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Get Overlapped! - LMI February Sudoku Test - 15th to 19th Feb40 posts • Page 1 of 2 • 1 2
@ 2019-02-16 3:19 PM (#26634 - in reply to #26608) (#26634) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2019-02-16 3:19 PM

 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
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Killer Sudoku


@ 2019-02-16 4:11 PM (#26635 - in reply to #26608) (#26635) Top

TiiT



Posts: 139
10020
Country : Estonia

TiiT posted @ 2019-02-16 4:11 PM

 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? Fairly Nice
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Diagonal Sudoku


A bit too much guessing there was. It started well, but at some point when you try to solve it logically and spent a bunch of time in there, you must decide whether to keep going or make a guess. And then there is another and another. Maybe a bit easier competition would have made it more enjoyable competition.
But maybe it's just me, who is not capable of solving samurais well.

Generally the puzzles were fairly nice. The theme is very interesting though.
@ 2019-02-16 10:10 PM (#26636 - in reply to #26608) (#26636) Top

tamz29



Posts: 225
10010020
Country : Thailand

tamz29 posted @ 2019-02-16 10:10 PM

Puzzles like these are why I stopped competing in my country's sudoku tournaments. Computer-generated, repetitive and inappropriate difficulty level.
I was quite put off by the classics (singles and samurai) needing constant guessing - and was hoping, in vain, the variants would maybe redeem this test. It didn't.
Was this test properly test-solved to get a rough estimation of completion time? Or was the aim to throw a batch of hard puzzles at the solver and have them strategize?

I apologize if these puzzles were handmade; but if an author would spend hours making puzzles that can't be distinguished from computer generation, then I'm afraid you need a new approach at construction.
There were no (at least from my perspective); aesthetics, innovations, themes, neat solving paths and, crucially, enjoyment from slowly chipping away at these grids.

I'm sorry if this review is getting too negative, but with a decade of LMI Mock tests, Sudoku Maharabat, the GP and other interesting Sudoku tests - you'd think you've seen the end of computer-generated sudokus.
It was an unpleasant surprise to see this test pop up in this day and age.
@ 2019-02-16 11:28 PM (#26637 - in reply to #26608) (#26637) Top

bob



Posts: 59
2020
Country : United States

bob posted @ 2019-02-16 11:28 PM

 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? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Just right
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Killer Sudoku


Puzzles seemed brutally difficult, or maybe I was having a bad day. I jumped right into the overlapping grids (which I normally enjoy and seek out) and brokke three different puaales in about an hour. I then went to the classics but found them uninspiring. After solving one, I simply quit the contest 80 minutes in. Just not heving enough fun.
@ 2019-02-17 3:49 PM (#26638 - in reply to #26636) (#26638) Top

prasanna16391



Posts: 1762
1000500100100202020
Country : India

prasanna16391 posted @ 2019-02-17 3:49 PM

tamz29 - 2019-02-16 10:10 PM


I was quite put off by the classics (singles and samurai) needing constant guessing


Hmm, I admittedly solved the Samurai after the contest away from timer pressure but I did solve it in 19 minutes without requiring any guesses.
@ 2019-02-17 4:33 PM (#26639 - in reply to #26638) (#26639) Top

tamz29



Posts: 225
10010020
Country : Thailand

tamz29 posted @ 2019-02-17 4:33 PM

Revisited this to logically solve it.
Took me around 35 minutes.
Still didn't enjoy it though.
@ 2019-02-17 5:24 PM (#26640 - in reply to #26608) (#26640) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2019-02-17 5:24 PM

 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? Very nice


@ 2019-02-17 6:14 PM (#26641 - in reply to #26608) (#26641) Top

rob



Posts: 170
100202020
Country : Germany

rob posted @ 2019-02-17 6:14 PM

I got through the Samurai quite well during the competition and enjoyed it. I had to guess a lot on the Treble and/or the No Touch though (but there may well have been logic I missed).

