Congrats Prasanna, for finally a well deserved first place. Happy for you.

Thank you :) I guess almost everyone knows my big goal by now. Glad I achieved it, and a bit relieved after all those close ones. Of course there's still that possibility while the 72 hours are going, but I think I've done it. Seems I'm finishing the competition strongly.

How about we continue for another month, but don't tell Palmer about it till we're 2 weeks into the month?

Shhh. This is what private messages are for.

Or not :P

So, today was the day I messed up both my chances of finishing top 3 in the TVC and CTC in one go. Any chance I can erase today and start over?

:) The last puzzle of 2012 CTC was uploaded. :)x2, and good luck at the last one.

finsihed with mess up ..
Njoyed a lot throughout this month ..
Thanks to Deb,LMI,serkan and all for the beautiful CTC puzzles. :)

Hey thats my line. No one deserves to use that line more than me. I'll copyright that line.

Is today really the last one? What a horrible time to finish on from me! I think I can safely say that I won't be jumping up the leader board at the last minute, so congratulations to James for being the top UK competitor.
Thanks to Serkan for the puzzles. It did go on a little too long imho, but that's probably just me feeling bitter that after a few weeks (well, days) it became clear that I had no chance of making the top 3. I would've preferred 2 separate competitions of half the length (or, perhaps, 4 fortnightly contests, with each one finishing on the date of a TVC and getting progressively more difficult...)

Thanks for a great test! And I submitted a wrong answer for the first time in the last puzzle!

I will miss the routine daily morning test henceforth . I am a first timer and was able to submit answers to all but 1st april one when i had network issues and unable submit my answer. Any way great test, expecting more like this from LMI.

Thank you all so much! This was great fun. I will miss this - hope you'll have the willingness and energy to do this again. I loved the online solving and the mix of puzzles.
I hope the puzzles will remain online new puzzlers to tackle and for us to practice on. Is that possible? And now if you "review" a puzzle, clear, and re-solve it, you can not check your answer. Would it be possible to change that at some point?
I don't mean to be asking for so much - you all deserve a good rest. My main point in writing is just to thank you for a great time. Bravo!

I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that in the standings. So close... a 49-day run is still extremely impressive though.

So on last 2 days' puzzle, deu topped on one and got penalty on another. He did neither in previous 48 days :wink:

Thank you very much for the kind words. At this point, we don't have any daily contests lined up. That certainly is not because of lack of motivation or willingness. It is mainly to find a proper puzzle type and an occasion. Equally importantly, we realize that there were some technical hiccups (mentioned multiple times in forum), even if they were minor. So we'll try to do better in that front next time.

Once CTC is over, you will be able to solve and check solved/unsolved puzzles.

That is an interesting idea. We definitely hadn't imagined running CTC that way.
If I'm allowed to break it up now, and just post fortnightly scores, here is how they will look like






Attachments
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CTC_breakup.png (27KB - 6 downloads)

Hmmm, I think something is wrong with the standings. I mean, I'll happily take third place, but Nyuta's and Psyho's scores of the last day weren't incorporated.

A great test indeed! Many quality puzzles, with a surprising lack of stagnation.Rather than routine, quickly became a highlight of each day. I hope we see more like this in the future.

A big thank you for running this - I know it takes a lot of effort, but it was worth it! :)

A Tale of Two Contests:

First of all, congratulations to Palmer. He showed great performance and became the Tapa Master of 2012. In the last years, I was always wondering how Thomas solved all that puzzles in extremely short times; now I feel the same for Palmer. I didn’t make 19 puzzles to be finished. My aim was to force solvers to follow a strategy. But a guy that solves all puzzles in 66 minutes can only have one strategy: Kill ‘em all! :) Once again I congratulate him for his self-confidence and earning the title by defeating this final cruel round.

The top three of TVC 2012 are:

1. Palmer Mebane (USA),
2. Thomas Snyder (USA),
3. Hideaki Jo (JPN)

I am skipping the statistics for TVC XII :)

The file that contains all variation ideas will soon be updated. So you can still share any ideas with me.

50 days has been completed in CTC. I am as satisfied as you. It was a tiresome experience for me, Deb and Gulce. If Deb hadn’t come up with this brilliant idea and say “Let’s do a classic Tapa contest” no one would be thanking me today. At this very point I should say that I am not doing these on my own, that would be impossible. I am just a guy who makes puzzles. It is not unfamiliar for a puzzle maker to get all the credit, but Deb, Ulrich and Gulce who worked as hard as I did deserve applause. You already know Deb is dead set on this; he works round the clock for puzzles. I cannot get through so many tests without Gulce. And Ulrich was a great help with testing all TVC rounds this year. The puzzles are sometimes flawed before they are ready to be presented to you. It is really annoying to send flawed puzzles to a solver that has been world champion so many times :) I should also thank Roland, he was also a tester of the last round, in spite of his lack of time. And Ulrich stil agreed to test the puzzles even he had flu last week.

With all of the above, I bow respectfully before these people. I am just a puzzle making robot, but the puzzles shape in flesh and bones thanks to these people.

Let me mention my favorite puzzles of TVC XII: Borders (b), Compass (b), Sweeper (a) and TAPA TAPA.

CTC puzzles were made by me and Gulce. Until last night, I had no intention on publishing these puzzles after the contest is over. But I changed my mind and the reason for that was the files Palmer has been publishing in his blog. He has published two puzzle packs, containing tons of puzzles and solving tips; and I think these are amazing works. I thought about it and I decided that CTC puzzles now belong to the puzzle community, not us. The complete file will soon be available for download.

The top three of CTC are:

1. Palmer Mebane (USA),
2. Hideaki Jo (JPN),
3. Nagata Yuta (JPN)

As I stated at the very beginning, the top three solvers will receive a classic Tapa book that I prepared. The book is now being tested; maybe we can display its cover here. I will need the addresses of the top three in a few weeks. And later the book will be available for purchase at Akil Oyunlari blog: http://akil-oyunlari.livejournal.com

Our country is famous for a dessert named “Turkish delight”. It has many types; one of them is called “double roasted”, very delicious. Palmer took a “double roasted” victory by earning both titles. I congratulate and admire him.

That is all I can say for now. Thanks everyone for getting involved in what we did.

Best,

Serkan

Thanks for all the effort for the CTC - it was a real pleasure!

Thanks a lot for everything Serkan, Deb, Ulrich, and Gulce. This whole event (TVC + CTC) has been fantastic and I will definitely miss the daily puzzles!