Congrats+to+the+230+solvers+for+surviving+the+final+PR+round%2E%0D%0A%28No+congrats+to+the+lone+cheater+who+got+DQ%27ed%2E+Bad+solver%2E+Bad%2E%29%0D%0ACasual+and+Word+puzzles+are+a+dying+breed+and+I%27m+thankful+for+the+opportunity+to+keep+them+alive%2E+There+seem+to+be+a+polarized+view+of+whether+these+genres+are+%22real+puzzles%22+or+not+%2D+so+it+was+interesting+to+see+how+the+strong+WPC+solvers+performed+here%2E+Seeing+all+the+guesses+in+Word+Search+1+was+hilarious%2E%0D%0A%0D%0AThe+round+was+delayed+due+to+my+being+at+the+European+Sudoku+Championship%2C+where+I+holed+up+in+a+hotel+room+for+2+days+writing+the+bulk+of+this+set%2E+The+Casual+section+originally+had+more+ambitious+visual+puzzles+but+when+I+was+about+to+transfer+them%2C+the+file+completely+vanished%2E+I+raged%2E%0D%0APuzzle+Robots%2C+Alphabet+Banks+and+Hidden+Images+2+%28the+Snowman%29+were+all+late+replacements%2C+hastily+scrambled+together+in+a+few+hours+so+I+had+something+to+submit%2E+%0D%0APerhaps+I+should+stop+making+puzzles+that+take+2+hours+to+draw+and+Kevin+Sun+2+minutes+to+solve+%2D+I%27m+looking+at+you%2C+Guernica%2E%0D%0A%0D%0ACredits+to+these+sources+of+inspiration%3A%0D%0A%2D+Nikola+Zivanovic%27s+Criss%2DCross+from+24HPC+inspired+the+%27COOKIE+crumble%27+in+Criss+Cross+3%0D%0A%2D+Serkan+Yurekli%27s+Magic+R+%28Magic+Box%29+and+Sudoku+with+Names+from+OAPC%0D%0A%2D+IKEA+chairs+for+Word+Search+2%0D%0A%2D+Vincent+Bertrand%27s+%28my+ESC+teammate%29+whose+wonky+%224%22s+%2D+along+with+some+random++neat+Thai+student%27s+handwriting+%28from+ASC%29+%2D+I+emulated+in+Mark+my+Papers+2%0D%0A%2D+Picasso+for+Guernica%0D%0A%0D%0AThank+you+for+all+the+kind+words+%F0%9F%99%8F%F0%9F%98%8A

Edited by tamz29 2026-05-25 1:21 AM