The race is on!

Here we go again. The day is here. Another year, another dollar. The suitable clichés are many as the qualifiers in Denmark and Armenia kick off this year’s season of the Cigar Smoking World Championship on May 1st. The competition in itself is far from a cliché, though… ok, maybe a little bit, but all in good fun and in the lighthearted spirit of a tournament which has grown in a way founder Marko Bilic never thought possible. The 16^th qualification season features an astounding 50 participating countries, which is about ten more than last year. Everyone wants to be in on the deal.

Last year the war in the Middle East put a stop to three qualifiers. Now, Lebanon and Kuwait are back on the circuit, and Jordan finally gets to make its debut. The same goes for China and Hungary. For some reason they both canceled their debuts in 2024, but this year, fingers crossed, they will add to the already exciting action on the circuit. As will Hong Kong, Japan, Colombia and Mauritius in what Bilic says “might be the most competitive season in history”.

“With a record-breaking number of countries joining the circuit and the thrilling debut of the Oliva CSWC Competition Cigar, this year promises a showdown unlike any before,” he says. “Veterans are sharpening their senses. Newcomers are lurking with strategy. The air is thick with anticipation… and it smells like glory. Like one organizer said: ‘It’s not about how slow you can smoke. It’s how deep you can connect with the cigar. That’s the real game.’”

The switch from Rocky Patel to Oliva for the competition cigar is otherwise the big news this year. How will it affect the competition and the smokers? Will they have to learn new strategies to cope with its different characteristics? Bilic says yes.

“People will have to adjust their slow smoking technique,” Bilic commented when the news first came out earlier this year. “It’s a different cigar, after all, but that just adds to the excitement. For the first time in a long time, I think the competitors will be like kids trying new candy.”

According to him, the discussions of strategy are already vivid behind closed doors.

“There are whispers that new strategies and tactics are trained,” he says. “Modified new ways of smoking under the ring are showing great results; even new ways of puffing the first puffs of the race are adding time to the performances.”

The big question, of course, is if this will pave the way for a new champion. Will this be the one thing that takes down what in the last couple of years seems to have been an unbeatable champion. Will this be the end of the reign of three-time slow smoking world champion Hauke Walter?

As dramatic as it sounds, the German is of course still the number one favorite to take home the title also this year. “The Iceman” is the only slow smoker to win back-to-back titles, he’s won the German qualifier the last three years and more times in total than anyone can count, probably, and he is by far the most consistent three-hour smoker on the roster. At least before Oliva entered the picture, because now who knows? Who will be better at mastering the new cigar?

Will world record holder Klaudia Ide or the 2022 world champion and 2024 runner-up Borys Szkodzik bring back the title to Poland? Or even Marcin Sekowski, who ended up in fourth place last year? Maybe the former world record holder Igor Kovačić or the 2021 world champion Henrik Kristensson reclaims the title on Sweden’s behalf, if Tormod Skaaraas or Rolf Broch doesn’t claim it for their neighbor Norway for the first time instead. Three-time US champion Drew Emch and last year’s runner-up at the grand final in Dubrovnik, Anastasya Arsenova from Kazakhstan, are also in the race, looking to finally make it all the way to the top. Or will it be one of the numerous other contenders? Ivan Žižić from Croatia, Rafael Solano from the Dominican Republic, Dejan Pažin from Slovenia, Andrey Leontiev from Belarus, Daniel Friedenthal from Austria…the list is long, but there can be only one. Let the games begin!