[@samuelculper4231]

Imagine Geowizard missing out on the opportunity to commentate for this event.. oh wait

[@lawsdead]

LETS GO TREVOR

[@yayer_27]

common geoguessr W

[@VARMOT123]

Wish you covered natgeo bee as much as this 😂

[@Vegancutie]

I love geoguessr

[@peterc.4143]

I wonder what the autism rate is for the top scorers

[@darealkelpyg6178]

Why is this man dressed like STEVE lmao

[@jamisonr]

How awesome to see Jake Lyons pop up on a news video!

[@erinburke9711]

ASD FTW

[@rl332]

Cool coverage but the world champ is Blinky and there was no lessons from him in this video lol

[@C-Weegs]

These guys will all be hired by the military in no time

[@Wick9876]

It's a non-fiction video game.

[@jamesmcpherson3924]

I would love to know what places feel comfortable and beautiful to these folks. What patterns they see, which ones create life, and which ones seem like a scourge.

[@DavidMiller-kf1ss]

Beat me for idea.😊thanks.❤