I made the effort to practise for this using Bram's puzzles. His puzzles were frighteningly difficult, but if it weren't for those,
I wouldn't have grasped so many Tapa concepts doing this test.
In general, I feel Tapa is heavily intuitive and to score well in these sprint tests, you're better off "guessing" your path.

All the puzzles are so neat. Make Room for Tapa was lovely because it had enough clear logical deductions to discourage guessing from early on.
Tapa Magic was cool, but sadly this type might be quickly worn out after, say, 10 puzzles.

I was on intense mode for the entire 80 minutes and I still have two big puzzles left.
How on earth are you guys so good at this!? ;

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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

My goal is always to put at least something in each practise puzzle that might be useful when doing the test puzzles. So that means that they might seem more difficult as there will be some deduction in there you might not be familiar with yet. But once you're aware of that logic, doing the next puzzle might seem easier as you no longer have to work out such deductions.

Bottom left clue might be 0 or 1.

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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	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?	A bit skewed
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
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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	I have a different complaint

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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

I know TVC has been running a long time already, but perhaps adding one (easy?) Classic Tapa at the start might be nice for novice solvers?

I would assume Classic Tapa is covered by CTC (that is ongoing concurrently), so novice solvers that want to try Classic Tapa first can do CTC for one day before starting.

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?	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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Hmm... If these are going to be every other weekend, then TVC XVIII will fall on Mystery Hunt weekend. I'd think there is a reasonable overlap between those two sets of puzzlers, so perhaps that one could start earlier, or its deadline be extended until later?

I'm just glad to have the best-three-of-four rule here, since my printer had a massive paper jam and I couldn't even get started...

p.s. I assume that my 0 will not be factored into the puzzle ratings?

Password removed from puzzle booklet.

Solutions booklet uploaded. (link)

It will be difficult to start earlier, but it can be extended easily. Will extending by 24 hours work?

Extending by 24 hours should work; MIT Mystery Hunt should end before Monday EST (Tuesday GMT), so there's one day worth to do it.

TVC does not count towards the LMI puzzle ratings.

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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

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 the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Too few pages / too small grids

Thanks to all participants.

Top three are as follows:

1. Endo Ken (Japan) [13/13, 56:51 min]
2. Hideaki Jo (Japan) [13/13, 61:08 min]
3. Jack Lance (USA) [13/13, 55:50 min]

After a huge break TVC came back. I forgot how hard it is to construct a set. Frankly I hadn't prepared any contest for a long time, therefore I had a little bit trouble while I was making puzzles and art works. Anyway, after 2013, this one was the first Tapa contest, and for us (Kamer and I) it went well.

11 solvers submitted all puzzles correctly, some of them accomplished this before the end, some of them made it happen in extra time; but all did.
We prepared a solution booklet for the first time in TVC history. If you are a puzzle designer, you must know that the worst part of shaping a puzzle set is to make the solution booklet :) I hope solutions works for new comers and others.

- The puzzle solved by least competitors was Tapa Skyscrapers (b). It was solved by 26 competitors.

- The puzzle solved by most competitors was Tapa with Borders (a). It was solved by 97 competitors.

- The puzzle with the highest rating was Tapa Skyscrapers (b). (8.80) and the puzzle with the lowest rating was Tapa with Borders (a) (6.00).

Full results table is here: http://logicmastersindia.com/TVC/XVII/score.asp

For TVC XVIII, the poll has been opened. So you can vote, 6 of the 10 puzzle types will be determined by your votes. The remaining 4 will be displayed in the IB to be published at the weekend.

Please feel free to share any ideas.

Last words for Bram, I’m not sure you know about his blog, but he did a great job again. As before he prepared some TVC practice puzzles, I hope he continues to prepare.
You can check his blog: puzzleparasite.blogspot.com

Best,

serkan

Edited by yureklis 2016-01-07 12:58 AM