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USA Jigsaw Nationals 2025 at Awesome Con

Thanks to AMAZING support and sponsorship from Ravensburger, we’re able to bring you a 2025 Jigsaw Nationals championship as part of Awesome Con! This means attendees will be able to participate in speed puzzling competitions and a puzzle vendor space, in addition to taking advantage of all the events offered by Awesome Con!

• Awesome Con is Washington DC’s Comic Con and is a celebration of geek culture, bringing over 60,000 fans together with their favorite stars from across comics, movies, television, toys, games, and more! Feel free to check out the Awesome Con site to learn more:  https://awesome-con.com/

• New this year:

  • Awesome Con Badges are required in order to provide you access to the competition space and puzzle vendor area, since we are part of the convention. This mean all participants and spectators (over the age of 2) will need to purchase a badge. You may purchase the badge through USAJPA’s registration process or on the Awesome Con site.

  • Teammate information is required when registering. This is to ensure registration spots are saved for fully formed teams and ease our logistics for changes to teams. See our FAQ for questions about changes to teams.

  • The event is twice the size which means we can accommodate twice as many competitors and twice as many of them will advance to finals! However, don’t hesitate to register - we sold out in just 2 days last year!

• Questions about registration, competition logistics, and general event information can be found at our extensive FAQ here.

• Questions about why we’re at Awesome Con this year, what it means for future Nationals, and why you need a badge are answered in a recent FAQ social media post here.

Event Information

Cost

Since this year is different than our traditional format - featuring both the national championship and dedicated puzzle convention - we're able to save some costs and pass on those savings to you:

• Individual Division: $25 - SOLD OUT (Waitlist)

• Pair Division: $50 / pair

• Team Division: $100 / team

• Awesome Con Badge: $125*

*During registration, you will have the opportunity to purchase the 3-day Awesome Con badge for the price of $125 ($115 for the badge, $10 for shipping, no taxes). The badge will be shipped to the address you provide within a few weeks of the event, which means you won’t have to wait in line to pick up your badge on Thursday night. If you prefer a more premium badge level, you may instead purchase that directly via Awesome Con’s website: https://awesome-con.com/badges/#pricing

Registration Prep - Have this info ready to go!

• Name and email address: Required for every teammate you register

• Birthdate: Required for any individual registration

• Payment info: Credit card or Paypal is accepted

• You are allowed to register up to 1 team, 2 Pairs and 4 Individuals

• If you are looking for teammates: We’ve created this Puzzle Partner Finder spreadsheet to help! Or you can visit the USAJPA Facebook Forum and post about what you’re looking for there.

Reserved Nationals Competitor Spots

If you meet any of the below criteria, you'll receive a separate communication soon from the USAJPA board or Jonathan Cluff from Speedpuzzling.com explaining how to register.

• If you won first place at a state or regional championship this year with Speedpuzzling.com, you are guaranteed a spot at Nationals.

• If you have held the top JPAR ranking at any time during the 2024 year, or if you are the reigning 2024 USA Jigsaw National Champion, you are guaranteed a spot at Nationals.

Rules

• Rules are here

• New this year:

  • Lost pieces: There is a maximum 10 second penalty for missing pieces, even if the piece(s) is/are found later. In 2024, penalty was per piece.

  • Groups of 2+: Any number of pieces that are assembled together (2+) count toward total assembled pieces. In 2024, only groups of 3+ counted as assembled.

  • Multi-puzzle divisions: Once the first puzzle is completed, a judge will verify completion, record the finishing time of the first puzzle, and authorize its disassembly and start of the next puzzle. The first puzzle MUST BE COMPLETELY OFF THE TABLE before opening the second puzzle.

  • Sorting trays: 

  • For 500 piece puzzles, competitors can use up to 2 trays of a maximum size of 16.5” x 11.7” (A3 size).

  • For 1000 piece puzzles, competitors can use up to 4 trays of a maximum size of 16.5” x 23.4” (A2 size).

  • In 2024, sorting trays were based on division instead of number of puzzle pieces.

• Clarification: Cell phone calls are NOT allowed during the competition. If we suspect that you have received help via headphones, we may ask to review your call log and if we find you were on a call during the competition, you will be disqualified.

Awesome Con Info

This badge entitles you to all kinds of great perks, in addition to the competition, such as convention events, fairs, and exhibitors! Ravensburger and other puzzle vendors will have convention space on the Awesome Con floor and there will be room for casual puzzling and puzzle artist signings!

Travel & Hotel Information

• Arrival: Individual competitions begin on Friday morning so arrive on Thursday if you plan to compete as an individual. Preliminary heats will be randomly assigned and we are unable to accommodate individual schedule requests.
  
  Hotel: Once registered, you will receive an email with information on our designated hotel block. Awesome Con has provided a dashboard with two hotel block options. Keep in mind, the costs in DC at this time of year are high, so we recommend finding your lodging ASAP.

• Getting Around: Info about traveling to and getting around in DC can be found here.

Questions?

Check out our FAQ doc for more details on all the changes and answers to a lot of your questions. Please be sure to check it out before contacting us with questions. We’re all volunteers with limited bandwidth so we LOVE it when you read those first!