Lollapuzzoola is a crossword tournament held annually in New York City. Puzzles are commissioned for Lollapuzzoola, and made by the best puzzle makers around. Since its inception in 2008, Lollapuzzoola has grown to be the largest annual tournament in New York, and the second largest in the world.

Lollapuzzoola  is cohosted by Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer. Contestants battle in several divisions: Express (for speedy solvers), Local (for normal Earthlings), Rookie, Pairs, and the At-Home Division for people who can't get to New York.

There are seven tournament puzzles, a meta puzzle suite, and typically other assorted games (sometimes trivia or NPR-style events), goofy banter, unwarranted disaster, unnecessary noise, a boatload of snacks, and everyone communes over pizza at the conclusion.

Follow Lollapuzzoola on Facebook and Twitter, or check out our Wikipedia page.

Everyone solves the same five puzzles, and is scored on the same metrics of speed and accuracy. The best solvers in each of the Express and Local Divisions will compete in the Championship Finals on large dry-erase grids on stage.

Solo players will be placed in either the Express or Local Division based on past tournament standings — top 20% finishers at either the ACPT or Lollapuzzoola over the past three years will be in the Express Division; everyone else is in the Local Division. (Pairs and At-Home solvers are not placed in these other two skill divisions.)

In addition, there are optional games that don't impact scoring, including a multi-puzzle suite by Patrick Blindauer.

The official tournament events run from 10am to 4pm. Before that, people tend to mingle and play some extra free puzzles. At 4pm, the championship rounds begin. After that, the awards ceremony and pizza social close out the day.

The At-Home Division can be done non-competitively at your leisure, or follow the optional instructions for tracking your own scores and seeing how you measure up against the live tournament.