PuzzleCrack was an annual tradition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is a weeklong puzzlehunt competition that combines problem-solving with computer hacking.
History
The competition began in October 2002 under the name Puzzlehack. It took place during the annual UIUC ACM's reflections❘projections conference in 2002 and 2003, was sponsored by Microsoft, and was run by Microsoft employees and UIUC alumni Josh Michaels and Igor Kofman.
In October 2004, Don Schmidt and Dan Sledz took over as heads of Puzzlehack. The year's contest was simply known as "Puzzle 3".
In 2005, the contest returned under a new name, PuzzleCrack, and was run by past winner and UIUC alumnus Bert Johnson of Allbase, Inc. Google and ACM provided prizes. 2005's contest involved a record number of participants.
PuzzleCrack 2006 was run from October 16 to October 20, 2006, again by Bert Johnson of Allbase. Prizes were sponsored by Microsoft, and, once again, records were broken. More than 5,000 people viewed the puzzles and hundreds of teams participated.
PuzzleCrack 2007 took place from October 8 to October 12, 2007 and was run by "The Big Enchilada". Prizes were provided by Amazon.com and Microsoft, and both viewership and participation broke the previous year's records.
PuzzleCrack 2008 took place between October 20 to October 24, 2008, again by "The Big Enchilada". Prizes were provided by Amazon.com and Microsoft. This was the first year where the competition ended in a tie.
PuzzleCrack 2009 was initially delayed to the Spring of 2010 due to time constraints, but as of November 2011, no further PuzzleCrack events have been held.
Related
PuzzleCrunch is a similar, one-day puzzlehunt which has been run twice during the Spring. The competition was first run by Bert Johnson with Microsoft as a sponsor in 2006. It was last run by "The Big Enchilada" on April 26, 2008, with Amazon.com and Microsoft providing prizes.
Past winners Event Date WinnersPlacement Team Name Team MembersPuzzleHackOctober 20021stSIGMil2nd3rdAndrew BadrPuzzlehack 2.0October 20031stTeam GeekspottingDave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James LairdPuzzlehack 3October 20041stTeam GeekspottingDave Carlisle, Henry Goffin, Bert Johnson, James Laird, Peter SchlichtingPuzzleCrack 2005October 20051stJeff Huang, Ludvig Strigeus, Wes Henderson, and Teresa Karr2ndTeam FloridaMatt Belcher, Kim Belcher, David Hwang, Erin Wolf, and Mike Treaster3rdSIGMilPuzzleCrack 2006October 20061stThe Big EnchiladaKyle Harlow, Jason Monchino, Corinne Russell, Jared Russell, Jordan Timmermann, Derrick Wright2nd|4Jacob Beacham, Michael Almaraz3rdKevin Berg, Derek Donahue, and Nick WagersPuzzleCrack 2007October 20071stTeam TurtleBob Bregant, Jessica Bregant, and Hilary Wilson2ndThe SoftwARR PiratesKevin Berg, Richard Carlson, Marc Holden3rdTeam SpontoonGreg Schechter, Stephen Kloder, Benjamin Juang, Marty Hanlon, Lauren Haynes, and Bo ZhengPuzzleCrack 2008October 20081st (Tie)Team GeekspottingVicki Bitters, Dave Carlisle, Joe Holzman, Bert Johnson, Toni Johnson1st (Tie)The CollectiveJared Suttles, Fred Fettinger, Patrick Auchter, Joe Swantek, Josh Ehlke, Alex Garfield, Mike Lombardi3rdThe Discoverers + Atomic Falcon + AvonPaintballGreg Schechter, Ryan Kagin, Dan Tan, Nir Friedman, J. Eggleston, David Nilosek, Geoff Carlson, Jack Tubbs
External links Puzzlehack Home PuzzleCrack Home
References