The University Grants Commission (UGC) has started the registration process for the National Inter College Crossword Expedition (NICE) 2022 from March 15. Slated to be held between March and August 2022, the competition will be conducted online in the initial stages followed by zonal and final rounds in offline mode.

The winning team of the national round will get a cash prize of Rs 25,000 whereas the first and second runner ups will be given Rs 20000 and 15000 respectively. The winners of zonal finals will also get certificates and trophies.

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Candidates can register online for the competition on its official website, nice.crypticsingh.com. In the build-up to the competition, registered students will be given free tutorial videos containing the basics of solving cryptic clues. The tutorials will also walk the candidates through solving actual clues, practice clues, news reports and visual on the various round leading to the finals.

The first stage of the NICE 2022, the students or institutional round, will be held online. The purpose of this round is to form the institution teams and shortlist them for the final rounds. Starting from April 3, a set of 10 clues will be posted every Sunday, for four weekly contests at 10-30 am on crypticsingh.com, the last of which will be on April 14. The top two performers will be selected for a two-member team representing their institutions on the next level of the championship.

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The zonal phase will have two rounds for each zone — North, South, West, East and Northeast. In the preliminary round, a maximum of 50 teams from the zone will compete at a designated host institution. The top six performers of this round will compete in the on-stage round (zonal finals). The top three performers will qualify for the National Finals slated to be held between July-August. The final round of NICE 2022 will initially be held in the Round Robin pattern, followed by a quarter-final, semi-final and final. The qualification to quarter-final will be done on the basis of the round-robin league score.

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