For the third consecutive year, Escape Authority will present the very best venues with the Keys to Greatness, our own official site awards.

Each category will see a Gold Key, Silver Key and Bronze Key awarded.

Today, we’re excited to officially announce the twenty-three distinct categories each award will recognize:

New this year, we celebrate the evolution of our industry by fully expanding each of the following categories into two different awards –

one for In-Person experiences and the other for Remote Play games:

With so many deserving games worthy of recognition, our goal is to ensure these Keys To Greatness awards are attainable to all – not just those with blockbuster budgets that might be otherwise out of reach. As such, it’s important to note that with just two exceptions, a given game can only win in a single category – but every game will still be qualified to win the coveted Keys to Greatness – Best Game award as well as the Keys to Greatness – Best Remote Game award.

Nothing we do is on a small scale. One of the twenty different categories’ winners will be revealed every single day at 3 pm EST, beginning tomorrow, Sunday, May 9th, 2021. Each individual category will see a Gold, Silver and Bronze Key Winner. These awards, just like our Readers Key – Favorite Venue honor will be posted in each respective recipient’s review here on Escape Authority, as well as be shared with each winning venue so that they may include them on their own sites and social channels.

Escape Authority’s Keys to Greatness Award is a stand-alone honor, separate from our annual Readers Key Tournament. In order to keep the Readers Key – Favorite Venue title meaningful, we have elected to not include “Best Venue” as a Keys to Greatness category.

Although the games I’ve personally designed are consistently very highly rated by both enthusiasts and newer players alike, I cannot in good conscience nominate an attraction I created. As such, those games and the venues that call them home have been intentionally omitted from consideration for any Keys to Greatness Award.