Pattern Assembly

PATTERN ASSEMBLY

Memorize the mess and pick out patterns from them.

This game was invented by me, brand new for this tournament. There is no specific inspiration; the goal is simply to make a puzzly/mental game that can be hosted in the group stage, i.e. doesn't have much work to prepare.

GAME RULES

⚙️ Setup and terminology

The game features a 6×6 grid filled with pictures. There are three kinds of pictures: red circle, blue cross, and green plus. Each grid also has a coordinate system, where the rows are labeled A-F and the columns are labeled 1-6. The following is an example board.

A group of cells is a connected set of cells. The shape of a group is the arrangement of cells making up the group; the shape of a group can be rotated and flipped. The contents of a group are the pictures in it. The contents of a group are always presented in a specific order: circles, then crosses, then plusses. As an example, in the above board, we can find a group of cells having the following shape and with the given contents. One possible solution is C3-D3-D4-D5-E5 (rotating the shape); another possible solution is D2-D3-E3-F3-F4 (flipping the shape).

The game consists of 20 rounds, followed by a final showdown.

Before Round 1, as well as after Rounds 5, 10, and 15, the grid is revealed for 30 seconds. These are the only times the whole grid is revealed.

🧠 In a round

Within each round, players are given a shape and a set of pictures. Your goal is to find a group of cells whose shape matches the given shape, and whose contents are the given pictures. The given shape is selected based on the round number:

There are no turns; players race to find any satisfying group. It is guaranteed at least one such group exists. There might be several; in that case, any solution is acceptable.

🔍 Answering

Your answer for a round consists of a group of cells. Once you make such answer, you will enter a waiting period of 30 seconds; if you try to answer again during the waiting period, it is disregarded. The host will announce if an answer enters the waiting period.

At the end of the waiting period, the results for your answer are revealed. If it has the wrong shape (including wrong number of cells), it will simply be announced that the answer has the wrong shape and so is wrong. Otherwise, the contents of the cells you give will be revealed. (Note that the contents are always presented in order of circles, crosses, then plusses.) If the contents match the given pictures, your answer is correct and you gain points for the round. The number of points is equal to the size of the group, which the table above also shows. Otherwise, you don't gain or lose anything; you may answer again. If the opponent has answered correctly, any answer you currently have in your waiting period is disregarded.

In addition, a round lasts for 3 minutes. At the end of 3 minutes, any pending answer attempt is resolved (the earlier one first, if both players have one). If neither player has answered correctly, the round is skipped.

🔍 Final showdown

After all 20 rounds, there is a final showdown. Each player will privately reconstruct as much of the entire grid as possible. Fill each cell with either a circle, a cross, or a plus, or leave it blank. Your goal is to answer correctly as many cells as possible without giving any wrong answer. Once both players have submitted an attempt, their answers are revealed.

If all non-blank cells are correct, you get points equal to the number of cells you fill. Otherwise, you score nothing.

💎 Winning

After the final showdown, the player with more points wins. In case of a tie, the player with more cells correctly answered in the final showdown wins.

ADMINISTRATION

🏷️ Writing your move

As stated above, your answer must consist of a group of cells that matches the shape; if either of these is not satisfied, your answer is disregarded (and you can immediately answer again).

For the final showdown, you must state your attempt clearly. It is recommended that you type out your grid, using O for circle, X for cross, # for square, and . (period) for blank. The following is an example way to answer the example grid given in the setup, where you give the (correct) answer for the top 3 rows and leave the bottom 3 rows empty:

```

X X O X + X

O O X + O X

• X X X O O

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

. . . . . .

```

However, you can submit in any other way you want; just make sure to explain it clearly to the host.

👁️ Available information

As explained above, the board is only revealed during specific moments; it is otherwise hidden.

Other than that, all information is public. You should make your moves in the public game room.

After each round, the point count for each player will be posted. As a reminder, it will also be announced how many shapes the next round has.

THIS IS A MEMORY GAME. You are not allowed to take notes. However, you are allowed to scroll up; attempting to reconstruct the board from the information revealed during the game is allowed, as long as you aren't taking notes. Additionally, you may take notes during the final showdown.

⌛ Timing

As described above, each time the grid is revealed, it is revealed for 30 seconds. Each round lasts for 3 minutes, and whenever you make an answer attempt, you need to wait 30 seconds for the results.

The final showdown lasts for 5 minutes. If you run out of time, you are submitting nothing.

CLARIFICATIONS

📌 Generating the grid and the questions

The game host has full reign on preparing the grid and the questions. The rules have been designed so it's easy to generate a fully random grid and set of questions, but the host is permitted to prepare and generate their own grid and questions by hand, in case they do not wish to just do full random. The host is allowed to share any information about the grid/questions (such as if they generated them randomly or not, what measures they have taken to mitigate randomness, etc), although they do not need to; but if they do share such information, it must be shared to both players.

The following method is suggested to generate a fully random match:

• To generate the grid, simply assign a random symbol to each cell. However, the host is suggested to intervene and make sure each symbol doesn't appear too often or too rarely; a good rule of thumb is that each shape should appear 10-15 times on the grid.
• To generate each question, take one random shape allowed for the round, then place it randomly on the grid (with random rotation/flipping). Take the contents, and now it is a question. This guarantees a solution exists, although there might be more.

📌 Rule change: answers with wrong shape

Now, all answers enter the waiting period, regardless of whether they have the correct shape or not. Submissions made during the waiting period are disregarded. At the end of the waiting period, if a submission has the wrong shape, it will be stated so (and the contents of the submission are not revealed).

The host will state which submission enters the waiting period; that way, you can tell that all submissions made between when the host stating so and when the results are posted will be ignored.