Very nice tennis theme through all puzzles.
It will be interesting to watch results if someone will solve all puzzles in time limit, because this time it will be difficult quest I think.
Little Killer got me, I spent a lot of time there and couldn't solve it, but I had to try for that massive 157 points.
Almost same happened with Movable digits, but luckilly I solved it. And it was my favourite puzzle from the set (together with Frameless).

Thanks for great test!

I'm embarrassed that I missed so many of the tennis references during the test... after time ran out I asked my fiancee (who also competed) what she made of the recurring 15-30-40 and then everything clicked and I started to notice the theme in puzzle after puzzle...

Like Gotroch, I gambled on the Little Killer, but for me it paid off. Looking forward to solving the ones I skipped at a leisurely pace. My compliments to the chef!

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	A bit skewed
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

No, there is not. This was explained in a very concise and clear way a few messages ago. See in particular this sentence, which seems limpid to me:


All digits which are given have to be in the final grid, but two given digits can correspond to the same definitive one; and a definitive digit does not necessarily have to correspond to a given one, since this is nowhere mentioned in the rules. The puzzle is perfectly valid, the explanations are just fine, the only problem here is the attitude you are showing despite the fact that you are wrong. So please learn to be slightly less arrogant and at the least, try to be respectful of the benevolent work of people who spend countless hours trying to help other players.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Really nice test- loved the fact that it had a theme running through some of the puzzles- that was unexpected, so it was a nice touch.
I would've enjoyed the test more if it was about 3 seconds longer, since then I would've submitted the moving digits one (and I'm not exaggerating). But a nice test anyway!

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Too few pages / too small grids

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

The puzzles were excellent.

However, I thought the Shape Sudoku diagrams could be made clearer.
We didn't know if there were 4 pieces or 20 pieces, or how the pieces were meant to layout exactly. The moulding isn't very clear.
A lot of us can infer that the 4 pieces were meant to overlap at the centre but this isn't fair for newcomers unfamiliar with the variant.
Perhaps, an intact giant piece would've done the job.

The same is said with the Renban. Is the top of the A the same group as the rest of the A?
We know that a one-shaded cell in a Renban is redundant, so was it shaded merely to form the A of the ATP theme?

Edited by tamz29 2013-04-21 8:42 AM

I would let Branko / other authors to have final say, but it looks like you missed some rules.
1. Shape Sudoku - It was mentioned in IB that "Shapes partially overlap in competition puzzle."
2. Renban - "Is the top of the A the same group as the rest of the A? " : Yes, it is. Renban Groups can be connected to each other either by sharing edges or corners. (Just like Extra Regions in Extra Region Sudoku)

Shape: We discussed a lot about this sudoku before competition and we decided to put sentence about overlapping and to hope that players wouldn't miss theme of contest. We wanted to make little surprise with this sudoku, nothing more.

Renban: For this sudoku, I don't have to add anything more. Deb answer is complete.

Branko

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Loved this test.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	A bit skewed
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

An excellent test in continuation with the other Grand prix rounds.All the sudokus which i solved had a very nice hard solving path.
However there are one or 2 things that i wish to bring to the notice of the respected authors.
Points Distribution :
* I dont think the point distribution was fair at all.It was very skewed.It could have been way better.For example,i dont think the quadruple was worth 32 points at all .It was certainly much more than that(atleast 60) compared with how other sudokus are weighed.And the surprise factor in Renban makes it surely deserve much more than just 36 points.By surprise factor i mean how the shaded cells were present extending into other regions.Weighing one sudoku with 157 points and the rest except 2 , not given even half the points is surely not the way to go .
So a person who solves just 2 and sits back and enjoys stands to gain more than a person who has sweated it out and solved 8 or even 9 sudokus.Now Whatever be the difficulty of those 2 sudokus this should NEVER be the case in any test.
Consider this situation.Both A and B represent the same country in the olympics.
A wins 1 Gold medal and 1 silver medal in 2 individual events(does not take part in other events)
B wins 5 silver medals , 3 Bronze medals in 8 individual events.
Now can person A be given more recognition just because he has topped a single event??That seems to be the case here in this test which would reflect on the standings and not give an accurate picture.Mind you i am not trying to say that B should be given more weightage .All i m trying to say is that the balance should not go unfairly down on one side .
Rather it should be more or less in the middle (which could have been done surely by slicing points from the 100 pointer ones and distributing among the rest)
*Time frame :
I know the time frame is only 2 hours which would be convenient for everyone and which has been the case in all the Grand prix rounds so far.But for a test such as this which has a killer worth 157 points,another killer worth 108 points and another one worth more than 100 points,the test should surely be close to 150 mins (atleast).
I was heart broken that i could not enter the solution of the diagonally consecutive inspite of being on the threshold of completing it which surely would not have been the case if i had prevented myself from being a Sherlock Holmes and trying to figure out how the Little killer would proceed (Wasted 10 mins and decided that this was surely not in my reach).
I hope my suggestions are taken in the right perspective.I also hope from the next rounds the point distribution would be better.The above 2 points that i have raised surely dont take away anything from the quality of the sudokus created.The sudokus were simply stunning and stand testimony to the quality of the excellent authors involved.
I really enjoyed the test.
3/3 stars!!!

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Too few pages / too small grids

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

About 15 minutes to the time limit, I started submitting answers, but I couldn`t send my solutions, because the website blew out. I was trying to refresh the website, restart the browser etc., but the situation was still repeating. I lost all answers, that I wrote out. After few attempts of repairing the malfunction, the time finally ended. I don`t know how can I protest, because I cannot prove anything, what I have just written. What will happen with my results, which currently equals 0?
Jan Mrozowski

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right