Wikipedia

Trevor Rainbolt

Trevor Rainbolt (born November 7, 1998), known mononymously as Rainbolt, is an American social media personality and player of GeoGuessr, an online geography game. He initially gained popularity through posting videos on TikTok, which showed GeoGuessr gameplay in his characteristic high-intensity style and often involved challenges or self-imposed limitations. He posts videos on YouTube about the game and other geography-related topics.

Trevor Rainbolt
Born (1998-11-07) November 7, 1998 (age 25)
Longview, Texas, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Colorado Colorado Springs
Occupations
YouTube information
Channels
LocationBangkok, Thailand[citation needed]
Years active2020–present
Subscribers
  • 542 thousand (RAINBOLT)
  • 1.3 million (RAINBOLT TWO)
Total views
  • 46.9 million (RAINBOLT)
  • 565.7 million (RAINBOLT TWO)
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2022
Last updated: April 27, 2024
TikTok information
Page
Followers2.7 million
Likes80.5 million
Last updated: April 27, 2024
Websitegeorainbolt.com

Personal life edit

Born in Longview, Texas, Rainbolt grew up in Arkansas and attended university for one year at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs before dropping out to work in Los Angeles as a social media strategist.[1] His first employer ran sports entertainment accounts on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.[2]

Despite his knowledge of world geography, he had only left the United States once briefly until November 2022, when he announced on Twitter that he would be living in a different country each month, starting in Germany, Spain, and Portugal.[1][2][3][4] As of January 2023, he was living in Bangkok, Thailand, where he planned to stay for a few months.[5]

Career edit

"Once you see the countries and their soil colors [...] it's just human intuition [...] can I describe to you why I think that it looked like it was Nigerian soil? Probably not, but it does. It's just part of that sixth sense you pick up on when you play the game so much."[2]

— Rainbolt to The Washington Post

Rainbolt started training his GeoGuessr skills during the COVID-19 pandemic by playing for four to five hours every day, studying landmarks like signs and telephone poles, and watching others livestream.[3][6][7] At some points he was playing up to 12-hour days, even dreaming in Street View.[8] Rainbolt posts on TikTok under the username "georainbolt", an account he started in October 2021.[9] He also hosts pro GeoGuessr tournament livestreams on Twitch every Saturday, where the top players compete in 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 brackets for a cash prize.

He became viral for adding challenge by creating limitations: he guesses the location by seeing a Street View image for only a tenth of a second,[3][10] with half the image blurred, two photos at once,[2] upside down, in black and white, or pixelated. In some videos, he identifies the location while blindfolded with someone else describing the scene to him.[3][11] He has even identified countries based only on viewing the dirt or the sky.[12] He revealed the 2023 New York Jets schedule using street view to determine the Jets opponents. He revealed them on the Jets Twitter page.[13] In June 2023, after seeing a TikTok video of an egg sandwich, Rainbolt spent nearly 100 hours tracking down the bagel shop. The restaurant, Bagel Market in Manhattan, then named the sandwich after Rainbolt.[14] In another viral moment, Rainbolt privately rented a billboard in Boston, MA with his logo and face without the intention of it becoming noticed by anyone outside of the niche GeoGuessr community.[15] However, local news stories quickly began reporting after several social media accounts shared images of the billboard.[16] It read, "this is boston. nice."

On September 12, 2023, Rainbolt became the first person to play a GeoGuessr game while skydiving, in a stunt with Red Bull athlete and skydiving expert Sean MacCormac over Lake Elsinore, California.[17] He achieved a score of 21,047 out of 25,000 on the classic game.[18][19]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Ellingham, Miles (1 March 2023). "GeoGuessr trailblazer hits the ground running". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Amenabar, Teddy (11 July 2022). "The hot game on TikTok: Guessing locations on Google Maps". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Browning, Kellen (7 July 2022). "Siberia or Japan? Expert Google Maps Players Can Tell at a Glimpse". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  4. ^ rainbolt [@georainbolt] (2 November 2022). "life update: i sold everything i owned and am living in a different country every month indefinitely…first month: germany. where i spotted my first ever google car…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ^ i moved to thailand. RAINBOLT. 29 January 2023 – via YouTube.
  6. ^ Strachan, Maxwell (9 September 2022). "The Guy Who Memorized Google Maps Says You Can Too". VICE. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  7. ^ Williams, Austin (21 June 2022). "This Google Street View genius can accurately identify any location around the world in seconds". FOX6 News Milwaukee. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  8. ^ Gorton, Thomas (9 November 2022). "Trevor Rainbolt interview: the man who saw the world". The Face. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  9. ^ Brown, Hannah (20 May 2022). "This influencer can name any country in under a second - using only Google street view". Euronews.
  10. ^ "How This Guy Can Guess Where He Is In 0.1 Seconds". Cheddar News. Retrieved 7 January 2024. Also available on YouTube.
  11. ^ Klee, Miles (16 June 2022). "There's Nowhere to Hide From This Google Street View Genius". MEL Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  12. ^ Davis, Susan (25 June 2022). "Google Maps has become a game with Geoguessr — and Trevor Rainbolt has mastered it". NPR Illinois. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
  13. ^ @nyjets (12 May 2023). "we'll take it @georainbolt" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. ^ "If You Post a Delicious Bagel Sandwich on the Internet, Do You Have to Say Where You Got It?". GQ. 13 June 2023. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  15. ^ "i bought a billboard to help geoguessr players".
  16. ^ "'This is Boston. Nice.' The story behind Boston's newest billboard". Boston25News.
  17. ^ "Sean MacCormac". Red Bull. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  18. ^ playing geoguessr while skydiving, retrieved 29 September 2023
  19. ^ Rainbolt Played GeoGuessr While SKYDIVING, retrieved 29 September 2023
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