Could you shed light on why 2 sudokus have been removed from this round from version zero?

This was decided based on an internal discussion by the organisers.
But we will give out all the sudokus that almost made it to the championship as a gift set to all the participants. Let's have a contest guessing why they were dropped off post the championship :p

The+touchy+sudoku+example+is+non+unique%2C+right%3F+The+67+in+rows+1+and+7+can+be+swapped+freely%2C+for+example%2E+I+got+stuck+solving%2C+so+I+guess+it%E2%80%99s+possible+there+are+other+non+unique+parts%3F

%5BQUOTE%5Dpinkagape+%2D+2026%2D09%2D27++1%3A35+AM%0D%0A%0D%0AThe+touchy+sudoku+example+is+non+unique%2C+right%3F+The+67+in+rows+1+and+7+can+be+swapped+freely%2C+for+example%2E+I+got+stuck+solving%2C+so+I+guess+it%E2%80%99s+possible+there+are+other+non+unique+parts%3F%5B%2FQUOTE%5D%0D%0AThe+5+in+R7C3+needs+the+6+in+R7C4+to+have+one+consecutive+neighbour%2E

That+is+super+useful%21+I%E2%80%99d+been+assuming+that+diagonally+touching+was+acceptable+for+consecutive%2E+You%E2%80%99re+saying+they+need+to+be+orthogonally+adjacent%3F

If+so%2C+Touchy+Sudoku+is+a+silly+name%2E+Because+it%E2%80%99s+not+a+touching+constraint%2C

%5BQUOTE%5Dpinkagape+%2D+2026%2D09%2D27++11%3A50+AM%0D%0A%0D%0AThat+is+super+useful%21+I%E2%80%99d+been+assuming+that+diagonally+touching+was+acceptable+for+consecutive%2E+You%E2%80%99re+saying+they+need+to+be+orthogonally+adjacent%3F%5B%2FQUOTE%5DYes%2C+they+need+to+be+orthogonally+adjacent%2E+%22Adjacent%22+in+the+rules+mean+%22cells+sharing+an+edge%22%2C+as+mentioned+in+the+glossary+in+the+IB%2E+

For Anti Clone Sudoku: can there be more than two shaded areas in the puzzle? If yes, how does the "sum to 10" rule work with three areas? Thank you.

There will be exactly two shaded areas of the same shape.