GeoGuessr World Cup Final descends into chaos as players battle it out for $26,250

GeoGuessr used to be a game that I played with my friends when the teacher was not looking. Never thought it would have such a competitive scene. Let alone showcase one the most thrilling esports moments that I've ever seen.

The second GeoGuessr World Cup was held in Stockholm, Sweden this year, where the game originated a decade earlier. Eight finalists competed in different pool matches. Everyone's attention was on the final prize: $26,250 plus 100% revenue from each World Cup jersey sold and Twitch subscription purchased during the tournament. The prize is impressive, especially when you consider that the money was raised entirely by the GeoGuessr Community.

The entire tournament was exciting and live-streamed via YouTube. But the final competition was when all hats fell off. The French player Blinky faced off against the American MK to win the title of world champ. Blinky stated in an interview before the match that he would consider becoming world champion as a "crowning achievement". He was not sure if he would go for another title, but he might try.

MK, his rival at the time, sounded less confident: "This is the first time I'm really cooked." He did clarify later what winning would mean for him. "It would make a great achievement." I would be very satisfied with myself and I wouldn't have wasted two years of my career."

There are three types of matches: no move, move, and move, pan or zoom. Contestants try to guess the location as accurately as possible. Each player has 6000 HP and the winner is the one who gets closest to a chosen location. The points they receive (out of 5000), are then deducted from their opponent's HP, until the player has no HP left. This is a best of five game, so the match will continue until someone has won three matches.

Blinky was getting better at guessing the location every time. He started the match as he intended to continue, with the first location. (I thought it was the US but it was Thailand. Blinky got 4998 points after he was only a 587m distance away and spotted a road sign.

Blinky won the first match, and it looked for a while like he would win the second, and by default, the third. Blinky managed to land only 173m from the location, and then found the exact city. He dealt a whopping 5, 000 damage to MK.

MK was fortunate to have a damage multiplier which increases with each round of the match. This means that if you can make it through the seventh or ninth round when the multiplier reaches its maximum, you can do some serious damage. MK was able to win the third round by defeating Blinky with only 47 remaining points.

The fact that I was on the edge of my chair during this final fight for world championship speaks volumes about the excitement this final battle was. I didn't expect to be so captivated by GeoGuessr.

MK was not able to continue the fight. Blinky won the final match despite winning the next round with hardly any points remaining. It was a valiant effort to not give up, even though everyone else thought the World Cup was over.