The teams have names like Flippin’ Pieces, Getting Jiggy With It and The Puzzle Puff Girls, and they compete after hours in the office space of a puzzle factory.
That’s right, the hottest new league sport in town is speed puzzling at Portland Puzzle Company.
The local puzzle manufacturer has started a competitive puzzling league, hosting events three times a week where individuals, pairs or teams of four race to be the first to complete a jigsaw puzzle.
The winning team takes home a $100 prize, and every team takes home a puzzle.
Before the competition, many puzzlers meet up across the street at Loyal Legion Beer Hall for a pre-game happy hour.
“It’s kind of gained the momentum of a bar trivia night,” said Portland Puzzle Company co-owner Andrew Weatherly.
Portland’s speed puzzling league started in September. It’s part of the burgeoning world of competitive speed puzzling, which has taken off the past few years, particularly after the pandemic.
That’s also when Portland Puzzle Company got its start. The business was originally founded in 2018 as Draft Coaster, a beer coaster manufacturer creating custom cardboard coasters for breweries and bars.
“We thought we had the most recession proof product there ever was,” Weatherly said. “Then COVID happened, and sales basically went to zero because all the restaurants were closed.”
But while the beer coaster industry was hurting, the puzzle industry was having a moment – and Weatherly had a Portland factory full of idle die cutting presses.
“We thought we had the equipment capable of doing that,” Weatherly said. “So, we went down that path … and puzzling has really taken off.”
Today, Portland Puzzle Company works with local artists to develop its line of Oregon-themed puzzle designs. The company can also do single-puzzle orders, turning personal photos into custom puzzles. Prices range from $17.99 to $36.99 for a custom puzzle, depending on the number of pieces.
And Weatherly has even bigger plans for puzzling as a tourism draw.
The World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship drew hundreds of puzzlers from 50 countries to Spain last year. Competitor slots and convention passes are already sold out for the USA Jigsaw Nationals in San Diego next month.
Weatherly hopes to put Portland on the map as a puzzler’s paradise. Aug. 2-4, Portland Puzzle Company will host the first ever Portland Jigsaw Masters, a three-day speed puzzling tournament at the Melody Event Center that will be paired with a Saturday night street fair in Southeast Portland.
“We expect about 500 to 1,000 people to come in for the speed puzzling competition from all over the country,” Weatherly said. “I think it’s going to be a really good way for people that are coming from outside the city to experience Portland at the height of summer. We’re going to have food vendors, beer vendors. I think it’s going to be a great representation of the city of Portland.”
On a recent Wednesday evening, 13 teams spread out across the Portland Puzzle Company office space.
Some puzzlers are edge finders. Others are color matchers or shape sorters.
For the competitors, speed puzzling can bring a sense of order in a world of chaos.
The “Speech Language Puzzolgists (and Claire)” team came in first place during the speed puzzling competition Feb. 7 at Portland Puzzle Company.Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian
“Life is complicated, and puzzles, they go together, and there’s an end in sight,” said Noelle Birky, who puzzles regularly with the team Speech Language Puzzologists.
Most of her teammates are – you guessed it – speech language pathologists. It’s a field that requires constant thought about human communication.
One great thing about puzzling is that it takes few words.
“We don’t have to talk about anything, but we’re doing an activity together, and that’s really enjoyable,” said puzzler Kara Hayden. “We spend a lot of time talking about cases and work and technology. When we puzzle, we don’t talk about work at all.”
During last week’s puzzle league competition, the Puzzologists came in first place, completing the puzzle in 67 minutes.
It was a different story for Flippin’ Pieces, a team that typically finishes in one of the top slots.
Member Rob Shields, a data analyst by trade, tracks his team’s pieces per person per minute. Last week, Flippin’ Pieces had their slowest rate since he started tracking: 1.4 pieces per person per minute.
“It took the four of us on a 500-piece puzzle an hour and 27 minutes to do it,” he said. “Usually we’re around three, three and a half (pieces per person per minute), so this is less than half.”
Rob Shields holds up his team’s completed puzzle and puts its back in its box at the end of competition. The hottest new sport in town is Wednesday night speed puzzling at Portland Puzzle Company. The local puzzle maker has started a competitive speed puzzling league, where individuals, pairs and teams of four race to be the first to complete a 500-piece puzzle.Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian
Last week’s puzzle image was a cartoon map of Oregon highlighting the state’s waterfalls. It was particularly challenging, with an all-white border and lots of similarly shaded green pieces.
And Portland’s puzzle nights add a twist: No one sees the puzzle reference picture until 45 minutes into the competition.
Rob and his wife, Rachel Shields, both in their 50s, have been competitively puzzling since 2021. They joke that the hours spent hunched over a table make it a young person’s sport.
“You need to Advil up for your back,” Rachel Shields said. “You need to have special reading glasses if you’re old.”
Despite the physical demands, their teammate Melissa Harrington says speed puzzling is a welcome escape.
“There’s literally nothing else you can think about when you are speed puzzling,” she said. “Politics, world-anything, it doesn’t matter. When you’re doing this, you are so focused. It’s almost like a vacation, except for your back hurts afterwards.”
If you go: Portland Puzzle Company, 619 S.E. Sixth Ave., hosts speed puzzling events three times a week. Pairs complete starting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays; teams of up to four compete at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. On Saturdays, individuals compete at 1 p.m., pairs at 2:30 p.m., and teams at 4 p.m. Cost is $20 for an individual, $25 per pair or $30 per team. To find more information or to register, visit portlandpuzzle.com.
-- Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian and Here is Oregon. Reach her at sswindler@oregonian.com.
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