The official purpose of the championship is to recognize the top U.S. puzzle solvers, and to select members of the U.S. Puzzle Team to participate in the 2012 World Puzzle Championship (Kraljevica, Croatia, Oct. 2-7). Organizers of the Canadian and Italian teams will also use the results in their selection process. Nationality is determined by citizenship, not residence.
The official start time for the formal championship is Saturday Aug 25 at 1pm ET. The test duration is 2 1/2 hours. Unofficial participation is open to all puzzlers world-wide, who may start the test any time before 3:30pm ET on Sunday August 26, and are still limited to 2 1/2 hours for answer submission. All results are subject to publication.
All contestants must register to participate in the online championship, and must login to submit answers. Contestants who registered before August 21, will receive email containing their existing user name and password. Contestants registering starting August 21 will receive immediate confirmation. See the Privacy Policy regarding our use of registration and other information collected by this site.
The 2012 Practice Test is available now and uses the same formats and procedures as the official USPC. You should try all of the procedures described here using the Practice Test (including downloading, decryption, printing, answer submission, and answer resubmission).
On Friday, August 24, one day prior to the USPC, you will download the encrypted USPC file to your local computer, and save it until the start time. You should also download the Preview Instructions, containing the USPC puzzle text and any last-minute information.
On Saturday, August 25, at 1pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-4), the USPC will start, and the decryption password (not your login password) will appear on the Password page. Please note: to help reduce network traffic, please refrain from refreshing the password page until the test starting time (note the server timestamp displayed on that page). However, you should test that your web browser will actually refresh the page when requested.
At 3:30pm EDT, the official USPC will end. You will have 2 1/2 hours to solve as many puzzles as you can, and submit your answers via the Answer Page. Your submission time is recorded with your answers. After you submit answers you can return to the Answer Page to view your submitted answers, continue solving, and to submit additional answers. It is not necessary to re-submit answers at the deadline if they are already recorded.
For unofficial participation (not eligible for US or Italian Team qualifying), you may start the test any time before 3:30pm on Sunday Aug 26. You will start the test by loading the Password page to get the decryption password. You will then have 2 1/2 hours from that time to submit answers without a late penalty.
Your last Answer Page submission will be time-stamped and scored. Your final score is the total of all points accumulated, including bonus, minus any penalties.
Ranking and tie-breaking will be based on the following rules in order:
Outside solving help of any kind is not permitted. This includes but is not limited to: assistance of any kind from any other person; prepared notes, books, calculators, computers, or tools other than items explicitly permitted.
You are allowed to use writing implements, eraser, blank paper (including commercial graph paper), ruler, scissors, and tape.
All entries and scores are subject to review for rules compliance. Winners may be asked provide a copy of their passport ID page to prove nationality, and to sign an affidavit confirming that they did, in fact, abide by the rules of the competition. The organizers reserve the right to disqualify any contestant if, in their sole judgment, they believe the rules have been violated.
In case of a dispute, protest, or other judgment, the decision of the judges is final.
The organizers do not expect any technical problems with the operation of championship. If you do encounter a problem that is likely causing trouble for many contestants, check the 2012 USPC home page. If you have a problem that is most likely affecting only you, you may call the test hotline number: 650-302-4898. Officials will not, however, answer any questions regarding the puzzles themselves.
The answers to the test will be posted no later than one day after the test. The top five U.S. contestants will be notified within two days of the test. Within three days, all contestants will receive an email summary of their test score, and will have a 1-day window to respond with any scoring protests. Results will be posted on this web site no later than Saturday, September 1.
The top U.S. contestant (not including Palmer Mebane, Thomas Snyder and Wei-Hwa Huang, who are exexmpt from 2012 US Team qualifying) will be selected for the U.S. Puzzle Team, to compete at the World Puzzle Championship in Kraljevica, Croatia, October 2-7. Other prizes to be announced.
Unofficial scores for participants from other countries will be posted at the same time as the U.S. scores, and may be forwarded to the corresponding WPC team organizer, upon request, for consideration. If there is no organized team for your country, you may be contacted regarding individual WPC participation.
The top Canadian, UK, and Italian contestants: the test results will be sent to the respective WPC team organizers; these results will be used as part of those teams' selection process. Contact the Canadian, UK, or Italian teams directly for more information. Canadian and UK contestants need not start at the official time to be considered for the Canadian team.