#101 - UKPC 2024 puzzle collection

After supplying a round to the offline portion of this year's UK championships, I was also invited to author some puzzles for the online event. This took place a while back, but I never got around to uploading the puzzles - here they are! I supplied five puzzles this time, of which three are in the first round and the other two in the second. 

Be sure to also check out the other puzzles here (round 1) and here (round 2). The puzzles are all good fun!

Rues are included in the penpa links for all the puzzles. Enjoy!

Round 1

Puzzle 1 - Balance Loop - 26/470 points
https://tinyurl.com/2xq37x8s

I mostly went for a striking visual theme in this one. A consequence of the lay-out I chose was that the break-in was a bit hard to find - some solvers had trouble getting started. It should be mostly smooth sailing after finding the correct entry point.

Puzzle 2 - Araf - 36/470 points
https://tinyurl.com/23wfee55

Not really any theme - this was a last minute addition to have some more Region Division puzzles in the contest. I tried for a while to get some more significant values instead of the 17s, but really liked how they worked in the end while other values didn't quite work as well, so I decided to leave the puzzle as is. 

Puzzle 3 - Tren - 26/470 points
https://tinyurl.com/2bex68xh

Similar to the previous puzzle, this was also added at the very end, this time to add some more Object Placement to the rounds. The diagonal pairs theme works very well for Tren - I remember being quite happy with how this puzzle came out.

Round 2

Puzzle 4 - Greater Wall - 28/486 points
https://tinyurl.com/yqnxvs8l

I've been wanting to revisit this very uncommon genre ever since writing one for GAPP last year, and this seemed like a great opportunity. I usually theme at least one puzzle around the current year when I write for contests, but I tried doing it a bit differently here. Instead of the usual spelling out the year with number clues, I used sets of 2 and 4 clues, which ended up working nicely.

Puzzle 5 - Slovak Sums - 52/486 points
https://tinyurl.com/2bcz9m9n

I don't remember too much about this puzzle - it was part of a set of three Slovak Sums, of which two went to WCPN. I do however remember trying for a long time to not repeat any clues, but it not quite working out the way I wanted. Eventually I just dropped that theme in favor of having a suitable contest puzzle with a good solve path.