On Saturday 14th March, took place in Barvaux the annual jigsaw contest "PuzzleDay", sponsored in particular by Clementoni. We are puzzled! have successfully taken up the challenge and finished first of the 31 teams enrolled in the 8 hours competition.
It is always a pleasure to participate to this contest.
Clementoni puzzles are really enjoyable: the quality is good, the pieces are pleasant to manipulate and interlock well.
This year, the organization committee had arranged two surprises for the challengers:
- Number one, the first puzzles were of 500 pieces, so numerous teams were able to go back home with several puzzles (this does not happen in contests where the puzzles are harder: the weakest teams don’t usually get many puzzles).
We found this was a very nice idea, and it was motivating for all the teams.
- The second surprise was not very appreciated by us, to be honest… The seventh and last puzzle was a 1.000 pieces one, representing the "minions", and very pertinently called "impossible puzzle"… Although we still had 2h30 ahead to complete this puzzle, we have only been able to assemble 270 pieces…
This puzzle could be a nice challenge when comfortably installed at home, but my personal opinion is that this level of difficulty should not be part of a family contest. I can understand the strategy followed by the organization: it was a way to ensure that no team would finish and therefore there would be no more puzzle to distribute…
But for us, spending 2h30 hours on the same puzzle has been quite boring. And as there was no possibility to significantly progress, we quickly got demotivated, which is a pity…
Nevertheless it remains a lovely competition, and we are proud to have participated and to present to you the puzzles’ selection.