Anyway, I don't regret taking part, I had my fun. Thank you to authors and organizers.
@ 2019-02-17 6:35 PM (#26642 - in reply to #26636) (#26642) Top

Lei



Posts: 1

Country : China

Lei posted @ 2019-02-17 6:35 PM


Repost @tamz29

This is the worst time I've ever participated, the reason is " Computer-generated, repetitive and inappropriate difficulty level. "

Also for the first time, I didn't do IB, because it was too difficult to waste time.

Hope that the organizers will review sudoku in the future, thanks to organizers.

Edited by Lei 2019-02-17 6:52 PM
@ 2019-02-18 2:35 AM (#26643 - in reply to #26608) (#26643) Top

jaku111



Posts: 6

Country : Czech Republic

jaku111 posted @ 2019-02-18 2:35 AM

Hi, I mixed the style of sending answers, but the results count only my solutions from online solving. It was due to technical problems that I had with tredoku and samurai sudoku. Online it didn't appear so I had to play it with the best graphic program - painting :) from pdf. Could you look at it please? I hope for additional 45 points for samurai sudoku and some penalty for one wrong part of treble. Although (now) my position will be same, I will be more happy :)
@ 2019-02-18 2:56 AM (#26644 - in reply to #26608) (#26644) Top

auroux



Posts: 145
1002020
Country : France

auroux posted @ 2019-02-18 2:56 AM

 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? Average


Somehow this was not as much fun as I had hoped. Most of the grids I tried were solvable logically, but it took a lot of brute-forcing to find one's way through, rather than having a solution path jump at you.
@ 2019-02-18 5:58 PM (#26646 - in reply to #26608) (#26646) Top

rob



Posts: 170
100202020
Country : Germany

rob posted @ 2019-02-18 5:58 PM

Hmm I'm confused, I'm pretty sure I submitted puzzle 11 (Untouch). I only had a bit of time left after my last submission and got half through the Killer, that can't have been after 60 minutes as indicated right now.
@ 2019-02-19 2:06 AM (#26647 - in reply to #26608) (#26647) Top

udoroh



Posts: 17

Country : Poland

udoroh posted @ 2019-02-19 2:06 AM

 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? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Fairly Nice
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Too many pages / too large grids
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? 1-4 Classic Sudoku


@ 2019-02-19 3:54 AM (#26648 - in reply to #26608) (#26648) Top

appetizer8088



Posts: 6

Country : China

appetizer8088 posted @ 2019-02-19 3:54 AM

This test's grids were indeed computer generated, so the difficulty may vary; however, the types of puzzles were chosen by myself.
Anyway, it's my LMI debut as an author of a monthly test, thank you for whatever you have done for this test.
@ 2019-02-19 11:34 AM (#26650 - in reply to #26608) (#26650) Top

Administrator



2000100050020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2019-02-19 11:34 AM

Test Extension


The test is extended by 24 hours, based on specific requests. It will now end on Wednesday (20th Feb) 2359 hours IST.

@ 2019-02-19 5:15 PM (#26652 - in reply to #26648) (#26652) Top

kishy72



Posts: 417
100100100100
Country : India

kishy72 posted @ 2019-02-19 5:15 PM

appetizer8088 - 2019-02-19 3:54 AM

This test's grids were indeed computer generated, so the difficulty may vary; however, the types of puzzles were chosen by myself.
Anyway, it's my LMI debut as an author of a monthly test, thank you for whatever you have done for this test.



Thanks for sharing this info.I invested a considerable amount of time solving IB sudokus and I got stuck in many.Even after sharing this in a group, there were still many left where none could find a continuation.So, I was left wondering if there were givens missing or if the IB sudokus were test solved.

Now, about the contest, No touch and Irregular really killed my performance as the combined time I invested in these two is approximately 45 minutes and that involves an unsuccessful attempt at irregular and multiple guessing in no touch (after a miserable attempt to find logic).

