[Caution: Spoilers Ahead!]
Solutions
Advent Calendar
As hinted by the title and flavor text (Advent; "every day", etc), we're looking for something tied with a daily basis and the Christmas season. While this doesn't explicitly clue anything obviously, some of the answers to the crossword-style clues look very suspicious; in particular, "Video game pack in uncommon ocean (9, 2, 1, 4, 3)" fairly unambiguously gives the ending IN A RARE SEA, which rhymes suspiciously well with IN A PEAR TREE. Other potential break-in points included "Ancient items (3,6)" as OLD THINGS and "The sink repairman's on his way (7'1 6)" for PLUMBER'S COMING.
Below is a table showing the solutions:
As hinted by the title and flavor text (Advent; "every day", etc), we're looking for something tied with a daily basis and the Christmas season. While this doesn't explicitly clue anything obviously, some of the answers to the crossword-style clues look very suspicious; in particular, "Video game pack in uncommon ocean (9, 2, 1, 4, 3)" fairly unambiguously gives the ending IN A RARE SEA, which rhymes suspiciously well with IN A PEAR TREE. Other potential break-in points included "Ancient items (3,6)" as OLD THINGS and "The sink repairman's on his way (7'1 6)" for PLUMBER'S COMING.
Below is a table showing the solutions:
Clue | Answer | Rhymed line |
---|---|---|
Ancient items (3, 6) | OLD THINGS | GOLD RINGS |
Fiesta maker's aggressive dog having a nap (4'1, 3, 8) | FORD'S CUR SLEEPING | LORDS-A-LEAPING |
Fund-giving organisation turning down the lights (7, 7) | SPONSOR DIMMING | SWANS-A-SWIMMING |
Helps a monarch of strong, soft fabric (4, 1, 4, 4) | AIDS A SILK KING | MAIDS-A-MILKING |
Minions; cronies; partners in crime (8) | HENCHMEN | FRENCH HENS |
Newborns playing dice or roulette, perhaps (6, 8) | BABIES CHANCING | LADIES DANCING |
Pieces of speech or text accelerating downwards (7, 5) | FALLING WORDS | CALLING BIRDS |
Quote by 49 BC Roman dictator (6, 6) | CAESAR SAYING | GEESE-A-LAYING |
The sink repairman's on his way (7'1, 6) | PLUMBER'S COMING | DRUMMERS DRUMMING |
Venomous snakes using keyboards (6, 6) | VIPERS TYPING | PIPERS PIPING |
Video game pack in an uncommon ocean (9, 2, 1, 4, 3) | CARTRIDGE IN A RARE SEA | PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE |
Violet hand coverings (6, 6) | PURPLE GLOVES | TURTLE DOVES |
The next step is to use the boxes at the bottom of the page. The answers, in the order given, fit into the boxes exactly by enumeration; for each letter that lands on a green cell, Caesar shift it by the amount and direction indicated to obtain a new letter. Since each line of the song as a number associated with it, we can further order the answers in the order 1-12, as shown below:
Answer | Rhymed line | Position | Extraction |
---|---|---|---|
CARTRIDGE IN A RARE SEA | PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE | 1 | FL |
PURPLE GLOVES | TURTLE DOVES | 2 | EE |
HENCHMEN | FRENCH HENS | 3 | TW |
FALLING WORDS | CALLING BIRDS | 4 | OO |
OLD THINGS | GOLD RINGS | 5 | DM |
CAESAR SAYING | GEESE-A-LAYING | 6 | AC |
SPONSOR DIMMING | SWANS-A-SWIMMING | 7 | SD |
AIDS A SILK KING | MAIDS-A-MILKING | 8 | RE |
BABIES CHANCING | LADIES DANCING | 9 | AM |
FORD'S CUR SLEEPING | LORDS-A-LEAPING | 10 | SB |
VIPERS TYPING | PIPERS PIPING | 11 | SI |
PLUMBER'S COMING | DRUMMERS DRUMMING | 12 | DE |
The extracted letters spell out FLEETWOOD MAC'S DREAMS B-SIDE. The B-side to Fleetwood Mac's song "Dreams" is Songbird, so the answer is SONGBIRD.
Arctic Circle
This puzzle comprises 9 icebarn logic puzzles. Each puzzle has a unique solution that, when drawn on the grid, produces a letter in the lower-left corner of the grid. These letters spell out the answer AMBIGUOUS.
