Category: Uncategorized

And the correct answer to the Three Cheers puzzle was…

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Hip hip hooray, the new season is here! On the MSP Varsity Cheerleading Squad, the team members always shout three words as they move into a new FORMATION: A word contained (“Rain!”), a rhyming word (“Carnation!”), and definition word (“Arrangement!”). Can you figure out what words they’re forming for the following routines? Then, by putting them all together, you’ll be able to figure out where in New York City this year’s most spectacular routine will be taking place.

Note: Mission Street Puzzles’ interactive puzzles are best viewed in the Chrome browser.

We’re back!

Season Two will be a 12-week puzzle competition extravaganza starting Wednesday, February 7th at 8pm EST / 5pm PST with the last puzzle posted on April 25th.

We’re also excited to announce that the theme of Season Two is…

New York City!

As always, you can solve the puzzles online from anywhere in the world–no need to be in NYC to participate. We’ve also changed how photos and timing works to better accommodate puzzlers from different locations, so read on.

Puzzle releases – Puzzles will still be released weekly on Wednesdays, but the time has been moved up by a couple hours to accommodate teams in the Eastern U.S. Mark your calendars for 8pm ET / 5pm PT each Wednesday.

Answers – Each puzzle answer will be the name of a fun, unique location in New York City. As soon as your team has figured out a puzzle’s final answer, submit it on the website through a new answer submission tool we’ll be piloting. If you run into any technical difficulties, you’re free to email your team name and answer to answers@missionstreetpuzzles as an alternative way to officially submit an answer. And remember, you can always contact help@missionstreetpuzzles.com if you get stuck.

As before, you’ll be able to submit answers for each puzzle for the one week following that puzzle’s release. We mentioned in a previous post that we’d consider allowing later puzzle submissions, but based on your feedback we decided to keep the current policy. That lets us post solution walkthroughs throughout the season, which many of you preferred. You’re always welcome to solve previous puzzles for fun on the Archives page!

Photos – At the end of each week, we’ll announce (and award T-shirts to!) that week’s Fastest Solver and Best Team Photo. Unlike last season, the team photo may be taken in any setting–at the answer location, in-progress solving the puzzle, holding in-theme props… Be creative!

Leaderboard – The winning team of Season Two will be the team that has submitted the most correct puzzle answers out of 12, with ties broken by median solve time. We’ll keep the leaderboard updated with the teams that are leading the season so far.

Eager to get started? Take a look at Season One’s San Francisco puzzles in the Archives. And be sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss an update–you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or sign up for our email mailing list!

Remember – tune into Mission Street Puzzles on February 7th at 5pm ET / 7pm PT for the first puzzle of the new season! See you then!

–MSP

Aaaaaand, 26 puzzles later, it’s a wrap on the first ever season of MSP! Thanks so much to all of the impressive teams that joined us over the last 6 months. We’ll be back with Season 2 on February 7th, and we’d love it if you would share your thoughts to help us make it even better by filling out our 5-minute feedback survey! We really appreciate all responses, even if you haven’t solved any puzzles.

Winners

The overall Season One winner is….. drumroll please…… just kidding, he’s been on top for quite a while….. Jeff! Jeff completed all 26 puzzles with a median solve time of 2 hours and 4 minutes. Wow!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated; had a ton of amazing teams this season. The following 22 teams all completed 10 or more puzzles, ordered by number of completed puzzles and median solve time.

Great job everyone!

Next Season

Season 2 of Mission Street Puzzles will start on February 7th. A few notes:

• The season will last for 12 weeks, with the same structure as this season–new puzzles every week.
• One upcoming change: we will allow teams to submit answers for past weeks for as long as the season is still running. For example, if you’re out of town for a week and you miss a puzzle, you can just submit it the next week with a later solve time. All submissions will just be due by the last day of the season. This should open things up, and also make it easier on teams that want to start partway through the season.
• We are also excited to announce that starting next season, answers will be in cities other than San Francisco! We’re picturing an around-the-world puzzle journey, with each season bringing us to new places. We’re already working on this and are really excited about how it’s looking.

For more updates on the next season, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See you in February!

