It may have been the last round of the year, but all guns were blazing and there were some great matchups. In the Grand Combined Tournament, Martin Merker and Kota Morinishi were well matched, and there were only three places and 35 points between the two warriors, but Kota prevailed in the end.
The Puzzle Big Cup also came to a head with 2024 and 2025 World Puzzle Champions Ken Endo and Freddie Hand facing off. They finished #1 and #2 in the round, with Ken winning by just under 4 minutes. There wasn’t even a silver lining for Freddie as Ken also surpassed Freddie’s Round 7 score, so Ken got the double prize of the Red casual cup. The other casual cup winners were:
Red: Ken Endo (Japan)
Orange: Frank Wang (USA)
Yellow: Zolbayar Batchuluun (Mongolia)
Green: Patrick Du (USA)
Blue: Noriyuki Moachimura (Japan)
Indigo: Bob Gui (China)
https://www.thepuzzle.place/puzzle-casual-cups/
Finally, the Last Chance Cup went to Japan’s Rin Saiki, who defeated China’s Letian Ming. Letian Ming is primarily a sudoku star who has played his first puzzle Grands Prix this year, achieving five top 50 finishes. Rin Saiki started both sudoku and puzzle Grands Prix last year. Rin was in the 555 Cup but was defeated in Round 1 by Kartal Nagy, and the Orange Casual Cup, but was defeated in Round 1 by Kishore Sridharan. With a top placing of 12th in Round 5, Rin will be an attractive prospect in the Puzzle Franchise Faceoff next year! Well done Rin.
Final Winners crowned