Hello all, the real Marty here! Taking part in Scojo's Impostor challenge was so much fun. Everyone created some brilliant puzzles, and the standard of mimicry was insane. Every round, after seeing both puzzles solved, we all voted on which puzzle was really by the named setter. In something like 3/4 of cases (I can't remember the exact final score), voters guessed incorrectly, voting for the impostor puzzle. This impersonation of my style was outstanding. Not only the concept, theming and aesthetics (coloured border and everything) but also the logical path too. You're right, perhaps a little harder than my average, but really quite similar to some of my harder puzzles. The poetic rules were amaaaazzzingggg... the sort of thing I definitely would do if I set my mind to it, but Stu did a much better job of that than I would have been able to. The really funny thing is that my own puzzle (the real real 'Marty' puzzle in the pair) also had a childrens book theme. My puzzle was about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. This is testament to how well Stu knows what tickles my fancy. I couldn't believe it when I saw my impostor had done a children's story too. As soon as I saw the fake Marty puzzle, I was 100% sure it was by Juggler. I was even messaging Michael Lefkowitz privately, congratulating him on an excellent puzzle. I felt quite a wally afterwards when the true impostor was revealed. I thought I knew Stu very well, and only in hindsight can I see the Stu-isms in there. But the level of aesthetics and also the poem, I completely thought pointed towards Juggler. It was very very fun to be proven so wrong. Thankyou Stu, you are truly one of the best puzzle makers in the sudoku world at the moment, and I'm happy we became friends :)
@martysears I thought for sure this was by you...and not some imposter. 🙂 Just amazingly special what you and the entire community is about! How others can set identical to what you do. Mind blowing to me the brains you all have. Constant respect.
In my opinion, the most Marty part was all the possible solutions to the path problems that seemed obvious but didn't quite work, only for the most ridiculous solution possible to be the correct one.
Hi, "Marty" here! I completely echo the real Marty's comments about how much fun the Impostor challenge was, and definitely brought out the very best in so many already excellent constructors, especially in their imitations of others! I sadly didn't convince enough of the voters that this was in fact the real Marty puzzle, and if you get a chance to solve The Goldilocks Zone, you'll see why - it's the Martiest and most brilliant creation you could possibly hope for from the genius himself - but I'm glad I could at least make the vote quite close! One giveaway was that the end of my puzzle had too much normal sudoku, something that Marty wouldn't allow without some kind of beautiful thematic deadly pattern resolution towards the end. If I had more than a week to create The Hare and the Tortoise, perhaps I'd be able to find an ending worthy of Marty, but as it is, I simply have to wonder in amazement at how he finishes puzzles with such style. That said, he has since given me some tips, and I'm very much hoping to add that string to my bow for the future! Thank you for featuring this one so quickly and congratulations on a very elegant solve! :)
I would have been completely fooled, though I'm no expert here, so a big thumbs up to how well you put this together; never crossed my mind that it could be anyone other than him. I can see how (in hindsight) the sudoku at the end would throw it off, but I would have just seen it as a side effect of the limited ifo in box 1 as a constraint of the puzzle. Congrats on an absolutely terrific puzzle.
I've been solving puzzles along with Simon and Mark for about 2 years now, and this has been the most fun I've had ever. You're puzzle is absolutely amazing! Even though it took me 54mins and I never felt stuck once. Thanks a lot for this experience!
Because of this channel, Marty Sears and Jay Dyer are becoming some of my favorite people, and i have no information about them other than their names and the puzzles they create.
all possible ducks are given though.... there isn't another pond in the puzzle whose digits add to 5, there may be cells that add to 5, but they aren't in ponds that prevent pathing edit: this a difference between the Rules as written in the poem and rules as summarized on screen. "All the digits in my pond must sum up to 5" which on screen is summarized as "ducks mark adjacent 5 sum" but could be read as "Ponds are killer cages where the navigations lines can't enter. Cages with a duck sum to 5" there is no ambiguity issue to either interpertation because whether a duck refers to the entire pond or just the two cells next to the duck, that's the same region in this puzzle.
@@wojciechpietrzak1981 Good catch! The duck and the fox avoid ambiguity by saying "the" so the clause is technically unnecessary, but a pedant could absolutely make an argument about the ponds
@@cjbailey3646 the ambiguity i was referring to was... "if a duck represents 'the two adjacent cells add to 5' then there's a valid sum in box 3, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 9, and NOT all ducks are given" as opposed to "if a duck represents 'the sum of its' killer pond sums to 5, and navigation thermos cannot enter ponds' then no other ponds sum to 5 and all ducks ARE given" and in this puzzle both tthose interpretations don't change any logic, because the entirety of the killer pond, is just the two adjacent squares so it doesn't matter. and i was pointing out that this alternative interpretation of "killer ponds" comes from the poem "All the digits in my pond must sum up to 5" Implying the possibility that another duck could exist in another pond of 131, or 221 which does not occur in this puzzle so doesn't matter. Fun Fact: by this killer pond interpertation there is an area one could draw in box 9 that creates a sum of 5 that neither line goes through and wouldn't be adjacent to another pond so in that logic "a new pond could form, where new ducks are driven, but til then i'll say, all ducks are given."
I've been watching the channel for months, but this is the first variant sudoku puzzle I've ever attempted. It took me nearly three and a half hours (and admittedly I needed a couple small hints from the video), but it feels good to finally join the solver's club :)
this is my mindset every time i watch a Simon solve! everytime he says something that creates a beautiful deduction in my head that he doesnt notice i pause the video, pretend that im in the room as a "hint giver" and i randomly give my two cents when i notice something sadly, he mostly doesnt use the logic i use and just figures out the same thing in some other, often ludicrous, way or even worse, i hate it when i notice something about the puzzle and create a beautiful deduction, and i marvel at how that logic plays through, and he never gets to see that part, and ends up figuring out via sudoku way later on
like when at one point he mentions a "5/6 pair" in collum 5, but doesnt remove the 5/6 pencil mark in r4c5 and is stuck with an evil 2/3/5/6 possibility in r4c5+c6
At 35:26 Simon draws what he thinks is a maximum-value path that requires the tortoise to take a 1, 2, 3, or 4 in its first pass through row 4 (and places some pencil marks based on that deduction, which never get removed but "luckily" work), but minutes later at 37:58 he demonstrates a path going backwards that allows it to be a 5...
(This doesn't completely taint the solve as a whole since he later forces later values on the slow thermo below their theoretical maximum without resort to those pencil marks, which retroactively justifies the previously unearned marks)
I was scared when he filled the 7 in at 47:54 for exactly the reason you mentioned. At the time, he based the 7 solely on an incorrect deduction. Luckily it turned out to be fine.
The first line he drew was a very hand-wavy justification and nothing like the kind of rigorous proof. Given how he has already been completely foxed 🦊 once by a seemingly impossible line, it would be brave to take that quick sketch as a guarantee! (Especially as I can see straight away a path that allows the tortoise 🐢 to start on a 5!) Also puzzled by his insistence that the hare line 🐇 between boxes 4 and 7 must be vertical...
@@medal45 This can be deduced another way even earlier than at this point. Box 8 needs a high digit in column 4, which must be a 7, which places 7 in box 5 and removes a degree of freedom from the turtle. The pencil marks in the lake in box 6 are easily done now.
I finished in 107 minutes. This was such a cute puzzle. I love it when themes take over puzzles, so this felt very much like a Marty Sears puzzle. I was very confused at first about how it was possible for the hare to visit every box and leave enough room for the tortoise. Then, I saw the pathway where the tortoise could sneak behind the hare. That was so fun to see. I think my favorite part was the hidden triple of 456 in column 5 that was used to force high digits on the later part of the tortoise's line. I love puzzles like these. Great Puzzle!
