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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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 Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:31 pm Post subject: 161 |
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Just to make people aware, DF will be taking charge in this next round.
| Dented Ford wrote: |
My internet is back! Judging will be finalised soon.
In the meantime I can announce the next challenge for you to begin consideration:
I want a puzzle that is NON TEXT-BASED. Captions and words can be involved, flavour text or some instructions - all are fine - but I don't want sentences and clues, cryptic or otherwise, for the basis of the puzzle. Maps, colours, painting by numbers (nonograms), cut out and construct, origami, etc are all the sorts of things I'm imagining. Please imagine more. |
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Undercover Monk
Professor Chaos
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:32 pm Post subject: 162 |
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First the top three: Groza, Scurra, and esme please step forward.....
Esme: The judges decided that you did the best adapting the theme to your puzzle but the technique of your puzzle and style left something to be desired. Here are some of the comments.
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| I am still babbling and lost at how to get to "White magic" trope from "everypony preferred to watch Celestia supervise the sunrise" without some leap of intuition I just didn't get. I do like the dovetail answer but this remained stubbornly in my unsolved list. Having seen the answer, this one works for me as a "stylish" puzzle, despite being only a few lines of text. Too hard, arbitrary or just off my wavelength to mark up too much, but seeing the answer I get why it works on a style level, I'm happier with style than technique here |
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| Absolute perfection. Not only did you use the tropes in the puzzle itself you used it as the answer and the answer described the technique used in the puzzle itself. Yours was one of two that when I got the answer just blew my mind with how clever it was. Excelent! Like I said before great answer. However there were some problems with how you arrived there Yellow pages is not a character and therefore breaks the pattern. (maybe use Old Yeller or the Yellow power Ranger) Worse there is no indication which NATO letter to start with which could lead to confusion. Anagrams are fine but with no indication that they are present the solver will assume he is on the wrong track or you are employing a RED herring. Not very much here[style]. The sentences are interesting but you could have spiced it up a little. I think adding colored font could have been a clever addition given the mechanic you used. |
Scurra: Your total score was right up there with the leaders BUT there was no obvious strength of this puzzle. Why are you here because there was no obvious weakness either well done. with puzzles of this quality you will find yourself in the finals for sure but you will need something special to win. Comments below.
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| While I see what you are doing here with the numbers in the name being a key to the second half of the puzzle I would have like to see the trope come out sooner. I feel this is more a media based puzzle as opposed to a trope based puzzle. I actually really like this puzzle. Other than the fact I have never watched an episode of Doctor Who in my life. So I was screwed from the get go. But I do love soduko. The answer was a little confusing but I get where you were going with it. Not a fave but good enough. It’s a very nice looking puzzle. The ending didn’t give a huge Wow factor but the graphic work and the quotes make up for that . Good Job. |
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| While I agree with UM to an extent that the trope theme didn't become apparent until later, as I worked on this and reviewed it afterwards it dawned on me how the puzzle is not a "numbers" theme after all, it is *based* on the trope, not just "referring" to a trope/trope collection. It grew on me the more I thought about it. As is often the case with Scurra's puzzles, I find myself appreciating them more as I discover what I *should* have been doing to get the aha, after a lot of aimless floundering. Sometimes it takes a big hint or shove or downright cheat to get to that view, but deconstructing after the event *should* show up the thought that goes in. Still a little confused by the thought of what I'd put in the answer box on a puzzle hunt (I guess it's meant to be "You are number six" but I'd have been tempted to put "Colin Baker" - the actor who played the 6th Doctor.) That aside there are some "simple" elements that are put together in a nice construction that is greater than the sum of its parts - all work together but some parts can help to shortcut or reinforce others without being forced. Style marks are not awarded for decoration, if you ask me. A 5 line plain text puzzle can have a lot of "style" - but it would need to be something very special in that case. For me, it should be a mark of how the puzzle appealed on a visceral level. Scurra's looks good, and he has obviously thought about the design a lot, but without the colours and pictures it would still have been a reasonably stylish puzzle. |
Groza: Clearly the judges favorite. BUT I severely marked down the theme score for reasons which are listed in the comments section.
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| Trolls are a trope? *looks up* oh yes... so I see. Well, can't argue with that, but I'd completely overlooked the connection with tropes as a theme until reviewing this for the final mark. I guess I think I missed the trope theme because it was overshadowed so much by the quality of the technique and style, so adding a theme point back on for that. |
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| Ah the trolls….the Trolls!!! As much as I like this puzzle this was horribly disappointing in this one category. I don’t feel you used the theme effectively at all. Only one trope was used and it was neither the answer nor needed to solve the puzzle at all. It was there in the background but If we didn’t know it was a tropes puzzle would we even have noticed? I don’t think so. I freakin loved the puzzle itself. This is one of my favorite type of puzzle. Its based entirely on logic. You don’t need any prior knowledge to solve. The final answer being on the equator was a nice touch that I didn’t notice right away. The answer however disappointed I thought you were gonna bring it back to the theme but unless I got it wrong just kinda a letdown. A good answer should make you say Oh my God that is so clever. WOW WOW WOW! 1000000 out of 10. The flavor text is so amazing and the pics of the trolls are so creative. I want you to do an animated series featuring these guys right away. Please drop out of the competition and get to work on this right away LOL. Superb!!! |
So how did we determine who won....Well we decided for reasons that will be made abundantly clear we didnt want to give immunity this round. But we did want to give a reward. It was difficult because all the puzzles were very good. So we decide the winner of each category would get a small reward. Esme for winning theme will get an additional point next round in that category. Groza will receive additional points in both style and technique. Congrats to all three of you as you are safe which I cannot say for the other three. Please step forward Novice, Elethiomel, and Jack Ian.
