This year's ER Champ 2022 has made history. On November 26, the grand finale of the competition took place, with more than 100 teams from around the world participating. As usual, the participants could count on great excitement, a large portion of thinking and, above all, puzzles, including challenging ones.
It's already a tradition that around November the eyes of puzzle fans turn to the ER Champ World Championship, which is very popular with enthusiasts every year. It's a competition organized by the creators of the Polish marketplace Lockme (this year, for the first time, together with a programme council), in which teams of 2 to 4 players have to face a point-and-click game, specially prepared for this event. The championship currently consists of two stages: online eliminations and the final, for which about 100 teams with the best times from the eliminations qualify.
ER Champ 2022 in numbers and statistics
Nearly 2,100 players took part in the ER Champ 2022 eliminations, forming almost 660 teams from about 50 different countries - the most popular this year turned out to be such countries as Japan, France, Canada, Poland, the United States and Slovakia. During the 4 hours of this stage, players performed more than 6.5 million actions - not to forget that many teams were still playing when the competition was over. A total of 116 teams qualified for the finals.
113 teams took part in the finals - this is the number of teams that showed up at the start and performed at least one action during the competition. 409 players performed a total of 1111278 actions during the 4 hours of the competition. On that day, of course, there were many more. Many teams finished the game after the regulation time of the competition. Ninety-five teams from Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, the USA, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Canada, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland completed the game within the stipulated timeframe.
First, there was the Stress Test...
Before the teams faced off for the title of champions, on October 8, 2022, they had a chance to familiarize themselves with the game interface and storyline through a stress test. It's a short point-and-click game that acts as a tutorial, teaching how to navigate the game screen, how to combine items, how to use them, and letting players know what to expect during the elimination. This year's stress test also outlined the plot of the game. For the organizers, it had another important purpose: it checked the load on the servers, allowed them to catch bugs, prepare, and apply appropriate measures during the actual stages so that players could play in the most comfortable conditions.
This was not a stage where players played for time - the most important thing was just to log into the game and help test the performance of the servers, so it was not a mandatory stage and did not affect the overall ranking position.
What kind of story awaited players in the stress test? It introduced the world of a certain clinic that deals with the human mind. There are no patients in it - there are clients instead.
“Our clinic is reserved today for important clients arranged by the CEO herself. We have to be sure that all the devices connecting to their minds are properly calibrated and ready.”
…then there were the eliminations…
The eliminations for the world championship were held on November 5 at 16 UTC. As usual, time was counted for everyone from the same moment, and players had 4 hours to complete the level. The fastest turned out to be the 6 Keys team from the USA, which completed the level with a sensational time of 1h 06m 14s. Behind them at the finish line was a team from France named Les Wyrds with a time of 1h 12m 37s, and third place went to the Japanese team FAR EAST SOLVERS, whose time was 01h 16m 46s. In the regulatory time of the competition fit 233 teams, of which 100 with the best time passed on. In addition, a dozen teams qualified for the finals with a wild card.
The story from the eliminations unveiled its secrets chapter by chapter, puzzle by puzzle. Players return to the clinic they were introduced to in the stress test. All the equipment is ready and the first client is nearly here. Time to connect and see how you can help him.
...And in the end, there was the finale!
"You managed to help two of the four clients scheduled for today. Bravo! In the meantime, you found notes from Adam, your good colleague, who suspects your boss of unknown sinister actions. You don't think she could be embezzling the clinic, but... what is Mallory up to?" That was the plot of the final stage.
As in the case of the eliminations, the teams had 4 hours to pass. Once again, the fastest team turned out to be the US-based team 6 Keys, which with a time of 1h 19m 16s won this year's title of champions in ER Champ 2022. The second step of the podium was taken by the team of last year's champions, the Taiwan-based team CKCOS with a time of 1h 33m 42s. Third place belongs to the Japanese team KAMT, who finished ER Champ 2022 with a time of 1h 35m 11s.
As in the case of the elimination stage, the teams had 4 hours to pass the final stage. Once again, the fastest team turned out to be the US-based team 6 Keys, which with a time of 1h 19m 16s won this year's title of champions in ER Champ 2022. The second step of the podium was taken by the team of last year's champions, the Taiwan-based team CKCOS with a time of 1h 33m 42s. Third place belongs to the Japanese team KAMT, who finished ER Champ 2022 with a time of 1h 35m 11s.
This year's prizes for the winners were:
- 1st place: a set of Nintendo Switch Lite consoles and a $200 voucher to use at the Board&Dice online store;
- 2nd place: a set of board games (Escape Tales: The Awakening, Escape Tales: Low Memory, Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods, and The Book of Rituals) and a $100 voucher to use at the Board&Dice online store;
- 3rd place: a set of our board games (Escape Tales: The Awakening, Escape Tales: Low Memory, Escape Tales: Children of Wyrmwoods, and The Book of Rituals) and a $50 voucher to use at the Board&Dice online store.
Games from ER Champ 2022 stages
After reviewing the logs of the competition and announcing the winners, the organizers have made the games from this year's championship available to all eager players. If you have a team of 2-4 people, you can tackle the puzzles of the champions at any time!
Those who want to enter the competition next year can train not only on the levels from this year but also on the archived games, which are alway available for puzzle-hungry players. On our page, you will find both elimination and final levels, tutorial or stress tests from previous years.
