Pablo's Armchair Treasure Hunt

Armchair Treasure Hunt 2022

Title: CATastrophe! The Story of the Godstow Witch
Setter: DaphneHQ
Themes: Witchcraft, Oxford, Borges' Library of Babel


Prizes, awards and special mentions

  • 🏆 Pablo Memorial Trophy for First to Treasure: Psychologicals
  • 🥇 Dave Harding Trophy for Best Overall Solution: Alcoholus Lubricatum (GPT tales)
  • 🥈 2nd best solution: Psychologicals
  • 🥉 3rd best solution: Imitation Gamers (solution and tales)
  • 🎁 Best 🐥 newcomer team: Imitation Gamers
  • 🎁 Fastest off the starting block: FocalPt (completed the interim adventure game in just under 26 hours)
  • 🎁 Godstow Witch Award for the most committed boots on the ground: The Magpies (tales)
  • 🎁 Alice's prize for the most beautifully crafted overall solution: Psychologicals

Results

Rank Team Game Puzzle Points Treasure rank Bonus treasure rank Game interim rank Game end rank Submitted a solution
1 🥇 Alcoholus Lubricatum 1096 4907 6003 2 9 10 1 x
2 🥈 🏆 🎁 Psychologicals 1086 4731 5817 1 1 7 9 x
3 🥉 🎁 🐥 Imitation Gamers 860 4852 5712 4 8 14 7 x
4 🎁 The Magpie 798 4596 5394 3 5 4 2 x
5 Buridan’s ATH 409 4515 4924 6 7 18 12 x
6 🐥 Caroline 724 3458 4182 24
7 Nevermore Provisionally 559 3475 4034 3 5 8 x
8 Roboogle AftermATH 203 3591 3794 2 x
9 🎁 FocalPt 601 3178 3780 1 x
10 APOPHENIACS ANONYMOUS 540 3238 3778 10 x
11 Arthur and his three Agathas and the Dave Kee Team 373 3376 3749 7+9 4 22 x
12 PATHFinders 504 2927 3431 8 x
13 Team Poirot 738 2650 3389 11 6 6 x
14 Defying Gravitas 549 2682 3231 2 8 x
15 No Management Potential 439 2789 3228 x
16 The Mullitovers 467 2731 3197 15 x
17 The Urban Marsupial Orchestra 454 2652 3106 23 4 x
18 Puzzle CLub 554 2116 2670 12 13 x
19 The OWLs 509 1712 2220 26 x
20 North Atlantic Treasure Organisation 375 1671 2045 5 14 x
21 TripleM 653 1306 1959 x
22 🐥 Team Squid 746 783 1529 20 6 x
23 The Stragglers 475 978 1453 x
24 Johny From Donny 172 1232 1404 x
25 Team Norway 456 852 1308 27 3 x
26 Raiders Up The Wrong Bark 247 810 1057 5 x
27 Almost Last Again 190 705 895
28 PIT STOP 114 328 441
29 Beef Leamington 64 25 10 x
30 The Cruciverbalists 58 21 15 x
30 Caroline H 58 11 x
32 Twelevepack 51 28 x
33 Aberdeen 4 50 x
34 Halcy 26 3
35 Something Terrible 20 9
36 Dunning & Kruger 16 13
37 Jonathan and Karen 13 16
38 Sue McFaull 12 17
39 f.ds 10 19
40 Joanne Hall 5 24
41 Red Dot Hunters 0 29

Scoring algorithm

This year, we asked teams to mark their own entries.

We weighted scores as follows:

  • Identifying clues and thematic linkage earned one point
  • Solving intermediate puzzles (for example, a single answer to a cat question) earned 3 points
  • Solving a core puzzle (for example, assembled instructions on how to solve another puzzle) earned 6 points in the adventure game, and 8 points in the main hunt
  • These points were then weighted for rarity. For example, if 80% of all teams got an answer right, their score for that answer was reduced by 80%; up to a maximum of 90%
  • We were impressed by all the write-in answers, so didn't add any specific points for them, as they would not affect rankings

This gives a "top 27" ranking for the 27 marking sheets submitted. We used the following algorithm to rank the remaining teams, who either found treasure, or got somewhere with the adventure game, or submitted a solution but no marking:

  • 50 points for submitting a solution
  • 100 points for finding the main treasure or the bonus treasure
  • Points corresponding with the rank that the team finished (i) the interim adventure game, and (ii) the final adventure game