(I'm writing this before the reveal) If this wasn't set by Marty, whoever did it gave him an immense compliment by attributing such genius work to Marty. From the poem to the very last digit, this is superb!
I never write comments although I always love the puzzles, but this one it's quite special. I'm following the channel for years, I might have watched hundreds of videos but the poem, the rules, the solution process.. is really unique and remarkable. It makes this puzzle one of the bests I've ever seen.
This puzzle is absolutely brilliant, and is really a testament to both Peddling Pianist and Marty Sears! Marty has become my absolute favourite setter with his Finks series - setting such varied and consistently brilliant puzzles in a progressing series with the common theme and some consistent rules has been nothing short of genius. And, while this was set to mimic Marty, i think it can be seen as a beautiful tribute by Peddling Pianist to the great work that Marty has been doing for the community in recent months.
He states out loud that it can be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, sees a one in the row and then says it can only be 2, 3, 4, or 5. I don't think there is anything ruling six out, luckily he does not use it to further any logic; I was relieved when he found the 5-6 pair in column one @1:29:48.
I don't think he did, he even mentions it, and then proceeds not to pencil mark it.. Edit* But he doesn't seem to use it.. all along never does he use the fact that it can't be a 6.. he makes it a 3, cause a 56 pair shows up in the column with different logic
Thanks so much for hosting and organizing this event scojo. We had so many incredible submissions. I really liked this one but also the ones by [REDACTED], [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. Funny how impersonating someone else can send your creativity into overdrive.
@@nitrogel This puzzle was one of two puzzles with Marty Sears' name on it set for a challenge on discord. One of them was actually set by Marty, and the other was not.
I suspect we'll be seeing more of these imposter puzzles; for those of you who didn't catch the Scojo streams, it's led to some of the best sudoku puzzles of the entire year, hands down.
60:09 this was one though cookie to crack but rewarding. When the time came to use the Fox to disambiguate the Tortoise's turn around the Hare, I loved it. It's always amazing when you're some 50 minutes into a puzzle and you suddenly realise the setter had seen _every_ step of your path, amazing!
I would normally never attempt a puzzle that made a 90 minute video, but this looked fun and it turned out it grabbed my interest and I managed to solve it after only 2 hours. Such a clever puzzle (which really means I'm flattering myself for having solved it LOL)
Well, it turns out I'm very stubborn, even if I've still got a long ways to go at sudoku. Solved it in 14:38:43, and many of those hours were quite frustrating. But it's a truly beautiful puzzle, And although it took me hours to find, I liked the way that the double 5 was forced in boxes 6 and 9.
Thankyou Simon (and puzzle setter) for a wondeful puzzle and video. Simon, by exposing the brilliance of these puzzles, you add so much to my enjoyment.
In my opinion, for such a challenge, if I am understanding the rules correctly, the ideal way to play it would be to solve both puzzles that are supposedly by the same person and only then try to determine which one is the real one. But that would be outside of the normal structure of the videos of the channel and could possibly lead to unreasonably long videos, so I fully understand why you went with this approach.
I am so sad that the rabbit's finish is 3-9 and not the 6-9 that Simon arbitrarily ruled out without reason or explanation. I can only assume he hallucinated, and then finished the puzzle without ever noticing. Oh well. 😆 He also realized late that the path could enter box 4 diagonally, only for his original assumption to be the right answer anyway, which was the moment I became 100% confident it wasn't a Marty Sears puzzle! If you make an assumption in a Marty Sears puzzle, that assumption is wrong. Every time! 😆
That was absolute genius, and then some 😍 Definitely not one that I felt able to have a go at, but unlike some puzzles with long solves that just leave me in perplexitude, this was a joy to watch from start to finish, and the logic was never so convoluted or needing so much to be remembered that I couldn't follow along with it.
he ruled out 5 on the tortoise start too early there is a 5 path 5 (box 3), DownLeft 5 (box 5), Down 6 (box 5), Down right 6 (Box 6), Down right 6 (box 9), Down Left 7 (box 9 -> Up Left 7 (box 8) up Left 7 (Box 5), Up Left 8 (Box 5), Up Left 8 (Box 4), Down Left 9 (Box 4) The maximum value on the shortest possible path... would have been pretty beautiful if that was forced to be true. Love the puzzle anyway.
The tortoise is the perfect metaphor for Simon's puzzle solving, slow and careful consideration of the logic. All us hares at home watching may be quick at seeing a solution but he eventually gets there and has a wonderful time doing so.
that is WILD!! Imagine first having the skill to set a really cool and complex puzzle all on your own... and then having a whole OTHER set of skill to MIMIC the style of another setter so well that its nearly impossible to tell the difference... I mean, I can't even wrap my brain around the brilliance that requires! wow what a puzzle.
simon not seeing that the hare’s path in box 5 can be drawn in is making me whisper yell at my screen haha. such a gorgeous puzzle with such great logic and an amazing poem to start
Super fun puzzle, tough to crack! Needed help to get going. Once I did I found colouring the H, M, L digits helped to visualize the triplets and limit certain possibilities. Well done to Simon for doing it in his head.
42:20 finish. This was such a fun puzzle, and I was lucky enough to see the general path right away. Loved the logic in this, and I was able to further the solve using the fox and colored 5-6 pairs. Amazing! I will say that I am not attuned enough to the nuances of various setters to identify the authors of individual puzzles. I just solve them; I'll leave the guessing to Mark and Simon, who are inordinately better than I at the task.
At first I thought "NO WAY you can tell who constructed a puzzle, that is LUDICROUS" Me half way through the puzzle: "Hmm could be xxx" (xxx for spoiler reasons) Me at the end of the video when it turned out to be xxx! 😲
That was the most beautiful puzzle I've ever seen. The logic, the poetry... Thanks to PedallingPianist for setting it. And thank you simon for the wonderful solve.
thank goodness you're here is available on Nintendo platforms. pretty much all games there are approved for everyone. not played it myself but I highly doubt anything 'smutty' in it.
74:34 I did testing for some puzzles in this escapade (not this one) and am absolutely looking forward to seeing more of them because they've all been great so far. This one ludicrously so.
34:12 Yes, that is a good point. You have a virtual [456] triple in column 5. Only hare race lines can have [456] on it in the column so no other cells can be from those digits. EDIT: Oh wait, the following is only correct if the hare goes in R5C8. But it is very interesting still. If the hare goes in R5C7 then you don't get the triple... Same applies in column 8, you have a virtual [456] triple on hare race lines there too. THAT is interesting for R7C8, if that cell isn't a low digit, it would be a HIGH digit. And it can't be a high digit because the most efficient path for the tortoise would still make it reach the finish line with a 10. So all cells on the tortoise path BEFORE R7C8 is from low digits. And R7C8 is a 3. It can't be smaller than that because the tortoise needs to reach it slow thermo style. And it can't be a high digit.
Subconscious Simon strikes again @1:00:38! He says "it must be...."and his cursor is drawn to the cell that can be reduced due to the floating 56 pair. This would give the tortoise line through the box.
35:55 Minor error by Simon. Initially tortoise can have a value of 5, you have 5 - 5 (across the corner)- 6 (down) - 6 (diagonal into box 6) - 6 (diagonal into box 9) - 7 (around the hare) - 7 (diagonal into box 8) - 7 (diagonal into box 5) - 8 (reaching the green line) - 8 (diagonal into box 4) - 9 (finish flag). Continuing to watch, but as I remember my solve, it should not affect the further logic. Edit - by 38:40 Simon discovers that turtle can be as high as 5. Not changing the pencilmarks, though.
