Encounter

The game rules applied today were developed by Belarusian Ivan Masliukov in 2001 as part of the Skhvatka project. Ivan Masliukov was supporting the game at his own expense before the project was ceased in the end of 2001.

At the beginning of spring 2002 Ivan started seeking for donors to continue the project. Minsk internet provider "BelInfonet" company was there to sponsor the game. By June 2002 "Skhvatka" games were resumed.

Disputes over the project arose between Ivan Masliukov and "BelInfonet".

First I held games on my own then in cooperation with "Belinfonet". Unfortunately, we had a clash of opinions. Then I decided to start my own brand Encounter that included Skhvatka (Combat) and several other games.

Developers of such games like "Hunt", "Skhvatka", and "Dozor" copied the main idea of Encounter, slightly altering the format and task management.

As a result, Ivan separated from partnership with BelInfonet and created an independent Encounter project. A noteworthy fact is both parties of the conflict registered their game name trademarks "Skhvatka" and "Encounter" in 2002 and 2004 correspondingly.

Konstantin Glushakov, who developed "Skhvatka" game application platform from scratch, headed the group of programmers who are currently working on the Encounter platform design and development.

After creation of the Encounter project Skvatka game, being one of several game formats, was called Combat.

Game formats

There are several types of missions, which can be played solo or in teams. Every team has to have a car to reach different locations, a cell phone or a laptop connected to Internet in order to receive mission tasks, flashlights (due to the fact that most of the games are held on Saturday nights) and a set of walkie-talkie to use at places where network signal is low.

The main goal of the game is to complete various missions in several locations sooner than the others. A team or a solo player to complete all given missions first wins the game. According to rules there is no strict sequence of missions, they are not limited in time or number. The organizers may determine all these parameters themselves. The similar game called Dozor.Classic in contrast, has strict limitations to each game. For example, there can only be 5 to 10 missions in a game, each mission is limited to 90 minutes and the hints are provided every 30 minutes with automatic mission switch.

Celebrities who participated or judged games

These are some of famous people who took part in Encounter game Ruslana, Alex Exler, Dmitry Puchkov, Ales Mukhin, Ville Haapasalo, KVN team Fyodor Dvinyatin, Yevgeni Grishkovetz, Boris Strugatsky, Diana Arbenina, Sergey Pimenov, Konstantin Rykov, Andrey Griboedov, Artur Sitdikov.

Accidents

Night games are related with certain risks for participants. The organizers point them out in the rules of the game. Before the game every team captain hands in an agreement to the organizers. These agreements contain signatures of the participants who acknowledge and take the risks they may be subject to.

The game is rather extreme, therefore players have to be utmost careful, cautious and attentive. The list of accidents that occurred during the Encounter games:

On October 27, 2007, two cars collided on Novosibirsk – Kolyvan highway. There were Encounter players in one of the cars. A male, female and a child lost their lives. Six people hospitalized.

A young man died early morning on May 2 to 3 2009 in the Stary Oskol city. He was hit by electricity at a railroad bridge.

A young man fell off the roof of closed factory in Kemerovo on the May 2, 2009.

Two participants suffocated inside an underground collector in Lipetsk on July 12, 2009