MGWCC #791 — “Table Games”

[HunterX]

Submitted and awaiting transporter beam. I tried without the hints for a brief period of time. But seeing I had a long drive ahead of me and a guest coming for the weekend, I took the hints. Glad I did! It still took some time searching. I enjoyed the cleverness of some parts.

Edit: Beamed up at 58.

[woozy]

Hmmm.... got the first three or four steps but can't seem to land it.

[KayW]

Beamed, after reading hints.

[woozy]

Argh... I made one (legitimate IMO ... but wrong) reasoning and ended on something unlandable. Got a proofer to point my reason was not the right one and from there I figured the correct one and landed.

Waiting to beam but pretty sure I have it.

With the hint I'd call this a 2. Without the hints it's a 7.

BTW there is something really interesting if you want to take it a step further (it doesn't go anywhere except ... further). Did anyone else notice it?

EDIT: #67

[Kwyjibo]

Awaiting beamage.

Was working on an alternate solution that I think would have been better answer but couldn't close it out. With one thing bothering me about it; switched up, refocused and found the right path.

Used the hints...one of which made it a lot easier. But I'll take it, guests are in town this weekend so I could use the break from staring at the grid so much that I see it in my dreams.

Edit: on board with my first top 100!

[hcbirker]

Solved with hints, but it still took a long time! I clicked “solo” and in the comments said I used all the hints.

[jhseeman]

Beamed up at 53....

[gpj73]

We tried to solve without the hints and went very deep into a rabbit hole that seemed so incredibly promising, we would probably never have left it. That’s my guess as to why the early hints, but curious to hear what others thought (after noon Tuesday).

[HunterX]

Hmmm.... got the first three or four steps but can't seem to land it.

And backsolving really isn't an option with this one. Unless you are far smarter than I. (Which, albeit, is a low bar.)

[Jeremy Smith]

Beamed up with the hints. It would have been considerably more difficult without them.

[MajordomoTom]

3 hints and 3 more needed, not making much progress at the "table" on this one ...

[HeadinHome]

Agree the ahhHAA was quite satisfying! I didn’t get to this one until way late in the evening and actually considered giving up and soliciting some help after about and hour of trying to force what I thought was the ticket. Then I closed my eyes and kept thinking about it, particularly one entry, and voila! There is was.

YES needed all the nudges

[benchen71]

Awaiting the beam... [That was a painful slog, even with the supplied hints and additional nudges. Can't wait for next week's "week 1"!]

... and I'm beamed, which must have happened while I slept.

[rjy]

Beamed at earlier today at 46 … solved while literally ashore, toes in the sand, with siblings who had never seen a meta before. Already assumed Hint 1 to be the case, but Hint 2 was a necessity to begin the scavenger hunt to the end. Quite fun, and an innovative construction! Matt never ceases to amaze… still trying to reverse engineer how he constructed the WSJ this week too…

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I'm awaiting the beam but feel 100%. I managed this one without any hints. It was a fun AHA hunt.

[TMart]

Solved using the first two hints (and then the third for confirmation as it already stuck out as odd and was the initial entry point given the second hint). I’m not sure this was solvable for us mere mortals without the hints. Great meta, but for me, not enough bread crumbs from the title and prompt to get the initial foothold. But a very fun and satisfying solve - took quite a while to assemble all the pieces.

[Streroto]

Beamed. This was wildly fun and clever. A truly great one from Matt. I ended up needing all three hints and agree that the jump from hint 2 to 3 takes it from a week 4 (I probably would never get) to a week 2 or maybe 2.5

Stay well (and cool) all!

[MarkWoychick]

I thought, "I'm going to try this without the hints." Then I thought, "Who am I kidding?" Waiting to be beamed up now.

Edit: beamed up at #100

[StunGun]

What a fun solve! Hint 1 was a bit helpful in setting the direction of the definitions of the title words.
The others were a bit superfluous IMO.
But the last jump stumped me until just dozing off at bedtime. Then bang! Up and "reformulating" for a satisfying conclusion.

[ColinM]

Beamed. For some reason it took me a while to figure out the first step, even with the hints. Finding the pieces was arduous but rewarding.