2020 Puzzel of the Year Thread (NOMINATION DEADLINE 1/31)

[Balin]

Happy New Year, everyone! A new year means another puzzle to receive the title of Puzzel of the Year. Now it's up to all of us to nominate and make that decision.

Here are the rules and guidelines as posted by IrishElk last year and slightly tweaked by me:

* * * *

Please nominate your faves by posting the title and author of your favorite puzzles from this year. If you have the time, a link to the puzzle would be much appreciated. Nominate as many as you like.

Nominations will be closed around January 21st, but will not close them until everyone who expressed an interest has had a chance to post. Any puzzle that was nominated more than once will make it to the final round, where we each vote for our top three.

THE GUIDELINES

1. You must choose puzzles that were spoiled in 2020. In the Solved section, that starts with JenBurdoo's "Lightbulb!" and ends with klondike mary's "that sinking feeling." This also includes any puzzles still on the Active Board if they were solved by 12/31/20 GMT.
2. You must nominate classical-style puzzles. Novelty or special puzzle types, such as lateral adventures and rulebreakers, as much as we love them, are ineligible for this list. OAATPs are considered a subset of classical puzzles and are eligible. Neologisms may be eligible, as long as there is a classic lateral twist involved.
3. You may rank the puzzles. This won't weight them any more heavily for consideration for round two, but it's nice for forum users to see that their puzzle was someone's particular favorite.
4. You must provide the name of the puzzle and the host. You are not obliged to provide a hyperlink, but it is useful.
5. You may choose multiple puzzles by the same host, or keep it to one per LTPFer if you'd prefer.
6. You may not submit one of your own puzzles or vote for yourself, but I do encourage people to let us know afterword, or separately in the Chatroom: what was your favorite of your own puzzles this year?
7. You are not obligated to justify your choice or explain your criteria, but it can be nice for the hosts to see what they did especially well.

THE PRIZE
Our undying awe and gratitude. Renewed confidence in your awesome mental capabilities. And possibly a funny Top Gun style nickname for you.

Oh, and your puzzle title will be edited to say [PUZZEL OF THE YEAR 2020] after it.

So happy Puzzle Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

[Doriana]

Thanks for organizing this, Balin!

I nominate, in no particular order
irishelk - That's right, I named it after me
WiZ - Gifts of the Maggie
markobr - Form follows function

[Balin]

When your list of top puzzles includes a lot from the same author, you tend to nominate more puzzles in consequence. Here are my top 15, alphabeticaly by author:

[Doriana] New rules and regulations
[Doriana] That's 33.92 UDS or 26.74 GBP
[Earnest] Crossing the line of decency
[Hobbsicle] Driver: Tight Right Turn
[Hobbsicle] Letter of the Law
[Hobbsicle] Politics Before Religion
[Hobbsicle] This Place Displays Displacement
[Hobbsicle] Wonderwall
[IrishElk] The Man at the Back
[peter365] Nescafe and Ice
[WiZ] Gifts of the Maggie
[WiZ] Person, Woman, Man, Camera, Tv
[WiZ] The deceased's health has not yet improved
[WiZ] The Sharp Knife of a Short Life
[WiZ] Tom's Marvelous Riddle

[WiZ]

Bit of an ordeal trying to cull the list to 10. Much like funerals in Level 4 lockdown. Went with one per author out of necessity, but I will say the highly commendeds were highly commendable this year.

My top 10, alphabetically by author:

[AlbatrossLover] This Might be a Strange Question
[Balin]... With this one Easy Trick
[Doriana] Subtle Titles
[Enjay] Ring Ring
[Hobbsicle] Letter of the Law
[Hominid] This Man
[IrishElk] A Capital Idea
[JenBurdoo] Overlooked
[Klondike Mary] The Defense Rests
[Peter365] Of Recklessness and Water

[Hobbsicle]

More proof that 2020 wasn't a bad year for everything.

[Balin] Search high and low - Holding on to this one to share, a great easier one
[Balin] A bad sport - Love the its-not-actually-about-sports lateral twist
[Doriana] Subtle Titles - Social media: the source of strange behavior since 2004. Clever one, and good forward thinking.
[GalFisk] Hands up! - I've definitely done this before and seen it done, but it sure does sound odd when you take it out of context, good observation
[IrishElk] It is Your Birthday. - The fact that it's about The Office might give me some bias in its favor, but I genuinely like the recursive nature of this one (he is an employee who needs an office to write a story about an employee in the office that he's in)
[JenBurdoo] Lightbulb! - Can always count on Jen to bring the clever military-related puzzles, and I like the element of who-knows-what about this one
[klondike mary] the prosthesis thesis - The things I've never thought about the TV shows I grew up with
[WiZ] Tom's Marvellous Riddle - Leave it to WiZ to come up with some clever and humorous observation about extremely ordinary things
[WiZ] The deceased's health has not yet improved - I like that the wording is somehow misleading while being entirely fair. I mean, what could be in the guy's pockets?

[irishelk]

So many good ones this year! It's almost as if we were all just sitting around our houses, thinking strange thoughts.

[Balin] ...with the knife, in the... - A creative lateral puzzle about a creative lateral solution.
[Enjay] Ring Ring - The solution is clear and easy to picture, but still tricky to get to.
[GalFisk] Hands up! - Agree with Hobbs, this very nicely makes an everyday action strange.
[Hobbsicle] Goodnight Noises Everywhere - This will be a good one to tell at a family gathering...whenever gatherings are a thing again...
[Hobbsicle] Nervous Laughter - Any statement that reminds me of the Blair Witch Project is good in my books.
[JenBurdoo] Lightbulb! - Really interesting historical story, and well-suited to a puzzle.
[klondike mary] yu might as well laugh - This one really made me smile. Well worded.
[markobr] Form follows function - Very interesting and unusual situation.
[peter365] Laps and Megends - A classic normal-thing-made-weird statement.
[WiZ] The deceased's health has not yet improved - Requires a good lateral leap.

And I think we've established that Admin can't win, but I loved [Admin] Lie Down

[peter365]

HI all,

If I'm not too late here's 3 thati really enjoyed. I forget how to the link thing.

Wiz - Tom's Marvellous Riddle http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12482 . I've tried this out on many people and they all liked it.

Balin with the knife in the.... http://www.lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12615 This one was very clever and lateral

Jenburdoo Overlooked http://lateralpuzzles.com/puzzles/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12636 Sounded complicated but the solution was very straightforward