Friday, April 02, 2010

PCS Season 3 Begins in Four Days!

You've asked about his username. You've wondered where he disappears to during the off-season. Perhaps you've even read about his Week of Meat. But one question remains unanswered: can anyone unseat Puzzle Championship Series (PCS) Season II champion UBragg?

Here's how last season's standings stood:

(900 possible points)

Current
Rank
Previous
Rank
Puzzler
PCS Tour
Points
1
1
ubragg
667
2
4
josh s
568
3
3
drewdez
550
4
5
j steve
511
5
2
keven c
492
6
8
quadsevens
461
7
6
mr customer
456
8
7
fanerman
431
9
12
dunkhawk
320
10
9
ll cool l
283

So let's take another walk down PCS Season II memory lane, shall we?

  • Puzzle 1: Leading off. This one was pretty basic, but was a good one to start the season. Quad was first to nail it.
  • Puzzle 2: Dodger Duck. Sax's recounting of each of D-Duck's frequent flier miles. Mr Customer collected his first win of the season.
  • Puzzle 3: Cosmic Conundrum. Some thought this puzzle was unfair. My response is if Karina won, it must be fair!
  • Puzzle 4: Shell Game. This puzzle featured one of my favorite songs, as well as a rare appearance from Lauro. Loney Fan took home the W. Side note: Ubragg makes his first appearance. Little did we know at the time how significant that would be.
  • Puzzle 5: Jose's Puzzle. This one was special, as it was the first puzzle written by one of our readers - PCS Season I champ Jose. In a rare ruling, Quad and Mr Customer tied for the victory.
  • Puzzle 6: The Bear, The Cub, and The Owl. The first Grand Slam Puzzle! This one kicked off the continuing saga of The Cub. In total, it probably took the better part of a day for me to write it. Mr Customer needed all of 26 minutes to solve it.
  • Puzzle 7: The Staff Member. I believe this offering from Sax was the first puzzle to incorporate an audio element. Sing it! J Steve did, and won.
  • Puzzle 8: The Countdown. Yeah, we reached the point where we were hiding messages in borders. UBragg beats out PCS Season I champ to gets his first win. It will not be his last.
  • Puzzle 9: One-Team Players Across America. The text in this one was so poorly written, I'm tempted to attributing it to someone else. Like Vma. Good job solving, BWrightson.
  • Puzzle 10: Mr Customer's Puzzle. Mr C's concoction was one part scrabble, two parts Snake Byte. UBragg.
  • Puzzle 11: UBragg gets another win with this four-in-one puzzle involving N'Sync.
  • Puzzle 12: The Bear, The Cub, and The Owl Revisited. Although this one was a pain in the ass to create, of all the puzzles it wasn't the pain-in-the-assest. That would come later. Guess who? UBragg.
  • Puzzle 13: The Play. Orel checks in with his first puzzle of the season, which led to BWrightson's 2nd win of the season.
  • Puzzle 14: It's All Coming Together. So this one I actually created the previous season (back in 2008!), but left it on the back-burner until last year. I had to re-write it when some of the original players featured were traded. Some flash-in-the-pan puzzler named UBragg got the win.
  • Puzzle 15: Dead Sailors. Of my puzzles, this is also one of my top 5 favorites. I regretted giving the Plain White T's hint so early though. Drewdez got the win.
  • Puzzle 16: UBragg's Puzzle. Solving this puzzle required a PhD in astro-physics, a 6th degree black belt in Jujitsu, and the ability to communicate with corn. Well done, Keven C.
  • Puzzle 17: LA Logo. Man this is getting tiresome to recap. Winner: Josh S.
  • Puzzle 18: Lunch With Tommy. Winner: Drewdez.
  • Puzzle 19: Norway or Bust! This one wins the title biggest-pain-in-the-ass-puzzle to make. Winner: Dunkhawk.

Hope that gets your puzzle-engines revving. So the newe season begins April 6! We of course welcome all participants, new and returning. For those new, here's how it works: There will be a new puzzle posted at 7am PT every Monday Dodger off-day, with the exception of April 6 (Tuesday), which will be the season-opening puzzle. Thereafter, unlike previous seasons, only Monday off-days will have a puzzle (we had to cut back staff due to the economy). Points will be awarded for both solving the puzzle (the faster you solve it, the more points you get), and also for participation. Points are tabulated and tracked, and rankings are updated after each puzzle.

So welcome puzzlers new and returning. First Season III Off-Day Puzzle: Tuesday, April 6, 7am. Be there!

9 comments:

Nostradamus said...

Talk about fading down the stretch. I've been working on my conditioning this winter, though.

Kyle Baker said...

re: staff cutbacks-

Yeah I don't know how you guys are coping with Pedro out of the picture. You'll find a way to solider on somehow, I suppose.

Josh S. said...

It's puzzle in itself trying to figure out how Tuesday is six days from now.

Kyle Baker said...

HAW! Good point, Josh. Maybe this is the first clue.

*hurriedly draws lame map*

Nostradamus said...

@EK

Speaking of the girls, I'm pretty sure that Darcy is still sleeping it off in Delino's office. You may want to give him fair warning before he goes in unannounced.

Alex Cora said...

Who says Delino isn't in the office with Darcy already? Wink wink nudge nudge...

Nostradamus said...

@Alex

Say no more, say no more.

Steve Sax said...

I was not aware of the Week of Meat challenge. But after reading ubragg's recap of day 5, I was dying of laughter:

"I went and grabbed a bottle of water, used the restroom, rested in the restroom, and tried to continue working once more."

Hope you were able to "do no evil" napping in the restroom, ubragg!

Eric Karros said...

Whoa I even left out the standings I meant to insert in the body of the post.

Once again, I blame the Blue Babes.