We asked each of the first twelve teams to be accepted to encode a specific word in their team photo (the photos bordered in red), and we supplied a grid of letters, numbers, and symbols. Each of the words that was encoded had a synonym that included an x and a y. (This was hinted at by the words FIND and SYNONYMS in the grid, as well as by the five elements [earth, air, fire, water, love] forming an X and a Y [kind of].) By using the positions of x and y in each synonym as Cartesian coordinates pertaining to the grid, and ordering the letters alphabetically by the original clued word (the first letters of the words ran in order L through W) a message was spelled out.
Thanks to Team Snout for making such a nice chart and letting us use it!
The origin of the letter grid is (1,1) in the lower left corner (letter "C").
| Team | Media | Solution | Synonym | (X,Y) | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grover Cleveland Steamer |
H Q P 2 L P W H R A F Y E . % O F $ I 8 I I L A C I V R Z S N N B 5 R & G E P Y D A * E B T I T V N K R A U 7 L H A 3 O # : B A P @ N W C N I A L R X S M P H Y L 6 G 9 Q F I G D M C R F U J T $ I K S |
ALBANY BULB @ 9 | |||
| Red5 | JPEG image | LX | sixty | (3,5) | A |
| Briny Deep | MP3 audio | MARRRRRIMBA | xylophone | (1,2) | L |
| coed astronomy | JPEG image | NEBULA | galaxy | (5,6) | B |
| Blinded by Science | JPEG image | O2 | oxygen | (2,3) | A |
| Here Be Dragons | JPEG image | PRECISELY | exactly | (2,7) | N |
| Mystic Fish | JPEG image | QUINTESSENTIAL | exemplary | (2,9) | Y |
| SNOUT | MP3 audio | RAVISHING | sexy | (3,4) | B |
| The Longshots | JPEG image | SUBSTITUTE | proxy | (4,5) | U |
| Blood & Bones | animated GIF | TAILBONE | coccyx | (6,5) | L |
| SharkBait | PNG image | UNEASINESS | anxiety | (3,7) | B |
| Flying Taxi | PDF doc | VOICEBOX | larynx | (6,4) | @ |
| Snakes On A Plane | JPEG image | WILDCAT | lynx | (4,2) | 9 |