–MSP

And the correct answer to the Season One Finale puzzle was…

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For our final puzzle, we have some of our teams running around to all parts of the city. Each team has five members of varying mood, and we’ve given each participant a unique tracking number from 1 to 85. They’re trying to make sense of word clues that we’ve distributed; at each spot, there is a single word, and potentially also a puzzler looking around for multi-word phrases. Can you figure out the clues, place these fun snapshots at the right locations for their puzzles, and deduce where all the teams will convene for their final adventure of the season?

It’s the last puzzle of the season, and next week will be our final puzzle recap–but don’t worry, we’ll be back with Season 2 on Feb. 7, 2018. With just five minutes of your time, you can help us make next season better by filling out our feedback survey! We’d really appreciate all responses, even if you haven’t solved any puzzles.

Frequently Asked Questions:

“How do I submit answers?” Submit final puzzle answers to answers@missionstreetpuzzles.com with your team name!

“What if I’m stuck?” Email help@missionstreetpuzzles.com, or check out our Beginner’s Guide.

“How do I get T-shirts?” We offer T-shirts for the winning teams (Fastest Solver, First Photo, Best Photo) and a randomly chosen team! If you’ve already won a T-shirt, you’ll receive another color after five wins.

And the correct answer to the Ready, Set, van Gogh! puzzle was…

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In the Mission Street Puzzles art gallery, we have six collectors: Ed H., Freida K., Gustav K., Max E., Renee M., and Salvador D. Unfortunately, it seems that some of the artwork has been forged! Some of the collectors are professionals, each of whom owns exactly two genuine paintings and one forgery. The rest of the collectors are amateurs, each of whom owns exactly two forgeries and one genuine painting. Fortunately, we can tell the difference because all the forgeries have false statements written on them, whereas the genuine paintings have true statements! Can you piece together the paintings and pick out the forgeries?

Alice In 1941 – American Village – Cabaret Scene – Clear Ideas – Crepuscular Old Man – Hydrometric Demonstration – Judith – Little Machine – Love – Mae West Lips Sofa – Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick – Pom Po Pom Po Pon – Ryders House – Self Portrait Very Ugly – Sixteenth of September – Soir Bleu – Tree of Life – Tunas Still Life With Prickly Pear Fruit

This season of Mission Street Puzzles will be ending at the end of September, with our last puzzle released on Sept. 27th! But don’t worry, we’ll be back with Season 2 on Feb. 7, 2018. Mark your calendars!

Frequently Asked Questions:

“How do I submit answers?” Submit final puzzle answers to answers@missionstreetpuzzles.com with your team name!

“What if I’m stuck?” Email help@missionstreetpuzzles.com, or check out our Beginner’s Guide.

“How do I get T-shirts?” We offer T-shirts for the winning teams (Fastest Solver, First Photo, Best Photo) and a randomly chosen team! If you’ve already won a T-shirt, you’ll receive another color after five wins.

And the correct answer to the Cuter Baby Animals! puzzle was…

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As Mission Street Puzzles staff was writing our last puzzle, we got sidetracked by some adorable photos of baby animals. As it turns out, a dastardly crew called the League of Extraordinary Puzzle-Haters is trying to sabotage our website by distracting us with these cute pictures! Can you help us figure out where in San Francisco their operative is based? Perhaps clicking the photos will provide some clues…

This season of Mission Street Puzzles will be ending at the end of September, with our last puzzle released on Sept. 27th! But don’t worry, we’ll be back with Season 2 on Feb. 7, 2018. Mark your calendars!

Frequently Asked Questions:

“Do I need to solve the original Cute Baby Animals puzzle first?” No, this is a standalone puzzle. Feel free to jump right in!

“How do I submit answers?” Submit final puzzle answers to answers@missionstreetpuzzles.com with your team name!

“What if I’m stuck?” Email help@missionstreetpuzzles.com, or check out our Beginner’s Guide.

“How do I get T-shirts?” We offer T-shirts for the winning teams (Fastest Solver, First Photo, Best Photo) and a randomly chosen team! If you’ve already won a T-shirt, you’ll receive another color after five wins.