For the next seven months, Oscar Pearce is hoping to spend about eight hours per day guessing where he is in the world, but from his computer.
The 23-year-old from Adelaide is a competitive GeoGuessr, and will be training to represent Australia on a global stage.
GeoGuessr is an online game which places users in random locations around the world through Google Street View.
Players use visual clues to work out their location.
Things like the landscape, language on signs and which side of the road cars are driving on can be key to help players find the solution.
“It’s not considered cheating if you find some information … if you see something like a sign, then that’s A-OK,” he said.
For the keen eyes of professional players like Mr Pearce, a guess can be exactly on the dropped location pin.
Hobby to global
Mr Pearce first played the game in high school, but picked it up as a hobby about six years later.
He soon started sharing himself playing the game on his YouTube channel “Zi8gZag”, which had since amassed more than 70,000 subscribers.
“I started posting clips on there … the consistency of posting online helped me to keep up the practice schedule,” he said.
“It got to the point where, when they were recruiting people for the 2023 World Cup, I was one of the main names.”
In October 2023, the inaugural GeoGuessr World Cup was held in Stockholm, Sweden, which saw 24 players from 21 countries battle it out for a prize pool of $50,000 and the title of world champion.
Mr Pearce, the only Australian competing, placed between ninth and 12th.
“The World Cup was definitely a success, but I didn’t get to practice in the lead-up as much as I would have liked to, because I was working full-time,” he said.
Now, Mr Pearce has taken the next step to request seven months off work to get ready for the 2024 World Cup.
Training continues
To prepare, he said he planned to spend his days learning facts specific to certain locations around the world and understand languages.
“I might practice a certain region of Russia in the morning, then do the Indonesian regency names in the afternoon and then end it off with some American phone codes,” he said.
“I’ll mix up the things that I like practising with the things that I don’t like practising, to try and get a really balanced style.”
Mr Pearce is confident it will pay off, and he is looking ahead to the Asia and Pacific Regional Qualifiers in May.
The Adelaide hopeful would then compete in the regional finals in June, with an aim to secure a spot at the 2024 World Cup in September.
“Even if I don’t end up coming out with the win in the World Cup, I think people will love watching me on the road to the World Cup,” he said.
“[I’ll be] doing everything I can to make myself the strongest player I can be.”
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