Would have I won the USA Jigsaw Puzzle Nationals?

[@Laura_Stanford]

Emilia, I bought 3, 500 piece puzzles (Jazzy, Pets of Beverly Hills and the Hot Air Balloons) of the USA national puzzles. They are now out of stock in the USA so you are a very lucky girl indeed. You got great speed puzzling times for all of them😊

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Haha I think Sara was literally pushing the F5 button whole night when they first released these puzzles. She is truly amazing! I’m sure you will love all those puzzles, especially the Air Balloon Valley 🥰

[@xyanthus]

Such a joy to watch. I too have all nine puzzles and finished all the preliminary puzzles. On to the final puzzles! I’m not a speed puzzler, but I enjoy watching for tips. I have a hard time building different objects within the puzzle and seem to be focused on completing entire sections instead; scanning all the pieces for one particular piece. I too cannot choose a favorite as I loved them equally. Just started puzzling in May this year and already have almost 100 Ravensburger puzzles including all four of the Worlds final puzzles from last year. Those were difficult to track down here in the states.

[@puzzlewithemilia]

That's awesome to hear. I'm sure your collection will grow even bigger soon. Are you planning to compete in speed puzzling some day? :)

[@xyanthus]

@@puzzlewithemilia They say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something; so there is hope for me yet!

[@specialisr.6254]

Definitely mark off the table when you do the pairs final table and do it in the same space. Makes a huge difference! Even your space for the 500 puzzles looked bigger than what was given for the individuals. Not saying it adds a difference of like 10 min or anything, but would slow you down some if you used the same size and had to share the space. I saw that some people's pieces got mixed in with their table mates on accident. Great times all around!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Yes. When I practice for WJPC (not filming) I use their table measurements. And also a lower table because it’s a ”bit” different for back pain (practice). Not sure what are the exact measurements in US Nationals? It’s quite impossible to create the same circumstances. As you said, space can affect. For me, it’s almost fine nowadays with any space. Just came back from Danish Nationals and we had the smallest table space ever, barely 60x70cm for a pair. But it was fine for me. I learned my lesson last year in WJPC to manage any space. Also ofc the competition itself affects, I’m usually faster when I compete against people in real-time. Also the light in my house is different than in most competition venues. Light is a major factor for me. Space not so much. Time of the day when doing a puzzle, noises around… so many things. Depends also on a person what factors affect and how much. E.g. if you have never done a puzzle on smaller space you may be screwed but if you have practiced that it may not really differ at all. My pair does puzzles on her bathroom FLOOR but she is still as fast on that compared to doing on a table.

[@pamelafranzen2771]

Sarah is so awesome-lovely inside and out! Yay, Minnesota native!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

She is the best!!!

[@blkrainbow1075]

Good luck with the competitions! Thank you for sharing your experiences with these puzzles and thank you to Sarah for making it possible! Fingers crossed for cooler weather and air conditioning coming your way!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Thank you so much. I have to clarify that me, myself and I is actually the reason why we don't have a air conditioning. :D I get sick easily with the temperature changes that are often caused by, to be specific, an air heat pump. My hubby would have gotten one first thing first when we moved! But I'm okay with it. It just didn't used to be this hot in Finland back in day.

[@Narigari]

Hi Emilia. Are you aware of any speed competition in Europe close to the dates of the WJPC? I'm travelling from Argentina and I'd like to take advantage of the trip and maybe participate in other events.

[@puzzlewithemilia]

I have asked around but haven’t received answers yet. I will get back to you! 😊

[@puzzlewithemilia]

There is something coming up in Spain on 14th of September. Announcement will be in WJPF IG when they get it confirmed. Other than that I think most events are on pause before WJPC.

[@lilimaciell]

Loved all the 500 pieces, and the 1k one looks way to hard. Goodluck, hope you do great!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Lots of detailed busy puzzles! I think that’s the new trend for competitions. 😊 I’m so happy to have these!

[@pamelafranzen2771]

Impressive puzzling times! Yes, come to USA!!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Thank you. I surprised even myself. I will know better next year if I'm able to come but I already shortly asked the USAJPA about it! :)

[@stijn7273]

I reached out to Sarah when I was kind of new to speed puzzling asking if she could maybe upload some of her speed run recordings so i could watch them in realtime and she did, despite not knowing me at all. I can confirm shes a super nice person! I was excited with you to see how you would do, and you absolutely crushed those preliminary puzzles, wow! I also think the final brings so much adrenaline and competition vibes that it's very possible you could have been 2-3 minutes faster in the real competition!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

That’s amazing. Sounds exactly like Sarah. I think she was one the firsts to say hi to me last year in Spain. Which is highly appreciated as I’m not really that extrovert myself to go greet people 😅 And I have to agree. As said almost everyone of 10-20. placements finished within couple of minutes. In preliminary rounds the time differences were more like minutes and not seconds. Of course I do more detailed puzzles better (than others, not other puzzles) so that may have affected too!