My feedback about the contest is that if majority of sudokus are computer generated, then a caveat maybe given in the IB which states something like "Sudokus may not be logically solveable " . This has even a precedence in a WSC (2010, Philadelphia) where there was a hard classic round and apparently solvers were advised before the start of the round that sudokus might not be completely logically solveable and can require bifurcation.Personally, I am not fully against computer generated sudokus.However, just like others, I too prefer human made much much more.So with a warning like I stated, it gives solvers a huge amount of flexibility. Instead of sticking to a rigid approach of finding logic (like what I adamantly did during the contest) thinking that there must be one when there very well might not be (atleast by human standards), they can quickly take a guess too.

My favourites from the contest are Killer followed by NC.Thanks Huang Yi for your contribution! Hope to see more chinese hand crafted contests, as I am a big fan of chinese authored sudokus be it CSOCs or the ones posted in FB daily league.
@ 2019-02-19 5:16 PM (#26653 - in reply to #26608) (#26653) Top

kishy72



Posts: 417
100100100100
Country : India

kishy72 posted @ 2019-02-19 5:16 PM

 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? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Killer Sudoku


@ 2019-02-19 5:22 PM (#26654 - in reply to #26608) (#26654) Top

Administrator



2000100050020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2019-02-19 5:22 PM

Scoreboard


The scoreboard is now fixed and shows submissions after 100 minutes as well.

The bonus points for Treble and Samurai will be added after the contest ends.

@ 2019-02-19 10:05 PM (#26655 - in reply to #26608) (#26655) Top

Eugene Porter



Posts: 11

Country : United States

Eugene Porter posted @ 2019-02-19 10:05 PM

Thanks for the contest. I enjoyed the some what large sized formatting of the cells. The double and killer were my favorites. I am curious about the logic used to solve the treble.
@ 2019-02-20 10:49 AM (#26656 - in reply to #26608) (#26656) Top

sstackho



Posts: 18

Country : Canada

sstackho posted @ 2019-02-20 10:49 AM

I'm actually relieved to hear that the Instruction Booklet problems were computer-generated. I was having a very difficult time in solving them, and not enjoying it. I liked the competition puzzles much better (so far!).
@ 2019-02-20 1:08 PM (#26657 - in reply to #26608) (#26657) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2019-02-20 1:08 PM

 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
 What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? Too few pages / too small grids
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Diagonal Sudoku


@ 2019-02-20 7:37 PM (#26659 - in reply to #26608) (#26659) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2019-02-20 7:37 PM

 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? Too many hard puzzles
 What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? Average
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Killer Sudoku


@ 2019-02-21 6:17 PM (#26661 - in reply to #26659) (#26661) Top

Administrator



2000100050020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2019-02-21 6:17 PM

Congratulations to Tiit Vunk, Tantan Dai and Nikola Zivanovic for taking the top three places. Amongst Indian participants, Congratulations to Prasanna Seshadri, Kishore Kumar and Swaroop Guggilam for taking the top 3 places. Of the 180 participants, 48 were from India and 24 from Japan. 1 participant completed the set within the allotted time.

Thanks Huang Yi for the hard puzzles!

Participants may share feedback on the results page and rate the puzzles on the contest page.

The scoreboard will be finalized over the weekend including "no penalty" claims and bonus for puzzles 12-13.
@ 2019-02-22 11:53 AM (#26669 - in reply to #26608) (#26669) Top

Kumaresan R



Posts: 27
20
Country : India

Kumaresan R posted @ 2019-02-22 11:53 AM

 What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? Too many hard puzzles
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Nonconsecutive Sudoku


@ 2019-02-22 5:28 PM (#26673 - in reply to #26608) (#26673) Top

TiiT



Posts: 139
10020
Country : Estonia

TiiT posted @ 2019-02-22 5:28 PM

Am I the only one who don't get enough information from the feedback summary page?
Which set of puzzles did you like the most? There are 5 choices, but diagram shows only 3 colours and it's quite difficult to tell what colour is what.

TiiT
Get Overlapped! - LMI February Sudoku Test - 15th to 19th Feb40 posts • Page 1 of 2 • 1 2
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