PuzzleCrack was an annual tradition at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. It is a weeklong

puzzlehunt A puzzle hunt (sometimes рuzzlehunt) is an event where teams compete to solve a series of puzzles, many of which are tied together via metapuzzles. Puzzlehunt puzzles are usually not accompanied by direct instructions for how to solve them; ...

competition that combines

problem-solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

with computer hacking.

History

The competition began in October 2002 under the name Puzzlehack. It took place during the annual UIUC ACM's reflections❘projections conference in 2002 and 2003, was sponsored by Microsoft, and was run by Microsoft employees and UIUC alumni Josh Michaels and Igor Kofman. In October 2004, Don Schmidt and Dan Sledz took over as heads of Puzzlehack. The year's contest was simply known as "Puzzle 3". In 2005, the contest returned under a new name, ''PuzzleCrack'', and was run by past winner and UIUC alumnus Bert Johnson of Allbase, Inc.

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

and ACM provided prizes. 2005's contest involved a record number of participants. PuzzleCrack 2006 was run from October 16 to October 20, 2006, again by Bert Johnson of Allbase. Prizes were sponsored by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, and, once again, records were broken. More than 5,000 people viewed the puzzles and hundreds of teams participated. PuzzleCrack 2007 took place from October 8 to October 12, 2007 and was run by "The Big Enchilada". Prizes were provided by Amazon.com and Microsoft, and both viewership and participation broke the previous year's records. PuzzleCrack 2008 took place between October 20 to October 24, 2008, again by "The Big Enchilada". Prizes were provided by Amazon.com and Microsoft. This was the first year where the competition ended in a tie. PuzzleCrack 2009 was initially delayed to the Spring of 2010 due to time constraints, but as of November 2011, no further PuzzleCrack events have been held.

PuzzleCrunch is a similar, one-day puzzlehunt which has been run twice during the Spring. The competition was first run by Bert Johnson with Microsoft as a sponsor in 2006. It was last run by "The Big Enchilada" on April 26, 2008, with Amazon.com and Microsoft providing prizes.

Past winners

{, class="wikitable" , - !rowspan = "2", Event !rowspan="2", Date !colspan = "3", Winners , - !Placement !Team Name !Team Members , - , rowspan="3", PuzzleHack , rowspan="3", October 2002 , ''1st'' , SIGMil , , - , ''2nd'' , , , - , ''3rd'' , , Andrew Badr , - , Puzzlehack 2.0 , October 2003 , ''1st'' , Team Geekspotting , Dave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James Laird , - , Puzzle~~hack~~ 3 , October 2004 , ''1st'' , Team Geekspotting , Dave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James Laird, Peter Schlichting , - , rowspan="3", PuzzleCrack 2005 , rowspan="3", October 2005 , ''1st'' , , Jeff Huang,

Ludvig Strigeus Ludvig "Ludde" Strigeus (born 15 January 1981) is a Swedish programmer, best known for developing software such as the BitTorrent client μTorrent, '' OpenTTD'', and Spotify. Early life and education Strigeus was born in January 1981, and he gra ...

, Wes Henderson, and Teresa Karr , - , ''2nd'' , Team Florida , Matt Belcher, Kim Belcher, David Hwang, Erin Wolf, and Mike Treaster , - , ''3rd'' , SIGMil , , - , rowspan="3", PuzzleCrack 2006 , rowspan="3", October 2006 , ''1st'' , The Big Enchilada , Kyle Harlow, Jason Monchino, Corinne Russell, Jared Russell, Jordan Timmermann, Derrick Wright , - , ''2nd'' , , 4 , Jacob Beacham, Michael Almaraz , - , ''3rd'' , , Kevin Berg, Derek Donahue, and Nick Wagers , - , rowspan="3", PuzzleCrack 2007 , rowspan="3", October 2007 , ''1st'' , Team Turtle , Bob Bregant, Jessica Bregant, and Hilary Wilson , - , ''2nd'' , The SoftwARR Pirates , Kevin Berg, Richard Carlson, Marc Holden , - , ''3rd'' , Team Spontoon , Greg Schechter, Stephen Kloder, Benjamin Juang, Marty Hanlon, Lauren Haynes, and Bo Zheng , - , rowspan="3", PuzzleCrack 2008 , rowspan="3", October 2008 , ''1st (Tie)'' , Team Geekspotting , Vicki Bitters, Dave Carlisle, Joe Holzman, Bert Johnson, Toni Johnson , - , ''1st (Tie)'' , The Collective , Jared Suttles, Fred Fettinger, Patrick Auchter, Joe Swantek, Josh Ehlke, Alex Garfield, Mike Lombardi , - , ''3rd'' , The Discoverers + Atomic Falcon + AvonPaintball , Greg Schechter, Ryan Kagin, Dan Tan, Nir Friedman, J. Eggleston, David Nilosek, Geoff Carlson, Jack Tubbs , -

External links

Puzzlehack Home

PuzzleCrack Home
Puzzle hunts University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

History

Related

Past winners

External links