PuzzleDuel Contest- dOubLESHOW

The results for the Doubleshow contest on Puzzleduel were recently finalized, so I figured it'd be interesting for me to talk about my thoughts on the contest and my participation. The format being spread out over several weeks with live updating results was a fascinating change of pace, even if a bit demoralizing at times. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself. The contest page can be found here, but this post will read better if you don't know the results beforehand. There were prizes for 2nd and 22nd place, and I went in hoping for 2nd but resolved to do the best I could throughout.

	Puzzle 1	Tapa
1	Freddie Hand	7.1
2	Tiralmo	6.1
3	Para	5.8
4	EKBM	5.6
5	Prasanna Seshadri	5.5
6	umaya	5.5
7	wandersong	5.1
8	jaku111	5
9	Dmitry Grischenko	5
10	Muhorka	4.9

Fastest: Freddie Hand (0:24, 7.1) | 10th: (0:42, 4.9) | Me: (0:52, 1 error, 2.2)

First up was a Tapa that revealed the theme of the contest- every single clue was a 2, in the shape of a 2. I correctly deduced the connection around the top of the grid but had made an error in the bottom half which broke the puzzle when I got back around. Instead of noticing and correcting my mistake, I reversed the top then corrected the mistake and hit check- only to immediately see I had a 2-2 instead. A quick fix later, I submitted the correct solution but ended up in 64th place after the first puzzle- a disappointing start costing me 3 points on the overall standings. I thought this would knock me completely out of the running, but the worst was yet to come...

	Puzzle 2	Maxi Snake
1	EKBM	17
2	MaM	13.4
3	GD	12.8
4	xiao01wei	12
5	Uhu	11.6
6	rob	11.3
7	Tiralmo	11
8	mstang	10.4
9	Freddie Hand	10.3
10	Hyunmo Kang	10.3

Fastest: GD (0:19, 11.5) | 10th: mstang (0:43, 6.8) | Me: (0:34, 7.9 points)

Ken Endo launched himself into a lead he would never relinquish, turning the battle for second into a best of the rest melee- I made up some ground on 2nd here, going from 3.9 to only 3.3 behind but that would be a mountain to climb. As for the Maxi Snake, I went in expecting many 2 clues and took a moment to think about the implications and was rewarded with a puzzle I knew only had two reasonable options. I guessed wrong, but still posted a very fast solve time.

	Puzzle 3	Suguru
1	EKBM	23.3
2	MaM	19.2
3	xiao01wei	16.9
4	GD	16.6
5	Uhu	16.5
6	Tiralmo	15.6
7	IHNN	15.5
8	Para	15.1
9	Freddie Hand	15.1
10	rob	15

Fastest: EKBM (1:21, 6.3) | 10th: (1:46, 5.3) | Me: (1:45, 5.4 points)

Suguru isn't one of my stronger genres, but it didn't seem to play to any of the top contenders strengths either. A jam of consistent times meant nobody really gained or lost ground here- I was now 3.7 behind 2nd, despite having made my way into the top 10. I don't remember how this solve went, so it probably went smoothly enough.

	Puzzle 4	Sky. Sudoku
1	EKBM	30
2	MaM	26.3
3	GD	23.4
4	xiao01wei	22
5	Uhu	21.8
6	rob	21.2
7	strozo	21.2
8	IHNN	21
9	Freddie Hand	20.9
10	Tiralmo	20.1

Fastest: Azade77 (1:20, 7.8) | 10th: Freddie Hand (2:06, 5.8) | Me: (2:16, 5.5)

Skyscrapers Sudoku is a combination of two types I tend to be slower than par at, and it showed here. I'm especially weak when it comes to this sort of 2 themed logic, and needed a lucky guess at the end to even stay competitive here. Still, I dropped to 5.3 points behind second place- a seemingly insurmountable deficit without some incredibly strong solves.

	Puzzle 5	Queens
1	EKBM	36
2	GD	36
3	Para	34.6
4	WMathie	31.1
5	MaM	29.8
6	aras	29.6
7	Azade77	29
8	xiao01wei	28.8
9	Andrey Bogdanov	28.4
10	Tiralmo	27.9

Fastest: WMathie (0:19, 17.9) | 10th: Invalid_D (1:00, 8.5) | Me: (3:05, 4.1)

I hate this puzzle type, to the point where I usually just skip them. But as it was part of the contest, I went for it in the hopes of a quick lucky solve. That didn't happen, and my first three "solutions" turned out to break one of the 2s as I found when I checked my work. Eventually I stumbled into the solution, but dropped to 12th with 25.1 points: 10.9 off pace for second place. Looking back, at this point I was fairly unsatisfied with the contest as a whole as most of the puzzles had been quite easy so far, leaving this high variance Queens as what I saw as the sole decider of the top of the leaderboard. I still don't think it's a good contest puzzle (or a good genre...) but I definitely took it way too hard for something casual like this. And besides, I had already resigned myself to a middling spot and was trying to maintain top 10, and that was still well within reach.

