Solution: Criss-Cross

Answer: KRAKEN

Written by Caleb Hostetler

The first part of the puzzle is just a normal crossword. Once you solve the crossword, you can use 34-Down to find the final cluephrase on the main diagonal, "BIG NORSE OCTOPUS" The solution can be seen in this Google Sheet

Author’s Notes

This is the first full-scale crossword puzzle I have ever made, so it wasn't as polished as I would have liked it to be. Nonetheless, I feel like it worked out alright. I wished I was able to clue DIAGONAL instead of INCORNERS, but I wasn't able to make it fit. Because of the ambiguity, some teams struggled to make the final jump to read the diagonal squares.