Challenge 9: Zendo

[CuddlyCaucasian]

{ROUND 09 TEAM CHALLENGE}

Zendo

People like this game I think

Rules

Welcome to Zendo, the inductive logic game! Well, at least, a form of Zendo created for this forum.

Overview

In this game, you will be trying to figure out a

secret pattern

before anyone else does. You will ask if specific strings follow the pattern and earn guessing points to try to figure out the final rule. Figure it out in the fastest time to win!
(Instead of structures of blocks, this game will use strings of letters restricted to the letters "A", "B", "C", and "D". (E.g. ABAC, A, AAAAA, BDDC, etc.) Maximum length of a string is 10.

Gameplay

In this iteration of the game, all teams will attempt to solve 4 different patterns as quickly as possible.
Up to 4 people can compete for a team at once. When you're ready to begin, your time will start. As often as you like, you may post one string of 1-10 letters that contains only the letters "A", "B", "C", and "D". (Case is irrelevant, but please be consistent.) I will indicate whether your string

does

or

does not

follow the pattern. Every 5 minutes, you will receive

1 guessing point

.

Also you may at any point submit a Final Guess to attempt to guess the pattern.

This costs

1 guessing point

.
If you are completely correct, then you move onto the next pattern, until you've solved all three. Note that equivalent rules stated differently still count. (E.g. "It must be completely composed of A's, C's, and D's" is a correct guess for "There are no B's").
I reserve the right to reject a Final Guess if it is vague ("There must be a C" -- at least one, or exactly one?) or if it is clearly a troll guess ("If [insert unsolved math problem here] is true then the string must have an A, otherwise it must have a B"). If it is an honest mistake, then you will not lose a guessing point.

Additional rules:
> The order of the letters in the string may or may not be important.
> The rule will depend ONLY on the string. Strings will NOT be case-sensitive. Also, the rule will not depend on the time or order of posts, the user that posted it, or anything else outside of the string itself. (Those troll find-the-rule games are great, but not what we're doing here.)
> At the start of your attempt to solve each rule, the mods will post one string that follows the rule and one that does not.
> In solving the rules, you cannot skip a rule and come back to it later.


The team to solve all 4 of the rules in the fastest amount of time wins the challenge! You have

96 hours

to complete the challenge.

[Irrelephant11]

Do all four patterns have to be figured out in one sitting?

[CuddlyCaucasian]

Do all four patterns have to be figured out in one sitting?

No; if you want, you can pause the challenge after figuring out one string and resuming later.

Also we're making a slight change in the rules - you begin the challenge with

one guessing point

and accumulate another whenever 5 minutes pass. You also gain a guessing point by guessing a pattern correctly. These points are cumulative, and unused guessing points for one pattern are carried over to the next.

[CuddlyCaucasian]

In 4th place...

Spoiler:

Ba Sing Se

were stopped after going over the winning time.

In 3rd place...

Spoiler:

Blues Brothers/Sisters

finished in 59 minutes and 5 seconds.

The top 2 were separated by only a few minutes.

The winning team is...

Spoiler:

Sunrise Land

with a time of 44 minutes and 32 seconds!

Fire & Brimstone

was close behind with 48 minutes and 41 seconds.

Sunrise Land avoids their first elimination. Everyone else, no such luck.