The puzzle is a description of the letters pulled out of the bag by each player in a Scrabble game, and their respective scores at each turn. For example, the first player draws GIINNNW, plays WINNING for 80 points, and then draws EGLNRRTT. The first task is to figure out how the game progresses.
Words played, in order:
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|
| WINNING | RANTS |
| ENTRANTS | EMITTING |
| LARGEST | ROSEMARY |
| VALUED | GUINEA |
| WORD | UXORIAL |
| SKYWAY, WINNINGS | WHOOP |
| ABODE, OE | ZETA |
| QUIVER | HYSSOP |
| PIPE | JIB |
| ALL | PARALLELEPIPED |
| OFTEN | ICONS |
| DOTE | CUD |
And the final board looks like this:
| V | D | O | T | E | Q | |||||||||
| A | F | U | P | |||||||||||
| L | A | R | G | E | S | T | J | I | B | A | ||||
| U | N | E | V | R | ||||||||||
| E | M | I | T | T | I | N | G | E | A | |||||
| D | R | U | X | O | R | I | A | L | ||||||
| A | I | L | ||||||||||||
| Z | W | I | N | N | I | N | G | s | E | |||||
| E | O | T | E | K | I | L | ||||||||
| T | R | O | S | E | M | A | R | Y | C | E | ||||
| A | B | O | D | E | W | H | O | O | P | |||||
| A | N | I | ||||||||||||
| H | Y | S | S | O | p | |||||||||
| E | ||||||||||||||
| C | U | D |
Notice the first few words played by player 1: WINNING ENTRANTS LARGEST VALUED WORD. The answer is thus PARALLELEPIPED, for 221 points (the largest valued word by far).
2006 MIT Mystery Hunt