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[AdamH]

F9 Reward Challenge: "Pick Your Poison"

All preferences are in! By dividing you into three specific teams I was able to give everybody the chance to do their first-choice pick AND almost everyone the chance to do their second-choice as well. You know most of the rules for each component of the challenge already, but here are more fleshed-out versions of all of them:

1. HP Quiz: Schedule a time where you and a moderator can both be around to take the quiz. Once you're both ready you'll be given a list of questions in your confessional about the Harry Potter book/movie series. You'll have 20 minutes to post as many correct answers to these questions in your confessional as you can. You can use whatever resources you want, aside from talking to other people in the game, to help you answer these questions, but remember the quiz is timed!

Tiebreaker for this is whoever took the quiz first.

2. Sprint: You'll need to make a video of you running a half of a mile as fast as possible. The video doesn't need to be all that great, what I'm looking for is a visual cue when you start and another one when you're done. A Skype video call that I record could also work for this.

A tiebreaker for this shouldn't be necessary, but if we need it, whoever submitted their video first has the better time.

3. Dominion Selfie Scavenger Hunt: The objective is to collect as many pictures of Dominion card names as you can. This one has the most rules, let me try and take care of as many questions as possible here.

What is a selfie? You don't necessarily have to have yourself in every picture you take, what I'm really looking for is something that verifies that you didn't just Google Image search something, but you actually found it in your life. You could just have some object in each of your pictures (like a Dum-Dum or something) that makes me believe you actually took it.

What is a Dominion Card? Any Dominion card works here: basically, if it appears at the top of a Dominion card, that's what you want. Each individual Knight PLUS the word "Knights" since it's on the randomizer -- they all count. Names of expansions or the word "Dominion" does NOT count. Card types (treasure, attack, duration, etc.) do NOT count.

How many points can I score?
206 Kingdom Card Randomizers
10 Supply Cards (Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Estate, Duchy, Province, Colony, Curse, Potion)
10 Individual Knights
5 Ruins
5 Prizes
3 Shelters
1 Mercenary
1 Madman
1 Spoils
242 total

What about plurals? Plurals and other forms of words are usually OK, but it's up to my discretion at the end of the day. If you want "Bank" and you find a picture of "Banking" that's OK. If you want "Ironworks" and you find a picture of "Ironworkers" I'd probably give that to you. If you manage to find "Market Square" you'll get credit for "Market" too! On the other hand if you found "Trade Route" and want to get credit for "Trader" that's not going to work, I have to be strict on that one. Same for "Smith" vs. "Smithy". Homophones will not work: if you want "Witch" you can't use "Which" for that. Be creative! You never know what I might reward!

...and before you ask, Mint and Mine are two separate things

I should also mention that you can't use things that you made for the challenge. You can't write a card name on a piece of paper and have that be it. You can't write "Sir" on a piece of paper and hold it up to a bottle of Bailey's Boozy Drink™ and have that work.

I'm really tempted to give points for the names of cards in the new set, but I feel like that's a terrible idea.

Your score for this will be the number of cards you found that nobody else did. First tiebreaker will be the total number of cards you found regardless of who else found them. Second tiebreaker will be the timestamp of the last picture submitted that counted as a card.

4. Wheedle: Schedule a time where you and a moderator can both be around to do the puzzle. Once you're both ready you'll be given some strings of letters. You'll have 15 minutes to post the English words you think will give you the best score according to the rules of Wheedle. I'll copy the rules and example here for reference.

You're given a string of letters (example: UUUEEN) and your objective is to move each individual letter up or down in the alphabet until the string spells an English word. Each time you move a letter up or down one space in the alphabet you get a point (you want the lowest score possible). So in that example if you make the word TUXEDO, you score 6 points (U->T 1 point, U->U 0 points, U->X 3 points, E->E 0 points, E->D 1 point, N->O 1 point). Clarification: not all of the strings will necessarily be 6 letters, they can be any length.

If there's any question on whether or not something is a word, we'll use the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (link). You're not allowed to use any external tools for this, other than the online dictionary provided. You want the lowest score possible for this one, remember.

Tiebreaker will be whoever did this puzzle first.

5. Logic Puzzles: Similar to the F14 Immunity challenge, you'll be given a set of logic puzzles of varying difficulty. Easy ones will be worth 1 point, Mediums worth 3, and Hard worth 5, just like before. You're aiming for the highest score here.

Tiebreaker will be timestamp of the last submitted answer that scored you points.

5a. Kenken: In Kenken puzzles, the objective is to fill each box in the grid with a number between 1 and N (where N is the size of the grid). Each row and each column should contain exactly one of each number from 1 to N (they may not repeat) -- this portion is similar to Sudoku.

