In reading the rules/scoring, it appeared that bonus/penalty points were a strategic tradeoff in deciding when to Claim. After looking at Results and discussion, it appears that Bonus only applies if all puzzles are completed correctly.

If you read the FAQ for the monthly puzzle contests (argh, HTML is not my friend today; it's thread ID 382 on this site), it says that claim bonus is only for when all of the puzzles are solved correctly. While this technically wasn't a monthly puzzle test, it would certainly seem likely that the same rules apply.

This is especially true when you realize that clicking start and then immediately clicking claim bonus would net 600 points, which is a good percentage of all of the puzzle values (and come in ahead of the majority of the competitors).

edit to remove bogus link to wrong thread...


Edited by affpuzz 2012-02-13 6:11 AM

Re: Trimono, maybe I'm just being dense, but it seems that with no triminoes given, it is illegal to place any walls...

Oh no! It looks like that is a mistake. the L trimino was supposed to be put with the puzzle (the L trimino has been put with all tapa triminos so far)

First contest of TVC 2012 is over. The puzzles were easy, just like last year's first contest. As many as 23 players finished all 16 puzzles, although only 11 of them got all 16 correct.

motris takes the top spot with huge amount of bonus. The scores are really close after that with Para and deu next 2 spots.

It is bit unfortunate for MellowMelon who lost the the top spot (and many bonus points) because of a mistake. (Not sure if it was solving error or a typo)

Thank you everyone for participating.

It was a solving error. The black square on R7C2 got moved to R9C4 because I couldn't count to 5 properly. Took me ages to notice that after the test was over, even after being told there was something wrong.

Zach - I've only seen the one in the IB. The directions had made me think that there might be both types on the real test...

As always, thanks to everyone involved.

First round of TVC 2012 has ended, thanks to all participants. The top three are as follows:

1. Thomas Snyder (USA)
2. Bram de Laat (NED)
3. Hideaki Jo (JPN)

Thomas showed similar performance as the last year's first round, with finishing way earlier. Congratulations!

Some statistics:

- 11 competitors managed to submit all puzzles correctly. Former world champion Palmer was the fastest competitor, but he made a small mistake that cost him huge points. Palmer and Thomas managed to finish all puzzles under 50 minutes.
- The puzzle solved by least competitors was Battle Tapa. It was solved by 35 competitors.
- The puzzle solved by most competitors was Tapa Restoration - Top. It was solved by 130 competitors.
- The puzzle with the highest rating was Tapa Line - Bottom (9.3) and the puzzle with the lowest rating was Digital Tapa (6,86).
- The puzzle submitted with the highest accuracy was Tapa Restoration - Top (%98.48, 130/132 competitors), lowest was Battle Tapa (%81.39, 35/43 competitors)

See you next round!

Serkan

Haha, I'm one of those 2 competitors :D And it was the only one I submitted wrong!

Digital Tapa was funny. I guess the reason its not got a high rating is once you got the pattern you could basically solve it within seconds just by following that and seeing it works out for the entire grid. I enjoyed it though

Thanks for the puzzles Serkan.

My first podiumfinish. But I still think this could still end up being my worst test(as long as i don't screw up any tests) if last year's tests are any indication as the time/point gaps got smaller in the top for the other tests, which would mean my relative score would become higher.

Are you not posting the correct solutions at the end. If posted where is it available.

This has been answered earlier

May be one cannot find time immediately but they can post the solution to all the puzzles, which will help the new entrants very much. This can improve the quality of the competition. Take this as a suggestion and post the solutions to all the finished tourneys.

If the aim is to improve the quality of competition, I think you would benefit more from what Deb suggested, i.e. post on the forum asking for tips and solution for whichever puzzle you're stuck in. The whole point is to try and solve as many on your own without the solution. When you're not sure, you can even post the solution to confirm if its correct.

In the Instructions Book Tapa variations contest Feb 2012 week 1, Total false Tapa, is the following solution wrong

OXOOOO
XXXXXO
OXOOXX
OXXOOX
OOXXOX
OOOXXX where x represents black cells and o rep white/clue cells

Yes because around the "1" clue in the top right, there has to be more than 1 clue neither of which are "1". You have the "1" acting as just a "3" instead of at least 2 separate blocks. There may be other errors but that should clear it, as you've probably misunderstood the rules in general. There must be a different number of blocks than the number of digits given too.

Edited by prasanna16391 2012-03-24 6:32 PM

hey zalak, i am also facing the same problem but re logging does not solve it please help I am really cuprous about my result. Is there any problem in my pc or in my internet connection and what should I do to correct it?
Thanx