A'phabet Day (Holiday Hoopla 2023)

A'phabet Day
Holiday Hoopla 2023
Answer	Click to revealASTEROIDS
Statistics
No. solves	65
No. total guesses	129
Links
Puzzle	Link

A'phabet Day is a puzzle from Holiday Hoopla 2023. Its difficulty level is categorized as Hard relative to the other puzzles in the hunt.

The puzzle is presented as a grid followed by a series of crossword clues.

Solve Path

The puzzle indicates that there are three steps to the puzzle.

1. the crossword clues
2. the Tetris grid and linked video
3. the enumerated blanks

 

Each part of the puzzle has its own flavor text to hint what solvers should do.

Step 1

Solvers are told that this section involves "gaming lingo". The answers to the crossword clues are all words that have a secondary meaning in the context of video games. Some of the clues contain a question mark at the end to indicate the presence of wordplay.

 

Crossword Clues and Gaming Lingo

Row	Clue	Answer	Wordplay Explanation
A	If John Kennedy were an Anthony instead…, abbrev.?	AFK	(J->A)FK
A	Hawaiian bowl dish with fish + work week starter, for short?	POKEMON	POKE + MON
B	Bearded ruminant	GOAT
B	Meta’s all-in-one VR headsets	QUESTS
C	Spider’s construction	WEB
C	Violent behavior, in British slang	AGGRO
C	LMN followers?	OP	O and P are the two successive letters in the alphabet.
D	A ____ OR C OR D?	ORB	"OR B"
D	Sulfur + future queen, maybe?	SPAWN	S + PAWN
D	Fifth tone of C major, fifth tone of C major?	GG	G + G
E	Deep sorrow	GRIEF
E	Palindromic data?	STATS	The word "stats" is a palindrome.
F	Crush to a powder	GRIND
F	Tabloid tell-all tale, but with the former partner swapped out for a letter like a golf ball support?	T-POSE	EXPOSÉ -> (EX->T)POSE -> T-POSE
G	Thrill or boot	KICK
G	Aang or Roku, for example	AVATAR
H	Former measure of distance, around three miles	LEAGUE
H	Opposite of "Woman Z"?	MANA	"MAN A": WOMAN -> MAN, Z -> A
I	Aries animal	RAM
I	Take advantage of	EXPLOIT
J	Clean with a broom	SWEEP
J	One Piece clown	BUGGY
K	Loafing around	IDLE
K	Rags or goads	TAUNTS
L	Jet problem?	LAG	"Jet lag"
L	Fuel location for the army vehicle?	TANK	Double definition: a tank is where fuel is stored; a tank is also a vehicle.
L	Engineering sorority founded at Marquette University, in the English alphabet	AOE	Alpha Omega Epsilon

Solvers may notice that the answers can fit in rows A-L of the grid with one letter per cell.

 

Step 2

Solvers are given a grid and a video of Tetris blocks being placed onto that grid. However, only the top few rows are shown in the video, so solvers must keep track of where each piece lands.

If solvers correctly assume that completed rows on the Tetris grid do not clear the blocks (as normally happens in a game of Tetris), the grid will be almost completely filled by the end of the video. There will be some 1x1 gaps remaining in the grid.

 

Step 3

Solvers are told that "A'phabet Day" is "Noel Day", or "No 'L' Day". Solvers should remove the L-shaped Tetris pieces to reveal the letters behind.

Solvers can read all the remaining letters (from both the L-shaped pieces and the 1x1 gaps) and use the provided enumeration to piece together the final cluephrase: Click to revealAMONG US WEAPONS TASK CLEAR BLANK.

 

The word that correctly completes the blank is the final answer to this puzzle: Click to revealASTEROIDS.

Puzzle Elements

Tetris - This puzzle is centered around a game of Tetris.

 

Visual Extraction - Extraction involves reading letters from specific locations on a grid.