Also, the numbers in each shaded box must go together with the given operation to give the result given, for example if the box says "7+" then all of the numbers in the box must add up to 7. Note that numbers may be repeated in boxes, even though they may not be repeated in rows or columns. For non-commutative operations (subtraction and division) you may choose the order the numbers go for the operation. For example, a box that says "1-" could have the numbers (2, 3, 6) in it because 6-3-2=1.



Kenken Easy (link)
Kenken Medium (link)
Kenken Hard (link)


5b. Double Minesweeper: In Double Minesweeper, the objective is to fill each blank square in the grid with zero, one, or two mines so that each given number is adjacent to that many mines (with diagonals counting). This is a similar puzzle to the classic Windows game, only two mines could be in each square, plus there's no guessing and hoping you don't blow up!



Double Minesweeper Easy (link)
Double Minesweeper Medium (link)
Double Minesweeper Hard (link)


5c. Numberlink: In Numberlink, the objective is to draw a line linking the two copies of each number given. Lines must be drawn according to the example (they may only turn at right angles in the middle of each grid square) and they may not cross each other. It's not required that you use every square in the grid as part of your lines, but the solution to all of these does that anyways. Lines cannot go through the grid squares that have numbers in them.



Numberlink Easy (link]
Numberlink Medium (link]
Numberlink Hard (link]

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If there are any questions about anything, let me know. You'll have a week to get as much done as you can, so your deadline for this challenge will be Thursday, December 18 at 10PM Forum Time, but if you need an extension for any reason, just let me know before the deadline and you'll probably get it.

Also, over the weekend I'll have limited access, but never fear! If you're doing the HP Quiz or the Wheedle and want to schedule your time over the weekend, there are a few spectators that are willing to help out and do that -- just post in your confessional and between us we should be able to get a time that works for someone.

Communication: All QTs will stay open during this challenge.
1. No talking about the specific questions on the HP quiz, but you're allowed to talk about how much you liked it, how hard you thought it was, etc.
2. Sprint: talk about whatever you want
3. Selfies: talk about whatever you want
4. Wheedle: No talking about the specific puzzles, but you can talk in general about it.
5. Logic puzzles: You're allowed to give general help to whoever you want (probably the people on your team, yeah?) but not about the specific puzzles in this challenge (the examples are fine to talk about). This is similar to the F14 Immunity challenge, which you all did fine on.

------------------------------------------------------------------

THE TEAMS:

You'll be divided into 3 teams for this challenge:

THE GREEN TEAM: Eevee, Dsell, Twistedarcher
THE PURPLE TEAM: Mcmcsalot, Galzria, AHoppy
THE ORANGE TEAM: Robz, Pst, Sudgy

Sudgy spent 8 energy on this challenge. As a result, he'll get 4 extra points in each of the events he's participating in.

Now, here are the events and who's participating in them:

HP QUIZ: Eevee, TA Mcmc, AHoppy Robz
SPRINT: Eevee Mcmc Robz
SELFIES: Dsell AHoppy Sudgy
WHEEDLE: Dsell Galz Pst
LOGIC: TA Galz Pst, Sudgy

For each event participants will be ranked against each other and given Challenge Points (CP) for their placement. The team with the most Challenge Points wins reward. In case of a tie for CP, each event will also give players Tiebreaker Points (TP) based on their overall performance, factoring more things in than just placement. This gets really complicated and I haven't fleshed it all out yet, but I'll get to it before the deadline.

In a 5-person event (HP Quiz), you'll get 9 CP for 1st place, 7CP for 2nd place, 5CP for 3rd, 3CP for 4th, and 1CP for 5th
In a 4-person event (Logic Puzzles), you'll get 8 CP for 1st place, 6CP for 2nd, 4CP for 3rd, and 2CP for 4th
In a 3-person event (Sprint, Selfies, Wheedle), you'll get 7CP for 1st place, 5CP for 2nd, and 3CP for 3rd

Wanna know what you're playing for? The winning team will be taken by helicopter to a Native Village where they'll enjoy two actions, and they'll either be able to put the top card of their deck (Advisor) onto their Native Village Mat, or pick up a Feast from the mat! Oh man, this reward is DRIPPING with theme! Sounds exciting! Good luck!

[Twistedarcher]

I attached a document with all the puzzles, since it was bothering me that I had to click 9 different links. Hope other people find it helpful.

[sudgy]

I attached a document with all the puzzles, since it was bothering me that I had to click 9 different links. Hope other people find it helpful.

You freaked me out because I thought you were posting the answers...  I was like, "Nooo!  Someone did it before me!"

