You have probably heard of or done one: an escape room. With the summer holidays just around the corner, this is a fun activity to do with friends and family. But Ruben Verver and Anne de Bruin go a step further: they participate in competitions.
With about 1000 escape rooms in the Netherlands, the popularity of the room from which you have to escape has grown considerably in recent years. There is now even a real Dutch Championship. Ruben and Anne, together with three friends, won under the team name ‘Lemme think about it!’ the title in 2021.
‘It helps that you know each other through and through’
But that NK victory was of course not the first time that the team played together. “I think we have started doing escape rooms more often in the past 5 to 10 years, since they have become a bit hip.” Initially in a variable composition, but soon a permanent team formed.
Anne and Ruben have been in a relationship for 10.5 years and are now engaged. They lived together with the other three team members, Harm, Tim and Max, during their student days. “It helps that you know each other through and through,” says Ruben. “You know how everyone is put together and what everyone’s strengths and weaknesses are. That also makes it more fun. You don’t just want to talk about tactics.”
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Three times is a charm
In 2019 they will see the Dutch National Championships for the first time. “That was the first time we participated,” says Ruben. Then we put in a really good first lap and then we lost weight in the second or third lap. It is really a knockout: if you lose, you are immediately out.”
But they do have a taste for it. “The second year we were among the best 25. We were through to the final, but it was canceled due to corona.” Encouraged by the final place, they will register again in 2021, this time it will be a full home edition due to corona. And three times it turns out to be a charm, because ‘Lemme think about it!’ is the fastest out of the room.
‘We want to get there as soon as possible’
According to Ruben, there were about 800 teams in 2021. “But all those teams do not actually enter a room from which you have to escape. The first rounds are often from home or in the open air, a kind of treasure hunt.”
If you continue, you will actually enter a room. But whatever escape room or round they are in, the goal always remains the same, according to Ruben: “We want to get out of it as quickly as possible.”
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Rarely made the top 3
In addition to the championship, the five also regularly go on the road together. “I now have about 25 to 30 rooms on it,” says Ruben. “We like games and puzzles anyway, so we also have regular board game nights,” adds Anne.
Despite their experience with escape rooms, the group is not always trying to improve the best time. “It’s not that we are at the top everywhere we go. Sometimes we can take a shot at a classification. But I think we rarely really made it, the top 3 or the top 5. But at the last NK it came somehow just together.”
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NK is very accessible
According to Anne, experience is not a requirement to participate in the NK escape rooms. “I think the Dutch National Championships are very accessible. There are different rounds, where you can get further and further, or not. I can recommend everyone to participate once.”
If you have also become enthusiastic, the two champions have some tips. “It’s good to try a few escape rooms and briefly talk about what went well and what went less well.”
Keeping calm is the key
“And I would make sure that you have a good click with the team and that you can have each other, because it can get quite heated when there is stress,” says Ruben.
Anne also emphasizes that it is important to remain as calm as possible. “I think it’s a pitfall that you sometimes want to give a definitive answer too quickly because of the stress. We were disqualified for that in the first year,” she says.
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Clue missed
“We were soon ahead, but there was a catch. They had said at the beginning of the hour: you have to listen to the tape.”
Anne thought she had already heard the answer and filled it in. “But at the very end of the tape they said to reverse the answer and we missed that. That’s why we now have a rule that we always check the answer with two people if you can only enter it once.”
On to 2023
Unfortunately, the champions cannot defend their title in 2022, says Anne. “They did not let the championship go ahead this year, because of corona it was too uncertain.”
And whether all team members already have the 2023 edition in their agenda? “If it’s there again, we’ll definitely participate,” says Ruben.
