By
Marie Aillerie
Published on
June 15, 2024 at 12:02 p.m.
; updated June 15, 2024 at 12:04 p.m.
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Imagine landing (almost) anywhere in the world and having to determine your position, to the nearest meter or at least country? This is the whole principle of Geoguessr. Created in 2013 by a Swede, this video game is based on Google Maps dataand challenges players to find their way around the world.
To do this, they don’t need much: a black and yellow electrical pole, the orientation of the sun, a telephone number on a panel, or even a type of tree.
Guillaume Sannier, aka Ripailloux on Twitch, lives in Rouen (Seine-Maritime). A sharp player, he will participate in France championship by Geoguessr, organized on September 7 and 8, 2024 in Rennes. Encounter.
Debuts in 2021
At the age of 32, Ripailloux began to take an interest in the game in 2021, at the end of confinement. “Antoine Daniel [ancien youtubeur/ streamer aujourd’hui, NDLR] did lives where he played the game. So with friends from Rouen, we started playing a few games,” explains Guillaume.
He quickly discovers that he is not bad, and makes his first competitions. “I was pretty good in the rankings, and I felt pretty quickly that mechanically I was good. So I continued. »
In 2023, he participated in the first edition of the French championship, organized by a player, and reached the quarter-finals. Obviously this year, he wants to go further!
An engaged community
In September, they will be 92 players to participate in the championship, each representing a department. All from the same community, “committed”, according to Ripailloux.
It is a very healthy, inclusive and caring community compared to others. We share a lot of new information, tips…
The Rouennais plays in a team of five, where everyone has their own specialty. “It’s good to have a fairly complete group, even if you don’t choose your teammates for their performances, but rather by affinities generally. »
In one part, there is three game modes :
- The mode move: the player can move as much as they want on the map.
- The mode no move : the player does not move, and can simply zoom in on the image.
- The mode NMPZ (no move, no panorama, no zoom): the player is faced with a fixed image, and cannot do anything.
“I have a very good command of move, well the NMPZ where it is necessary above all a lot of instinct, and a little less well the no move“, confides Guillaume, who trains on average 2-3 hours a day.
Very good at geography
Even before playing this game based on geography, Guillaume really liked the discipline. “I collected maps and was good at orientation. »
To perform, the Rouennais had to deepen his knowledge. “Each country has its specificities on the game, recognizable points, which are grouped into guides written by players. » Guillaume therefore learned the Cyrillic (the Russian alphabet), to read the Thai consonants, knows all the prefectures of Japan or even all the telephone codes.
Each player has their strengths and weaknesses. Guillaume knows “the Philippines, Norway, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates” quite well, but knows Russia much less. “Everything is the same, learning is a bit boring. And it’s a big area of the world map, we land regularly on it,” explains the player.
A game that takes you on a journey
These virtual landscapes made Guillaume want to travel. “Last summer, we were keen to go to Norway with friends, precisely because I had found the country magnificent on Geoguessr,” he smiles. For the same reasons, another small group from the community flew to Mongolia in 2022.
For the French championships, Ripailloux will therefore represent Seine-Maritime, and is aiming at least for semi final. But to find out if it succeeds, see you on September 7 and 8, 2024!
You will be able to follow the championships live on the Twitch channel of EmgannEsport, the organizer of the event.
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