...Well, as far as I know now, I am the first to finish them

[Twistedarcher]

Heh, I haven't even started. :/

[AdamH]

I attached a document with all the puzzles, since it was bothering me that I had to click 9 different links. Hope other people find it helpful.

Hey that's pretty awesome, thanks for doing that! 

[Galzria]

I attached a document with all the puzzles, since it was bothering me that I had to click 9 different links. Hope other people find it helpful.

You freaked me out because I thought you were posting the answers...  I was like, "Nooo!  Someone did it before me!"

...Well, as far as I know now, I am the first to finish them

I'm done with all except 1, which I'll get to tomorrow. Been sending them in throughout the day.

[AdamH]

An update:

I'm going to be pretty much off the grid this weekend; most of this evening and all of Saturday. I'll have my phone with me but that's about it. After 3.5 years of long-distance and a really shiny ring, my fiance is finally moving in with me It may be difficult to schedule a time to do the HP quiz or Wheedle this weekend.

There will be an extension on this challenge, it will go until some time around next weekend (December 20th or thereabouts), unless the challenge can be decided by that point.

Finally, here are the formulas for Tiebreaker Points:

1. HP Quiz: there are 30 questions on the quiz, so you get 2 TP for each correct answer.

2. Sprint: you get 60 TP, minus 1 for every 0.5 seconds behind the fastest time you were (rounding favorably so you get more TP). You can't get less than 0 TP.

3. Selfies: you get 1 TP for every four cards you found, regardless of how many other people found them.

4. Wheedle: you get 60 TP, minus 2 for every point you had above the lowest score. You can't get less than 0 TP.

5. Logic Puzzles: you get 60 TP, minus 1 for every point you had behind the highest score. You can't get less than 0 TP.

This shouldn't change anybody's strategy for these challenges, the main idea is to have 60 TP for a "perfect" score and scale down linearly to 0 TP for "comparatively really bad." It's unlikely this will come into play anyways. If for some crazy reason there are teams tied for most CP AND most TP, we'll have a tiebreaker challenge.

[Eevee]

Sorry everyone collectively I've been unresponsive all across board. During my holiday they cut off my internet, and it's been real sucky.

Adam, I won't be able to attempt the quiz before that gets fixed either. They said they'd come install a new connection on the 19th, hopefully that'll happen without delays.

I haven't had computer access for three weeks now, it's getting really vexing.

[AdamH]

No worries, if you aren't able to schedule something before the deadline I can give you an extension, just make sure you ask for it before the deadline happens, that's all 

[AdamH]

Finally, here are the formulas for Tiebreaker Points:

Just a reminder that these formulas are only going to be used in the case of a tie in the overall challenge. The way the challenge will probably be decided is through Challenge Points (CP), which you get by placing ahead of your opponents in each event.

For the 5-person event, you get 1/3/5/7/9 CP
For the 4-person event, you get 2/4/6/8 CP
For the 3-person events, you get 3/5/7 CP

----------------------------------

Also, the extension on the challenge will go until Sunday the 21st at 10PM Forum Time unless people need something more (and ask me before the deadline). This weekend I'm going to have limited access so getting your HP quizzes and Wheedles scheduled before then is going to be easier.

Looking ahead, what will probably happen is this: the challenge will end Sunday night, I'll post the results and give people their reward. I'll also post tree mail for the Immunity challenge and give people the chance to spend energy and stuff. We'll officially kick off the challenge on Monday night (24 hours later) but with the holidays coming up, I'm going to give everyone lots of time for the challenge.

If you're going to have limited availability, just let me know before deadlines pass and I'll accommodate you.


Finally, if anyone has any objections to living at the Intrigue camp or naming your new tribe the Platinum tribe, please speak up. I know there was a suggestion for living at Cornucopia but that wasn't really followed through on. If I don't hear anything in the next couple of days about this I'll just go ahead and assume everyone's OK with it.

[pst]

If anyone objects to living at the Intrigue camp or naming the merged tribe the Platinum tribe (if you have another idea or something), please say so soon.

I'd like to live in that newest camp, Cornucopia!

ummm... we don't have a shelter there...

Exactly -- back to basics!

More importantly I think there may be idols hidden in the two older camps that some people may have clues to, so I see Cornucopia as neutral ground where no one has an advantage.

[Galzria]

Ahh, challenges done.

Man, now I've got nothing to do until next Sunday?

*Twiddles Thumbs*

[Robz888]

I may need an extension. I'm really behind on Forum business.

[AdamH]

Update: There are still a couple of people that need to finish up the reward challenge. The good thing is that everyone who hasn't completed it has been in touch with me about it, so thanks to everyone for being responsive.

