April 2016 Treasure Hunt

[M11k4]

Hi guys and gals!

Apologies for the delay in these results. I try to get them out as soon as possible, but this time it really took longer than it should have. I also wanted to talk more about the design of the level and scoring, but decided to do that after these results. This did lead to not explaining the scoring quite as well as I could have done, but it was harder to express clearly than what I first thought.

Ok let's get to the good stuff! We had ten participants, giving us a record 30 submissions on a single level! To win, you had to score the highest unique score. So what scores were possible and which ones did you submit?

The highest possible score was apparently 141 treasure points. This could be scored by finding 10 chips (10 treasure points), four blue keys (20 treasure points), three red keys (24 points), three yellow keys (27 points), and four green keys (60 points). There was more than one way to do this by using the different arms of the cross. Who figured this out?

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Unluckily there was more than one person who submitted a score of 141 points. I suspect this was a denial strategy for some (so that nobody else would win with this score), but was it worth half of the players to do so? There were five submissions with this score, sent in by chipster1059, BabyPowder, reubenspaans, Flareon350, Eric119.

Moving on, the next possible score was with one fewer chip at 140 treasure points. Could this produce the winner?

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No it couldn't. Again, there were five people who scored this, but at least it wasn't the exact same five: Ihavenoname248, BabyPowder, rubenspaans, Ajmiam, random 8.

Next we realize that 139 treasure points was not a possible score, but not picking up the last blue key did score 136.

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Now I honestly thought this might be the one to win it, but so did two other people apparently. Sorry Ihavenoname248 and Ajmiam, no luck for you just yet. You both are left with just one score to come, just like rubenspaans and BabyPowder.

And then not picking up a chip gets you 135 treasure points...

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This was also scored by just a pair of players, Ihavenoname248 and random 8. Ooh, that was close. If either of you didn't send in this score, the other would have won. And with this score, IHNN becomes the first participant to show their full hand and not quite be rewarded for it.

And with that, I move completely into hidden territory...

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This next one was tricky, and only one person scored it! Congratulations to Ajmiam for being the only one to find a way to score 127! This required picking up an eleventh chip instead of the fourth green key. In fact, it was the only submission to find a way to pick up so many chips!

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With that, we move on fighting for second place. A total of 126 treasure points was scored by chipster1059, BabyPowder, rubenspaans, Flareon350, so no prize there. Then 125 treasure points were found by Flareon350 and Eric119, sorry for coming so close to the second place. Finally, at 124 treasure points comes a lucky member called M11k4. Wait what, I won something myself in my own competition? As the submissions poured in, I was honestly afraid I would win this thing, which I really tried to avoid by picking really low numbers, but it turns out that wasn't quite as terrible as I thought.

Next we have some more unique numbers. At 121 treasure points I think we have the highest possible score that nobody submitted. The next one someone did submit, was 111 treasure points by Minus3K2, congrats on third place! I scored 110 treasure points myself, but it doesn't matter as I already am ranked. Fourth place goes to chipster1059 with a score of 105 treasure points! In a very unlucky turn, my third submission of 102 treasure points denies the next place from Eric119's last submission. The next two scores, 95 and 94 treasure points, were again from Minus3K2, before we find the lowest submitted score of 88 treasure points by random 8. Yes, this nets you fifth place! Your careful strategy was worth it, even though you didn't go for the minimum possible score, which I think is 57.

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Now we have revealed all the scores and move onto breaking the ties. At this points, there are a couple of ways to proceed, but I had chosen a way which will become clear as I explain the ranking. You might have noticed that rubenspaans and BabyPowder both submitted scores of 141, 140, and 126, so no matter how this turns out, they will share the unlucky last place as the point was to score something nobody else did, which you clearly didn't. But that's cool in its own way too, right?

The first tying place to rank with just two submissions is the score of 136 by Ihavenoname248 and Ajmiam, but since Ajmiam is already ranked, so Ihavenoname248 you can have sixth place all to yourself. Next we have Flareon350 and Eric119 sharing seventh place with their score of 125. Going further, there were no three-way ties, but the four-way tie at 126 awards BabyPowder and rubenspaans last place (as spoiled above). If we needed to go any further, we'd finally arrive at the five-way ties at 141 and 140, but all those players are obviously already ranked.

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So with that we have arrived at the final ranking:
1st Ajmiam________ 15
pts (127)
2nd M11k4_________ 12
pts (124)
3rd Minus3K2______ 10
pts (111)
4th chipster1059___ 8
pts (105)
5th random 8_______ 7
pts (88)
6th Ihavenoname248_ 6
pts (tied at 136)
7th Flareon350_____ 5
pts (tied at 125)
--- Eric119________ 5
pts (tied at 125)
9th BabyPowder_____ 3
pts (tied at 126)
--- rubenspaans____ 3
pts (tied at 126)

I had some trepidation about how this scoring would work, and granted there was some luck involved, but I do think the right person won. I am handing out all the appropriate awards to the participants and posting a video with your solutions soon. I really do hope you enjoyed this little level and come back next time for more! (Like for the Time Trial!! You still have today to send in your solutions!)

Thanks to all of you.

-Miika

Here's a run down of all the scores and calculations, hopefully it's all correct:

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