Well it could be possible for a row to only contain 1 and 2 segment pieces because of clues or other parts of the wall and by putting a 3 there you could force the whole row to remain empty. Which wouldn't have to be the case if that 3 wasn't there. But it doesn't apply here, just showing how it could be helpful if the option was there.

Edited by Para 2012-02-23 3:07 AM

The remainder of the practise puzzles have been posted now.

http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com/2012/02/tvc-x-practise-part-2.ht...

Points Table

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Puzzle Points Group 1a. Total False Tapa 42 Puzzles 1-2 1b. Tapa Guard 77 2. Tapa 13 2. Pata 13 3. Toroidal Tapa 85 Puzzles 3-5 4. Braille Tapa 122 5. Combination Tapa 59 6a. Shortest Segment 29 Puzzles 6-7 6b. Shortest Segment 61 7. Magnetic Tapa 41 8. Tapa Distiller 43 + 43 + 43 + 43 Puzzle 8 9a. Anglers Tapa 47 Puzzle 9-10 9b. Anglers Tapa 70 10. Tapa Difference 81

Contest Length : 75 minutes Total Points : 912 Bonus : 9 points per minute saved Grace Period : 5 minutes Penalty : 6 points per minute used (Computed upto seconds)

The 3rd column (Group) shows how grouping will be done in the submission interface.

Thanks to all those making practice problems

There are 2 additional puzzles as they were requested. I might start dreaming about Tapas soon, but I'm having fun making them.

http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com/2012/02/tvc-x-practise-part-3.ht...

Thanks Bram for the practice puzzles. I'm sure they help you get a good score this time as well.

They would probably help me better if I didn't share them with everyone.

That's the real panache: You share everything you know, then you win the tournament, and then you say: "I proved that I'm the best !", (and then perhaps everyone hate you)

Pity this wasnt answered.I think he is right.

It was just a joke, of course. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental

I forgot to comment on this after finishing as it had slipped my mind after all the puzzling. When printing the Tapa Guard, Braille Tapa and Anglers puzzle didn't fit completely on the page for me. Was I the only one having this problem or did others have this happen?

I had the same issue that Para described on all of the pages he mentioned.

I also seem to have issues with submitting correct answers and with submitting them before the penalty time runs out, but I doubt there's any help for me there...

I am not sure how to edit my previous post, but I also noticed that the second Shortest Segment puzzle had the bottom row of outside digits missing on my printout as well. That would've certainly helped to notice during the test...

I have doubt regarding the "Combination Tapa". In the given example if one replaces clue 2,4 with 7, it gives the valid solution.

Please do let me know if I am missing something in instructions.

"Tapa clues using digits from 1 to 5."

Thanks for clarifying this. I missed this rule in instructions.

Thanks again for some great puzzles

Does Submitting end your contest, or can you safely submit each puzzle as you do it? Thanks.

You can submit as many times as you want. Submitting does not end your contest.

TVC X is over. The score page is public now.

Was Braille Tapa perhaps inspired by my and Alan Fetters' Mystery Hunt puzzle this year, or was it a complete coincidence that it appeared here? I'm honored if so, amused if not. I found the tiny alphabet subset (including a "letter" that is not actually a valid Braille letter) interesting. It's definitely more manageable for the solver, though undoubtedly limiting for the constructor.

As Serkan has mentioned in the IB (last page), Braille Tapa was certainly inspired from your Mystery Hunt puzzle, or more likely from your blog post.





Attachments
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20120228_113713.png (37KB - 1 downloads)

Congratulations to MellowMelon for winning TVC X by a huge margin. Kota and Para are distant 2nd and 3rd respectively. Out of 183 players, 148 players got non-zero scores. The table on the right shows cumulative normalized scores of top 10 players.

TVC IX TVC X Total MellowMelon 748.2 1000 1748.2 motris 1000 651.5 1651.5 Para 857.9 721 1578.9 flooser 849.5 719.4 1569 Kota 726.2 836.9 1563.1 deu 857.9 643.1 1501 Valezius 832.8 658.6 1491.4 tarotaro 720 681.4 1401.3 Semax 767.1 627.4 1394.5 sugitakukun 727.6 629.6 1357.2

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

1. Palmer Mebane (USA)
2. Kota Morinishi (JAP)
3. Bram de Laat (NED)

Congratulations to Palmer, he showed great performance with completing all puzzles in 62 minutes. He was the only competitor to solve all 17 puzzles. He seems to have fixed his disadvantage in the first contest.

Some statistics:

- The puzzle solved by least competitors was Tapa Distiller. It was solved by 10 competitors.
- The puzzle solved by most competitors was Tapa and Pata - Tapa. It was solved by 129 competitors.
- The puzzle with the highest rating was Tapa Difference (8.55) and the puzzle with the lowest rating was Tapa Guard (6.7).
- The puzzle submitted with the highest accuracy was Anglers Tapa (%97.26, 71/73 competitors), lowest was Tapa Guard (%69.09, 38/55 competitors)

See you next round!

Serkan