For win - new V-Cube 7

[Markus Pirzer]

If I were on vacation from school I would attempt to make a computer program to solve this puzzle. But, alas, I am swamped with homework... (two weeks behind on a 20 page paper because of the SAT)

March break, I will attempt to make a solver for this puzzle even though the contest will probably be over, and this idea I have is probably against the rules...

It's indeed against the rules. I've added the rule "It's not allowed to use computer programs which solve the puzzle automatically" to my "Participation terms" since you were not the first one who had the idea to make a computer program. Allowing computer programs would make this a completley different competition. However I would be very interested whether you succeed in making such a program.

 

[Markus Pirzer]

Now I have more than 98.000 visitors on my website. As mentioned in my participation terms, for the last few days of the competition there will be no further update of the highscore list until the end of the competition.

I will announce the winner 2 days after the end of the competition.

 

[Markus Pirzer]

3 days ago, my website got its 100,000th visitor and therefore the slide puzzle competition has ended. I promised that I will announce the winner 2 days after the end of the competition, but there's a reason why I didn't do that:
I have some indication which let me think that the top result was cheated. Please give me some additional time for consideration before I make my decision whether he gets the price or I give it to the second placed competitor.
I wrote him already some mails, for the last I'm waiting for answer. Today I wrote him that he has a time limit for reply of 2 days. After that I will make my decision.

 

[cpt.Justice]

Can you atleast say who the second placed competitor is?

 

[Markus Pirzer]

Please be patient for another 2 days. I will definitively announce the winner on Wednesday, 16th February at 21:00 MEZ (GMT+1:00)

 

[Markus Pirzer]

I've disqualified the competitor on the first place because of the following reasons:

After it turned out that my CPC is not safe, I searched for an additional cheat prevention. Finally I added a file request when the puzzle was started and another file request when the puzzle was solved. Thereby I see in my logfile the starting time and the finishing time and I can double-check the result. I've also added an additional information to the CPC: The number of time needed for the first 100 moves.

According to my logfile, the reputed cheater has finished the puzzle only 2 times in the last week of the competition. The first time he seems to have solved the puzzle in 55 seconds, the second time he seems to have solved the puzzle in 2 minutes 40 seconds (+/- 1 second). He sent me a screenshot with a time of 2:39.6 and 790 moves. -> the time of his first solve seems to be not very realistic

According to the CPC (which is correct) he needed only 6 seconds for the first 100 moves which would be an average of almost 17 moves per second. -> his speed (moves per second for the first 100 moves) seems to be not very realistic

According to my logfile, the file requests of the applet (start and stop of the puzzle) are the first (!!!) file requests with his IP address -> it seems that he has started the puzzle without visiting my website.

My theory is that he has used a computer program to solve the puzzle (which is not allowed in my participation terms). The first time he achieved an unrealistic time so maybe he slowed down the programm to get a more realistic time which is fast enough to get the first place (maybe the program waited a certain time before making the last move).

I asked him whether it is possible to send me a video of one of his solves. He answered that this would make no sense, because he had a very easy scrambled puzzle and he will never get a second chance to achieve a similar time -> this statement seems to be not true, because he needed 790 moves which are in my opinion enough to solve every possible state of the puzzle.

I answered him that the time doesn't matter, I only want to see his speed (moves per second). I also asked if he can solve the puzzle 2 more times and send me the screenshots (because I wanted to get more data to harden or to rebut my suspicion). I also informed him that there are some indications that his solve was not achieved with respecting the participation terms.
After this I never heard from him again. I set him a time limit for his answer and remembered him every day. The time limit ended today and I still have no answer, so I definitively disqualified him today.

 

[Markus Pirzer]

and the winner is ......

Eddie Hove

Congratulations!

 

[Nogard]

Haha, great Eddie grats

 

[cpt.Justice]

Yay, thanks