This puzzle comprises 9 icebarn logic puzzles. Each puzzle has a unique solution that, when drawn on the grid, produces a letter in the lower-left corner of the grid. These letters spell out the answer AMBIGUOUS.
Movers and Shakers
Solvers are given a Balanced Hackmons replay with extremely odd choices of teams, from Pokemon to moves to abilities and even plays. Since the puzzle's title and flavor text make special reference to moves, the first step could be to look at the moves used during the battle; the initials of the 45 moves used spell out IDENTIFY THE ABILITIES THEN SORT USING POKEMON NAMES. The next step is then to identify the abilities, and furthermore, since the Pokemon names start with the letters A-L, this forms a natural ordering:
Solvers are given a Balanced Hackmons replay with extremely odd choices of teams, from Pokemon to moves to abilities and even plays. Since the puzzle's title and flavor text make special reference to moves, the first step could be to look at the moves used during the battle; the initials of the 45 moves used spell out IDENTIFY THE ABILITIES THEN SORT USING POKEMON NAMES. The next step is then to identify the abilities, and furthermore, since the Pokemon names start with the letters A-L, this forms a natural ordering:
Pokemon Name | Pokemon Ability | Note | First Letter |
---|---|---|---|
Absol | Levitate | Mentioned in errata | L |
Braviary | Inner Focus | Didn't flinch to Fling + King's Rock | I |
Celebi | Chlorophyll | Shown via Skill Swap | C |
Dragonite | Intimidate | I | |
Excadrill | Truant | T | |
Floatzel | Mold Breaker | M | |
Glaceon | Own Tempo | Shown via Swagger | O |
Heliolisk | Volt Absorb | Mentioned in errata | V |
Infernape | Effect Spore | E | |
Jellicent | Suction Cups | Shown via Dragon Tail | S |
Keldeo-Resolute | Early Bird | Shown via Skill Swap | E |
Lugia | Torrent | Shown via Skill Swap | T |
The first letters of the identified abilities spell out LICIT MOVESET, hinting to look at the legality of the moves in play. Each Pokemon has two to four of its moves shown during the battle; in combination with their abilities, only one (non-Smeargle) Pokemon can legally learn all of the moves shown. This is summarised below:
Pokemon Name | Pokemon Ability | Move 1 | Move 2 | Move 3 | Move 4 | Legal Pokemon |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Absol | Levitate | Hex | Aura Sphere | - | - | Giratina-Origin |
Braviary | Inner Focus | Yawn | Taunt | Guard Swap | - | Umbreon |
Celebi | Chlorophyll | Skill Swap | Low Kick | Ingrain | - | Exeggutor |
Dragonite | Intimidate | Dragon Tail | Ominous Wind | Thunder Fang | - | Salamence |
Excadrill | Truant | Punishment | Night Slash | After You | - | Slaking |
Floatzel | Mold Breaker | Bubble Beam | Ice Fang | Earthquake | Natural Gift | Gyarados-Mega |
Glaceon | Own Tempo | Ice Ball | Harden | Earthquake | - | Avalugg |
Heliolisk | Volt Absorb | Trump Card | Nuzzle | Swagger | Echoed Voice | Minun |
Infernape | Effect Spore | Energy Ball | Retaliate | Mega Drain | Natural Gift | Breloom |
Jellicent | Suction Cups | Ice Beam | Octazooka | Energy Ball | - | Octillery |
Keldeo-Resolute | Early Bird | Infestation | Fling | Mach Punch | Strength | Ledian |
Lugia | Torrent | Ice Beam | Encore | Trump Card | Knock Off | Samurott |
The first letters of the Pokemon which can legally possess the given move-ability combinations spell out GUESS GAMBOLS, so the answer is GAMBOLS.
