2018 Crossword Puzzle Contest

Hi everyone, The answers, explanation and winners' names are now up at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/crosswords/escape-room-contest.html *Deb gets trampled to death*

Apologies if this point has already been made, but did anyone notice that when the letters in the four corners are replaced, the revised down words yield the contest result, but the across answers remain valid words. Thus, Lear becomes Year, Chino becomes China, Roast becomes Toast and Sled becomes Slew. A nice additional piece of craftsmanship.

By examining the four "down" corners, one can solve without actually needing the keys. Some apparently did just that and figured out the gimmick after the fact. Successful decryption often depends on making an educated guess and testing the hypothesis. The puzzle was fun no matter how you approached it.

P.S. to Deb (and Will): I understand not providing the names of the winners until later (it will take a bit of time), but what's up with not sharing an entry count, and what NYT XWP deems the correct answer(s), immediately after closing the contest to entries (i.e., now)?

Tried to post this twice last night as a reply, but no go. Let's try this morning as a thread-start. Re: order of the answer Any valid order of the four words *should* be accepted, but I'm thinking *crossword protocol* calls for clue number order (lowest to highest): YOU ARE OUT NOW.

I didn't understand why some people said my post on that day was a spoiler and gave away half of the contest portion of the puzzle. The main thing I said was that theme squares contained a rebus of KEY and a letter such that it made sense to use KEY in one direction and a letter in the other direction. After that, the instruction clearly stated what to do. I didn't give away the letters, but it wouldn't matter. Upon solving the rebuses were placed with the letters. I discussed the puzzle like it was the regular puzzle with the rebus. I didn't reveal the instructions which, everyone who solved the puzzle would have seen. I didn't explain the substitution of the letters with the corner squares like some other people did. I just didn't understand! Nevertheless that was fun anyway. My version of the solution was YOU ARE OUT NOW, i.e. left to right, top to down. Not clockwise. But as many have pointed out, even if a little awkward, almost any order of the 4 words will come out meaning roughly the same.

My submission ran clockwise from the NW: “You Are Now Out.”

Come on, spill it, people! I solved the puzzle in 30 minutes and found all the keys, but could not crack the escape room code. Dying of curiosity.

You are out now???

I solved with only 3 keys, so where was the last one? must have been under a 'T'? could NOT locate it.

Contest? What contest?