	Puzzle 6	Akari
1	EKBM	45
2	Para	39.6
3	GD	39.3
4	Azade77	35.1
5	Tiralmo	35.1
6	MaM	34.6
7	aras	34.5
8	WMathie	34.2
9	xiao01wei	33
10	IHNN	32.5

Fastest: EKBM (0:29, 9) | 10th: Muhorka (0:58, 5.8) | Me: (0:39, 7.4)

Akari in the Puzzle Duel interface is a matter of either not needing to mark empty cells, or being smart about which ones to mark. I fall into the later group which is slower, but at the cost of consistency. I wasn't about to make yet another error, and didn't through what felt like a decently tricky puzzle, as shown by the relatively higher scores for it. Para managed to take over 2nd place here after a pair of exceptional solves, and would become the primary contender for the position.

	Puzzle 7	Ripple Effect
1	EKBM	54.9
2	Para	45.6
3	GD	44
4	MaM	43
5	Azade77	42.4
6	Tiralmo	42.4
7	Freddie Hand	39.7
8	aras	39.4
9	IHNN	39.2
10	WMathie	38.9

Fastest: EKBM (2:51, 9.9) | 10th: strozo (5:00, 6.9) | Me: (5:14, 6.7)

Thank you, Wen, for making such ridiculous Ripple Effects such that some semi-advanced logic is innate to me now. This was still a very tough puzzle and a satisfying solve, as mostly clueless regions with 6s usually prove to be. At this point I was 6.4 points behind second place with 4 puzzles to go, and not really gaining any ground. I was also too far ahead to effectively sandbag for 22nd, so I kept pushing to try for 5th- a target I was much closer to.

	Puzzle 8	Magic Snail
1	EKBM	62.5
2	Para	50.2
3	MaM	49.2
4	Tiralmo	46.9
5	Azade77	46.7
6	IHNN	46.1
7	WMathie	45.3
8	GD	44
9	Andrey Bogdanov	43.5
10	xiao01wei	43

Fastest: Eugene (1:21, 7.7) | 10th: mstang (1:56, 6.1) | Me: (1:36, 6.9)

Magic Snail is a type that I do not understand how to do logically, and so I just frantically put numbers into the grid and moved them around until all of the constraints were satisfied, guided by nothing but intuition and seeing how combinations of placements would break. This puzzle claimed Freddie Hand, who errored lost over 4 points, taking him out of contention. Somehow I reached 6th place on the overall here, my highest placement yet!

	Puzzle 9	Cave
1	EKBM	70.1
2	MaM	54.4
3	Para	53.3
4	IHNN	53.1
5	Azade77	51.1
6	rob	50.7
7	Tiralmo	50
8	Andrey Bogdanov	49.6
9	Freddie Hand	49.4
10	WMathie	49.3

Fastest: Muhroka (1:52, 8.6) | 10th: Prasanna Seshadri (3:22, 5.9) | Me: (2:37, 7)

Finally, another puzzle in a type I'm comfortable with, and with easy 2 (and 22!) logic. I took extra care when counting the 22s to make sure I didn't make a logical mistake, something that happened to both Tiralmo and Para, and MaM had a bit of a slow solve here. At this moment, I knew I was in contention for second if I solved like crazy, but it was going to come down to type.

	Puzzle 10	Nurikabe
1	EKBM	75.1
2	IHNN	61
3	MaM	58.9
4	Para	58.3
5	rob	55.6
6	Azade77	55.1
7	Tiralmo	54.8
8	Freddie Hand	54.6
9	Andrey Bogdanov	54.4
10	xiao01wei	53.5

Fastest: IHNN (0:44, 7.9) | 10th: EKBM (1:30, 5) | Me: (0:44, 7.9)

And did the type deliver! My Nurikabe rating on the site is currently 3114, which is the best single rating for any person for any puzzle type on the site to the best of my knowledge. This solve was no exception- I went in expecting a 22, identified the region no 2 could reach, spotted the path the 22 would have to take, and intuited huge swathes of the puzzle to end up with 21 cells in the 22. The fix was very simple- just move shaded cells up from the border, and I laughed when I saw that the 22 ended up in the shape of a 2. At this point not only was I in second place, but I was comfortably there by over 2 points- if the last puzzle was low variance and thus low scoring, any decent solve would be enough to keep second! I might actually pull this off! I honestly couldn't believe it, given the 10 point deficit halfway through.

	Puzzle 11	Minesweeper
1	EKBM	81
2	IHNN	64.9
3	Para	62.2
4	MaM	60.1
5	rob	59.7
6	Azade77	59.1
7	Tiralmo	58.8
8	Andrey Bogdanov	57.4
9	xiao01wei	57.3
10	WMathie	56.4

Fastest: EKBM (0:23, 5.9) | 10th: Tiralmo (0:42, 4) | Me: (0:43, 3.9)

My wish was granted- an easy, low variance puzzle in a friendly type. Unfortunately, the times were blistering- any lost second would cost points. From the results, I knew that a time of around 45 seconds should be enough to maintain second place, but I really wanted a 35 second time or better. I was a bit slow to spot that a 2 on the bottom was satisfied but turned in a solve time I knew was good enough: only Para stood a chance of catching up, and he would need to surpass Ken's ridiculous time, or else many people would need slower times to increase the scores at the top end. Para turned in a 43 second time as well, and the results didn't really shift as the battle for 22nd went on (snuke took it with a day to spare, and then jaku111 took it in the final hours, narrowly avoiding passing lovemathboy).

And somehow, against all odds, I managed to finish Doubleshow in second place. It was a lot of fun and a difficult experience- I look forward to the next round of contest puzzles here, especially as my strong finishing results have pushed me back into second place on the overall standard ratings too.