WSPC 2025

[pinkagape]

Good luck to everyone from the UK for next week!

We’re rooting for you!

[pinkagape]

David’s had a good end to yesterday! Hope today has continued in the same vein!

[dickoon]

I don't promise to do this after every round, but after one round of the WPC, the GBR team (representing the UK, etc.) are in a spectacular 4th place:

USA 2180
JPN 2080
GER 2055
GBR 1895
FRA 1695
CHN 1665
TUR 1600
...and there's a bit of a gap from there. One round out of... 18, from memory, but a great start nevertheless.

Live results via https://www.wspc2025.hu/wpc/ - and hopefully they'll start posting the team scores so I don't have to work them out myself

[pinkagape]

Thanks! Freddie is #1 after 3 rounds!

[dickoon]

Thanks! Freddie is #1 after 3 rounds!

...and remains so after 5, as well! To describe this as an outstanding performance would be to sell it slightly short.

World class performance by the whole team at large, #3 among the A teams at the end of round 3 and at the end of round 5. In the mix with the very best!

[pinkagape]

Absolutely! All four of the team are holding their end up beautifully. Keep it up everyone. Best of luck today

[dickoon]

However things turn out today and tomorrow, it's worth seriously considering the matter of press releases, as there's going to be good news that's worth sharing at some point.

[dickoon]

At the end of day 2, with 10 of 14 individual rounds finished, Freddie Hand still leads, after blowing away the competition in the first couple of rounds in the morning. stretching an overnight lead of 165 to as far as 475. He's been clawed back slightly later in the day but still has a margin of 365 over the competition, by 8620 to 8255. There are 3300 points to be won in the last four rounds, spread over four hours, so he's established daylight between him and the competition, but it's very far from over.

The team competition is a bit harder to judge as far as I can tell because the effect of the team rounds' scores is immense and only two team rounds' results have been published, with scores from Round 6 and Round 14 yet to come. Not sure what's happened with Round 6, suspect there might be something going on there, would love to know more. Based on what we can see, the UK team are currently in fourth.

These are stunning performances - many, many congratulations all round. Still four rounds to go but it's tempting to wonder about something special happening, possibly something very special. Once again, consider press releases.

[pinkagape]

Couldn’t agree more! Rooting for you all today!

[dickoon]

Freddie extended his lead further after Round 15 from 365 to 525. The event has finished; a video of the last few seconds has been posted. We're just waiting for the final scores like it's Gillette Puzzle Saturday or something. However the chips fall, an immense well done to everyone.

[dickoon]

Scores sheet updated in the last few minutes: Freddie's lead is up to 650 after round 17. With only 600 points available in round 18, I think we're into "subject to ratification" territory here.

Many, many congratulations, Freddie and team!

((Edited to add: OK, theoretically, this isn't taking time bonuses into account, and I do note that nothing's official until it's official. But there are people on the forum, they think it's all over!))

[dickoon]

Looks like the 18th and final round doesn't change the ordering at the top, so just waiting for confirmation...

[pinkagape]

Agreed it will be nice to get final photos, but congratulations!

[dickoon]

there are people on the forum, they think it's all over!))

...IT IS, NOW!

[dickoon]

Official top tens have been posted and it gives me great pleasure to confirm that the UK A team finished FOURTH, which I believe is a new record for us. Great job!

[emma]

Well done everyone!

[detuned]

Living the excitement - really amazing stuff from Freddie of course. Great idea on a press release Chris - I’m drafting one on the train home and will look to send out this evening

[dickoon]

Tiny shout-out at the end of Alex Bellos' most recent puzzle column in the Guardian, for the ecord.

[dickoon]

I'd love to hear more about the event, if/when anyone has the time to write up more details about it. One thing I'm wondering: did anything happen to round 6 in the WPC? Is there any reason why it didn't seem to appear in the score sheet, please?

[detuned]

Might try and do a blog at some point Chris - let's see how the bump back down to earth goes this week.

For team round 6: this was cancelled as the puzzle was printed with a wrong clue, meaning the whole thing was unsolvable. We'd actually made pretty good progress with this as a team, and it'd have likely been one of our better rounds without the misprint. However, obviously the wrong clue caused lots of teams all sorts of confusion and so the only fair thing to do was to cancel the round.

[dickoon]

Might try and do a blog at some point Chris - let's see how the bump back down to earth goes this week.

For team round 6: this was cancelled as the puzzle was printed with a wrong clue, meaning the whole thing was unsolvable. We'd actually made pretty good progress with this as a team, and it'd have likely been one of our better rounds without the misprint. However, obviously the wrong clue caused lots of teams all sorts of confusion and so the only fair thing to do was to cancel the round.

Thank you!

From context, was it the case that round 6 started as normal and was cancelled part-way through?

[furudo.erika]

Congratulations Freddie and the team, what an amazing performance!

[Nilz]

Might try and do a blog at some point Chris - let's see how the bump back down to earth goes this week.

For team round 6: this was cancelled as the puzzle was printed with a wrong clue, meaning the whole thing was unsolvable. We'd actually made pretty good progress with this as a team, and it'd have likely been one of our better rounds without the misprint. However, obviously the wrong clue caused lots of teams all sorts of confusion and so the only fair thing to do was to cancel the round.

Thank you!

From context, was it the case that round 6 started as normal and was cancelled part-way through?

We solved it as a normal round, and assumed at the time that we'd made a mistake somewhere.
There were rumours of a mistake later that evening I think, and it was officially confirmed and the decision to cancel was announced the following morning.

[pinkagape]

I've just been looking through the WSPC results and have the following observations:

WSC:

Zoe is the 19th different person to represent the UK A Team.
This was David's 7th appearance at WSC. He has never been beaten by another UK competitor at WSC.

WPC:

Freddie is the 27th different person to represent the UK A Team (and obviously the best so far). He is the 13th different person to be World Puzzle Champion.
Neil beat James for the first time since WPC 23 in London 2014.
This was Neil's 13th WPC, and his fourth consecutive top 20 finish.
This was James' 11th WPC, and the first time since WPC 24 in Sofia 2015 that he finished outside the top 20.
This was Tom's 9th official WPC, and his first top 50 finish since WPC 27 in Prague 2018.

It was a great Championship for the UK. Well done everyone!

[detuned]

Good stats there Adam, enjoyed them. One of these years I’ll overhaul David!