My son, David Plotkin, has come in third place the last 3 years. Each year, the top 3 finishers after 7 qualifying puzzles get to compete in a ‘puzzle off’ in front of maybe 1000 onlookers at the Stamford, Connecticut, Marriott. David is the only competitor to have been in the money each of the last 3 competitions, but has not gotten over the hurdle to win the final puzzle.
He says there are a few new kids on the block who are legitimate title contenders, so around 6 could win without it being a big surprise.
I’ll update the forum on his performance as the competition goes on.
For those who haven’t been here from the beginning, David attempted the ‘WoV triathlon’, which was running two miles, doing two NYT crossword puzzles, then eating 100 McNuggets in under an hour. He made it to 88 McNuggets before giving up.
Let’s wish him luck!
Obviously they'll be more difficult than average.
I assume they race each other to see who finishes first, second etc.?
If you could post a link to or a copy of one of the puzzles they use I'd like to solve it; I enjoy crosswords.
Quote: MrVQuestion: are the puzzles really, really difficult, or are they not terribly difficult?
Obviously they'll be more difficult than average.
I assume they race each other to see who finishes first, second etc.?
If you could post a link to or a copy of one of the puzzles they use I'd like to solve it; I enjoy crosswords.
link to original post
There are 7 qualifying puzzles. Traditionally puzzle number 5 is the one that eliminates the pretenders.
The final on stage puzzle is interesting. They have 3 tiers of competitors. All solve the same puzzle answers. But have different clues!
The A level clues are so esoteric that it is unbelievable that anyone can solve them.
I think puzzles 1-3, 4 and 6 are ‘easy’, but you are timed. I may be able to solve puzzle 1 in 9 minutes. My son will be done in 3….
Quote: SOOPOO
For those who haven’t been here from the beginning, David attempted the ‘WoV triathlon’, which was running two miles, doing two NYT crossword puzzles, then eating 100 McNuggets in under an hour. He made it to 88 McNuggets before giving up.
Let’s wish him luck!
link to original post
Knowing you and David's abilities at crossword puzzles made me assume that he is smart. Why in the world would he try to eat 100 McNuggets? I wish him the best of luck this weekend.
. First two puzzles have been graded. Three way tie for first. David, Dan Feyer and Tyler Hinman. I believe Dan and Tyler have each won around six times each. The movie ‘Wordplay’ was based on Tyler Hinman’s feat of winning 5 times in a row. I’m stoked!Quote: DRichQuote: SOOPOO
For those who haven’t been here from the beginning, David attempted the ‘WoV triathlon’, which was running two miles, doing two NYT crossword puzzles, then eating 100 McNuggets in under an hour. He made it to 88 McNuggets before giving up.
Let’s wish him luck!
link to original post
Knowing you and David's abilities at crossword puzzles made me assume that he is smart. Why in the world would he try to eat 100 McNuggets? I wish him the best of luck this weekend.
link to original post
Quote: SOOPOOAfter third puzzle tied for lead with Dan. This is the best he has ever been this early.
link to original post
Awesome!!! Are the finals tomorrow?
Quote: DRichQuote: SOOPOOAfter third puzzle tied for lead with Dan. This is the best he has ever been this early.
link to original post
Awesome!!! Are the finals tomorrow?
link to original post
They have already finished the 6 puzzles on day 1. The first four have been graded. David is in a two way tie for first. He ‘thinks’ he will still be tied for first after puzzles 5 and 6 are graded.
Tomorrow morning they do puzzle 7, and after that one the top 3 are determined, and those three do the ‘big puzzle’ in front of the audience. The competitors wear gizmos that prevent them from hearing the announcer or any screaming audience member (my ex wife!). I think it is around 1pm that they do the on stage final puzzle.
Quote: SOOPOOI’m just a stupid father…. He’s in first place ALONE after puzzle 5! I’m going to be insufferable!
link to original post
That Paolo Pasco kid would be taking on all comers - well, he'd be 1 minute ahead of David - except for what appears to be a one-letter miss in the first puzzle.
Quote: SOOPOOI’m just a stupid father…. He’s in first place ALONE after puzzle 5! I’m going to be insufferable!
link to original post
A proud father and rightly so. Go David.
