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The Scouts Monopoly Run Live is an annual tradition which sees Scouts of all ages from across the country compete on a real life Monopoly Board, turning the country's capital into the world's largest board game. The event uses cutting edge technology in the form of a custom built app, bringing the Monopoly game (first made in 1902!) into the 21st century. Andy Cooper, Teacher of Mathematics and Minerva Scouts Leader, recounts the action in his article below.
Minerva Explorers took part in the Scouts Monopoly Run Live on Saturday 9 March. The Monopoly Run is a real-time version of the popular Monopoly board game. It is played in a single day in central London and involves visiting the actual sites that the board game is based on. The game is all about your tactics and speed in getting around the capital! The main objectives of the day are buying properties, earning rent, quiz and team challenges, and visiting all properties.
The 8,000 scouts taking part from groups across the country were divided up into over 1,300 teams in nearly 200 simultaneous real time games. Just like the board game, each team started with £1500, but instead of moving around the board with playing pieces, they could choose the order to visit the properties in. The rules allowed the use of public transport to travel across the nation's capital. As teams visited the properties, they could purchase them if they hadn't been bought already or they had to pay rent if another team had already been there.
Teams could earn money, not just from rent, but also from passing go, The Famous London Landmarks Quiz, or taking part in the fun photo challenges. These included, doing the conga, taking a selfie with Nando's, hugging a tree and taking a picture with Big Ben!
Our Scouts made up two teams, Cheeses and Chips, and the Influencers. Cheeses and Chips finished 5th in their game with a bank balance of -£1840, whilst the Influencers fared slightly better finishing 3rd and only -£302 overdrawn!
The adult leaders managed to win their game with a balance of over £3000 and had visited more than 80% of the places including building 5 hotels and walked more than 30,000 steps!
Despite the terrible weather at the start the scouts all had an amazing day!