Solution to MIT Round
The MIT round consists of 24 puzzles, each of which is associated with a playing card. Separating the puzzles by card suits groups them into three metas of eight puzzles each:
After solving the three metas, teams are sent on a runaround across campus, which ends with finding the vorpal sword to defeat the Jabberwock. However, the Jabberwock reveals himself at that moment and explains to teams that he too is running from the beast and hands teams a deck of cards, telling them that the real identity of the beast can be found in the cards. The solution to the card deck meta meta is below.♣ The Clubs Meta
Author: Erin RhodeThere are eight MIT puzzles associated with the cards in the suit of clubs, which come in non-contiguous order, forming a meta puzzle with an ordering to be determined.
| Card | Answer |
| 2 ♣ | ABYSMAL |
| 4 ♣ | BODY SIZE |
| 5 ♣ | DON'T WORRY BABY |
| 7 ♣ | ICE CREAM SANDWICH |
| 9 ♣ | ICHABOD |
| J ♣ | MALPRACTICE |
| Q ♣ | MANIFESTO |
| K ♣ | STOP CODON |
The answers in this meta can form a chain such that the last three letters of first word are the first three letters of the second word and the last three letters of the second word are the first three letters of the third word and so on.
MANIFESTO...DONTWORRYBABY.MALpractICE..........ICHABOD......STOPCODON.......ABYSMAL.....ICECREAMSANDWICH.BODYSIZE
Taking the overlapping trigrams and reading the middle letters gives the bait TOBACCO. (Note: the middle letter of the beginning and end trigrams of the chain takes you from A to Z, so you know you've started and ended the chain correctly.) Upon leaving out the "bait" of TOBACCO, teams trap the Caterpillar, who shows them a rabbit hole to Wonderland, specifically the Mock Turtle's riverbank.
♠ The Spades Meta
Author: Hanna StarobinetsThere are eight MIT puzzles associated with the cards in the suit of spades, with 2-9 contiguous represented, forming a meta puzzle with an ordering given by the cards. Each answer in this meta is a collective noun (e.g. a PRIDE of lions, a FLOCK of sheep). Taking the first letter of the animal associated with the collective noun in card order and reading the first letter gives the answer MANCHEGO. Upon leaving out the "bait" of MANCHEGO, teams trap the Dormouse, who shows them a rabbit hole to Wonderland, specifically the Tea Party.
| Card | Answer | Animal |
| 2 ♠ | MISCHIEF | Mice |
| 3 ♠ | SHREWDNESS | Apes |
| 4 ♠ | WATCH | Nightingales |
| 5 ♠ | INTRUSION | Cockroaches |
| 6 ♠ | ARRAY | Hedgehogs |
| 7 ♠ | MEMORY | Elephants |
| 8 ♠ | TROUBLING | Goldfish |
| 9 ♠ | WOBBLE | Ostriches |
♦ The Diamonds Meta
Author: Dan KatzThere are eight MIT puzzles associated with the cards in the suit of diamonds, which come in two contiguous chunks, forming a meta puzzle with an ordering only partially determined by the cards. In addition, the titles to the puzzles in this meta all have either the word Across or the word Down in the title.
| Card | Answer | Puzzle Title |
| A ♦ | PADAWAN | I Stumbled Across a Recording |
| 2 ♦ | ROOMING | Across the Hall |
| 3 ♦ | DOWNPAT | Find Your Way Across |
| 4 ♦ | TOYOTAS | I Came Across a Japanese Rose Garden |
| 8 ♦ | PERIDOT | Dressing Down |
| 9 ♦ | DOORWAY | Upstairs, Downstairs |
| 10 ♦ | WHIPPET | Down the Rabbit Hole 2: Super Magic Samurai Robot Ninja Police Force: Electric Boogaloo |
| J ♦ | NEGATES | Opposites Are Not Downbeats |
The answers in this meta can interlock to form a grid, with all of the answers from puzzles with across in the title running across and all of the answers from puzzles with down in the title running down. Reading the diagonals of the grid gives the bait TWIN POPS. Upon leaving out the "bait" of TWIN POPS, teams trap Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who show them a rabbit hole to Wonderland, specifically the White Queen.
E.O.H.E
ROOMING
I.R.P.A
DOWNPAT
O.A.E.E
TOYOTAS
♣ ♠ ♦ The Card Deck Meta Meta ♣ ♠ ♦
Authors: Erin Rhode, Dan KatzIn the deck of cards, 28 cards look like standard playing cards. However, 24 cards have different colored jabberwock halves decorating the edges and a Lewis Carroll nonce word (or Lewis Carroll inspired nonce word) on them, indicating a right-side up. In addition, the back of the playing cards all have a 4x6 array of multi-colored jabberwocks on them.
The 24 cards, which are all cards associated with a puzzle in the MIT round, can be arranged into a 4x6 grid such that the jabberwocks all line up with matching colors.
The answers to the puzzles associated with each card are each the same length as the nonce word on the corresponding card. In addition, the words overlap at exactly one letter. Reading the overlapping letters from left to right across the arranged grid gives THE BEAST IS MS ALICE LIDDELL, the answer to the meta meta, informing teams that the beast they are hunting down in Wonderland is the titular heroine in Lewis Carroll's book!
