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Duel

From Countdown
See also : Daily Duel

A duel is a round used in Des chiffres et des lettres, the original French version and Cifras y Letras, the Spanish version. It's approximately equivalent to a conundrum on Countdown. In French, it's known as a duel and in Spanish as a duelo.

On Des chiffres et des lettres

In an episode of DCeDL, there are five duels. The first four are:

  • "Duel traditionnel" ("traditional duel"): the classic version, which consists of finding two words on the same theme after 10 letters have been given, e.g. RAAUBITIAH, with the clue "Iles des Caraibes" ("Caribbean islands"). The solution is ARUBA and HAITI.
  • "La bonne orthographe" ("correct spelling"): a word is proposed and the winner is the one who spells this word correctly, e.g. LABYRINTHIQUE.
  • "Le calcul mental" ("mental arithmetic"): the players must complete a calculation with 5 operations in their heads, e.g. (15 × 15 − 90) ÷ 9 × 75 + 115.
  • "L'un dans l'autre" ("one within the other"): with ten given letters, find a 10-letter word and another word, within the first; one a proper noun, the other a common noun, fitting with the clues given, e.g. NIOKTEGNSN with the clues "Palais et quartier Londonien" ("Palace and London borough") and "Religieuse" ("Religious"). The solution is KENSINGTON and NONNE (nun).

Only one answer is accepted, from the first player to provide one. If the answer is correct, 10 points are awarded to the player giving it. If the answer is incorrect, the player's opponent receives 10 points. If nobody buzzes, nobody scores.

Since March 2021, along with these four duels, contestants confront the fifth duel, in which buzzing within the first ten seconds results in gaining or giving 10 points, at 11-20 seconds range results in 7 points at stake, and at the last 10 seconds - 5 points. The last duel could be any out of these variations:

  • "Sprint chiffres" ("sprint numbers"): a numbers game, where a candidate must provide an exact solution with the given selection as quick as possible.
  • "Double-sens" ("double meaning"): two different clues for a homonym are given and contestants may see the amount of letters in the mysterious word after the countdown starts.
  • "Trois-en-un" ("three in one"): one clue for a nine-letter word is given and one of its letters shows up after the countdown starts, a second random letter will appear after 10 seconds and a third after 20 seconds.

If contestants' scores result in tie, both are participating in another duel, which strongly resembles the "conundrum" in the UK version: 10 shuffled letters are given and contestant who buzzes must provide a single 10-letter word which could be made out of them.

Before the regular letters and numbers rounds, a toss-up duel is played, with the winner earning a "sesame", or joker, that can be used in the final bonus game "Le mots de las fin".