Lollapuzzoola 15: A Crossword Tournament Returns to NYC for its Quinceañera
Live from New York, it’s a Saturday in August! Or rather, it was a Saturday in August. Saturday, August 27, 2022 to be exact. The 15th iteration of New York’s premier crossword tournament, Lollapuzzoola, came home to Riverside Church after a two-year in-person hiatus, and it was quite the extravaganza. Bursting at the seams with puzzle content, the tournament came home to feed quarantine-weary solvers their annual dose of wordplay, high jinks, and Utz Cheese Balls.
Started in 2008 by Fill Me In podcast co-hosts Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht, the first Lolla took place in a tiny church in Jackson Heights, Queens. Acting as a sort of incubator for future ACPT winners such as Dan Feyer and Erik Agard, it quickly grew. (ACPT is, of course, the American Crossword Tournament. Directed by Will Shortz, it is held annually in Stamford, CT and is the largest crossword competition, thus it tends to be a bit more formal and high-pressure than Lolla.)
In 2011 Lolla moved to All Souls Church in Manhattan, and Hecht (who moved cross-country) was replaced by crossword constructor and musical theater performer and teacher, Patrick Blindauer. In 2018, the tournament outgrew its shell again, relocating to Riverside Church in the Upper West Side. Then, for some strange reason…can’t seem to remember what, the tourney had to go virtual-only in 2020. Some safety issue, I dunno. And they did it again in 2021, with puzzle powerhouses Brooke Husic and Sid Sivakumar stepping up, acting as co-hosts with Cimmet.
But now Lolla’s back in NYC, as alluded to by its theme: “Live from New York … It’s Saturday!” (That’s a reference to a semi-insidery joke about the tournament always being an unspecified Saturday in August.) Husic and Sivakumar were back as well, and so was the online component, as a simultaneous virtual competition was held on Twitch with host Chris Piuma and his cat, Baskerville, who is named after the font.
Both versions featured the same five puzzles, all of which played into the New York theme, plus a sixth themeless puzzle constructed by Husic herself for the finals. Similar to the ACPT, the finals puzzle has two clue sets with different difficulty levels for the different divisions, which are based on solver experience and past performance. With the novelty subway sobriquets “Express” and “Local,” the finalists for both divisions solved on whiteboards before a captive audience. There was a pairs division as well, though their finals were not onstage.
Though the post-puzzle pizza party from past years was a victim of Covid restrictions, there were still Halloween Oreos and bottled water (the basics one needs to sustain life) aplenty. Plus, the veritable tournament mascot, Utz Cheese Balls, made a brief appearance. (The cheesy spheroids rose to Lolla fame after UTZ appeared in a puzzle one year and Cimmet, worried that solvers might not be familiar with the brand, bought a tub and flung them, projectile-style, into the mouths of audience members.)
In addition to the aforementioned puzzle lineup, the tournament also feature two meta suites, one by the meta-building legend Foggy Brume, and one by a fleet of top-notch crossword constructors. Solvers were also treated to an unused tiebreaker crossword, included in a digital puzzle pack sent post-tournament. When I said this tournament was bursting at the seams, I wasn’t kidding, as it ran about an hour overtime. I don’t think the crowd minded, given all the intense puzzle chat to be had amongst old friend reuniting or fresh puzzle pals meeting for the first time after joining the community virtually during quarantine. The schedule also squeezed in a live broadcast of the virtual tournament’s finals, which were as, if not more, exciting as the on-the-ground finals.
I do want to emphasize the casual nature of Lolla for those who might want to attend. Don’t be afraid that your rookie patina will make you stand out or preclude you from enjoying the puzzles. And if you feel like you don’t know anyone, there’s always an ice-breaker game to help get people interacting. Seriously, this tournament is so chill that they allow cheating — in the form of Google tickets. Solvers are given tickets they can turn in in exchange for non-theme answers to grease the wheels if they get stuck and the clock is running out. (See full scoring rules at bemoresmarter.com/scoring/.) In short, regardless of your skill level or how well-initiated you are in the puzzle community, you’ll belong here. If you’re still shy, or have other concerns barring you from attendance, casual solvers can purchase a copy of all the puzzles to do at their leisure for about a month post-tournament. (This year’s puzzles can be purchased at bemoresmarter.com until Sept. 24.)
