For this competition you will be presented with an 8x5 grid, containing a total of 40 squares. Each round players will win the ability to ‘claim’ squares for themselves, and claiming adjacent squares will accumulate points for yourselves.
I will post three letters (i.e. ‘TRE’) and you will send a word back to me starting or ending with those letters in the presented order. So with my example you could have ‘treachery’ or ‘centre’. The word you send must be present on Dictionary.com to be classed as valid, and I’ll lay down the rules for that shortly. You are allowed no longer than 60 seconds to send a word.
You want to send as long a word as possible, but also be fast at sending it, as you will be able to place down squares on the grid based on your performance in either these elements.
- The player who sends in the 1st LONGEST word will get to claim 3 squares.
- The player who sends in the 2nd LONGEST word will get to claim 2 squares.
- The player who sends in a word 1st QUICKEST will get to claim 2 squares.
- The player who sends in a word 2nd QUICKEST will get to claim 1 square.
Although word length constitutes to the highest number of winnable squares, the ORDER in which squares will be claimed after each round is decided by submission order, aka the lower-scoring speed submissions. So there are some choices to be weighed up.
Any ties for longest word will be broken by speed. It’s possible for a single player to win spaces for BOTH word speed and word length, so they could win up to 5 spaces in a single round. Each player may only send ONE submission per round.
Now about the scoring process. A single lone square will score a player 0 points on its own, but you can gain points by having adjacent squares also owned by yourself. Adjacent squares in this comp refer to those immediately ABOVE, BELOW, LEFT or RIGHT of a specific square. Diagonal squares do not count.
Claiming an adjacent square to one you already own gives the initial space AND the new space a value of 1 point each, as both spaces earn from being adjacent to each other.
If a square therefore happens to be boarded on all four sides by squares owned by the same player as that initial one, the player will earn the maximum 4 points for that square, alongside at least 1 point for each of those connected adjacent squares.
After 5 rounds, the player with the most points from their squares will win IMMUNITY.
Ties will broken by the player who has the MOST individual claimed spaces on the board winning. If that fails to break the tie, there will be final Sudden Death round to get the longest word.
