We ran 24 new puzzles custom made for our solvers, during 2018, the highest that we have done so far.
These were set by The Oracle (4), Gussalufz (4), Brainiac (3), Mythical (2), Hypatia (2), Avatar (2) and 1 each from Bud, Pixie Dust, Bud & Mona, PunDits, Samurai Pony, Hasslethymi and Teezer. Thank you setters for some exceptional grids.
The total number of submissions received ranged from 16 for one of our toughest puzzles to 47 for our most recent one. There were nearly 90 different participants across all the puzzles. Over the year, we could witness interest and engagement grow among our solvers.
Familiar names were often seen on the leaderboard and the toppers included Ramki Krishnan (7 times), Kishore Rao (7 times), Viresh Ratnakar (3 times), Venkatraghavan (2), Mona Sogal, Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Anirudh Sahni, P.Venkatesan and Shashwat Sinai Salgaocar
Here’s the Summary of the year’s puzzles.
| S.No | Date | Puzzle | HOF | Setter | Submissions | All correct | Topper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10th Jan | A Thought Experiment | Results | The Oracle | 26 | 11 | Ramki Krishnan |
| 2 | 24th Jan | Hidden Figure | Results | Gussalufz | 23 | 14 | Kishore Rao |
| 3 | 7th Feb | Flying Solo | Results | Mythical | 34 | 24 | Kishore Rao |
| 4 | 21st Feb | Starting Off | Results | Hypatia | 35 | 18 | Venkatraghavan S |
| 5 | 7th Mar | What the Dickens | Results | Pixie Dust | 40 | 20 | Kishore Rao |
| 6 | 21st Mar | A Familiar Moving Easter Story | Results | Bud | 16 | 10 | Venkatraghavan S |
| 7 | 1st Apr | Easter Eggs | Results | The Oracle | 30 | 12 | Viresh Ratnakar |
| 8 | 18th Apr | French Toast | Results | Gussalufz | 31 | 15 | Kishore Rao |
| 9 | 2nd May | The Secret of the Naga’s Arm | Results | Hasslethymi | 30 | 20 | Kishore Rao |
| 10 | 16th May | Cracker | Results | Teezer | 31 | 9 | Kishore Rao |
| 11 | 30th May | Manpasand | Results | Avatar | 26 | 4 | Mona Sogal |
| 12 | 13th Jun | Bookworms | Results | PunDits | 25 | 18 | Ramki Krishnan |
| 13 | 27th Jun | Fee Fie Fo Fun | Results | Mythical | 30 | 13 | Kishore Rao |
| 14 | 15th Jul | Have a Ball | Results | The Oracle | 36 | 20 | Ramki Krishnan |
| 15 | 1st Aug | King’s Rule | Results | Gussalufz | 33 | 13 | Ramki Krishnan |
| 16 | 15th Aug | Bogus Poems | Results | Samurai Pony | 33 | 11 | Bhalchandra Pasupathy |
| 17 | 9th Sep | Grids Hex Me and Us | Results | Brainiac | 37 | 14 | Ramki Krishnan |
| 18 | 23rd Sep | 24×25 | Results | Brainiac | 46 | 23 | Anirudh Sahni |
| 19 | 7th Oct | Goa’s Echoes | Results | The Oracle | 39 | 20 | P.Venkatesan |
| 20 | 21st Oct | A Matter of Habit | Results | Brainiac | 31 | 3 | Shashwat Sinai Salgaocar |
| 21 | 4th Nov | Peace | Results | Mona & Bud | 20 | 11 | Viresh Ratnakar |
| 22 | 18th Nov | Missing Instructions | Results | Gussalufz | 25 | 12 | Ramki Krishnan |
| 23 | 2nd Dec | Brain Gym | Results | Avatar | 40 | 26 | Viresh Ratnakar |
| 24 | 16th Dec | 4D | Results | Hypatia | 47 | 34 | Ramki Krishnan |
Here’s our final leaderboard for 2018. 
Congrats to Viresh who topped the leader board with an impressive 2,292 points gained over 24 contests and Venkat who came a close second. Our champ Ramki loses out narrowly since he missed one puzzle and Kishore’s impressive strike rate of 96% gained over 20 contests makes us wish he had continued playing till the end of the year.
Congrats to our top 20 and wish you all the best for the next season.
Hope you enjoyed all our puzzles. Which one was your favorite? Do you have any compliments / brick bats to share with us? Please do write in.
Edited on 8th Jan. 2019
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Acceding to our reader’s request, here’s the rest of the leaderboard
I wish that the leaderboard may show the position of all the participants without restricting to the top 20 alone. Ramani
I have edited the post to show the full leaderboard, as requested by you.
These grids were a highlight of the year! 🙂 Thanks Sowmya and all the other setters, and congrats leaders!
What is “Strike Rate” ?
Thanks Anirudh. Strike rate is an average score derived by dividing the total scored by the number the contests participated. Higher the strike rate, better the performance in each contest. So, it lets you compare the performances of those who did not participate in all the contests.