36:51 - next error, this time important. The path does not have to enter R7C1, it can go through R7C2 as well, thus having only 2 cells in the box 7 and not requiring high digit. Edit: by 1:20:27 Simon legitimately discovers that R9C4 is 7 and thus forcing the three cell path, but still - both R7C1 and R7C2 could be 89 One more edit few seconds later. Simon acknowledges his error. Don't worry Simon, I kept that cell under very thorough observation, no deductions were using that cell.
It was a little painful to watch how many times Simon highlighted column 5, once saying precisely that there’s a floating 56 pair in rows 1,2,5 in that column and stared at it but never saw that he has a blatant 2356 pencil mark in r4c5 which if he could just see once he would’ve solved the puzzle 20min faster 😅 That plus the incorrect pencil mark/deduction in 37th minute when he assumed the digit that tortoise visits in r4 has to be less than 5.. that turned out to be a lucky guess so he never had to go back and fix it. Not his finest solve, but I still enjoyed some other deductions (just noticing the path has to go around the hare was already tough to spot) and big shout out to Marty for an amazing puzzle.
57:22 There is a 5 or a 6 in a one of those squares giving a virtual pair with that. Does not eliminate the 56 from r5c4 for the next 15 minutes. Classic Simon. 😅
I did think it was _so_ Marty Sears, it was more Marty Sears than Marty Sears ..... As though someone spent a lot of time studying Marty Sears's puzzles and thinking "What would Marty Sears do now?" whereas the real Marty Sears is just thinking about making a puzzle, and that's just his own natural thought process. Or he could have been trying to outdo himself and in so doing, perhaps even eclipse his own imitator? I thought it would have to be either the real Marty Sears, or perhaps a fantastic setter such as Michael Lefkowitz or The Pedalling Pianist working in Marty's style. I might be slightly more inclined towards TPP, just because I'm sure I've heard some of their poetry before. Oh, wow! So that was who it was!
These are exactly the thought processes we went through when guessing! I think the reason we got so many wrong was because we voted for the one that seemed more quintessentially the person. But of course, thats exactly what the impostors were going for, whereas the setters themselves were just trying to make a good puzzle, as you said
I love Simon. At 48:00 or so in, he finally realized that there's an 89 in the row looking at that 789 in the eighth column. Thus he places the 7 neatly. And then removes the 89 from the cell next to it in the ninth column, leaving it a 567 possibility. Leaving the 7 standing. The better one becomes at spotting the difficult, the harder the obvious becomes to see.
Interesting! I did guess that this is not Marty's puzzle about just after halfway of the video. Why? It is too hard! Nice to hear that I guessed right!
From my attempt, I didn't think it was Marty, because I kept breaking it in various ways by not seeing a possible configuration that turned out to be right. In actual Marty Sears puzzles, the ludicrous actual path is always one that I consider but think is implausible, and the options I don't think to exclude turn out not to be right, and puzzles I can't solve come down to not knowing what to do rather than doing something wrong.
At 34:38, Simon notes that all the "middle" (456) digits are used by the hair. My insight when I realized that was that this creates a "wall" in Column 6 that the tortoise has to overcome on the slow thermometer. It means that it's path in the same column MUST be either 789 or 123. That actually limits it quite a bit! You can then check and see that the only way to cross with a 3 in column 6 is if you put 1 on it's path in row 4. But 1 is not possible in row 4! That was my very first deduction once I drew the path. Since the Hare has to enter box 6 in Row4 Column7, that makes it a 123. And the duck pond is a 1234 pair. That means the 1 MUST be in one of those 3 cells. Which means there is no way for the Tortoise to cross Column 6 without at least a 7. And looking closer it means it HAS to be a 7, because 8 is too high. Those were my first placed digits in the puzzle at that point - the 7-8-8-9 path for the end of the tortoise path revealed itself right there!
Epic epic epic puzzle. The point is box 2 has a 1 looking at the low digit on the thermo so the 2nd digit along has to be 5 or 6 giving the pair in column 5. Forcing the tortoise path. Would love to say this is marty as there are deductions like the rat race series 😂 not sure though as there are other deductions that have a darth paradox style (maybe 😂)
76:20 for me. Really nice puzzle. Got stuck at the end. It was really obvious the way forward, but I just couldn't see it right away. If two sequences have the same high digit but they have different low digit (and can't use 147), then the high digit is a 9. If I had seen that earlier, I would have finished at least 20 minutes earlier.
The tortoise path he posits around 35:40 is quite "minimal". A 5 in R4C6, then DOWN to a 6 in R5C6. 6 - 6 on the diagonal, 7 - 7 -7 on the diagonal back. 8 - 8 - 9. Which would keep the tortoise out of the 1234 digits in row 4, right?
I needed help figuring out how to think about the pathing, but after that it went pretty well. I got a whole bunch of numbers in the top and was struggling for a long time to fill out anything in boxes 7 and 8, because I had trouble seeing that 5 + 3 is cannot be 7 in box 9. That sure was something.
Haven’t watched the whole video to see if this affects the solve, but I can say at that point it’s an invalid conclusion. Edit: He finally figures it out late in the puzzle. Didn’t affect anything though.
When doing the A B markings: the 23's in box 5 and the one in row 4 in box 6 make that a 3 in r6c6 and forces the 3 in box 6, both on the hare path, making the next step a 6 in both cases, but as they are marked A and B, they should be different. That makes that the 3 has to be in r4c5 and the others 2s.
I followed all the logic perfectly until the 3 in box 8. Made some horrible mistake there ,realized i couldn't fix it. And went to watch the video. Still, a beautiful puzzle
36:20 Simon misses here a little point: if you start the tortoise with a 4 instead of a 5, you can actually use a 5 in Row 4 and still be able to finish with a 9, not a 10, because you can use one more 5 on the path when starting with 4.
and later on, how on earth is he deducing that r1c6 can't be a 6? It's 3 away from 9 and no Sudoku prevents that. Guess Simon got a little sloppy yesterday...
28:17 No, you can't loiter in a box more than 3 hops as the hare. 1, 4, 7, 10? IMPOSSIBLE! Every hop of the hare in a box is low, medium, high digits. Sure, you can skip one if you only hop twice in a box and you can pick any of the three if you only visit one cell in a box. But 3 cells is the maximum!
Also, forgetting about the hare taking 456 in column five was really annoying me, it lead to those kinds of eextremely estoheric excursions that breaks my brain... The path added at 1:18:06 could have been filled in at 50:25. Perhaps not immediately with all the digits, but still.
Constructor: How often can Simon ignore that the Hare _must_ take the 5 or 6 for column 5 box 2, which forces r4c5 to be a 23 making it part of the Tortoises path? Simon: Yes.
@@cukrajnis7515 classic Simon. One could phrase his motto like this: „I‘m gonna find the most complicated logic in order to be able to ignore simple Sudoku. Then, I ignore the implication said logic has on simple sudoku so that I must find another complicated piece of logic to avoid proceeding by doing Sudoku. Doing Sudoku in a Sudoku puzzle must be the last resort, only to be used in dire need.“ By the way, I‘d encourage constructors to make a puzzle using the rule „Normal Sudoku rules do _not_ apply“ for a puzzle that _does_ fulfil normal Sudoku rules. Or even go a step further and construct an irregular Sudoku construction puzzle without normal sudoku rules that results in a unique and valid Sudoku grid. I‘m no constructor (to be honest, I‘m not even a passable solver), so I couldn‘t do it myself. Marty, Pianist, Phistomephel, Jay, Aad, Christoph, DiMono, Myxo, TotallyNormalCat - perhaps one of you or any of the other brilliant constructors out there could take that idea, and call it something Simon-related…
@@gi0nbecell thats a really cool concept, i'm also no constructor so i don't know if thats even possible, but i hope someone finds a way and send it to simon
In the first puzzle where I got to see Simon duke it out with Marty, it was about clues where Mark, Bobbins the cat and "Simmon" stated something and there were this many lies. Marty also promoted the idea that he was five years old and the more I see of his puzzles, the less I am inclined to believe him on that statement.
