As I sit here nursing a mild crossword hangover (and wondering why my brain still feels like it’s chasing anagrams at 3 a.m.), I can finally say: the IXL 2025 online season is done. Ten rounds, ten Sundays of pure cryptic adrenaline, and the results are out. What a ride.
For the uninitiated, IXL is India’s premier cryptic league—11 years strong, masterminded by the legendary Vivek Kumar Singh (IAS, RERA Bihar Chairman, and the man who can solve a grid while running a state). This year the bar was stratospheric: over 500 participants, international superstars dropping 100s like confetti, and for the first time ever, a perfect solve didn’t even guarantee Top 100 because of tie-breakers on time. Brutal.
My own little adventure went something like this:
Started in a very respectable (read: not embarrassing) 13th after Round 1, crept to 12th, then hit the afterburners with a 94 in Round 3 that catapulted me to 8th. By Round 6 I’d sneaked into 6th place… and somehow, through sheer stubbornness and a lot of luck with the typo-gremlins, I never left it again. Even when I crawled across the line in 85 minutes for Round 9 (my personal “I aged ten years” puzzle), the cushion from earlier weeks held.
Final position: 6th overall, 898 points, average 89.8 Lowest score: 84 (Round 8 – my dignity is still recovering) Best scores: 94 twice (Rounds 3 & 6 – the ones I’m proudest of)
My submission times tell their own story of slow-and-steady vs. the speed demons:(Timings where available provided from the organizing team – thanks to Satyen Nabar, who also set for the contest and tirelessly co-ordinated with the team of setters)
| Round | My time | #1 spot time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 min | 9 min |
| 4 | 18 min | 9 min |
| 5 | 23 min | 7 min |
| 9 | 85 min | 37 min |
| 10 | 21 min | 5 min |
| Round | Time (mins) | Rank | Overall |
| 1 | 27 | 13 | 13 |
| 2 | 33 | 13 | 12 |
| 3 | 48 | 7 | 8 |
| 4 | 18 | 10 | 7 |
| 5 | 23 | 11 | 7 |
| 6 | 26 | 7 | 6 |
| 7 | 19 | 10 | 6 |
| 8 | 22 | 17 | 6 |
| 9 | 85 | 9 | 6 |
| 10 | 21 | 15 | 6 |
Yes, Erik Agard solved the finale in five minutes and two seconds. I need whatever breakfast he’s having.
The podium was predictably (and deservedly) occupied by giants:
- Champion: Matthew Marcus (Portland) – 995 points, six perfect 100s, never below 98 although he solved some rounds in the US and some in England. Human? Debatable.
- Runner-up: Erik Agard (Kansas City) – 990 points, four 100s, closed the gap with a perfect finale 100 and excels in anything that is shaped like a grid.
- 3rd: Ramki Krishnan (Chennai) – 968 points of pure, unbreakable consistency and IXL champion multiple times.
Only seven solvers never dipped below 80 across all ten rounds—and I’m still pinching myself that I’m one of them.
This year felt different. Familiar Top-10 faces were pushed down by a wave of newer Indian solvers and the overseas trio (Matthew, Erik, Philip Coote) who treated our grids like gentle warm-ups. It was humbling, exhilarating, and occasionally terrifying.
For the first time ever I managed a clean sheet—no typos, no last-second blunders, no “why did I type that?!” moments. I achieved this the old-fashioned way: by going slow and triple-checking everything like a paranoid accountant.
Top Ten IXL 2025
(Cumulative Scores and Cumulative Rank at the end of each round)
| # | Name | City | Score | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 1 | Matthew Marcus | Portland, US | 995 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Erik Agard | Kansas, US | 990 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Ramki Krishnan | Chennai | 968 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Sohil Bhagat | Bengaluru | 933 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| 5 | Venkatraghavan S | Mumbai | 907 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 11 |
| 6 | Sowmya Ramkumar | Manama, Bahrain | 898 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 13 |
| 7 | Jose A. | Thane | 884 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 7 |
| 8 | Gudur Abhinav | Bengaluru | 840 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| 9 | Aashirwad Viswanathan | Chennai | 840 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | Harish Kamath | Bengaluru | 831 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 25 | 6 | 4 |
Ten Sundays of caffeine, panic, and occasional triumphant fist-pumps are done. My brain thanks you… and also quietly begs for mercy. And now? The online season is over, but the real fun is still ahead—the in-person finale in Bengaluru this December (which I sadly missed last
year as detailed in my IXL 2024 post).
More than the puzzles (which the champions will hoover up anyway), I’m counting the days until I can meet the entire cruciverbalist family again—setters, solvers, hecklers, everyone.
See you in Bengaluru—save me a coffee and a corner seat that’s far away from Matthew and Erik (if they make the trip all the way from the US of A). 😅
Leaving you here with a selection of clues that I liked in this year’s contest. You can comment with your favourite clues or the ones that really stumped you. If you need any annotations, let us know and our readers or I can help you with that too.
1. Twelve noon? Correct (5) – Round 10
Answer
AMEND – AM END
2. Sacrifice meal, omit nuts (8) – Round 9
Answer
IMMOLATE – Anagarm of MEAL OMIT
3. European history abridged – attempts to make them sweet (6,8) – Round 8
Answer
DANISH PASTRIES – DANISH (European)+PAS(-t)+ TRIES
4. Western star, shrinking—takes bow after implosion (6) – Round 7
Answer
COWBOY – COY (Shrinking)<<BOW*
5. Old English chaps having a series of rows (6) – Round 6
Answer
TIERED – TIRED (Old) <<E (Engish)
6.Spooner’s bucket-style auto part (8) – Round 5
Answer
TAILPIPE – Spoonerism of PAIL TYPE
7. Ombudsman – a guardian to secure capital (7)- Round 4
Answer
MANAGUA – Hidden in Plain Sight
8. Nervousness of horse stealing feed slyly (4,4) – Round 3
Answer
COLD FEET – Anagram of FEED* in COLT (Horse)
9. Cochin (in India) regularly served such dishes (5) – Round 2
Answer
CHINA – Skipping two letters regularly in C(oc)H(in)I(ni)N(di)A
10. After husband leaves home, tenant slyly provides satisfaction (9) – Round 1
Answer
ATONEMENT – (-h)OMETENANT* (Anagram)
Thanks to Mr. Vivek Singh and the Extra C team as well as all the setters for another fabulous contest and wish the organizers and finalists the very best in the finals that will happen in December. It is free for anyone to attend – so if you are in Bengaluru, do check out the event at The Royal Orchid Hotel, Bengaluru on December 21st.
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