Hopefully we'll be able to finish up this week, and I hope everyone has a good time for the holidays.

[Eevee]

Finally done with both portions! Happy holidays for everyone.

[AdamH]

The reward challenge is done, thanks to everyone for getting in their submissions. This one was truly a nail-biter, with the winner being decided by a single point!

GREEN TEAM! WINS! REWARD!

I'll add in a page to the Completed Challenges spreadsheet soon and I'll post more data about the specifics of each part of the challenge for those who are curious and maybe want to try them out for themselves.

The members of the green team; Dsell, Eevee, and TwistedArcher; will now be taken to a Native Village where you will get a choice between two options. Please post in your confessional by the next deadline which of these options you'd like.

Option 1: Set aside the top card of your deck (Advisor) on your Native Village Mat
Option 2: Put all the cards from your Native Village Mat (Feast) into your hand


YOU'VE GOT TREE MAIL!

You've found a bunch of money here!
What are you going to do?
Are you going to run around and cheer,
or be a little more subdued?

How you spend it could work out well,
you'll be the envy of your friends.
But spend too much and that could spell
a most untimely end.

The next Immunity Challenge will begin shortly. You may spend energy on this challenge; You may spend as much energy as you want, but it must be spent in increments of 2 energy (so you may spend any even number of energy on this challenge). Post in your confessional how much energy you'd like to spend on this challenge by the next deadline -- if I don't hear from you, I'll assume you aren't spending any energy.


Another order of business: there was clear agreement on a new tribe name, so I'm pleased to announce that the merged tribe will be called the PLATINUM TRIBE. I'll never use white text again for that. On the other hand, there was not clear agreement as to which camp you'd like to stay at, so:

Before the next deadline, you may post in your confessional which camp you'd like to be at for the rest of the game; you can abstain from this vote if you want, in which case you just won't get a vote; this is what I'll assume if I don't hear from you by then. The camp that has the most votes (Intrigue, Cornucopia, Seaside), no majority required, will be where you stay.

Finally, this marks the end of the resting/building/gathering period and the start of a new one. If you'd like to rest/build/gather for this next phase, please post in your tribal QT (this thread) saying what you'll be doing.

------------------------------------------------------------------

OK that was a long post with a lot of information. Here's the summary:

The next deadline is in 3 days (Tuesday, December 30, 2014 at 10PM). By that time, you may do the following things:

1. Post in your confessional how much energy you're going to spend on the next challenge (must be an even number).
2. Post in your confessional to vote for which camp you'd like to stay at.
3. Post in the tribe QT if you'd like to rest/build/gather.

4. Dsell, Eevee, TA -- you should also post in your confessional with your choice of reward.

There will be a post shortly with highlights and details of this challenge.

[AdamH]

A couple of clarifications:

1. Your vote for which camp you stay at will not be revealed, only the voting totals.
2. Pst and TwistedArcher used their Puzzle-solving ability to gain extra points in the challenge, they got an extra point for every medium and hard puzzle they solved.
3. Robz used his Fast ability to shave 5 seconds off his running time -- the time you see in the spreadsheet includes the 5-second bonus.

[Eevee]

going gathering

[sudgy]

Oops, posted in my confessional.  Gathering

[pst]

Also gathering.

[AHoppy]

I apologize to everyone for my absence dhring the last challenge, after finals the holidays were really busy and. I havent had time to devote to this. Hopefully soon after Resting

[AdamH]

Here's the promised write-up for the reward challenge:

Before I begin this, I want to give a HUGE shout-out to mpsprs for his help in the challenge. I've been pretty busy IRL recently (I haven't really played any Dominion at all except for a league match last night in several weeks) and I've had limited availability just like a lot of you have had. Mpsprs stepped in to administer some Wheedle and HP Quizzes which was an enormous help.

While I'm shouting-out, another person who has been a big help during the season is Liopoil. Most of you playing the game probably aren't seeing what he does directly (and it will probably stay that way until the season is over) but he's done a lot of work behind the scenes to help out with challenges and other stuff.

Thanks to the two of them, I've added their names in the OP in appropriate places as well. It's really nice to have a group of spectators for lots of reasons, and these are just a couple of them.

...and I'm not done yet! The Harry Potter Quiz was put together by EFHW long before the season started and it looked like it was pretty popular! EFHW did a lot of participating before FS2 began, and was great to bounce ideas off of.


1. HP Quiz

I'll give the questions for this here and at the bottom I'll put the answers in spoiler tags. In the completed challenges spreadsheet, you can see who got which question correct. Congratulations to Mcmcsalot for taking down first place in this portion of the challenge!