@@MadsOcto7 The worst part is minutes later he runs the path backwards and gets a 5 there but never fixes the unjustified pencil marks he placed from assuming a 1234 on the path in row 4
I'm at 44:19 and I think I can see a way to say the turtle cannot to start with a 5. I don't think that the turtle can have a 7 in box 8. The hare will need a high digit in either r7c4 or r9c4. There is already an 8 and a 9 in c4 in box 5, which means either of the cells mentioned that the hare has to pass through in box 8 has to be a 7. Which means the turtle can't have a 7 in box 8, which I believe means the turtle can't start with a 5
Tough break-in! I reasoned myself around in circles and couldn't see how any path worked for the tortoise --- had to come to the video to see the option I was missing. 91:57 altogether.
Hmmm... I probably would've had an easier time with the plain instructions. With the poetic instructions, my biggest issue was that I considered the line about the fox to be a "narrative clue": in that the digit there would tell me the answer to the story, and would not necessarily disambiguate the puzzle. So while it was fairly easy to see that one of the racers would lose no matter what, I wanted to prove whether both racers could lose (with the story ending in either a tie, or because some plucky rat pipped them both). Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case: the fox clue must be used to enforce exactly one winner to achieve a unique solution. My other problem with the poetic instructions stemmed from my difficulties with trying to prove around the fox: I wasn't sure if the line about the hare's thermometer resetting meant it always had to reset to a "low" (123) digit. I had (correctly) assumed the "perhaps" qualifier to mean it only as an example, but it was an assumption I was forced to check again when running into difficulties. Needless to say, both of these problems would've been avoided if I'd used the plain instructions. Though I'd still have been amused if the race had had neither contestant winning o/~
@55:00 Underused the 456 triple in column 5 (all of which must be on rabbit line)....extends the turtle line into box 8 and 5. @1:15:00 Still hasn't seen it. Letters?! Egads...
Is there a playlist out there of all the imposters done by you guys? Box 4 starting at 59 minutes in cannot have it's 6 eliminated from the pink path (that's still 3 away from 9) until an hour and 30 minutes in, when you get a 56 pair in column 1.
I would love it if you played Thank Goodness You’re Here!!! That game is an absolute delight! But you are correct, it does have some nsfw jokes and visuals.
Hello all, the real Marty here!
Taking part in Scojo's Impostor challenge was so much fun. Everyone created some brilliant puzzles, and the standard of mimicry was insane. Every round, after seeing both puzzles solved, we all voted on which puzzle was really by the named setter. In something like 3/4 of cases (I can't remember the exact final score), voters guessed incorrectly, voting for the impostor puzzle.
This impersonation of my style was outstanding. Not only the concept, theming and aesthetics (coloured border and everything) but also the logical path too. You're right, perhaps a little harder than my average, but really quite similar to some of my harder puzzles.
The poetic rules were amaaaazzzingggg... the sort of thing I definitely would do if I set my mind to it, but Stu did a much better job of that than I would have been able to.
The really funny thing is that my own puzzle (the real real 'Marty' puzzle in the pair) also had a childrens book theme. My puzzle was about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. This is testament to how well Stu knows what tickles my fancy. I couldn't believe it when I saw my impostor had done a children's story too.
As soon as I saw the fake Marty puzzle, I was 100% sure it was by Juggler. I was even messaging Michael Lefkowitz privately, congratulating him on an excellent puzzle. I felt quite a wally afterwards when the true impostor was revealed. I thought I knew Stu very well, and only in hindsight can I see the Stu-isms in there. But the level of aesthetics and also the poem, I completely thought pointed towards Juggler. It was very very fun to be proven so wrong.
Thankyou Stu, you are truly one of the best puzzle makers in the sudoku world at the moment, and I'm happy we became friends :)
Who is Stu?
@@marklindsey1995 ThePedallingPianist
@martysears I thought for sure this was by you...and not some imposter. 🙂
Just amazingly special what you and the entire community is about! How others can set identical to what you do. Mind blowing to me the brains you all have. Constant respect.
In my opinion, the most Marty part was all the possible solutions to the path problems that seemed obvious but didn't quite work, only for the most ridiculous solution possible to be the correct one.
@@AngryKettleespecially after watching the Finz experiment puzzles.
Hi, "Marty" here! I completely echo the real Marty's comments about how much fun the Impostor challenge was, and definitely brought out the very best in so many already excellent constructors, especially in their imitations of others!
I sadly didn't convince enough of the voters that this was in fact the real Marty puzzle, and if you get a chance to solve The Goldilocks Zone, you'll see why - it's the Martiest and most brilliant creation you could possibly hope for from the genius himself - but I'm glad I could at least make the vote quite close!
One giveaway was that the end of my puzzle had too much normal sudoku, something that Marty wouldn't allow without some kind of beautiful thematic deadly pattern resolution towards the end. If I had more than a week to create The Hare and the Tortoise, perhaps I'd be able to find an ending worthy of Marty, but as it is, I simply have to wonder in amazement at how he finishes puzzles with such style. That said, he has since given me some tips, and I'm very much hoping to add that string to my bow for the future!
Thank you for featuring this one so quickly and congratulations on a very elegant solve! :)
I would have been completely fooled, though I'm no expert here, so a big thumbs up to how well you put this together; never crossed my mind that it could be anyone other than him. I can see how (in hindsight) the sudoku at the end would throw it off, but I would have just seen it as a side effect of the limited ifo in box 1 as a constraint of the puzzle. Congrats on an absolutely terrific puzzle.
I've been solving puzzles along with Simon and Mark for about 2 years now, and this has been the most fun I've had ever. You're puzzle is absolutely amazing! Even though it took me 54mins and I never felt stuck once. Thanks a lot for this experience!
Awesome puzzle :) Blast to solve.
Because of this channel, Marty Sears and Jay Dyer are becoming some of my favorite people, and i have no information about them other than their names and the puzzles they create.
Agreed!
This is the same with Phistomefel for me. Turns out he's a really wholesome looking guy and not an evil demon on a massive tower.
I wish the non-poetic rules included "Not all possible ducks have been given." Not because I think its needed, but because I think it's amusing
Also, not all possible ponds and foxes ;-)
all possible ducks are given though.... there isn't another pond in the puzzle whose digits add to 5, there may be cells that add to 5, but they aren't in ponds that prevent pathing
edit: this a difference between the Rules as written in the poem and rules as summarized on screen. "All the digits in my pond must sum up to 5"
which on screen is summarized as "ducks mark adjacent 5 sum" but could be read as "Ponds are killer cages where the navigations lines can't enter. Cages with a duck sum to 5"
there is no ambiguity issue to either interpertation because whether a duck refers to the entire pond or just the two cells next to the duck, that's the same region in this puzzle.
