The tournament happens on Saturday, August 17 at the Riverside Church in New York City. Official events run 10am-4pm with a bit of pre-show and post-show extras. There are only 375 seats available, so don't put this off to the last minute!
Tickets are available for solo competitors ($50), Pairs Division competitors ($100 for the pair), with an optional addon of $8 for our Annual Pizza Social, which follows the tournament.
If NYC isn't for you, you can also join our At-Home Division ($15), which affords you all the puzzling pleasures ... via a PDF and your printer.
Lollapuzzoola includes a full slate of tournament puzzles (eight original crosswords), bonus games, prizes in various divisions and categories, more Utz cheese balls and Dum-Dum lollipops than we care to admit, all in a full day of fun.
Lollapuzzoola is the greatest crossword puzzle tournament ever held on a Saturday in August. What more do you need to know? (Okay, scroll down a bit for more details.)
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.
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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.
Lollapuzzoola has grown from a small church basement classroom with 23 contestants in 2008 to the largest crossword tournament in New York City (over 900 players in 2017, between the live tournament and the At-Home Division).
Our primary focus is entertaining you. Lollapuzzoola is built on the foundation of making puzzles and puzzle tournaments fun for everyone, regardless of experience or skill. We look forward to sharing that fun with all of you!
If you have any questions for us, click the button below to send us a message.