Solution: Backbeat

Answer: SANDPIPER

Written by Thomas Gordon

Each of the parts in this puzzle references a different minigame in the Twitch game Words on the Street, which is linked in the flavortext. While there is not (at the time of writing) a published online ruleset for this game, the rules are easy to discern by watching a past game, or playing one yourself.

For reference, the basic rules of each game are:

• Templates: In Templates, players are given a set of blanks with some letters already filled in, and have to guess words which fit those sets of blanks.

• Punnets: In Punnets, players are given a set of five ordered circles with five letters in them each, and have to make words with one letter from each circle, in order, from left to right. Additionally, words they make must use at least one letter which has not been used by any other team in any other word yet.

• Hangman: In Hangman, each team must guess five-letter words in a Wordle-esque fashion.

• Paint Words: In Paint Words, teams form words using adjacent letters (including diagonally), without reusing letters. In this variant, once a team uses a tile, it can’t be used by the other team.

Additionally, Blue Team operates under an added restriction that is not present in the normal game: they can only submit words which are from the 1995 Oasis song Wonderwall, as clued by the title and related game (which are both phrases or near-phrases from the same lyric in the song: "Backbeat, the word is on the street / that the fire in your heart is out"). Solvers may also notice that the two teams refer to each other as Noel and Liam, a reference to the two Gallagher brothers who wrote the song, or determine the theming from some of the words that must be used in some parts of the puzzle.

Round 1: Templates

In the minigame Templates, players are given a series of blanks with certain letters filled in (e.g. _ _ P _ E). Players must then call in words which fit this template (APPLE, MAPLE, AMPLE, etc.). At least two letters are always given for these templates.

By examining Red's words and picking out common letters from the words of each length, we can determine that the templates for this round must be:

_ A _ B _

_ H _ _ G _

_ O _ _ _ _ W

Blue Team only has one word which fits each of these templates, which they then call in:

This spells the answer for this minipuzzle, SENSE.

Round 2: Punnets

In the minigame Punnets, players are presented with a series of five circles, each containing six letters. Players must then make words which use one letter from each circle in order from left to right, with at least one letter that they use being one which has not been used by any other player (including themselves, on previous words). In this version of Punnets, more than one instance of each letter can be present in a circle.

Red plays five words and claims "all but one letter in every circle", which means that they repeat a letter once for each circle. We can therefore determine four out of five letters in each circle:

One letter is still unused and unknown in each circle.

Blue then makes five words, "without using any single instance of a letter more than once". Since Punnets requires each word to include at least one unclaimed letter from each circle, that means that each word that Blue makes must have one unclaimed letter, in a different position every time.

Looking at potential words, one of Blue's words must be YOU'RE or YOU'VE (since the first circle has a Y); both of these words need a U in the third circle, which must be the unclaimed letter (forcing it to be YOU'RE). Likewise, the G in the third circle can only belong to LIGHT, which means that an L must be missing from the first circle, and the S in the first circle can only belong to SAVES, forcing an A in the second circle. The R in the first circle must belong to ROADS, forcing a D in the fourth circle. The last Blue word must (by elimination of possibilities) be FEELS, with an unclaimed letter S in the final circle.

Reading the unclaimed letters in each circle from left to right spells the answer for this minipuzzle, LAUDS.

Round 3: Hangman

In the minigame Hangman, each team guesses five letter words in a Wordle-esque minigame. By extreme luck, both teams instantly guess all of their words without any partial guesses - how fortunate for them!

As Red remarks, each of their words are one letter off from synonyms of Blue's words. By looking at what Blue's words can be (from their first letters), we can determine Red's words, and the associated synonyms:

The letters not present in the synonyms which are present in Red's words spell the answer to this minipuzzle, RECAP.

Round 4: Paint Words

In the minigame Paint Words, players form words on a Boggle-like grid, coloring in letters as they do and claiming territory. In this version of the minigame, once a tile is claimed, it cannot be used by the other team. Red has cleared out a large quantity of tiles, leaving only some tiles for Blue to grab.

Blue can form several words in the grid - ANYBODY, BECAUSE, BLINDING, REALISED, SOMEBODY, and WINDING, - which claim the following tiles:

The leftover letters which Blue hasn't used spells the answer to this minipuzzle, SERIF TYPES.

Meta: Knockout

In the minigame Knockout, solvers must find words of a minimum length in a Boggle-like grid. Here, Red, can't find any words, so Blue plays a word instead. We can see what tiles that they've claimed whilst doing so. Since each letter must be adjacent to its previous and subsequent letter in the claimed word (just like in Boggle), we know that the word must start or end in the top left, and either the very top or very left.

Putting our answers into the grid and reading around the tiles, starting at the top left and working clockwise, spells the answer to this puzzle, SANDPIPER.

Author’s Notes

I'd like to thank Neil Cicierega for making this puzzle happen.