@@garmo1968 I'm mostly suggesting it for humor, there's no ambiguity to clear up
@@wojciechpietrzak1981 Good catch! The duck and the fox avoid ambiguity by saying "the" so the clause is technically unnecessary, but a pedant could absolutely make an argument about the ponds
@@cjbailey3646 the ambiguity i was referring to was... "if a duck represents 'the two adjacent cells add to 5' then there's a valid sum in box 3, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 9, and NOT all ducks are given" as opposed to "if a duck represents 'the sum of its' killer pond sums to 5, and navigation thermos cannot enter ponds' then no other ponds sum to 5 and all ducks ARE given" and in this puzzle both tthose interpretations don't change any logic, because the entirety of the killer pond, is just the two adjacent squares so it doesn't matter.
and i was pointing out that this alternative interpretation of "killer ponds" comes from the poem "All the digits in my pond must sum up to 5" Implying the possibility that another duck could exist in another pond of 131, or 221 which does not occur in this puzzle so doesn't matter.
Fun Fact: by this killer pond interpertation there is an area one could draw in box 9 that creates a sum of 5 that neither line goes through and wouldn't be adjacent to another pond so in that logic
"a new pond could form, where new ducks are driven, but til then i'll say, all ducks are given."
I've been watching the channel for months, but this is the first variant sudoku puzzle I've ever attempted. It took me nearly three and a half hours (and admittedly I needed a couple small hints from the video), but it feels good to finally join the solver's club :)
Simon and I would make a great team: he'd do 95% and I'd point out what he said earlier.
I often feel like that.
such as Simon assigning the 4,5,6 triple in column 5 to the Hare in boxes 2, 5 an 7 , and then pencil marking a possible 5,6 in r4c5
this is my mindset every time i watch a Simon solve! everytime he says something that creates a beautiful deduction in my head that he doesnt notice i pause the video, pretend that im in the room as a "hint giver" and i randomly give my two cents when i notice something
sadly, he mostly doesnt use the logic i use and just figures out the same thing in some other, often ludicrous, way
or even worse, i hate it when i notice something about the puzzle and create a beautiful deduction, and i marvel at how that logic plays through, and he never gets to see that part, and ends up figuring out via sudoku way later on
like when at one point he mentions a "5/6 pair" in collum 5, but doesnt remove the 5/6 pencil mark in r4c5 and is stuck with an evil 2/3/5/6 possibility in r4c5+c6
At 35:26 Simon draws what he thinks is a maximum-value path that requires the tortoise to take a 1, 2, 3, or 4 in its first pass through row 4 (and places some pencil marks based on that deduction, which never get removed but "luckily" work), but minutes later at 37:58 he demonstrates a path going backwards that allows it to be a 5...
(This doesn't completely taint the solve as a whole since he later forces later values on the slow thermo below their theoretical maximum without resort to those pencil marks, which retroactively justifies the previously unearned marks)
I was scared when he filled the 7 in at 47:54 for exactly the reason you mentioned. At the time, he based the 7 solely on an incorrect deduction. Luckily it turned out to be fine.
The first line he drew was a very hand-wavy justification and nothing like the kind of rigorous proof. Given how he has already been completely foxed 🦊 once by a seemingly impossible line, it would be brave to take that quick sketch as a guarantee! (Especially as I can see straight away a path that allows the tortoise 🐢 to start on a 5!)
Also puzzled by his insistence that the hare line 🐇 between boxes 4 and 7 must be vertical...
Exactly! Came here to mention that. And it _was_ used for more incorrect deductions, like the 7 in r4c8.
@@medal45 This can be deduced another way even earlier than at this point. Box 8 needs a high digit in column 4, which must be a 7, which places 7 in box 5 and removes a degree of freedom from the turtle. The pencil marks in the lake in box 6 are easily done now.
If you look at the finished grid the pianist signed it with a double p mirrored in the paths.
And the paths also trace a grand piano :)
Not intentional but I now wish it was 😂 😁
I finished in 107 minutes. This was such a cute puzzle. I love it when themes take over puzzles, so this felt very much like a Marty Sears puzzle. I was very confused at first about how it was possible for the hare to visit every box and leave enough room for the tortoise. Then, I saw the pathway where the tortoise could sneak behind the hare. That was so fun to see. I think my favorite part was the hidden triple of 456 in column 5 that was used to force high digits on the later part of the tortoise's line. I love puzzles like these. Great Puzzle!
This whole challenge was incredibly fun, and the Marty Sears puzzles in particular were both absolutely breathtaking!
(I'm writing this before the reveal) If this wasn't set by Marty, whoever did it gave him an immense compliment by attributing such genius work to Marty. From the poem to the very last digit, this is superb!
Rules: 08:37
Let's Get Cracking: 14:33
What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?!
Maverick: 2x (01:54, 1:19:36)
Bobbins: 1x (33:22)
Three In the Corner: 1x (1:27:38)
And how about this video's Simarkisms?!
Hang On: 19x (00:19, 14:59, 18:16, 18:52, 22:11, 23:27, 24:14, 24:31, 47:55, 54:07, 1:12:32, 1:15:46, 1:17:26, 1:18:52, 1:30:43, 1:30:43)
Sorry: 17x (01:54, 05:27, 16:27, 21:23, 21:40, 22:20, 22:24, 22:29, 39:12, 41:38, 47:56, 48:35, 52:59, 54:44, 1:00:39, 1:11:47, 1:33:59)
Ah: 14x (22:16, 25:03, 26:31, 28:52, 38:52, 46:46, 48:28, 54:00, 54:59, 1:12:32, 1:21:42, 1:26:41, 1:29:51, 1:35:25)
Brilliant: 13x (01:02, 01:02, 02:47, 03:29, 06:12, 10:03, 10:06, 27:21, 1:16:16, 1:22:35, 1:34:39, 1:34:55, 1:34:59)
By Sudoku: 7x (41:56, 56:28, 56:40, 56:46, 1:12:47, 1:19:34, 1:24:06)
Goodness: 4x (03:43, 1:20:45, 1:28:49, 1:30:34)
Surely: 4x (35:07, 1:19:01, 1:20:23, 1:26:07)
In Fact: 4x (12:03, 29:01, 50:50, 1:11:42)
Whoopsie: 4x (15:47, 17:49, 46:11, 1:05:10)
Cake!: 4x (06:16, 06:17, 06:30, 06:34)
What a Puzzle: 3x (1:28:26, 1:30:34)
Nonsense: 3x (23:53, 1:11:51, 1:18:34)
Ridiculous: 3x (47:44, 1:28:22, 1:34:20)
Pencil Mark/mark: 3x (49:40, 1:10:29, 1:24:49)
Weird: 3x (35:29, 49:41, 1:11:14)
What on Earth: 2x (18:52, 37:01)
Naked Single: 2x (47:56, 1:25:05)
The Answer is: 2x (26:14, 1:20:51)
I Have no Clue: 2x (57:03, 1:13:51)
Shouting: 2x (09:32, 47:58)
Magnificent: 2x (1:32:45, 1:32:48)
Obviously: 2x (04:18, 58:25)
Good Grief: 1x (30:52)
Bother: 1x (47:26)
Missing Something: 1x (19:09)
Stuck: 1x (1:06:02)
Lovely: 1x (07:30)
Incredible: 1x (02:51)
First Digit: 1x (34:01)
Of All Things: 1x (1:20:07)
Bizarre: 1x (1:15:58)
Phone is Buzzing: 1x (1:18:48)
Almost Interesting: 1x (58:42)
That's Huge: 1x (1:29:54)
Nature: 1x (33:47)
Unique: 1x (37:01)
Middly Digit: 1x (51:01)
Most popular number(>9), digit and colour this video:
Twenty Seven (5 mentions)
Three (104 mentions)
Pink (9 mentions)
Antithesis Battles:
Low (14) - High (9)
Even (8) - Odd (0)
Lower (18) - Higher (5)
Column (32) - Row (15)
FAQ:
Q1: You missed something!