It should be noted that I've read the books once (some of the early ones I've read twice) and seen the moves once. Without Google my score was pretty terrible. I think I got like 4 points or something (by the current rules. Back when I took the quiz it was a Sporcle quiz and I got a solid zero) but I knew the chess piece question! I'm proud of myself for that!

1. What is Cornelius Fudge's middle name?
2. Who was the driver of the Knight Bus?
3. What's the name for someone who can turn themselves into an animal?
4. What is the cure for being petrified?
5. What do bowtruckles eat?
6. What is Buckbeak's alias?
7. Who was the matron at Voldemort's orphanage?
8. In book 5, Harry could have used this to contact Sirius, but didn't; what is it?
9. What is the spell to lock a door?
10. What is the spell to unlock a door?
11. What substance is the cure for cuts and bruises?
12. Who did the Quibbler claim Sirius Black's true identity is?
13. What form did Cho Chang's Patronus take?
14. What were Dumbledore's last two words?
15. Wormtail lost which finger from which hand?
16. The leader of a group of giants is called what?
17. What was Lee Jordan's pseudonym on the radio?
18. What was the name of the Old lady neighbor of the Dursleys who loves cats and knows Dumbledore?
19. What was the name of the Peverell brother who got the invisibility cloak?
20. What is the name of the Ravenclaw ghost?
21. Whose name means "lover of the strange?"
22. What hex makes you dance uncontrollably?
23. What perennial flowers were "flourishing" at the start of book 6?
24. What is Tonks' familial relation to Draco?
25. Who was the Captain of the Holyhead Harpies?
26. Hermione took the part of what piece in the giant chess game? (color and type of piece)
27. Dumbledore is famous for discovering the 12 uses of what?
28. What happened to Harry's first chocolate frog (in the movie)?
29. The ability to speak to snakes is called what?
30. What do you call someone who is born to a magical family but has no magical powers?


2. Sprint

Congrats to Eevee for getting first place in this challenge! I'm not going to post the videos for this because they are just phone-videos, and the phone was being held by the person doing the running so they're pretty difficult to watch.


3. Selfies

So Sudgy managed to find a bunch of encyclopædia entries for Dominion cards, which made the difference for him -- congrats on first place here! There are two columns on the spreadsheet for each person; the left column is a 1 if they had a picture of that and the right column is a 1 if they had it and nobody else did. It was a close battle for second place here, which turned out to be important. I would like to point out my favorite submission for this challenge, which was by AHoppy for King's Court (link)


4. Wheedle

This turned out to be a really cool and popular puzzle, plus it's really easy to make! Turns out that this puzzle was very difficult, too. One clarification I should make is that Z->A is just one move, so you can wrap around. Here are the puzzles, I'll give what people guessed at the bottom, and then I'll also give the best answers that we've found (which were mostly found by Galzria after the challenge was over).

1. AQIVREO
2. BNNUJJUUK
3. TFTFTT
4. HRAZK
5. EEEEEE

Congratulations to Dsell for getting first place here!


5. Logic puzzles

Either people were more involved this time around, or the puzzles were easier, since the scores were much higher in general for this than in F14 Immunity. In any case, the puzzles are already out there so there's not much to say other than congrats to Pst for first place -- his puzzle solving ability plus getting all of the solutions was enough for the win here.


...and now for the answers:

HP Quiz answers:

1. Oswald
2. Ernie
3. animagus
4. Mandrake
5. wood lice
6. Witherwings
7. Mrs. Cole
8. two-way mirror
9. colloportus
10. Alohomora
11. essense of murtlap OR Dittany
12. Stubby Boardman
13. Swan
14. Severus, please
15. Right index
16. Gurg
17. River
18. Mrs. Figg
19. Ignotus
20. Gray Lady OR Helena Ravenclaw
21. Xenophilius Lovegood
22. tarantellagra
23. agapanthas
24. cousin
25. Gwenog Jones
26. black rook
27. Dragon blood
28. out the window of the Hogwarts Express
29. Parseltongue
30. squib

Wheedle answers:

Dsell:
1. BRISKET
2. BOOTSTRAP
3. RESENT
4. GRAZE
5. DECENT

Galzria:
1. AUBERGE
2. BOTULISMS
3. TIDBIT
4. HAPPY
5. DEEDED

Pst:
1. AREOLES
2. BROTHERLY
3. RESECT
4. JUBAL
5. EFFECT

Best we've found:
1. CRISPEN (9)
2. CONTINUUM (10)
3. RETEST (5)
4. KRAAL (5)
5. DEEDED (3)

[Twistedarcher]

I will gather food.

[Galzria]

Rest

[Dsell]

Gather