_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning |
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Undercover Monk
Professor Chaos
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:33 pm Post subject: 163 |
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Jack Ian: Unfortunately you were deemed the worst puzzle of the round. In fact we were of such agreement that we seriously talked about whether it was fair to keep you over someone else. Eventually we decided that since you did win last round you would not be eliminated. You are safe but you will need a better showing next round.
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| The other answer that just blew my mind. It gives you an answer but if you remember the theme you realize the answer itself is a trope. Such a good idea. Tropes are all over the puzzle. If this was given to someone outside the competition there are enough clues that tropes are what you are looking for great job. To me I just don’t feel this puzzle worked for me. I don’t think step one folowed from step two to step three. And unlike esme there isn’t a connecting theme to lend a hand. I just don’t feel the whole thing came together. Very little style points here. It just wasn’t as fun to read and work through as the others. Some flavor text would have been nice or maybe put it in comic form. |
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| Like UM said, tropes all over, and worked a bit nicer than the others I felt "obliged" to mark highly. Too hard to reverse look up the tropes, not very intuitive to take the year given, find the disparity, and then use the difference to index ... into what? Not a natural follow through for me. I quite liked the "conversational" style of the puzzle, it sounded intriguing and is an example of what I mean about not having to have "decoration" for a puzzle to be stylish. The whole failure to "hang together" knocked some style marks off again though. |
That leaves us with Elethiomel and Novice who both had very similar puzzles so who did the better job. Here are the comments.
Novice:
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Well you certinley included tropes in the puzzle and the answer was a trope but I really feel that you could have done a bit more. It would have been real cool to have an example in other categories. Besides film and one TV example. (Also starting off with that Lion King clip literally cracked me up.) The matrix trop you used is not found on the matrix page so Im not sure that people (unless they have every trope memorized ) would be able to figure that one out. And some of the clips are a little ambiguous.(How did you not use an Avengers clip) But I guess the biggest frustration is that I don’t see how Gandalf fit the theme. A collection of hilarious video clips….Love it!! Its not a perfect score as the theme lends itself to this type of puzzle which may be why you and Elethiomel both went this direction but come on its still an impressive presentation. |
Elethiomel:
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| Much like novice, he referenced a lot of tropes, but it seems to miss something for me. Can't mark it low though. Much like novice, he based the puzzle on back-lookups of finding which trope to pick from the clip provided. I would never in a million years come across "Windmill Crusader" from the Beautiful Mind clip. Too hard, too arbitrary. When you know the answer it works, when you don't there are not enough handles to hang onto to be able to puzzle things out. I don't know - the collection seems more atmospheric and "stylish" than novice's, this is a purely subjective thing and I'm not sure how to justify it, but on a visceral level it's how I felt the style score should be reflected. |
With a combined score 1 point apart the person leaving the competition is.........................
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_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning |
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Undercover Monk
Professor Chaos
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:42 pm Post subject: 164 |
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Novice!!!
please pack your calculator and leave the competition. To the rest of you congrats on making it to the next round and good luck it only gets harder from here.
_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:52 pm Post subject: 165 |
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...and then there were Five.....
Deadline for the next puzzle will be a little longer than before because it will hit near Thanksgiving - Tuesday November 27th at 12:01 AM.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:09 pm Post subject: 166 |
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That was unexpected. If you've got any good ideas for the next round, Novice, feel free to pass them on.  |
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:22 pm Post subject: 167 |
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| Phew! I must admit I was glad to have the immunity. I found it very difficult to get inspired by the tropes theme and I wasn't very happy with my submission. I'll make sure to do better for the next one. |
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:49 pm Post subject: 168 |
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Thanks to the organizers for hosting and judging this event, and sorry I didn't find more inspiration for the tropes puzzle. I agree completely with their assessments. They did what I asked them, they graded my puzzle, and the answer was:
You shall not pass! |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:13 pm Post subject: 169 |
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Thank you for joining us in the competition!
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The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right
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| Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:10 pm Post subject: 170 |
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Non text-based puzzle sent.
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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. |
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian
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| Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 4:17 pm Post subject: 171 |
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Teacher's pet 
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2012 10:35 am Post subject: 172 |
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| Sent. |
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groza528
No Place Like Home
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| Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:15 pm Post subject: 173 |
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Oof. I hate to do it, but I'll be the one to ask for an extension this time. Between my job moving me (temporarily) to Canada in the middle of this one and struggling to finish NaNoWriMo on time (the latter I guess isn't much of an excuse) I don't think I can promise quality by tomorrow night.