A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn!
Q2: Can you do this for another channel?
A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!
@@inspiringsand123 that's amazing! 👏🏾
I never write comments although I always love the puzzles, but this one it's quite special. I'm following the channel for years, I might have watched hundreds of videos but the poem, the rules, the solution process.. is really unique and remarkable. It makes this puzzle one of the bests I've ever seen.
This puzzle is absolutely brilliant, and is really a testament to both Peddling Pianist and Marty Sears!
Marty has become my absolute favourite setter with his Finks series - setting such varied and consistently brilliant puzzles in a progressing series with the common theme and some consistent rules has been nothing short of genius.
And, while this was set to mimic Marty, i think it can be seen as a beautiful tribute by Peddling Pianist to the great work that Marty has been doing for the community in recent months.
❤ lovely comment, thank you
at 58:42, how did he eliminate 6 from R6C1? I'm not sure what i'm missing
That was my question as well
He states out loud that it can be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, sees a one in the row and then says it can only be 2, 3, 4, or 5. I don't think there is anything ruling six out, luckily he does not use it to further any logic; I was relieved when he found the 5-6 pair in column one @1:29:48.
He simply didn't complete his list, looks like...
@@lapetitecuillereetlepaindo3005 ok good, thanks. I was going crazy. glad I seemed not to have missed something
I don't think he did, he even mentions it, and then proceeds not to pencil mark it.. Edit* But he doesn't seem to use it.. all along never does he use the fact that it can't be a 6.. he makes it a 3, cause a 56 pair shows up in the column with different logic
Absolutely amazing. Congrats to the setter, the other setter, and of course Simon. Looking forward to more of these.
So exciting to see this! Both "Marty Sears" puzzles that came out of this challenge were fantastic!
And thank you Scojo for hosting this event, it has been a great deal of fun and awesomeness ❤
Yes, thank you Scojo! This was absolutely amazing and one of the most fantastic challenges I've ever done, even if you [REDACTED], to my chagrin :)
Thanks so much for hosting and organizing this event scojo. We had so many incredible submissions. I really liked this one but also the ones by [REDACTED], [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. Funny how impersonating someone else can send your creativity into overdrive.
Wdym both? This is the first one, no?
@@nitrogel This puzzle was one of two puzzles with Marty Sears' name on it set for a challenge on discord. One of them was actually set by Marty, and the other was not.
I suspect we'll be seeing more of these imposter puzzles; for those of you who didn't catch the Scojo streams, it's led to some of the best sudoku puzzles of the entire year, hands down.
Totally agree. The quality of those puzzles was outstanding. And the high success rate of the imposters was a (very entertaining) testament to that.
Is there a video of the stream? would you mind linking it please?
60:09 this was one though cookie to crack but rewarding. When the time came to use the Fox to disambiguate the Tortoise's turn around the Hare, I loved it. It's always amazing when you're some 50 minutes into a puzzle and you suddenly realise the setter had seen _every_ step of your path, amazing!
I would normally never attempt a puzzle that made a 90 minute video, but this looked fun and it turned out it grabbed my interest and I managed to solve it after only 2 hours. Such a clever puzzle (which really means I'm flattering myself for having solved it LOL)
Well, it turns out I'm very stubborn, even if I've still got a long ways to go at sudoku. Solved it in 14:38:43, and many of those hours were quite frustrating. But it's a truly beautiful puzzle, And although it took me hours to find, I liked the way that the double 5 was forced in boxes 6 and 9.
Thankyou Simon (and puzzle setter) for a wondeful puzzle and video. Simon, by exposing the brilliance of these puzzles, you add so much to my enjoyment.
Never did I expect Among Us in a CTC video
Definitely sus 🤔
believe it or not of them (can’t remember which one) once solved an among us themed puzzle 😂
Simon is not boring at parties. Parties are boring.
In my opinion, for such a challenge, if I am understanding the rules correctly, the ideal way to play it would be to solve both puzzles that are supposedly by the same person and only then try to determine which one is the real one. But that would be outside of the normal structure of the videos of the channel and could possibly lead to unreasonably long videos, so I fully understand why you went with this approach.
I am so sad that the rabbit's finish is 3-9 and not the 6-9 that Simon arbitrarily ruled out without reason or explanation. I can only assume he hallucinated, and then finished the puzzle without ever noticing. Oh well. 😆 He also realized late that the path could enter box 4 diagonally, only for his original assumption to be the right answer anyway, which was the moment I became 100% confident it wasn't a Marty Sears puzzle! If you make an assumption in a Marty Sears puzzle, that assumption is wrong. Every time! 😆
That was absolute genius, and then some 😍
Definitely not one that I felt able to have a go at, but unlike some puzzles with long solves that just leave me in perplexitude, this was a joy to watch from start to finish, and the logic was never so convoluted or needing so much to be remembered that I couldn't follow along with it.
he ruled out 5 on the tortoise start too early there is a 5 path
5 (box 3), DownLeft 5 (box 5), Down 6 (box 5), Down right 6 (Box 6), Down right 6 (box 9), Down Left 7 (box 9 -> Up Left 7 (box 8) up Left 7 (Box 5), Up Left 8 (Box 5), Up Left 8 (Box 4), Down Left 9 (Box 4)
The maximum value on the shortest possible path... would have been pretty beautiful if that was forced to be true.
Love the puzzle anyway.
An amazing puzzle, I loved the poem, brilliantly read by Simon. Simon reading a poem is a real treat.
Totally agree!
Loved the voice for the duck 😂
R6C1 was pencil marked as 2,3,5 but it could have been 6 as well.
What an awesome puzzle, loved it!! I'm glad to see the majority (about 60% atm) are doing the poem version!
I really loved this event, this puzzle, and kuddos Simon ;)
1:39:36 - What an amazing puzzle. Brilliant logic throughout! I don’t care that it took me so long; I’m just chuffed to have finished it unaided.
I loved this puzzle! The break-in was challenging, but the design was excellently crafted and the usage of entropy was fresh.
This was incredible, the way the solve followed the story line was amazing
this is a title i never thought id see in the great year of 2024 😭
I really ❤ the idea of this puzzle!
The idea for this was extraordinary. 💜🩵
@@davidrattner9 🩷❤️
Such a beautiful and whimsically fantastic puzzle! Not sure what this has to do with Among Us though.
Puzzle was done by an impostor. I personally would choose something different, though.
The tortoise is the perfect metaphor for Simon's puzzle solving, slow and careful consideration of the logic. All us hares at home watching may be quick at seeing a solution but he eventually gets there and has a wonderful time doing so.
❤
that is WILD!! Imagine first having the skill to set a really cool and complex puzzle all on your own... and then having a whole OTHER set of skill to MIMIC the style of another setter so well that its nearly impossible to tell the difference... I mean, I can't even wrap my brain around the brilliance that requires! wow what a puzzle.
simon not seeing that the hare’s path in box 5 can be drawn in is making me whisper yell at my screen haha. such a gorgeous puzzle with such great logic and an amazing poem to start
Super fun puzzle, tough to crack! Needed help to get going. Once I did I found colouring the H, M, L digits helped to visualize the triplets and limit certain possibilities. Well done to Simon for doing it in his head.
What a wonderful puzzle! I am SO excited to see Simon give this one a go!
42:20 finish. This was such a fun puzzle, and I was lucky enough to see the general path right away. Loved the logic in this, and I was able to further the solve using the fox and colored 5-6 pairs. Amazing!
I will say that I am not attuned enough to the nuances of various setters to identify the authors of individual puzzles. I just solve them; I'll leave the guessing to Mark and Simon, who are inordinately better than I at the task.
