Radu Casapu, a first-year master’s student studying City and Regional Planning (MCRP) at Tech, won the 2025 GeoGuessr World Championship. The two-day competition took place from Aug. 29-30 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
GeoGuessr is an online geography game where players are “dropped” into Google Maps and given images that they must use to deduce the specific location. This was his third appearance at the global competition and his first win. He qualified by winning the DreamHack Dallas tournament, where he competed against others from the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
“Ever since I was really little, I was just hooked on it [geography],” Casapu said. “I used to look at atlases, [my school] had puzzle maps with countries and states as pieces and I would play with them.”
He competed in middle school geography bees and played quiz bowls in high school. Naturally, GeoGuessr became an extension of those interests. He began playing the game in high school, before the game had a competitive scene.
The first World Cup launched in 2023, where Casapu received an invitation to compete. He returned in 2024 through qualifiers and won a seat at this year’s competition through the regional tournament in Dallas.
“I came into this competition seated at No. 1 because I won the tournament in Dallas,” Casapu said. “There was a lot of expectation on me.”
To prepare for the World Cup, he spent time doing research, exploring Google Maps and its Street View feature. He would look around and take notes in his journal, writing down things he would notice in various locations. He would also play many head-to-head duels to practice playing under the tournament’s format.
During the matches, Carapu focused on calm and avoided second-guessing himself. He noted the mental side of the game frequently determinesthe result of the game for a player, even for someone who has practiced and put in a lot of physical work.
“Obviously, I feel like I came in extremely prepared with my knowledge, but I still think the biggest thing that makes a difference of like the winner: it’s like the mental game,”Casapu said.
Outside of GeoGuessr, Casapu engages with geography through traveling, traveling photography and architecture photography. He values looking at things from a spatial perspective, noting where places are and learning the cultural and physical stories behind everywhere he goes. He studied geography in his undergraduate degree and values the opportunity through his master’s program to help shape cities and urban development.
“We get to go out and meet people, meet developers, community leaders and talk to people in different communities. That’s really cool. And again with the spatial aspect, I just love seeing growth in cities,” Casapu said.
Casapu noted the championship win has raised his profile in the GeoGuessr community and in public, saying that he has even become a household name. He has since appeared on livestreams with other popular social media creators and attended promotional events in Los Angeles. He said the recognition has been surprising but welcome.
“When you’re in Street View location, notice the architecture, the road, what people are doing,” Casapu recommended to anyone wanting to play the game. “Notice the trees, the cars —everything. Just explore things on your own … I love looking around Google Maps. I know a lot of people love to do that in their free time as well, even though they might not necessarily be playing Geoguesser.”
“This for me was a bucket list thing,” he said when talking about his win. “It’s like I’ve basically completed the game.”
Casapu plans on continuing to compete and promote the game, though he now has the opportunity to play with less pressure.