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There were some task-based partial answers that were this long, but doing the associated task gave a shorter answer that was used for the meta

@JimHays yeah, I didn't count answers to mini-metas and submission phrases - I probably should have specified "final answer."

I believe it’s 19 normal metas plus the capstone. So if you count the capstone it’s 20, but 19 otherwise

@JimHays Oh, hm. I was going by what they said at wrap-up (17+2 from nashville). I guess it didn't include the capstone.

We have allowed post-solves, and it’s now up to 12 teams (many of which have gotten to do a virtual runaround), but presumably “by wrap-up” was implied here

@JimHays I interpreted it as "by wrap-up" - I think I resolved this as soon as the leaderboards closed

Battle Plans

two in Fren Amis, one in A Routine Cryptic, didn't check beyond that but there could be more

There was a puzzle in a virtual space, but it wasn't a "runaround," at least as far as I'd say

I do not recall any AI related puzzles, AI art or otherwise.

@Marnix The only AI art associated with the hunt that I’m aware of is Lucille Ball with a basketball as part of wrap-up, but that was created by a participant as a creative submission rather than being part of a puzzle. AI art was not allowed in the puzzles or round art.

As for AI puzzles, I’m not aware of anything for that I would expect to qualify. The closest would perhaps be the NPCs in Text Adventure.

There wasn't anything that felt like this, imo? At least not that I can remember

I don't believe there were any of these.

I remember seeing one of these, but I think it was a Battleship word puzzle, which may be different.

Would you count one of the answers in Hell, MI?

@JimHays oh good point, I hadn't thought about that. I'll have to go back and check those

@Marnix (There is one)

@JimHays I can message you which if you want

@JimHays go for it, I've been busy this week so I haven't gotten a chance to look at things!

Significant component of:

1. A Routine Cryptic

2. Fren Amis

3. Field of Clovers

4. Do I hear a Waltz

5. The Laboratory

And arguably at least one in each of:

A Divine Comeowdy

Rebus

Green Columns

Possibly others

@JimHays The first five count, not sure about counting GREEK COLUMNS, wasn't there for the solve of Divine Comeowdy. Rebus I don't think I can count as cryptics - it's more literal rebuses

A Divine Comeowdy flavor:

@JimHays hmmmm, it being in the flavortext sways me. Resolving YES

Nashville

@JimHays I didn't see the later Nashville metas, but I would think that it fails the "same-level" criterion. Here's how I describe it in my prediction game Google form:

" 'Same-level' here means that neither meta uses a strict superset of the other puzzle's answers—for example, Baseball/Athletics from 2021 would not count, as Athletics uses all of the Baseball answers and some others, but Sci-Fi Island from 2018 would count."

I was under the impression that the later Nashville metas used all of the previous answers (like with Cascade Bay in 2020), so it wouldn't apply here. (Of course, Marnix is allowed to interpret differently.)

@JackBrounstein Gotcha. I hadn’t seen that definition, so I thought “same-level” was meant to rule out capstones. Nashville does not meet that definition.