Congratulations to the top 10 teams in this year’s contest! All 10 completed the first five rounds of this challenging puzzle. A special congratulations goes to the top three teams, who completed all seven rounds.

The first place team, Dofir, walked away with an iPod touch. Tom Pohl and Team Blue, who tied for second, earned a ION Mini Block Rocker and a portable touchpad, respectively. An Amazon Fire Tv, the prize for the first person or team to complete the bonus round, is still waiting for someone to claim it!

The puzzle was meant to get more difficult as it progressed, but several other factors affected the average duration of each round of the puzzle. We calculated the time to complete round one based on the time the contest started: Thursday, August 7 at noon–but clearly not everyone got started that early. The other averages are based on the time since that team completed the previous round.

AverageTimes

The times were also affected by the decreasing number of competitors that completed each successive round. By round 5, for example, only a modest 12 teams were still playing, and they had the experience to complete the round relatively quickly. 264 teams registered to play, and 63 completed the first round while at DEFCON.

Finishers