Quote: DRichQuote: SOOPOOI’m just a stupid father…. He’s in first place ALONE after puzzle 5! I’m going to be insufferable!
link to original post
A proud father and rightly so. Go David.
link to original post
Still in first after puzzle 6! Tomorrow at 9 they do puzzle 7. By around 11 they have the results. If David doesn’t make a mistake he is odds on favorite to make the top 3. He’ll be a big underdog to Feyer and Hinman in the final. But you never know…
Quote: SOOPOOQuote: DRichQuote: SOOPOOI’m just a stupid father…. He’s in first place ALONE after puzzle 5! I’m going to be insufferable!
link to original post
A proud father and rightly so. Go David.
link to original post
Still in first after puzzle 6! Tomorrow at 9 they do puzzle 7. By around 11 they have the results. If David doesn’t make a mistake he is odds on favorite to make the top 3. He’ll be a big underdog to Feyer and Hinman in the final. But you never know…
link to original post
I am actually anxious to hear the results. I am not sure why since I personally have no interest in crosswords and my linguistic skills are rather poor. I guess I am just rooting for the proud papa. My daughter was a world class quick draw shooter as a juvenile but that hasn't translated to adulthood.
...and he missed one? That's extra nuggets on the next challenge.
Video of the final puzzle:
Quote: gordonm888Ooof. I was really rooting for David. What place did he wind up in?
link to original post
Third. They mention the result at the 13 minute mark of the video, although it's a little hard to hear.
David believes that there is a relative newcomer, Paulo Pasco, who will be the new contender. He won the "B" division this year. Sort of the same trajectory that David was on.
You can get Pasco at 16-1 on the futures on DraftKings for next year. Good value.
David did win $1k for 3rd this year. I asked him if he was going to buy anything special with the dough. He said the money basically covered his expenses to get there!
When he was under 25 he won the "Junior" title I think 5 years. He wins the "South" crown every year. He gets a trophy for every top 10 finish. He won a "C" crown, and maybe a "B" won as well? He has around 30 trophies from this event.
Can't wait until next April....
Quote: SOOPOODavid finished in 3rd for the fourth consecutive competition. Making it to 'the stage' is the big goal. Then winning of course. The announcer mentioned it has been around 20 years that at least one of Dan, David, or Tyler has made the top 3. Of course the other two having won 13 of them sort of helps....
David believes that there is a relative newcomer, Paulo Pasco, who will be the new contender. He won the "B" division this year. Sort of the same trajectory that David was on.
You can get Pasco at 16-1 on the futures on DraftKings for next year. Good value.
David did win $1k for 3rd this year. I asked him if he was going to buy anything special with the dough. He said the money basically covered his expenses to get there!
When he was under 25 he won the "Junior" title I think 5 years. He wins the "South" crown every year. He gets a trophy for every top 10 finish. He won a "C" crown, and maybe a "B" won as well? He has around 30 trophies from this event.
Can't wait until next April....
link to original post
Congrats to David. Has David considered having Dan and Tyler disabled before the competition? That would probably cross my mind.
Quote: DRichQuote: SOOPOODavid finished in 3rd for the fourth consecutive competition. Making it to 'the stage' is the big goal. Then winning of course. The announcer mentioned it has been around 20 years that at least one of Dan, David, or Tyler has made the top 3. Of course the other two having won 13 of them sort of helps....
David believes that there is a relative newcomer, Paulo Pasco, who will be the new contender. He won the "B" division this year. Sort of the same trajectory that David was on.
You can get Pasco at 16-1 on the futures on DraftKings for next year. Good value.
David did win $1k for 3rd this year. I asked him if he was going to buy anything special with the dough. He said the money basically covered his expenses to get there!
When he was under 25 he won the "Junior" title I think 5 years. He wins the "South" crown every year. He gets a trophy for every top 10 finish. He won a "C" crown, and maybe a "B" won as well? He has around 30 trophies from this event.
Can't wait until next April....
link to original post
Congrats to David. Has David considered having Dan and Tyler disabled before the competition? That would probably cross my mind.
link to original post
There are a few others. Erik Agard, a past winner, who is the fastest but has been reckless at times chose not to compete this year due to Covid concerns. Then there is the previously mentioned Paulo Pasco.
Also, David preaches non violence in all Crossword Competitions.
Quote: SOOPOO
Also, David preaches non violence in all Crossword Competitions.
Pacifists never win.
Quote: SOOPOODavid finished in 3rd for the fourth consecutive competition. Making it to 'the stage' is the big goal. Then winning of course. The announcer mentioned it has been around 20 years that at least one of Dan, David, or Tyler has made the top 3. Of course the other two having won 13 of them sort of helps....
