The Club
Puzzle Fight Club encourages friendly competition among geocaching puzzle makers. It chose Silicon Valley as its first arena to recognize its high density of tough quality puzzles and puzzle makers. Here is a list of North American cities with 100+ highly favorited (10+ FP) tough (3+) puzzles within 20 miles: Mountain View (193); Sacramento (169); Portland (163); Montreal (161); Seattle (130); Vancouver (121); and Minneapolis (110).
The Contestants
Over a dozen puzzlers from Silicon Valley were invited to participate in round one of Puzzle Fight Club Silicon Valley. Round by round we saw great competitors and great puzzles. Now it has broken out of the shadows, so let's talk about the three contestants that have survived to compete in the upcoming finals.
Contestant 1: w00fel
A relative newcomer compared to the other two contestants, w00fel fought his way into the finals with grit, cunning, and style. Past favorite puzzles include the challenging field puzzle Suburban Jungle: the Crypt (alas archived), Word Look, and a Shifty Little Puzzle from an earlier PFC battle. We expect him to come out swinging in the finals.
The North Star has haunted and delighted local puzzle solvers for years with his wide-ranging puzzle styles. He endured the early rounds of PFC with high tech combat, teaching the local puzzlers while waylaying his opponents. He has released over 70 puzzles in two states, including highly favorited Birdy Puzzles, devious Shell Games, and a PFC puzzle to give assistance for the new puzzlers in the crowd. Rumor has it that his final entry will be another high-tech stumper.
Final contestant The Rat is one of the Revered Kings of Silicon Valley puzzling, in his 15th year of placing mind-bending, elaborate, and highly creative puzzles. His influence on a generation of Bay Area puzzle makers can still be felt today. With 75 puzzles under his belt, he had plenty of guile and panache to make his way into the finals. Previous favorites include the twisty and epically challenging K3 Gang, word play puzzles like The Sentence, and early round PFC entry Souvenirs. We don't know what style of combat he'll employ in the finals, but he's sure to arrive with all his experience at his disposal.
The Puzzle
To solve this warmup puzzle while we await the Finals, first solve the three contestants' PFC semi-final puzzles below:
An Ode To My Favorite Attribute, from w00fel; one of our favorite PFC puzzles to date.
Rebus, another The North Star adventure that is fun to play even after solving it.
Collage Entrench Exam, an instant classic The Rat combo- word puzzle.
Now multiply the checksum of the three puzzles' final coordinates times each other. Enter the six-digit number into Certitude below to retrieve the coordinates. Then go out and search for the small container.
Congratulations to kanchan, another fine yet peaceable local puzzle creator, for FTS and FTF!
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
The Finals
The Puzzle Fight Club final battle among these three contestants is coming soon! Three new puzzles, and you'll be the judges!
Congratulations to kanchan for FTS and FTF!