If the answer is no, you already had two weeks for this one, then whatever; I think I could get a puzzle by tomorrow. I just don't know if it would be the one I want.  |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:53 pm Post subject: 174 |
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well, thats one for extension, anyone else? I only have two puzzles at this point, you may not be alone here groza.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:00 am Post subject: 175 |
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| I'd welcome an extension too. Test-solving my puzzle showed it to be too difficult. I've had to re-jig the graphics to assist in solving and it will take me a while to rebuild everything and test-solve etc. |
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Scurra
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:26 am Post subject: 176 |
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Well I was just finalising mine, having spent most of the day panicking when I realised that the deadline was tomorrow, and then getting distracted by MIT puzzles when I should have been juggling graphics.
So an extension won't change anything for me, other than the possibility that I might actually manage to get mine test solved too. 
_________________
still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:22 am Post subject: 177 |
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One more week sound good all?
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:12 am Post subject: 178 |
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\works for me  |
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groza528
No Place Like Home
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| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:40 am Post subject: 179 |
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| Yeah. The weekend should make a huge difference. |
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian
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| Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 9:51 pm Post subject: 180 |
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I'm not going to make it. Major problem at work that needs to be resolved before Christmas. I just can't set aside the time for this now. Sorry.
It will take me a couple of weeks before I can return to this and that's too long to ask people to wait.
I'll bow out now and submit the puzzle later in VSP.
Sorry about this. Good luck everybody. |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:10 pm Post subject: 181 |
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wow, at this moment we have three submitted....
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:11 pm Post subject: 182 |
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| Jack_Ian wrote: |
I'm not going to make it. Major problem at work that needs to be resolved before Christmas. I just can't set aside the time for this now. Sorry.
It will take me a couple of weeks before I can return to this and that's too long to ask people to wait.
I'll bow out now and submit the puzzle later in VSP.
Sorry about this. Good luck everybody. |
I'm sorry to hear that, i can't wait to see it when it does come!
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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groza528
No Place Like Home
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:33 am Post subject: 183 |
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In. Sorry to see you bow out Jack  Best of luck with work! |
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Scurra
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 1:48 pm Post subject: 184 |
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Rats. My only real hope this round was that jack_ian and groza would fail to submit so that my chances of survival would be 2 in 3.
I too am sorry to lose another competitor due to time issues. It was always going to be a problem with this format, but it just feels wrong.
_________________
still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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groza528
No Place Like Home
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:11 pm Post subject: 185 |
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| Scurra wrote: |
Rats. My only real hope this round was that jack_ian and groza would fail to submit so that my chances of survival would be 2 in 3.
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...As opposed to 4 in 5?  |
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Scurra
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:58 pm Post subject: 186 |
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OK, so I am definitely going to be out when the next round is all about writing a maths puzzle.
_________________
still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 5:54 pm Post subject: 187 |
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I know what the next puzzle will be and not it's not that. we are gogin to be judging four, we may even release one of you as well!
Jack_Ian, Please take your tools and go.
Think meta.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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esme
^^^^-- is female! Get the pronouns right
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:07 am Post subject: 188 |
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| MNOWAX wrote: |
Think meta. |
Is this a hint for theme the next puzzle round or just general life advice?
_________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. |
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groza528
No Place Like Home
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:12 am Post subject: 189 |
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| I'm so meta, even this acronym |
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 4:48 pm Post subject: 190 |
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| Are we still waiting for more submissions? |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject: 191 |
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nope, we are working on judging right now.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Elethiomel
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:45 pm Post subject: 192 |
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| Cool. Can we see what we're up against? |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:19 pm Post subject: 193 |
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no, you may not. I'll put them up when I get a chance to host them.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Dented Ford
Hoopy Frood
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| Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:37 am Post subject: 194 |
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| Well, my judgification is done. |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 12:27 am Post subject: 195 |
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Mine is as well, just waiting on Monk, which is weird. He hasn't posted since the 4th of December.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Undercover Monk
Professor Chaos
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| Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 4:24 am Post subject: 196 |
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will do it tomorow sorry holiday madness is upon me
_________________
The Classic Blunders:
1. never get involved in a land war in Asia
2.Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line
3. Never release Peyton Manning |
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esme*
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 4:47 pm Post subject: 197 |
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| Could we have the theme of the next challenge? I would have some time now to think about it. |
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:11 pm Post subject: 198 |
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| MNOWAX wrote: |
I know what the next puzzle will be and not it's not that.
Think meta. |
The last three puzzle answers are now the basis for your next puzzle. You must create a final Meta Puzzle that ties your previous three answers.
There will be no real theme, but you must use all three answers and they have to relate somehow in your meta.If you do not use all three answers, you'll be automatically tossed out of the competition.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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Scurra
Daedalian Member
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| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 6:54 pm Post subject: 199 |
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Query: are you only expecting one puzzle for the last round? It's just that I am currently working on more than one puzzle, but will rethink if you definitely only want one.
_________________
still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll
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| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2012 7:41 pm Post subject: 200 |
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The finale is going to be the same as last time - 10 puzzle meta.
_________________
The Man The Myth The Legend
MNOWAX |
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