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We turned Chicago into one three‑hour race.

The first Roamli Scavenger Hunt Scramble sent teams all over the city: 114 challenges, 1,015 points on the board and $1,750 in cash prizes for the top three crews. Here's how we built it.

Plan a competition See the event page
Looking out at the Chicago skyline from the lakefront
The Roamli Scavenger Hunt Scramble: Chicago event page in the Roamli player, marked Ended
$1,750 in cash prizes: $1,000, $500 and $250
Length
3 hours
Where
All over Chicago
Challenges
114
Points available
1,015
Entry
$59 per team
Team play
One Captain's phone per crew

Everything turned on, in our home city.

Most Roamli events are built for someone else: a downtown, a campus, a nonprofit, a company offsite. The Scramble was ours. We wanted a city-wide competition that showed, end to end, what a Roamli game looks like when every piece is switched on: a masked map, a hard start and finish, a live leaderboard, cash on the line and local partners woven through it.

Chicago was the obvious board. It's where Roamli started, and it's full of the public art, statues and landmarks that make great challenges. Three Chicago-area escape-room companies, who know a thing or two about puzzles, came on as official partners.

Six decisions that made it a real hunt.

No meeting point

89 map stops spread across 15 neighborhoods and parks. Teams picked their own starting spot, so there was no crowd at a single start line.

Hidden until kickoff

Challenges stayed masked until 10:00 sharp, and anything submitted after 1:00 didn't score. Nobody got a head start.

Clues, not addresses

Every stop got a punny title and a description with no street or park names. Teams had to work out where "If I Only Had a Brain" was.

Points on the way

25 "On The Way" challenges could be done anywhere: photos, short videos and a six-word story, so walking between stops still scored.

Warm-up rounds

Four free practice hunts in River North and the Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and Pilsen let teams learn the game before it counted.

A race you could watch

Each approved submission moved the live leaderboard on every Captain's phone, so crews could see exactly who they had to catch.

114 challenges from Lincoln Park to Pilsen.

Every one of the 89 location stops was worth 10 points and every on-the-way challenge 5, for 1,015 points in total. Before game day we checked that every stop still existed, because public art moves more often than you'd think.

  • Lincoln Park
  • Bucktown
  • South Loop
  • The Loop
  • Pilsen
  • River North
  • Streeterville
  • East Village
  • Ukrainian Village
  • Gold Coast
  • Grant Park
  • Wicker Park
  • Humboldt Park
  • West Loop
  • Millennium Park
  • "Hans off the Merchandise"
  • "There's No Place Like Lincoln Park"
  • "The Man, The Myth, The Monument"
The Scramble's map in the Roamli player, with dozens of numbered pins across Chicago
The Scramble's challenge list in the Roamli player, with punny titles worth 10 points each

Partners who know puzzles, sponsors who know the city

The escape-room teams who co-built the Chicago Scramble and the local businesses who backed it.

100s new customers, year one100+ player team-building eventsOutdoor team-building and seasonal scavenger hunts from an escape roomRead story
300+ new customers in a yearBuilds its own hunts on Roamli and co-built the Chicago ScrambleRead story
3 city-wide events in a yearRuns its own city-wide hunts on Roamli and partnered on the Chicago ScrambleRead story
89 Scramble map stopsChicago's things-to-do guide, sending its readers into the Chicago ScrambleRead story
4 Scramble practice huntsItalian-ice sponsor of the city-wide Chicago ScrambleRead story

Three ways for a local business to join the game.

These are the tiers we offered for the Scramble. Festivals, fundraisers and conferences can use the same structure.

Community Sponsor

Get your name on the hunt.

$500
  • Logo on the event page
  • A shout-out to every player before kickoff
  • Listed as an official sponsor

Rewards Partner

Put your offer in every player's hands.

From $100 per reward type
  • Discount codes, links or offers delivered in the game
  • Sent to every player who reaches your threshold
  • Delivered by Roamli's automated rewards
Headline tier

Featured Challenge

Become a stop on the map.

$1,000
  • Your business becomes one of the challenges
  • A stop on every team's map for the whole hunt
  • Top billing as a headline partner

A city-wide competition for your festival, cause or company.

Plans start at $49/mo, or we'll build the game with you, or for you.

  1. Step 1

    Design the board

    Landmarks, sponsor stops and on-the-way tasks. Our team can research and write them for you.

  2. Step 2

    Handle entry your way

    Sell tickets or take donations on your own ticketing or giving platform, then share the event code with registered teams.

  3. Step 3

    Run game day live

    Masked start and a hard finish on Creator and Creator Pro. Add a live leaderboard, rewards and announcements to every team.

Roamli for events & festivals Roamli for nonprofits Have us build it

Keep reading.

The Simple Good raised $30,000+

A 100+ challenge urban art hunt across 10 Chicago neighborhoods, raising money for 400 students.

Read the story

Lock Chicago took its escape rooms outside

Outdoor team-building hunts for groups of 100+, with no new room to build.

Read the story

Downtown Dayton filled its streets in one day

1,000+ players and 140+ participating businesses in a single-day downtown adventure.

Read the story

Let's build your competition.

A 30-minute call. Tell us the city, the crowd and the prize, and we'll sketch the board live.

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