[@matnpuzzles]

​@puzzlewithemilia Probably one other thing to consider is that photo puzzles are generally much less common/preferred in the US compared to Europe. Besides maybe a few collages, I'm not sure if there's even a single photo puzzle in the Ravensburger US catalog (maybe a few in 1000 or larger counts). Partially for that reason, I think many/most US participants also struggled mightily in last year's WJPC final compared to prelim placements, so it makes sense to me that you did relatively a bit better with the prelim puzzles here. But impressive times regardless, especially on the produce!

[@GailMcCormick]

Nice times all around! I had the Plentiful Produce puzzle during the competition and definitely struggled with glare, especially when I was down to the darker pieces. I agree, I think they did a great job of choosing the prelim puzzles that all had a similar feel even though they were different puzzles. My understanding is that the Ravensburger North America team worked with the USAJPA organizers. Ravensburger only gave a few options, but enough for USAJPA to have some input. Those team puzzles were so difficult!! I was garbage at helping on the birds! And it was the last competition of that day, so we were sooo exhausted at the end!

[@GailMcCormick]

PS I generally think you're a little bit faster than I am, and your times here were a little bit better than mine at that competition. So I wasn't surprised with your times or where you would have placed!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

If I'm correct, you didn't have too much natural light in the venue? All little things can affect. Not sure if this applies to puzzling but in marketing we know yellow to be one of the most eye-catching colors. I think I saw a lot of puzzlers taking those yellow pieces first even though that may have been a mistake because there were so many. I left them for later. I was more surprised of my placements than times. My understanding would have been also (they said something last year) that USAJPA does indeed make decisions with competitions puzzles - as it should be. It's a great deal if sponsor can give some options based on the request. Ofc we also cannot expect any sponsor to just give out a whole catalog, it's not charity. :D But still final call should come from the organizers. I wish they would share their process with other associations!

[@GailMcCormick]

@@puzzlewithemilia Exactly! No one wants those pandas or that Boston pairs puzzle in competition! And you are correct. There were no windows in the USA Nationals competition room--all overhead lights. (They will have a different, larger venue next time) And I made the yellow mistake. I went back to them 3 or 4 times and didn't make much progress until the very end. Wasted a lot of time! You were definitely smart to wait to do them. I'll keep that in mind about yellows!

[@karindwarswaard]

Love the busy birds puzzle. Hopefully they will sell them eventually in Europe.

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Yes. So excited for that one. I will keep an eye on if and when this and others will come available! :)

[@SunnyBattista-s7u]

HOW LONG WOULD THIS TAKE!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

This? 😊

[@NicoleRoguski]

Where is your outfit from, the black/brown piece?:)

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Ohhh that’s a tough question. Honestly, I barely ever buy new clothes and I think I have had this for almost 10 years 😅 no idea where did I buy it from originally but I can check if it has brand tags still on when I get back from my puzzle trip on 9th of June. 😊

[@laramauss1968]

wow, you did very well. I hope you will go to the worlds!

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Yes. Going there again this year. This time to all categories, solo, pair and teams! 😊

[@moosiemoose501]

Wow very cool

[@puzzlewithemilia]

What's your favorite - so we can puzzle together? :D

[@pamelafranzen2771]

Branches or twigs

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Thanks. Branches was the word I looked for. :D

[@pamelafranzen2771]

BTW, your English is excellent!

[@PuzzlesMil]

🧩♥️☺️

[@puzzlewithemilia]

🤩🔥🧩

[@javicortez4448]

These times are little questionable. 🧐 As if they are 2nd or 3rd attempts.

[@puzzlewithemilia]

Hello there! Ofc this kind of ”accusation” makes me a bit sad so I would like to ask what makes them questionable for you? I’m not sure if you are familiar with my times in other recent competitions like EJJ, Swedish Nationals etc? Those are officially recorded. Then ofc my average time in general for 500 pieces nowadays is less than 50mins. You can see my times also for example in myspeedpuzzling.com and timelapses in tiktok… The Air Balloon Valley I did for the second time and my time was 44mins. But as shown and said in this video my first time was that 48mins and some seconds.