If it’s a few days after DASH, it’s time for the annual participation statistics post! Please find below an updated version of a table which details the number of teams on the scoreboard for each city in each edition of the DASH puzzle hunt to date.
Location | DASH 1 | DASH 2 | DASH 3 | DASH 4 | DASH 5 | DASH 6 | DASH 7 | DASH 8 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Albuquerque, NM | – | – | – | 6 | 6+1 | 3+2+0 | 4+0+0 | – |
Atlanta, GA | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 5+7 |
Austin, TX | – | 2 | 11 | 12 | 13+4 | 10+4+0 | 17+6+0 | 20+4 |
Bay Area, CA | Y(SF) Y(PA) |
7(SR) 59(LA) |
16(SR) 74(SM) |
73(SF) | 34+7(SF) 32+3(HMB) |
53+17+0(SF) 39+5+0(C) |
46+15+0(SF) 37+7+0(SJ) |
48+10(SF) 43+12(PA) |
Boston, MA | Y | 18 | 26 | 29 | 27+2 | 30+7+1 | 30+6+0 | 38+13 |
Chicago, IL | – | – | 17 | 14 | 10+1 | 15+9+0 | 16+24+0 | 16+16 |
Davis, CA | – | 16 | 15 | 16 | 13+7 | 8+7+1 | 13+7+0 | 12+8 |
Denver, CO | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3+12+0 | 6+7 |
Houston, TX | Y | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
London, UK | – | – | – | – | 6+2 | 8+13+0 | 14+9+0 | 14+8 |
Los Angeles, CA | Y | 7 | 22 | 21 | 15+4 | 15+2+0 (Pasadena) |
12+7+0 (Sta Monica) |
19+17 |
Minneapolis, MN | – | – | – | – | 8+7 | 7+4+0 (recast) |
9+7+0 | 7+9 |
New York, NY | – | 12 | 24 | 25 | 30+7 | 26+15+2 | 29+15+0 | 24+15 |
Portland, OR | Y | 6 | 17 | 19 | 19+2 | 11+7+0 | 10+10+0 | 12+5 |
San Diego, CA | – | – | 7 | – | – | – | – | – |
Seattle, WA | Y | 32 | 47 | 49 | 49+2 | 58+4+2 | 60+9+2 | 63+6 |
South Bend, IN | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – |
St. Louis, MO | – | – | – | 2 | 2+3 | – | 7+8+1 | 8+10 |
Washington, DC | Y | 14 | 22 | 33 | 31+1 | 27+5+0 | 26+9+0 | 28+12 |
Here are some initial interpretations:
1) Errors and omissions excepted, with apologies in advance. The Minneapolis DASH 6 recast figures came from the organisers by private e-mail.
2) The numbers are drawn from the scoreboards and may not reflect teams that participate but do not make the scoreboard for whatever reason, or other infelicities. (On the other hand, it does include teams which do make the scoreboard even despite being listed as “not started”.) DASH 1 does not have a public scoreboard on the web site and thus “Y” represents the hunt having happened there with an unknown number of participants. When there are pluses, the number before the first plus reflects the number of teams on the experienced track, the number after the first plus reflects the number of teams on the “new players” track (DASH 5, 6, 7 and 8), and the number after the second plus reflects the number of teams on the junior track (DASH 6 and 7 only).
3) Interpret “Bay Area, CA” using the following key: SF = San Francisco (1, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8), PA = Palo Alto (1 and 8), SR = Santa Rosa (2,3), LA = Los Altos (2), SM = San Mateo (3), HMB = Half Moon Bay (5), C = Cupertino (6), SJ = San Jose (7). (Santa Rosa counts as Bay Area, doesn’t it?)
4) It’s not a competition to see whose DASH can be the largest; all DASH organiser teams are glorious, generous paragons of virtue, whether their event had one team or 70+, and the community at large thanks them all for the time and effort that they put in.
5) Many locations had events that were similar in size or even slightly smaller (perhaps for reasons as simple as a higher number of teams who pay but, for whatever reason, just don’t show on the day) than the previous year. As discussed, there’s no reason why bigger necessarily has to be better and there’s no sense in deliberately trying to emphasise quantity over quality. It’s tempting to wonder how much unmet demand there is in the various cities around the world and whether everyone who wants to play is getting to do so in practice.
6) The line-up of 16 locations participating in DASH 8 was actually very similar to that for DASH 7, representing only a substitution of Atlanta, GA to replace Albequerque, NM. Registration was also offered in Missoula, MT, but the event did not happen in the end. The growth in Puzzled Pint over the year has been explosive with 32 locations in April 2016 against 14 in April 2015; it’s true that some of those were previous DASH cities, but surely it seems likely that some cities will go from Puzzled Pint to DASH – and beyond? – rather than the other way around. PP is currently played in five countries; it also seems plausible at the very least that DASH will start to catch up before much longer.
7) The overall numbers of teams has risen over the last three years from 295 to 307 to 333 to 363 on the “experienced” track and from 53 to 101 to 151 to 159 on the “novice” track, with every location featuring at least one team on each of the two tracks.