At first I thought "NO WAY you can tell who constructed a puzzle, that is LUDICROUS"
Me half way through the puzzle: "Hmm could be xxx" (xxx for spoiler reasons)
Me at the end of the video when it turned out to be xxx! 😲
Brilliant and very exciting puzzle. It took me ages but I really enjoyed it very much.
That was the most beautiful puzzle I've ever seen. The logic, the poetry...
Thanks to PedallingPianist for setting it.
And thank you simon for the wonderful solve.
thank goodness you're here is available on Nintendo platforms. pretty much all games there are approved for everyone. not played it myself but I highly doubt anything 'smutty' in it.
74:34
I did testing for some puzzles in this escapade (not this one) and am absolutely looking forward to seeing more of them because they've all been great so far.
This one ludicrously so.
This was the best puzzle I've ever solved! Thumbs up!
34:12 Yes, that is a good point. You have a virtual [456] triple in column 5.
Only hare race lines can have [456] on it in the column so no other cells can be from those digits.
EDIT: Oh wait, the following is only correct if the hare goes in R5C8. But it is very interesting still. If the hare goes in R5C7 then you don't get the triple...
Same applies in column 8, you have a virtual [456] triple on hare race lines there too.
THAT is interesting for R7C8, if that cell isn't a low digit, it would be a HIGH digit. And it can't be a high digit because the most efficient path for the tortoise would still make it reach the finish line with a 10.
So all cells on the tortoise path BEFORE R7C8 is from low digits. And R7C8 is a 3. It can't be smaller than that because the tortoise needs to reach it slow thermo style. And it can't be a high digit.
Subconscious Simon strikes again @1:00:38! He says "it must be...."and his cursor is drawn to the cell that can be reduced due to the floating 56 pair. This would give the tortoise line through the box.
As soon as he said that I thought he was going to rule out the 56 from r4c5 and determine the tortoises path
35:55 Minor error by Simon. Initially tortoise can have a value of 5, you have 5 - 5 (across the corner)- 6 (down) - 6 (diagonal into box 6) - 6 (diagonal into box 9) - 7 (around the hare) - 7 (diagonal into box 8) - 7 (diagonal into box 5) - 8 (reaching the green line) - 8 (diagonal into box 4) - 9 (finish flag). Continuing to watch, but as I remember my solve, it should not affect the further logic.
Edit - by 38:40 Simon discovers that turtle can be as high as 5. Not changing the pencilmarks, though.
36:51 - next error, this time important. The path does not have to enter R7C1, it can go through R7C2 as well, thus having only 2 cells in the box 7 and not requiring high digit.
Edit: by 1:20:27 Simon legitimately discovers that R9C4 is 7 and thus forcing the three cell path, but still - both R7C1 and R7C2 could be 89
One more edit few seconds later. Simon acknowledges his error. Don't worry Simon, I kept that cell under very thorough observation, no deductions were using that cell.
It was a little painful to watch how many times Simon highlighted column 5, once saying precisely that there’s a floating 56 pair in rows 1,2,5 in that column and stared at it but never saw that he has a blatant 2356 pencil mark in r4c5 which if he could just see once he would’ve solved the puzzle 20min faster 😅
That plus the incorrect pencil mark/deduction in 37th minute when he assumed the digit that tortoise visits in r4 has to be less than 5.. that turned out to be a lucky guess so he never had to go back and fix it.
Not his finest solve, but I still enjoyed some other deductions (just noticing the path has to go around the hare was already tough to spot) and big shout out to Marty for an amazing puzzle.
57:22 There is a 5 or a 6 in a one of those squares giving a virtual pair with that.
Does not eliminate the 56 from r5c4 for the next 15 minutes. Classic Simon. 😅
I think you mean r4c5, but yes indeed. 😅
I did think it was _so_ Marty Sears, it was more Marty Sears than Marty Sears ..... As though someone spent a lot of time studying Marty Sears's puzzles and thinking "What would Marty Sears do now?" whereas the real Marty Sears is just thinking about making a puzzle, and that's just his own natural thought process. Or he could have been trying to outdo himself and in so doing, perhaps even eclipse his own imitator?
I thought it would have to be either the real Marty Sears, or perhaps a fantastic setter such as Michael Lefkowitz or The Pedalling Pianist working in Marty's style. I might be slightly more inclined towards TPP, just because I'm sure I've heard some of their poetry before.
Oh, wow! So that was who it was!
These are exactly the thought processes we went through when guessing! I think the reason we got so many wrong was because we voted for the one that seemed more quintessentially the person. But of course, thats exactly what the impostors were going for, whereas the setters themselves were just trying to make a good puzzle, as you said
I love Simon. At 48:00 or so in, he finally realized that there's an 89 in the row looking at that 789 in the eighth column. Thus he places the 7 neatly. And then removes the 89 from the cell next to it in the ninth column, leaving it a 567 possibility. Leaving the 7 standing. The better one becomes at spotting the difficult, the harder the obvious becomes to see.
73:06 for me. What a puzzle!
Interesting! I did guess that this is not Marty's puzzle about just after halfway of the video. Why? It is too hard! Nice to hear that I guessed right!
From my attempt, I didn't think it was Marty, because I kept breaking it in various ways by not seeing a possible configuration that turned out to be right. In actual Marty Sears puzzles, the ludicrous actual path is always one that I consider but think is implausible, and the options I don't think to exclude turn out not to be right, and puzzles I can't solve come down to not knowing what to do rather than doing something wrong.
At 34:38, Simon notes that all the "middle" (456) digits are used by the hair. My insight when I realized that was that this creates a "wall" in Column 6 that the tortoise has to overcome on the slow thermometer. It means that it's path in the same column MUST be either 789 or 123. That actually limits it quite a bit! You can then check and see that the only way to cross with a 3 in column 6 is if you put 1 on it's path in row 4. But 1 is not possible in row 4! That was my very first deduction once I drew the path. Since the Hare has to enter box 6 in Row4 Column7, that makes it a 123. And the duck pond is a 1234 pair. That means the 1 MUST be in one of those 3 cells. Which means there is no way for the Tortoise to cross Column 6 without at least a 7. And looking closer it means it HAS to be a 7, because 8 is too high.
Those were my first placed digits in the puzzle at that point - the 7-8-8-9 path for the end of the tortoise path revealed itself right there!
59:00 ... honestly, I'm stunned that I solved this at all, much less in under an hour
Incredible puzzle!
This puzzle really benefits from coloring the groups of numbers (low, middle, high), makes the triples much easier to see
Just had to solve this when I saw it - really cool puzzle and the lines are definitely Marty Sears-style lines
Marvellous! Splendid!! Brilliant!!!
Epic epic epic puzzle. The point is box 2 has a 1 looking at the low digit on the thermo so the 2nd digit along has to be 5 or 6 giving the pair in column 5. Forcing the tortoise path.
Would love to say this is marty as there are deductions like the rat race series 😂 not sure though as there are other deductions that have a darth paradox style (maybe 😂)
I love everything about this puzzle without having yet tried it
76:20 for me. Really nice puzzle. Got stuck at the end. It was really obvious the way forward, but I just couldn't see it right away. If two sequences have the same high digit but they have different low digit (and can't use 147), then the high digit is a 9. If I had seen that earlier, I would have finished at least 20 minutes earlier.
PLEASE play thank goodness you’re here it’s so fun!
I have no doubt Simon and Mark could pull it off tastefully.
@@bluerizlagirlabsolutely!