Reaching New Heights
The given puzzle is a dropquote puzzle, but with a list of double-space-separated terms instead of a single quote, so it's difficult to find a place to start. Instead, the flavor text hints strongly at Magikarp Jump (reaching new heights, flopping around), in particular training; perhaps with the aid of the accented É and the exclamation mark at the end, one might be able to realise that this is a list of Magikarp Jump training items. To aid in the filling, the items are all listed in alphabetical order, making it easier to resolve the many similarities in enumeration (there's a bunch of training methods which are of the form (7,4)). The completed dropquote looks like this:
The given puzzle is a dropquote puzzle, but with a list of double-space-separated terms instead of a single quote, so it's difficult to find a place to start. Instead, the flavor text hints strongly at Magikarp Jump (reaching new heights, flopping around), in particular training; perhaps with the aid of the accented É and the exclamation mark at the end, one might be able to realise that this is a list of Magikarp Jump training items. To aid in the filling, the items are all listed in alphabetical order, making it easier to resolve the many similarities in enumeration (there's a bunch of training methods which are of the form (7,4)). The completed dropquote looks like this:
One letter in each column isn't used to fill in the dropquote. These letters spell out MISSING ONE FIRST WORD; the only training regimen not appearing in the dropquote is the Sandbag Slam, so the answer is SANDBAG.
Venn-Ding Machine
The flavor text hints at drinks, and after putting a few of the more unambiguously recognisable terms into Google together (e.g. Cosmopolitan, Barracuda, Casino, Singapore Sling) will probably allow many solvers to make the connection to alcoholic drinks—in particular, each picture represents an official International Bar Association (IBA) cocktail. Since the flavor text further mentions "what they put in these things", we could look at each cocktail's official ingredients list; the shaded region in each Venn diagram identifies exactly one ingredient, which fits into the blanks at the bottom of the page such that one letter is entered in between a pair of brackets [ _ ].
The flavor text hints at drinks, and after putting a few of the more unambiguously recognisable terms into Google together (e.g. Cosmopolitan, Barracuda, Casino, Singapore Sling) will probably allow many solvers to make the connection to alcoholic drinks—in particular, each picture represents an official International Bar Association (IBA) cocktail. Since the flavor text further mentions "what they put in these things", we could look at each cocktail's official ingredients list; the shaded region in each Venn diagram identifies exactly one ingredient, which fits into the blanks at the bottom of the page such that one letter is entered in between a pair of brackets [ _ ].
Diagram | Cocktail A | Cocktail B | Cocktail C | Identified ingredient |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Singapore Sling | Cosmopolitan | Sea Breeze | Cran[b]erry juice |
2 | Harvey Wallbanger | Screwdriver | Sea Breeze | Orange ju[i]ce |
3 | Barracuda | Golden Dream | Yellow Bird | [G]alliano |
4 | Aviation | Casino | Sidecar | Mara[s]chino |
5 | Yellow Bird | Between the Sheets | Golden Dream | W[h]ite rum |
6 | Stinger | Between the Sheets | Sidecar | C[o]gnac |
7 | Yellow Bird | Between the Sheets | Golden Dream | [T]riple sec |
The letters that fall in the brackets spell the final answer BIG SHOT.
Awards Ceremony (Meta)
The feeder answers for this metapuzzle:
The next step is to realise that all the answers contain the letters G, S, and B, representing the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. For each medal winner, we can take the letter in that Pokemon's name corresponding to the matching medal letter in the answer, as shown below:
The feeder answers for this metapuzzle:
- SONGBIRD
- AMBIGUOUS
- GAMBOLS
- SANDBAG
- BIG SHOT
- Get a jump on the competition with a gift from the Advent Calendar!
- Make use of your brainpower to help the skaters plan their routines in the Arctic Circle!
- Get up to speed on some of the competition's Movers and Shakers!
- Find out if you have the stamina required to go Reaching New Heights!
- Check out the event's killer drinks at the Venn-Ding Machine!
The next step is to realise that all the answers contain the letters G, S, and B, representing the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. For each medal winner, we can take the letter in that Pokemon's name corresponding to the matching medal letter in the answer, as shown below:
Puzzle | Category | Answer | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Movers and Shakers | Speed | GAMBOLS | WEAVILE | VICTINI | DIANCIE |
Arctic Circle | Power | AMBIGUOUS | MIGHTYENA | POLIWRATH | TREVENANT |
Venn-Ding Machine | Skill | BIGSHOT | LUCARIO | ZOROARK | LOPUNNY |
Reaching New Heights | Stamina | SANDBAG | EXPLOUD | MACHAMP | WALREIN |
Advent Calendar | Jump | SONGBIRD | LANDORUS | ARTICUNO | JUMPLUFF |
We can now read off our final answer: the special prize at the Winter Pokéathlon was to WIN THE COLD MEDAL.