There have been discussions in the global escape room communities (yes, they exist) about what the perfect escape room team would consist of, or if it even exists. Our opinion is that it doesn't. However, we can theorize as to what it would consist of and why. To keep things simple, we're going to stick with a standard team size of four and play God with their personality traits and skill sets.
Before we do that, we're going to make the assumption that even God wouldn't inject a single human with all of the necessary traits to be a single, perfect escapist. In fact, we're going to water it down and say that we get one quality and one major defining skill per person. Also nobody can have superhuman anything including knowledge.
Let's do this.
Team member #1 - Kim the Teacher
Kim is a grade 1 teacher from a rougher part of town where the children throw more paper balls than minutes that they spend studying, but Kim gets it under control. She is fairly well educated. Fundamental math, history, English, and science has been her thing for a decade. Kids acting up? No problem. Long division? Got it. She's the first grade teacher you wish you had and you didn't even know it. What's up, Kim? Welcome to the squad.
Team member #2 - Dave the Electrician
Dave's a quiet dude who's got a thing for all things electronic. He followed his passion for tinkering with TVs and stereos as a kid and turned it in to a career. With a single look at any mechanism, he'll pretty much figure it out through and through. Strong silent type but knows how to be part of a team, and he's on this one. Come on down, Dave.
Team member #3 - Allison the Retiree
Allison's favorite things include cooking, watching the price is right and crushing the local paper's puzzle sections. She retired after 42 years working at a bank and was an airforce reservist. She now spends most of her days making cakes with or without occasion and hanging out with the neighborhood kids when they're around. Crossword crushing, sudoku slaying, ken-ken killing machine Allison, welcome aboard the escape train.
Team member #4 - Albert the Gamer
Albert is 19. He literally dreams about being a game designer. Loses sleep about it. When he's not in school getting sweet, sweet C+'s, he's hammering through Azeroth, stomping around Summoner's Rift or crusing around Hyrule (These are places in video games. Albert knows what's up). The only classes he excels in is computer programming and game theory. Can't figure out what the bug in the code is? Albert's got your back and he's on the route to destroy your escape rooms.
So this is it. This is the avengers of the escape room world. Here's why we think it works so well.
Genders: Guys and girls think differently. We see it time and time again that groups of just guys or girls will struggle with various puzzles just because they're not thinking about it the right way. (Side note: females have a higher success rate in our room hands down.).
Ages: Same thing as genders applies to ages. Albert might not do as well in a room themed in the prohibition era, but Allison has got that covered.
Electronics: Knowing that something is possible might be the factor that gets you to do a certain action that an electronic puzzle requires. You might not think to bring the pack of gum to the desk even though the room tells you to. An electrician will probably figure it out.
Leaders and Listeners: Every group should have a vocal leader that can organize the team's thoughts. In this group, Kim's got it on lock. Having a few quiet members actually helps as well as long as they're at least saying what they're solving and seeing.
Puzzlers and Gamers: Albert and Allison here will be able to figure out any puzzles that follow standard logical processes. The puzzler will get through the heavy logic and the gamer can help with the more out-of-the-box stuff.
Competitiveness: Last on the list is competitiveness. A few members from this team have a bit of background in some competitive play. Having the drive to succeed helps to get the best time.
And that's it! This is our everyday team of perfect escapers in a nutshell. We always tell people that it doesn't matter how 'smart' you are, it matters what your team dynamic is and how well your crew communicates. Some personalities and skill sets work great together and some clash. Watching either type of group has made my job a ton of fun!