Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/Getty
Had I known I would be facing off in a virtual reality competition, I would’ve worn better shoes. Instead, I tried my hardest not to let my black pleather boots slip from the pedals of a portable exercise bike while attempting to kick Alex Maugeri’s ass at a two-player game in Rendever’s Somerville, Massachusetts office. While pedaling furiously along a wooden boardwalk, we waved our controllers wildly to pop balloons that only we could see in our VR headsets. A lighthouse towered above a finish line at the end of the boardwalk, and I pedaled faster, but Maugeri still raced ahead.
In a last-ditch effort to tilt the odds in my favor, Rendever’s CEO Kyle Rand turned Maugeri’s bike’s resistance to the max—but instead of giving me the leg up, it stopped my virtual bike in its tracks. We had mixed up the controls: I had been pedaling for Maugeri, and he for me. When we discovered the error, the room dissolved into giggles, and Maugeri and I raised our VR headsets to our foreheads.
“I’m at the finish line,” Maugeri said, incredulously.