XWord Muggles Forum

Hello crossword fans — I'm the cohost of Lollapuzzoola, a crossword event happening next month. As regular solvers of Shenk, Gaffney, and likely others, you might be interested in this event.

We offer a live tournament in New York City (this year, on Saturday, August 17) — or if you prefer playing at your leisure or can't get to NYC, you can order our puzzle set for an email delivery on Sunday, August 18.

The whole lot includes eight original crosswords (this year, constructors include C.C. Burnikel, Maddie Gillespie, Mike Nothnagel, Paolo Pasco, Doug Peterson, Robyn Weintraub, and Stella Zawistowski) and a bonus puzzle suite by Patrick Blindauer.

Read more about our event at www.bemoresmarter.com/lollapuzzoola or wikipedia.org/wiki/Lollapuzzoola

Happy solving!

Brian, thanks for joining and posting about Lollapuzzoola!

I've been to this event 3 times and can personally vouch that it's just about as much fun as you can have on a Saturday in August in New York City! These guys run a great tournament that is fun and whimsical and doesn't take itself too seriously, but it is serious puzzling!! If you're anywhere within distance, you should really try to make it!

As I mentioned in the WSJ thread, I got my schedule confused this year and am really bummed I won't be making it. I bought a ticket months ago, so I have a spot reserved. I was going to ask about converting it to an at-home package, but now I'm thinking that maybe I'll offer it up here to anyone who wants to go but can't get a ticket.

If that sounds like you, send me a PM and I'll talk to Brian about whether I can transfer my ticket to you.

YOU SHOULD GO TO THIS EVENT!

I'm signed up for At-Home. Waiting for the fun!

I will be there! My first time at Lolla though I've been to other tournaments (ACPT and Boswords). Who else from the board is coming? (My real name is Adam Doctoroff)

Cindy Weatherman will be there.

docison wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 4:47 pm I will be there! My first time at Lolla though I've been to other tournaments (ACPT and Boswords). Who else from the board is coming? (My real name is Adam Doctoroff)

Weren't you going to a tournament (Boswords?) last weekend? How did it go?

I did go to Boswords (now 2 weeks ago). Went well in terms of my finish (lost a tiebreaker for 3rd!) but also for the camaraderie and fun! For all of you who live in areas where crossword tournaments are held, I can't recommend the experience highly enough!

docison wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:39 am I did go to Boswords (now 2 weeks ago). Went well in terms of my finish (lost a tiebreaker for 3rd!) but also for the camaraderie and fun! For all of you who live in areas where crossword tournaments are held, I can't recommend the experience highly enough!

Wow, that’s awesome! Congratulations!

And good luck at the next one!

This was my first tournament, and I went with some trepidation ...but it was lots of fun! Of course, there are amazing solvers out there, who finished the puzzles while I was still filling in 1A. The puzzles were excellent, and I finished in in the top 90%! What a very nice and interesting group of people solvers are.

I just did the puzzles (paid for the At-Home division & received the pdfs overnight). Fun ones! Highly recommended.

BTW, was there any guidance given for the "Metapuzzle" puzzles, or is part of the challenge to deduce the rules of each puzzle?

Hector wrote: ↑Sun Aug 18, 2019 2:14 pm I just did the puzzles (paid for the At-Home division & received the pdfs overnight). Fun ones! Highly recommended.

BTW, was there any guidance given for the "Metapuzzle" puzzles, or is part of the challenge to deduce the rules of each puzzle?

I think it’s the latter. Or else I made it way harder than it needed to be.

Really enjoyed it - it required much broader solving experience than crossword metas, although having done so many crossword metas was a huge help. I got the meta without fully solving every puzzle, which may have been intended/part of the design. Still don’t know how 8 works, and I need to clean up some sub-components of 3 others.

Good luck!

Thanks (and way to go)! Right, I got the meta having only a few of the puzzles done (you can almost get it doing none of them, but the precise wording, not really). I'm looking forward to more time with the puzzles. Haven't tried 8 & following yet.

Toby wrote: ↑Sun Aug 18, 2019 1:51 pm This was my first tournament, and I went with some trepidation ...but it was lots of fun! Of course, there are amazing solvers out there, who finished the puzzles while I was still filling in 1A. The puzzles were excellent, and I finished in in the top 90%! What a very nice and interesting group of people solvers are.

I didn't know you were there too. Fortunately my well wishes were directed at all my muggle friends, so you were covered anyway:)

Just solved the At-Home puzzles. Fun stuff.

Did all the meta bits now. #1 took me the longest to see the mechanism, and I got the last step to #3 only by back-solving. #8 is deceptive -- much simpler than it seems like it's going to be. Satisfying puzzle(s)!

docison wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2019 11:39 am I did go to Boswords (now 2 weeks ago). Went well in terms of my finish (lost a tiebreaker for 3rd!) but also for the camaraderie and fun! For all of you who live in areas where crossword tournaments are held, I can't recommend the experience highly enough!

Are any held in the Boston area?

Finished the meta suite today... very cool; very clever. #8 was the last to fall into place, although I noticed what turned out to be the trick a lot earlier than when I used it.

It was a really fun day!

Cindy wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:08 pm It was a really fun day!

I did well (time-/accuracy-wise) with the at-home tournament puzzles, but that wasn't under any pressure. Not sure I could ever do one these live ones.

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 2:42 pm

Cindy wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:08 pm It was a really fun day!

I did well (time-/accuracy-wise) with the at-home tournament puzzles, but that wasn't under any pressure. Not sure I could ever do one these live ones.

Results. Bit.ly/lpz12 - You can see how fast some of these folks were. I thought I was doing really well on puzzle one by finishing it in six minutes and zero mistakes. Others finished it in 2.5 minutes with no mistakes. But it was great fun.