Immaculate Grid

[Blzer]

Has anybody played this yet?

https://www.immaculategrid.com/

It is one of those "puzzles of the day" games (probably inspired by Wordle, like all of the others).

Here is an example of a blank grid for a particular day:



The rules pop up when you first play it, but for permanence sake here you go (because some are particular and I screwed myself up sometimes):

• Select a player for each cell that matches the criteria for that cell's row and column.
• You have nine guesses to fill out the grid.
• Each guess, whether correct or incorrect, counts as a guess.
• There is a new grid every day.
• A player cannot be used twice.
• Players may be active or inactive.
• Previous names of franchises will qualify. For example, Expos players will match for the Nationals and Browns players will match for the Orioles.
• For player and team cell: player must have played at least one major league game for that team.
• For team and award cell: The player must have won the award in a season he appeared for that team. The exception is All-Star selections, which are only associated with a single team. For example, Joey Gallo was an All-Star in 2021 and split the season between Texas and New York. He represented the Rangers in the All-Star game, so he would match for Rangers All-Stars but not Yankees All-Stars. However, other award winners that played for multiple teams can match any team they played for. In 2019, Zack Greinke won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger while playing for both Houston and Arizona. He would qualify for those awards for either team.
• Hall of Famers can be inducted from any category (player, team, umpire, executive/pioneer) but must have played a major league game for the team in question.
• World Series winners must have appeared in a postseason game (or on the postseason roster) that season for the team to qualify.
• For team and season stat: The player must have recorded the stat while on that team. For players who played on multiple teams in a season, the stat must have been recorded with that team. For example, in 2017 J.D. Martinez hit 45 home runs in a season split between Detroit and Arizona. He would not match for 40 HR for either team because he hit 16 with Detroit and 29 for Arizona.
• For team and career stat: The player who reached the career stat simply had to play for the team at any point. For example, Randy Johnson would match for 3,000 strikeouts even though he had 2,162 for Seattle and 2,077 for Arizona. Career rate stats have minimums of 3,000 plate appearances and 1,000 innings.
• New 7/11/2023: If one of the stats is a rate stat (BA, ERA, etc.), the player must have qualified for the season’s rate stat leaderboards.
• For two stat/awards cells: The player did not necessarily need to accomplish the stats/awards in the same season. For example, Willie McCovey would qualify for 40+ HR and Rookie of the Year.

Now that you've read the rules, here is an example of a filled out grid for that day:



What I have found to be very fun with this is trying to achieve a low Rarity Score. If you see the percentages next to each player, that is the percentage of the time that player has been selected among correct guesses by other people. Your rarity score is the sum of the percentages from your nine boxes (any blank ones after nine guesses is 100% for getting it "wrong"). So instead of just going for the most popular selection, you try and shoot for somebody who would rarely be selected if able, like instead of choosing Albert Pujols for an Angels/Cardinals player you select Andres Galarraga. After you complete your nine guesses for the day, on the stats page it allows you to see the top selections for each box, and it also links to Baseball Reference so you can see a list of all the players who were possible selections for each box.

No one can stop you from "cheating" here, and time to time I will admittedly double-check to see if a player did indeed play for a team by personally searching them up but I am 90% on the button when I do anyway, but it's all in good fun. I honestly mostly have trouble with things like Cy Young and Rookie of the Year honorees. The only problem with this game, unlike Wordle, is that I don't see how to track your overall stats, so my historical values are wiped away completely.

I thought it would be fun for us to do daily/weekly challenges or something of the sort, but it would be a lot to maintain if so.

I just had my lowest ever score today (7/19), so I thought I'd at least share that one:

Immaculate Grid 108 9/9:
Rarity: 36
IMMACULATE!
🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩

[reyes the roof]

I did it for the first time yesterday and I’m hooked

[DrJones]

Yep, I've started doing this and Puckdoku, the NHL counterpart. Definitely too casual to be competitive at other sports.

I'm trying to do this as a pure memory test. A rather generous 27 minute time limit (sometimes takes the wheels in my 50-year-old brain to start spinning), no double-checking, no looking at rosters, no leaving the page until I've made all my guesses or time's up.

I definitely find I'm better at making 90s/00s links (80s/90s links in hockey) than I am with anything in the last decade, LOL.

[Blzer]

Quote: Originally Posted by DrJones

Yep, I've started doing this and Puckdoku, the NHL counterpart. Definitely too casual to be competitive at other sports. I'm trying to do this as a pure memory test. A rather generous 27 minute time limit (sometimes takes the wheels in my 50-year-old brain to start spinning), no double-checking, no looking at rosters, no leaving the page until I've made all my guesses or time's up. I definitely find I'm better at making 90s/00s links (80s/90s links in hockey) than I am with anything in the last decade, LOL.

What's funny is I have the same problem here as I do when I pick up a guitar and somebody asks what songs I can play: suddenly I draw a total blank.

Sometimes I sit there and say: "I don't remember a single Chicago Cub player. Sammy Sosa?" I draw blanks on the present, major success stories, etc. during the moment. It is a pressure thing, I guess. Yet, in normal conversation or thought I'd have no problem having perfect recall of whole starting rotations from two decades back.

Then I also have some Mandela effect going on where I could've sworn I saw some player in some uniform, etc. What often causes this I think is I remember them having a big moment against that team or in that stadium, but not necessarily playing for them.

[DrJones]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blzer

What's funny is I have the same problem here as I do when I pick up a guitar and somebody asks what songs I can play: suddenly I draw a total blank. Sometimes I sit there and say: "I don't remember a single Chicago Cub player. Sammy Sosa?" I draw blanks on the present, major success stories, etc. during the moment. It is a pressure thing, I guess. Yet, in normal conversation or thought I'd have no problem having perfect recall of whole starting rotations from two decades back. Then I also have some Mandela effect going on where I could've sworn I saw some player in some uniform, etc. What often causes this I think is I remember them having a big moment against that team or in that stadium, but not necessarily playing for them.

Same. I'm not sure if I remember more from my teens/20s because my cognitive abilities were sharper then, or if our memory capacity has limits, and instead of dumping older "core" memories, my brain is dismissing recent experiences instead.

[Sportsforever]

I’ve been doing this for a few weeks now; I enjoy it. I can usually get 9-9, but like Blzer I strive to have the lowest rarity score that I can. I do like the idea of a time limit…I should implement that, although I don’t think I’ve ever gone 27 minutes yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[LowerWolf]

They've added NFL now too.

It's addicting.

[Blzer]

Quote: Originally Posted by LowerWolf

They've added NFL now too. It's addicting.

Yes, the other three major sports can be found at https://crossovergrid.com/

NFL would be tough for me because I'm only well-versed with the QB/RB/WR/TE positions, and even there it's limited to about the past few decades. I know some of the high-caliber defenders and some kickers, but I'd really be pushing there.