The diverse array of tournament puzzles reflected some recent trends in crossword construction. Husic’s beast of a finals puzzle was so devilishly hard that the in-person Express finalists didn’t produce a single clean grid. Matt Gritzmacher, who took home first place, finished with empty squares. One could argue it was too difficult, but perhaps it’s just a sign of the times: Hard puzzles have been trending harder, a shift led by Husic herself and the indie puzzle scene. Virtual tournament winner Tyler Hinman was the only solo Express finalist to complete the puzzle correctly. As the reigning ACPT champ, Hinman is a real one-off, but maybe that’s what we’re looking for these days. Prodigies, spectacles, game-changers — I’m talking about the puzzles, not the solvers. Thus an apt ending to Lolla’s homecoming, as it is still the biggest tournament to also juggle innovation. Despite recent changes, Lollapuzzoola never forces itself into the starched shirt of convention, always providing puzzles that speak to the now, that speak to crossworld — It is the people’s tournament.
Lollapuzzoola Resource Round-Up
For more Lollapuzzoola info, visit https://www.bemoresmarter.com/. The complete puzzle packet from Lolla 15 — all the tournament crosswords and the meta suites — is available to purchase for $20 through Sept. 24. (The entry fee for the tournament this year was $50 for in-person attendees and $20 for those solving online.)
Also check out Brian Cimmet and Ryan Hecht’s podcast, Fill Me In (https://bemoresmarter.libsyn.com/). Episodes right after tournaments (which are always a Saturday in August) provide detailed recaps, and episodes right before tournaments give the details you need to know if you’re planning on partaking in the festivities.
Lolla 15 Constructors:
- Pao Roy
- Ella Dershowitz https://www.elladershowitz.com/
- Paolo Pasco http://gridsthesedays.blogspot.com/
- Francis Heaney https://avxwords.com/
- Will Nediger http://blog.bewilderinglypuzzles.com/
- Brooke Husic https://xwordsbyaladee.blogspot.com/
- Rafa Musa https://puzzfeed.weebly.com/
Meta Suites:
- “On Location” by Foggy Brume
https://pandamagazine.com/
https://www.twitch.tv/foggybrume - “Five Boroughs” by
Kate Chin Park https://kateschmatecrosswords.weebly.com/
Kelsey Dixon https://www.kelsey.wtf/home
Shannon Rapp https://www.norahsharpe.com/
Carly Schuna
Sid Sivakumar https://www.sidsgrids.com/
Winners:
- Express: Matt Gritzmacher https://dailycrosswordlinks.com/ (If you are not subbed to Matt’s Daily Crossword Links, what are you doing with your life? — Well, not crosswords… I guess the question answers itself.)
- Local: Ada Nicolle https://luckyxwords.blogspot.com/
- Online: Tyler Hinman https://www.twitch.tv/thatpuzzleguy (Watch Tyler make mince meat out of the beefiest grids)
- Pairs: Claire and Pete Rimkus https://justgridding.blogspot.com/
Other people to know:
- Patrick Blindauer http://www.patrickspuzzles.com/
- Chris Piuma https://www.chrispiuma.com/
About the Author
Writer/cartoonist/cruciverbalist Hayley Gold is the author of the interactive crossword graphic novel Letters to Margaret, available here. The novel is innovatively told from dueling perspectives by two crossword-obsessed protagonists, Margaret “Maggie” A. Cross and Derry Down. You can follow Hayley on Twitter at @HayleyRabbit. She also co-hosts a monthly Twitch stream solving cryptic crosswords with Will Nediger and friends at https://www.twitch.tv/bewilderingly (next stream will be on Sept. 16 at 9 pm ET). You can hear Hayley discuss her work on the latest episode of the Because Language podcast here, or tune in to the Zoom-based show That Word Chat on Oct. 4 — sign up to attend here.
