bakpao's puzzles

I participated in the 24 Hour Puzzle Championship again! It took place right after WSPC, in Eger, Hungary. If you've not had a chance to take a look at the puzzles yet, they are available here . Definitely check them out! This was the 22nd edition of the event, and it was my third time participating. I ranked 23rd this time, down from 13th last year. At first glance that seems like a significant drop, but with some 100 more participants this year, many of which are typically stronger solvers than myself, I'm pretty content with my result. I'd say I would have done better if I had prepared more for the event (which I hadn't much, because of WSPC), but I think that holds true for almost everyone there.  As always, the event was fantastic and tons of fun. I especially loved doing it with this many more people. I hope we see many of them return for future editions. Unlike previous years, this year's edition came directly after a week of already exhausting WSPC solving, ...

Another year, another contribution to the Indian Puzzle Championship! This marks my 4th year in a row contributing to this event. I contributed 5 puzzles this year, which can be found in this post,  along with some rejects and leftovers . Like last year this post only contains the puzzles I wrote for the contest. The full IPC set can be purchased for a small price which helps LMI cover the costs incurred to organize the live event and continue to organize them in the future.  The full set contains all puzzle rounds, full of high quality puzzles, as well as bonus content like the PR Playoff puzzles and a giant interconnected puzzle gift. If you are able to, do consider purchasing the set. More information available  here  (IPC) and  here  (ISC) . Rules are included in the Penpa links, otherwise please refer to  Puzzle Rules . #1 - Star Battle - Round 1 - 30/500 points - Solve on  Penpa Mostly going for a clean theme and a not too difficult solve pa...

Last week WSPC 2023 took place in Toronto, Canada! I took part in both events, on the A team for the Netherlands - my second time participating after my debut last year. I finished in 34th official / 38th unofficial in WSC (2nd NL and up from 56th unofficial last year) and 38th official / 47th unofficial in WPC (3rd NL and down from 42nd unofficial last year). Overall I'm happy to have improved my sudoku ranking and am content to hover around the top 40 mark in puzzles, but I do feel there's still a lot of potential for me to do better. Hopefully I can keep improving at future events. A short breakdown follows of my performance per round for each event, along with what I liked and/or didn't like about the events as a whole and a recap of other fun stuff that happened. If you're just here for the practice puzzles, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. ----- WSC - Day 1 Round 1 - Opening Ceremony: 400/450 points (tied for 18th unofficial) A great start for me, muc...