David believes that there is a relative newcomer, Paulo Pasco, who will be the new contender. He won the "B" division this year. Sort of the same trajectory that David was on.
You can get Pasco at 16-1 on the futures on DraftKings for next year. Good value.
link to original post
I think they also mentioned that, even though at least one of the three has been in each of the last 20, this is the first time all three made it to the same final.
Here is a video of the C and B finals - the B final starts at around the 29-minute mark; Paulo is the one in the middle. Note that he entered in the C division, but as he finished in the top three in the B division - in fact, he beat everybody in the B division (and except for his two misses, probably would have qualified for the A division final instead) - he competed in the B final.
I didn't know this before this year, but not only do all three levels' finals use the same grid, but the same answers; each one has its own set of clues, with the "A" clues being the hardest. This is similar to "The World's Most Ornery Crossword" that appears in each issue of Games magazine, with "hard" and "easy" sets of clues. Listen to the commentary during the B final (as well as the A final, in a previous link in this thread) for some insight.
Has he ever tried to get on Jeopardy? Some overlap in skills, I would imagine.
Quote: gordonm888Congrats on third place. Other than doing crossword puzzles, is there any specific training (trivia, tracking recent pop culture, etc?) that they do to prepare?
Has he ever tried to get on Jeopardy? Some overlap in skills, I would imagine.
link to original post
He is also a trivia ‘expert’, if there is such a thing. He does puzzles daily, and keeps some sort of data bank on questions he felt would be helpful to go over again. He has been in some national trivia contests for PhD students a few years back. He made the finals and got a free trip to Portland or Seattle?
He has applied to Jeopardy, and is theoretically on ‘the list’ to be called for the show. I know that use of ‘the buzzer’ really is (almost?) as important as knowledge, if he does make it onto the show I’ll be betting (with you guys!) on him being a multiple time champion.
When I was at the Crossword Finals two or three years ago they asked all former Jeopardy contestants to stand. Somewhere between 30 and 40 of the Crossworders had been on Jeopardy. So HUGE overlap.
Quote: SOOPOOHe has applied to Jeopardy, and is theoretically on ‘the list’ to be called for the show. I know that use of ‘the buzzer’ really is (almost?) as important as knowledge, if he does make it onto the show I’ll be betting (with you guys!) on him being a multiple time champion.
Pretty much every time they get the "names" from Jeopardy! (Jennings, Rutter, Holzhauer, and a few others) together, somebody asks, "What's the most important thing?", and invariably they all agree: "Timing the button just right."
Hopefully he qualifies and goes on to win it all.
Quote: SOOPOO. If he ties with Tyler on the 6th and 7th qualifying puzzle they would have had the exact same score on all seven puzzles and I don’t know what they use as a tie breaker.
Hopefully he qualifies and goes on to win it all.
link to original post
Maybe it will be McNuggets?
Quote: rxwineQuote: SOOPOO. If he ties with Tyler on the 6th and 7th qualifying puzzle they would have had the exact same score on all seven puzzles and I don’t know what they use as a tie breaker.
Hopefully he qualifies and goes on to win it all.
link to original post
Maybe it will be McNuggets?
link to original post
He was one minute ahead of Tyler on puzzle 6, but one minute behind on puzzle 7, so they ended up tied for third, and from the looks of the results page, the tiebreaker is, whoever did better on the seventh puzzle.
Quote: ThatDonGuyQuote: rxwineQuote: SOOPOO. If he ties with Tyler on the 6th and 7th qualifying puzzle they would have had the exact same score on all seven puzzles and I don’t know what they use as a tie breaker.
Hopefully he qualifies and goes on to win it all.
link to original post
Maybe it will be McNuggets?
link to original post
He was one minute ahead of Tyler on puzzle 6, but one minute behind on puzzle 7, so they ended up tied for third, and from the looks of the results page, the tiebreaker is, whoever did better on the seventh puzzle.
link to original post
Correct. It’s the scenario I was afraid of….. He will be credited as tied for third…. but the ‘third’ was more like fourth…. He is amazing….. just there were three people more amazing!
Quote: ThatDonGuySome early 2024 news: this year's competition will be sponsored by Games World of Puzzles Magazine
link to original post
David will be back hoping to improve on his impressive string of Bronze medals. He told me that this year will have the most competitors ever. I’m guessing the sponsorship fee was not that much. But if it raises the prizes for the top competitors…. good!
Opposites attract?
Quote: MrVCrosswords are my thing; jig saw puzzles are my wife's.
Opposites attract?
link to original post