Crosswords LA is this coming Saturday, October 21. This crossword tournament consists of five puzzles for tournament attendees to solve, followed by a finale where the top three solvers race to complete one last puzzle and claim victory!

I reached out to Elissa Grossman, who runs and coordinates Crossword LA, and she was kind enough to fill me in on some of the details of this weekend’s event, her ninth year as the woman in charge!

The event will be hosted on the campus of the University of Southern California, beginning at 10:30 AM and ending at around 4:00 PM.

Online, advance registration is currently closed, because we reached 120 participants. There will be about 20 additional seats still open for walk-in participants, however. Check-in and, for those who choose it, on-site registration will open at around 9:30 AM.

I like having a small event, as it feels, in many ways, like a family project. The MIS Chief is my father. The Assistant Director is my son (who is only recently 7 and takes his pencil box filling responsibilities very seriously); he will this year help man the check-in table, with my mother. My nephew, a USC student, will also likely volunteer as a puzzle collector — and bring some of his friends to help out as well.

The event includes five in-competition puzzles of various difficulties, one warm-up crossword, one warm-up game for everyone, one team puzzle race, and a head-to-head-to-head final. This year’s puzzle wrangler is Alex Boisvert of Crossword Nexus, who invited this year’s constructors and oversaw all aspects of crossword production.

There are prizes for the winners for each division (usually gift baskets or chocolate towers, because we have a wonderful donor who gives us these). There is a “Perfect Puzzler” bumper sticker for those who solve clean for the whole tournament.

The funds that we raise are donated to Reading to Kids — a wonderful, local non-profit that sends hundreds of volunteer readers into schools each month, to read to the children and share a love of reading.

Tyler Hinman and Alex Boisvert will this year announce our Finals.

And for those who might be interested in tackling the Crosswords LA tournament puzzles themselves, there’s some good news…

For about six years now, however, we’ve sold tournament puzzle packs after the event is over. These packs typically go on sale about 24-48 hours after the tournament ends — and usually cost $5 or $6. They include all in-competition puzzles, the team race, the warm-up puzzle, and, sometimes, a bonus puzzle or two. The puzzles will be accessible through a link from our home page and from the Crossword Nexus site. They can be purchased for download or for email receipt (with attached zip file).

Good luck to everyone attending the event on Saturday, and many thanks to Elissa for her time, as well as friend of the blog Patti Varol pointing me Elissa’s way!

Are you planning on attending Crosswords LA, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.

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