2014 Event Archive: Seattle Seattle, a puzzling casino concept
Ever wanted to beat the house? The 2014 College Puzzle Challenge focused on a brand new casino on the Las Vegas strip: Seattle Seattle.
Participants received a cache of leaked documents from the casino’s security department, with information about several games that looked crackable. They worked through the puzzles and toward the meta puzzle - breaking into main casino vault.
More than 300 teams participated in the 2014 challenge, held simultaneously at 14 campuses across the US.
Winners: galactic dogesetters from MIT
Full results are available here.
Scoring worked a little differently than previous years.
- Regular puzzles: Teams earned $100,000 in "casino chips" per regular puzzle solved. A bonus went to teams based on how quickly they solved the puzzle. Teams were also allowed to bet some money they had in hand, earning that bet if their first submission
for the puzzle was correct, or losing that money if they were wrong.
- Meta-puzzle: The meta-puzzle was worth $1,000,000 in casino chips (and not eligible for bonuses or betting.
The winner was determined by which team ended the day with the most casino chips (unlike in previous events, where the winner was determined solely by which team solved the meta-puzzle first.
Puzzles and Solutions
The puzzles and their answers are available as individual files below. Puzzles and answers are in PDF format and require Adobe Reader or compatible software to open.