This challenge could seem impossible, but with a specific trick, it is pretty easy to find the location.
To make it a bit more difficult, I wanted to find the exact location (when I say exact, I mean max 1 meter away).
Link to the OSINT challenge video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNp2vfzaF4A
I urge you to try by yourself before looking at this solution
Solution
The full video is recorded inside a stadium.
The goal is to identify the section, row and seat where Cody is at the moment of the video.
But before diving into theses questions, let’s find what’s the stadium and the context about this soccer match:
We already have a name: Lumen field, something that says Champions League and the logos of the two teams for this match.
We can direclty confirm the stadium by search the name on Google:
The USA flag and the big recognizable white metal structures validate our assumption about the Lumen Field stadium in Seattle.
Now we want to know who are the teams involved in this match.
A lot of clues are given inside this video:
We have two logos and a name: Seattle Sounders FC.
It is not very surprising that we find Seattle as one of the both teams tonight because it is their stadium.
Confirm their logo using Google search:
Now, who’s the second team?
During the video the response shows itself:
It says: Sounders FC vs New York City FC
Once again, let’s validate the logo:
We are sure about the match.
The video was uploaded on Apr 7, 2022:
Was there a match between these two teams that day?
Yes!
So far, it was fun and we were able to identify the two teams playing that night but it wasn’t the challenge.
We must identify the section, row and seat where Cody recorded the video.
First, let’s see where approximately he is:
He is at the opposite of the big screen and in the corner:
From the official Lumen Field website we find a map of the stadium:
We are around the number 1.
But let be more accurate and draw lines to find the section he’s in:
It is Section 230.
Now we must find the row.
From the video, multiple points of view are interesting:
We are even able to identify and draw the metal barriers:
We are on the same row as the lower one finishes and before the higher one.
Ok, but how do we know the row name?
We must find a website that allows us to browse the different locations inside the stadium.
And our savior is this one
It does not show all of the rows but enough to make us an assumption:
In the simulation, we’re in row K but as seen previously, the video was recorded next to the lower barrier, which makes us go to row J.
We can even count all the barriers of that section from above:
So now, what seat?
It is a bit more difficult because we don’t have enough vision of the seats.
We can only assume a seat.
We can count the number of seats in front of Cody:
The perspective is our worst enemy here.
But we could believe we’re around seat 8 (maybe 7 or 9).
At least, we know we are closer to the right than the left (from the video pov) by using the virtual stadium view and counting the seats.
We must determine the numbering process. Does it start counting from the right or the left?
This website gives us the answer:
The section is not the same but the numbering is.
For me, the video was recorded in Section 230, Row J, Seat 8 (not sure for the seat number).
At the end of the challenge I wanted to see if there’s an official answer to this challenge.
So in the comment section of its video, I found this and wanted to share with you my opinion about this answer and Cody’s validation:
This answer is supposed to be the correct answer (and validated by Cody), but I’ll show you why this is wrong:
I’m okay with the first part: 230
That’s also what we identified earlier.
But row N?
That’s not possible.
Let’s look at this 3D view we saw during the writeup:
http://seahawks.io-media.com/web/index.html
We’re in row K from this view.
It means that row N is the third row above us.
In tis case, we would have been on the same level as the wall (green) but we’re not:
Moreover, in row N, he wouldn’t have been able to see the inside of the "rooms" above him, contrary to what we see in the video.
What’s your thought about this?
Hope you enjoyed the writeup and that you learnt some new techniques.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you want to discuss about OSINT/GEOINT or if I made a mistake or missed a crucial piece of information.
Answer
Section: 230
Row: J
Seat: 8 or 9