Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

The following puzzle comes from a mini series that exploits some more original ideas from other pencil puzzle genres, in this case it's a hybrid between ABC-Box and another pencil genre that I'd particularly pick. This one is also the first entry of it too, which consists of two parts and this post will be the first part here.

Inspired by a mini series from ibag and also my enthusiasm with the genre, this entry was in my setting plan for a long while and finally I took my chance to revisit it and complete everything in this week. As I just said, this entry has two parts - one small version and one big version that is a lot more challenging and fascinating - and this post showcases the small version first just so every solver will be able to get the hang of the entire rule set here. The ending may be a tad bit trickier than the rest but it's still totally manageable by basic counting logic.

Ultimately, I'll share the bigger version (very) soon after this part so stay tuned for that!


Rules:

1) ABC-Box rules apply*:
In the 7x7 grid, fill each cell with one letter from A, B or C. For some particular row/column, a series of clues is provided for them respectively and the series implies a few things below:

- The number of clues corresponds to how many blocks of the same letter there are within that row/column. No two orthogonally adjacent such blocks will contain the same letter to each other.
- The order of the clues is from left to right for rows and from top to bottom for columns.
- A letter clue indicates the letter to be filled in its respective block, and the length of that block is non-zero but actual value is unknown.
- A number clue indicates the length of its respective block that contains the same letter, but that letter is unknown.
- A question mark (?) implies that its respective block contains an unknown single letter and the length of that block is non-zero but actual value is also unknown as well.

2) In addition, the puzzle also functions as a cave puzzle for the letter C: All cells containing letter C will form a single orthogonally connected area, and each area of the cells not containing letter C will connect to the 7x7 grid border.

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(*) For those that are not so familiar with the ABC-Box, here's a penpa link leading to a puzzle that's beginner's friendly to you.

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An example image of both parts can be found below, this will also somewhat help someone to visualize how ABC-Box works in general.

Puzzle:  Penpa plus  -  Sudokupad



The answer check in penpa link will trigger once all cells are filled with correct letters. For now, good luck and have fun solving!