A part of the Morse code puzzle.
The answer was "Thusly is the conundrum solved."
TAZ will use the very same scoring system that Team Get On A Raft With Taft introduced at its premiere event in 1906, when the invention of Morse Code made puzzles possible. The score awarded to each team for any given puzzle was determined as follows:
Base puzzle value = average solve time, in minutes, for all successfully solving teams
Multiplier = 1 + (0.1 * number of other teams beaten) + (0.3/0.2/0.1 for 1st/2nd/3rd)
For instance, here were the results for the Morse code puzzle:
| Team | Solve Time | # of Teams Beaten | Score |
| Blood & Tourniquets | 40 minutes | 17 | 180 |
| Brawny Reptiles Who Will Scorch You What Good | 42 minutes | 16 | 168 |
| Chums | 45 minutes | 15 | 156 |
| Coed Astrology | 48 minutes | 13 | 138 |
| Continental War | 48 minutes | 13 | 138 |
| Dark Horse Candidates | 50 minutes | 12 | 132 |
| F. Scott Fishgerald | 55 minutes | 11 | 126 |
| Here Be Dragons | 57 minutes | 10 | 120 |
| Know-Nothings | 58 minutes | 9 | 114 |
| Men of Hollow, Gilded Society | 60 minutes | 8 | 108 |
| Phaeton’s Chariot | 62 minutes | 7 | 102 |
| Proboscis | 64 minutes | 6 | 96 |
| Radium for Health! | 65 minutes | 5 | 90 |
| Red 1905 | 67 minutes | 4 | 84 |
| Rendered Sterile by Radium | 75 minutes | 3 | 78 |
| Scandalously Dressed Women | 76 minutes | 2 | 72 |
| Shit, Wilbur, There Is A Serpent On The Wing | 79 minutes | 1 | 66 |
| Yarr, We Be Actual Pirates | 89 minutes | 0 | 60 |
| (Average) 60 minutes | |||
Only four teams solved the second and final puzzle before time ran out:
| Team | Solve Time | # of Teams Beaten | Score |
| Blood & Tourniquets | 20 minutes | 3 | 56 |
| Brawny Reptiles Who Will Scorch You What Good | 30 minutes | 2 | 49 |
| Chums | 40 minutes | 1 | 42 |
| Coed Astrology | 50 minutes | 0 | 35 |
| Continental War | (did not finish) | 0 | |
| (Average) 35 minutes | |||
We favor this scoring system because:
1. it allows for a “fresh start” feeling on every new puzzle;
2. it reduces the value of “bonus” puzzles and awards the most points when all teams are actually competing;
3. it eliminates the reward for driving between clue sites really fast;
4. it carried Taft to an easy win in 1908.
As in 1906, the calculations will be handled by handheld automata, so you need not worry about the details. The optimal strategy is: solve early, solve often!