Puzzletome

[Stretham]

_________________
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy?
I don't know and I don't care!

[JWawro]

The door to the board game closet will open on October 4, 2010 at 11:00am BST (which is coincidentally, when Absolutely Scrabulous II will launch).


A copy of the book Letterati: An Unauthorized Look at Scrabble and the People Who Play It by Paul McCarthy will be awarded to the first person to complete the contest (as determined by the Puzzletome.com rankings).

The puzzles in this contest follow, albeit loosely and often in a lateral or non-traditional way, the rules of the game of Scrabble. For practice, a few teaser puzzles will be published here as warm-up exercises. Please send me a PM with your answer. Each of the three teaser puzzles will be active for 48 hours for 'scoring' purposes, though you may attempt to answer them at any time.

(For additional warm-up puzzles, feel free to review the forum for Absolutely Scrabulous in the New Contests posting area.)

===============================================

Teaser Puzzle #1

Title: Hide Your Valuables

This first teaser is designed to provide you with a transition from World of Sudoku III into Absolutely Scrabulous II.

I've got some things of value, what they are you can probably determine without any help from me. I'm looking for a secure place to hide them, so I've hidden one in each of the nine 3X3 boxes below. I didn't want their locations to be discovered, so I left a few additional empty boxes in each 3X3 area as decoys. As it turns out, the locations I've chosen have given me a much better idea of what I ought to do with my valuables.

[JWawro]

No correct answers submitted yet - still plenty of time to be the first solver!

(note: I have only received 1 PM thus far - if you are struggling with this, please PM me with your thoughts or post here in the forum. I may be able to provide an appropriate hint if desired)

[JWawro]

Congratulations to breezycollie who is in with the first correct answer!

Note that, much like the teaser set from Absolutely Scrabulous, I will be scoring entries in various ways on a Scrabble board for each teaser, using your names as words and scoring accordingly (re-ranking based on the order of the correct entries - i.e. breezycollie will receive the highest score this turn).

[JWawro]

The first teaser puzzle is now closed! Only one winner this time around - maybe this one was a bit more challenging than I had hoped. Still, if you would like to keep working on it, or would like hints, you can continue to PM me or leave requests in the forum.

(Incidentally, I have been travelling this week, but will return home tonight. I will not have access to my e-mail for between ~7pm BST Thursday and 3am BST on Friday, but when I am home I will publish the scoring for Teaser 1 and respond to PMs as they were received.

On to Teaser Puzzle 2, which you may find easier than the first! 48 hours for this puzzle begins...now.

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Teaser Puzzle #2

Title: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

[JWawro]

...and breezycollie is in first with the correct answer!

with gordel in second!

and spice1 in third!

[JWawro]

danny now arrives in fourth place!
Jill in 5th!
Franca in 6th!
stozz takes 7th!
Firecracker takes 8th!
cae_prince in 9th!
3x7 in 21st...er...10th!
horizon is 11th!
ASA at # 12!

Due to the nature of how this set will be scored, I anticipate that the top 15-18 entrants will score.

Jay

[JWawro]

Teaser #1 Scoring

(no unusual scoring or placement rules enforced)



1. breezycollie - 192

[JWawro]

The second teaser puzzle is now closed, for scoring purposes! Please feel free to PM me or leave requests in the forum regarding the teasers, as these are still good warm-ups for the contest that lie ahead.

And now presenting....Teaser Puzzle #3! Open for 48 hours again, this should help keep you occupied between now and the launch on Monday.

===============================================

Teaser Puzzle #3

Title: We Have A Winner!

[JWawro]

Teaser #2 Scoring

(each name placed in order in rows starting from the top. Best score achieved in each row, leftmost location chosen in event of multiple options )



Note - after all scores are determined, point values are awarded based on order of winning entry

1. breezycollie - 288
2. gordel - 150
3. spice1 - 76
4. danny - 34
5. Jill - 34
6. Franca - 26
7. stozz - 26
8. Firecracker - 25
9. cae_prince - 24
10. 3x7 - 22
11. horizon - 22
12. ASA - 6

[JWawro]

lotjegetikt is first with a correct entry for Teaser #3!

[JWawro]

And, for those interested in the teaser scoring for #3, it will be a Scrabble-style grid, with entries allowed to extend past the borders, so all entries should be able to be scored. The added twist is that all tile values will be inversely scored (so Q and Z will be worth 1, and AEILNORSTU will each be worth 10), and then cut in half, because otherwise the scores get ridiculous.

[JWawro]

gordel takes 2nd place
spice1 with a 3rd place finish
cae_prince in 4th place
Badvok arrives in 5th place
snetje in 6th place
3x7 in 7th

[JWawro]

Absolutely Scrabulous II goes live in less than 24 hours. Teaser #3 is still active, and will be until the contest launch (at which point, you may be too distracted to get those final teaser entries in).

Jay

[Stretham]

Absolutely Scrabulous II is now live. Best of luck, and may all your triple words contain Qs and Zs.

Stretham
_________________
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy?
I don't know and I don't care!