Thanks for the hint, now that I tried after the test, it went really quickly. During the test, I just didn't see any way to get started so I didn't even attempt it seriously...

All in all, a really nice test, what I did manage to do was really fun to solve, though I'm still a bit shaky with little killers. I liked having lots of time to solve, as I could just keep working on a grid without feeling like I'm wasting the time if I don't make quick progress all the time.

The non-little killers I mostly just breezed through, with a bit of a hiccup on Navigation. Bird I ended up brute-forcing by bifurcating heavily: The eventual solution was the second try from the third try at the top. Still, it was very well constructed, as the solving progressed very nicely from each try and the contradictions did come up. I was a bit disappointed that it was so easy to figure out which bird gives which sum, though.

Apart from the Fish, I also missed out on the Odd Even. I hadn't thought about the solving techniques properly and ended up having to discover most of them during the solving. When I finally got my act together on that, it wasn't too difficult to solve, but by then I'd already run out of time by several minutes.

Well the monthly tests are difficult. While we do encourage players who do well in the Beginners' test to participate in these, it is a big step from being successful at that level to being one of the top solvers at this level. The Beginners' Contest deals with the basics and fundamentals. I believe, if an inexperienced player clears those the person will at least be better equipped to deal with these harder monthly tests, even if not Time-solving them.

The Beginners' tests will keep going every month, and such a good set of grids should not be passed over because of that, so I feel, no better time than now ;) Of course its a tad bit too difficult since we've not yet introduced Killer/LK into the Beginners' Contests, but we can't really change up schedules and what not because of that and we just hope the Beginners who had too much of a difficulty with this one will understand that. If any of them do have a doubt with any grid, they can definitely ask over here.

Hi, can someone send me dots killer's solution?

Sent to your registered email id (yahoo).

Oops, didn't notice the answer. I just sent it via PM.

Thanks! now i understand.... not all dots were given....

All dots were given, but they only applied to vertically adjacent consecutive digits.

Always read very carefully the instructions!

Damn!! You are right! Thanks for the precisation!

I think I am alone with the problem that I had:
I have completely overlooked the "non-consecutive" constraint at the little odd fish killer! :-)
Without this constraint the puzzle was pretty unsolvable (of course :-) although I had counted the diagonals and knew the corner numbers pretty fast...

Could have finished this test but I am happy with my result anyways.

Do not feel alone, I faced the same problem for a few minutes before I got it!

In my case I could just have read the title... but I guess it wasn't written big enough.

Killer Shootout is now over. Congratulations to Nikola, Sylvain and Hideaki for taking the top 3 spots. Sylvain took 2.5 minutes to check his answers which probably cost what-could-have-been his first LMI title.

22 players finished all 7 puzzles in the allocated 3 hours. Many others submitted 6 puzzles (there are 20 scores of 144, being separated by submission times)

Thanks Stefan for the Sudoku set, and we hope to hear from you about your experience as well.

ETA : Password removed from test pdf file.

Some of the possible techniques for the Little Irregular Killer that I had written down were not necessary to use in the test.
Since it is possible to have a nice co-operation between chaos areas and diagonals I have made two puzzles for the puzzle portal Germany in which those techniques have to be applied. The easier version solves much faster if you apply the technique, the harder one is very tough if you don’t apply the technique.
Have fun!

any1 can tell the solution of all puzzles?

Thank you all very much for participating at my first LMI Test! It was very exciting to watch what you do. I hope you all liked the puzzles and if there is anything in general, that I could have done better - please tell me so that I can learn from this.

Congratulations to Nikola, Sylvain and Hideaki - you were sooo fast - incredible!

I hope to see many of you in Croatia.

Thank you!
Stefan

I can only advise you to have a look at them; both are very nice, the harder one being truly excellent (and quite tough even with the right technique).

Solved both. Were great fun. Nice usage of the technique. Thanks Richard :)