CCCC Cryptic Crossword Contest 2020
The annual national inter-school CCCC Cryptic Crossword Contest, which is popular as CCCC, was launched in 2013, which was being observed as the ‘Year of the Crossword’. Since then, this pan-India event has been one of the most keenly awaited fixtures of schools’ annual calendars of co-curricular activities. Its 8th annual run will take place between October and December 2020.
The launch of this year’s edition of the contest has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Though the lockdown is being lifted gradually, schools will take some more time before they start functioning normally.
Extra-C has taken a decision that the contest must go on by exploring an alternative mode and format to suit the prevailing situation. It has decided on an online-offline format to conduct CCCC 8.0, the 2020 edition of CCCC Cryptic Crossword Contest.
The outline of the contest plan is as under:
FORMAT
Will be held in an online-offline format
DURATION
Will be conducted between October and December 2020
REGISTRATION
The registration opens on October 4 at 10am on www.crypticsingh.com. It is free of cost. Participants have to register as a team of two members. It may be done directly by the participants or through the school. The schools may register as many teams as possible.
The contest is open to students from Std VII to XII.
STAGES
Planned as a three-stage event
Stage 1
Will begin on October 10 and will comprise a Practice Round and three scoring rounds – Round I, Round II and Round III. These will be held online where contestants will have to solve puzzle grids. In each round, the contestants will get 6 days to solve the clues. The marks will be allotted for both speed of submission and the number of correct solutions. Scores will not be awarded in the Practice Round. After the each scoring round, there will be a Leaderboard to rank teams on the basis of their performances.
PRACTICE ROUND
Begins October 10 (at noon IST); answers can be uploaded till 11 am October 15
ROUND 1
Begins October 17 (at noon IST); answers can be uploaded till 11 am October 22
ROUND 2
Begins October 24 (at noon IST); answers can be uploaded till 11 am October 29
ROUND 3
Begins October 31 (at noon IST); answers can be uploaded till 11 am November 5
Stage 2
To be held in November
Teams will be shortlisted on the basis of the performances in the three rounds to qualify for Stage 2. This will also be held online with a slightly different format where the teams will be present onscreen and the contest will be conducted by a CrossMaster. The contestants will have to provide annotations for their answers to earn points. The contestants will also be intimated in detail about the manner in which the contest will be held once they enter this stage.
Stage 3
To be held in December
On the basis of their performances in Stage 2, teams will be shortlisted for the Grand Finale which could be held offline. In case the situation is not conducive for that, the online format will be identical to that of Stage 2 and more details will be provided to the teams once they reach the final stage.
PRIZES and CERTIFICATES
All participating teams which have participated in any of the three scoring rounds in Stage 1 will receive certificates. City winners and runners up will receive prizes besides the certificates.
The national winners (team) will receive a cash prize of Rs 21,000 and the National inter-school Crossword Champion trophy
The runner-up team will receive a cash prize of Rs 15,000 and a trophy
The 2nd runner-up team will receive a cash prize of Rs 11,000 and a trophy
INFORMATION/CLARIFICATION
All relevant information may be accessed on the websitewww.crypticsingh.com . The participants are advised to check the CCCC page on the site regularly for updates.
For any clarification, teacher-in-charge/participant may contact Mr Amitabh Ranjan (9102996469) or Ms Unsa Siddiqui (9650055022). The same may be sought by sending a mail to extracpatna@gmail.com
Sincerely
(Raj Narayan Singh)
National Coordinator
CCCC 8.0
9102481707
Extra-C