The tortoise path he posits around 35:40 is quite "minimal". A 5 in R4C6, then DOWN to a 6 in R5C6. 6 - 6 on the diagonal, 7 - 7 -7 on the diagonal back. 8 - 8 - 9. Which would keep the tortoise out of the 1234 digits in row 4, right?
He could also have started 4-5-5-6, with the third and fourth digits in box 6.
Simon realizing that r7c8, r6c7 and r5,c6 can all be 2s at 39:38 might be the most annoyed I have ever seen him 😂😂😂
I needed help figuring out how to think about the pathing, but after that it went pretty well. I got a whole bunch of numbers in the top and was struggling for a long time to fill out anything in boxes 7 and 8, because I had trouble seeing that 5 + 3 is cannot be 7 in box 9. That sure was something.
At this point I think one of you could set the three utilities problem as a sudoku and get Simon to solve it
Put it on a mug 🙂
OMG. That was amazing!
How does Simon assert that the hare must pass into r7c1 when he could equally likely go from r7c2 to r6c1?
Haven’t watched the whole video to see if this affects the solve, but I can say at that point it’s an invalid conclusion.
Edit: He finally figures it out late in the puzzle. Didn’t affect anything though.
eventually it solves also without this conclusion. At 1:20:nn he also withdrew this assumption.
When doing the A B markings: the 23's in box 5 and the one in row 4 in box 6 make that a 3 in r6c6 and forces the 3 in box 6, both on the hare path, making the next step a 6 in both cases, but as they are marked A and B, they should be different.
That makes that the 3 has to be in r4c5 and the others 2s.
what an awesome puzzle!
the poem is beautiful
I followed all the logic perfectly until the 3 in box 8. Made some horrible mistake there ,realized i couldn't fix it. And went to watch the video. Still, a beautiful puzzle
36:20 Simon misses here a little point: if you start the tortoise with a 4 instead of a 5, you can actually use a 5 in Row 4 and still be able to finish with a 9, not a 10, because you can use one more 5 on the path when starting with 4.
and later on, how on earth is he deducing that r1c6 can't be a 6? It's 3 away from 9 and no Sudoku prevents that. Guess Simon got a little sloppy yesterday...
28:17 No, you can't loiter in a box more than 3 hops as the hare.
1, 4, 7, 10? IMPOSSIBLE!
Every hop of the hare in a box is low, medium, high digits.
Sure, you can skip one if you only hop twice in a box and you can pick any of the three if you only visit one cell in a box. But 3 cells is the maximum!
I love when Simon gets 99% of the inferences and then I can get the 1% and feel satisfied.
Hello, I am looking forward to todays iteration of cracking the cryptic!
@1:03:50 "The hare has seen 4, 5 & 6"
Yes, so how can r4c5 be 5 or 6! Missed opportunity.
Edit: He finds it ten minutes later.
"I might get into trouble on this column" he says after marking more than half the column as low digits (123) 🙂
Also, forgetting about the hare taking 456 in column five was really annoying me, it lead to those kinds of eextremely estoheric excursions that breaks my brain...
The path added at 1:18:06 could have been filled in at 50:25. Perhaps not immediately with all the digits, but still.
Constructor: How often can Simon ignore that the Hare _must_ take the 5 or 6 for column 5 box 2, which forces r4c5 to be a 23 making it part of the Tortoises path?
Simon: Yes.
and he had said there is virtual 56 pair and proceeded to do nothing with it😭
@@cukrajnis7515 classic Simon.
One could phrase his motto like this: „I‘m gonna find the most complicated logic in order to be able to ignore simple Sudoku. Then, I ignore the implication said logic has on simple sudoku so that I must find another complicated piece of logic to avoid proceeding by doing Sudoku. Doing Sudoku in a Sudoku puzzle must be the last resort, only to be used in dire need.“
By the way, I‘d encourage constructors to make a puzzle using the rule „Normal Sudoku rules do _not_ apply“ for a puzzle that _does_ fulfil normal Sudoku rules. Or even go a step further and construct an irregular Sudoku construction puzzle without normal sudoku rules that results in a unique and valid Sudoku grid. I‘m no constructor (to be honest, I‘m not even a passable solver), so I couldn‘t do it myself.
Marty, Pianist, Phistomephel, Jay, Aad, Christoph, DiMono, Myxo, TotallyNormalCat - perhaps one of you or any of the other brilliant constructors out there could take that idea, and call it something Simon-related…
@@gi0nbecell thats a really cool concept, i'm also no constructor so i don't know if thats even possible, but i hope someone finds a way and send it to simon
In the first puzzle where I got to see Simon duke it out with Marty, it was about clues where Mark, Bobbins the cat and "Simmon" stated something and there were this many lies. Marty also promoted the idea that he was five years old and the more I see of his puzzles, the less I am inclined to believe him on that statement.
🤣
“And this was on a duck that adds up to five.”
36:00 The tortoise could have started with a 5 actually. If it stayed in box 5 2 steps instead of 1
Yes. That annoyed me
@@MadsOcto7 The worst part is minutes later he runs the path backwards and gets a 5 there but never fixes the unjustified pencil marks he placed from assuming a 1234 on the path in row 4
I'm at 44:19 and I think I can see a way to say the turtle cannot to start with a 5. I don't think that the turtle can have a 7 in box 8. The hare will need a high digit in either r7c4 or r9c4. There is already an 8 and a 9 in c4 in box 5, which means either of the cells mentioned that the hare has to pass through in box 8 has to be a 7. Which means the turtle can't have a 7 in box 8, which I believe means the turtle can't start with a 5
@@Merdock19 As always the point is not "is there any way to eventually prove this" but rather "was the logic actually used to prove it valid"
I think it could also have started with a 4, visited 5 in row 4, and then still been able to visit a 5 in column 7 in box 6.
Tough break-in! I reasoned myself around in circles and couldn't see how any path worked for the tortoise --- had to come to the video to see the option I was missing. 91:57 altogether.
❤ for the poem rules
So very very excellence. 👏👏👏
Oh dear, I missed the part about the rabbit only being able to enter each box exactly once, and went down a rabbit hole of doom.
Hmmm... I probably would've had an easier time with the plain instructions. With the poetic instructions, my biggest issue was that I considered the line about the fox to be a "narrative clue": in that the digit there would tell me the answer to the story, and would not necessarily disambiguate the puzzle. So while it was fairly easy to see that one of the racers would lose no matter what, I wanted to prove whether both racers could lose (with the story ending in either a tie, or because some plucky rat pipped them both). Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case: the fox clue must be used to enforce exactly one winner to achieve a unique solution.
My other problem with the poetic instructions stemmed from my difficulties with trying to prove around the fox: I wasn't sure if the line about the hare's thermometer resetting meant it always had to reset to a "low" (123) digit. I had (correctly) assumed the "perhaps" qualifier to mean it only as an example, but it was an assumption I was forced to check again when running into difficulties.
Needless to say, both of these problems would've been avoided if I'd used the plain instructions. Though I'd still have been amused if the race had had neither contestant winning o/~
What a puzzle!!!
@55:00 Underused the 456 triple in column 5 (all of which must be on rabbit line)....extends the turtle line into box 8 and 5.
@1:15:00 Still hasn't seen it. Letters?! Egads...
Just one word: WOW!!!!
57:27 Simon noticed the 56 pair so early but didn’t use it 😢
Is there a playlist out there of all the imposters done by you guys?
Box 4 starting at 59 minutes in cannot have it's 6 eliminated from the pink path (that's still 3 away from 9) until an hour and 30 minutes in, when you get a 56 pair in column 1.
I would love it if you played Thank Goodness You’re Here!!! That game is an absolute delight! But you are correct, it does have some nsfw jokes and visuals.