Tough puzzles. But generally solvable and interesting. One exception was puzzle no 16 Regional Yajilin, which was in my opinion far from 4 points and where I spent pretty significant amount of time. I feel that the testers were only top solvers. I don't want to say that you must use beginners, but maybe it's useful to use some medium solvers. Comparing to puzzle 17, which also gave 4 points it was a lot harder - unless there was some extra trick or symmetry what only very experienced players know. I tried it, guessed everywhere but nothing seemed to work.
But on the other hand seeing the top timings I admit that probably I'm just an amateur.

Additionally: I really solved puzzle no 17 with reasonable amount of time and also 8 pointer started to go somewhere. Just 3 minutes was too small time to solve it to me.

Edited by TiiT 2021-02-05 10:49 PM

There is a trick for puzzle no 16 that makes it solve very quickly. In fact, once you know the trick, it might be the easiest puzzle on the entire test. (rot13: guvax cnevgl)

Giving it 4 points had some weird psychological effect for me though. I looked at it, thought about using that trick, dismissed the idea because "it's the easiest puzzle in this section", and then gave up on doing it 10 minutes later. Finished the test, went back to it, solved almost immediately.

P.S. Really great puzzles for this one. Almost every puzzle was unique and memorable.

What a wonderful set!
Enjoyed it thoroughly. Favorites were 3rd regional yajilin and last slitherlink(s&w)
Thanks to Ashish for the contest

Edited by Nityant 2021-02-06 5:07 PM

Very nice puzzles but too hard for PR, that made it less enjoyable.
I felt the points distribution was a bit off, but maybe it was just my preferences.

Favourite puzzles:
Slitherlink 3
Ripple Loop 2
Masyu 2

Thanks Ashish!

I have a suggestion. Can LMI implement a change in the answers input page for contests such that once the test is over, I can check if my answers for unsolved puzzles are correct or not without affecting my score? Currently I think waiting for solution booklet is the only option. Kindly respond.

Excellent set of puzzles. Had a smooth run in almost all genres until the first of Regional Yajilin puzzles.
The choice of puzzles for the contest was as impressive as the solve paths. I enjoyed the set very much. Would love to see Round trip and Country road puzzles make an appearance in future contests.
Thanks Ashish for a great contest !

Thanks to the 301 participants.

Congratulations to Walker Anderson, Endo Ken and Freddie Hand for taking the top 3 spots, and 150+ points each.

Also, Congratulations to Rohan Rao, Kishore Sridharan and Rajesh Kumar for taking the top 3 spots from India.

Thanks to Ashish Kumar for authoring this round!

Hi, I got some technical issues during the test and had to refresh my browser. Then I realized the timer was reset as well so I lost track of time. Is this intentional or some kind of bug?

Thanks
Matus

From what we have seen, the first seconds after a refresh resets the timer but then it comes back down to where its supposed to be. We have had reports of alternate behaviours though and are looking into it.

Solution Booklet - Link