JANUARY - Doggie Fashion Week Puzzle
NIGHT #1: The new season of puzzles on tap official kicked off on January 13th, 2026. We decided to return to 500 piece puzzles and keep the actual puzzles a secret to level the playing field. It was returning team Puzzling Prodigies that absolutely blasted through the January puzzle in 37:29 for the first night. Could it have been their team gear (including shirts and sweatshirts)? We’ll never know. It was a very close finish between 2nd and 3rd with less than a minute separating newcomers Jigsaw Geniuses and returning team Puzzlers and Guzzlers (also sporting team gear) finishing in 58:01 and 58:57 respectively. Then just 10 minutes the next team finished with just 3 seconds separating 4th and 5th with 6th.
NIGHT #2: On the second night of the January puzzle, a fresh set of 8 teams competed in the super cute “Doggie Fashion Week” puzzle including 6 returning teams and 2 rookie teams. Veteran team ‘Fit It To Win It’ took top honors for the month in a blazing fast 31 minutes and change followed by ‘Dance A Fine Jig(saw)’ and ‘Getting Jiggy With It’ finishing seconds apart in 45 minutes. ‘Puzz Lightyear’ was next at 47:30.
This means this weeks winner ‘Fit It To Win It’ and last weeks winner ‘Puzzling Prodigies’ have punched their tickets to Champions Night while the rest will have to just try again.
FEBRUARY - Traveling to Italy Puzzle
NIGHT #1: This month’s puzzle seemed a little harder; half the field finished in under 1 hour, and all teams under 1 hour 30 minutes. It was nice to see several new teams join in the fun and bring even more creative names to the table, like “Jig and Tonic”! While our newbies battled hard, in the end it was a returning team with a new name “Come Together” that knocked out this 500 piece panoramic puzzle in just 40:30. Coming in second, and earning their possible spot in Champions Night, was returning team “Puzz Lightyear!.”
NIGHT #2: Eight fresh teams became tourists in Italy and competed in Round 2 of our “Traveling to Italy” puzzle, including 5 returning teams and 3 rookie teams. Returning team ‘Puzzling Prodigies’ improved on their 2nd Place Puzzle #1 placement by taking the overall win in just 38:11. Newbie team ‘Eat Our Puzzle Dust’ was 2nd in 41:45 but fell short of earning their ticket to Champions Night as Team ‘Come Together’ which finished 1st in Round 1 had a time of 40:30. This means Round 1 veteran team ‘Puzz Lightyear’ was pushed off the podium (and actually fell down to 5th) as ‘Getting Jiggy with It’ took 4th in 45:30.
MARCH - Fluffy Team Puzzle
NIGHT #1 - Teams really seemed to enjoy Puzzle 3 of our 4-puzzle season this week and cranked it out as usual, with almost all teams finishing in under an hour, but maybe that was partially because all teams had puzzled with us before? Who knows! Team “Puzzling Prodigies” set a high bar for the round 2 teams by turning in a blazing time of 26:59. 2nd place was almost as close as the LA Marathon finish, but for the 3rd month in a row, team “Getting Jiggy With It” was edged out by just a few seconds, this time by team “Puzz Lightyear,” who finished in 33:12.
NIGHT #2 - On Tuesday night, our next set of 8 teams took on the ‘Fluffy Team’ puzzle in Round 2 of our March puzzle. We had 3 very enthusiastic newbie teams (Team names: I See Hot People, Puzzkill, and Interlocking Legends) and 5 returning teams. Newbies ‘I See Hot People’ came with their game faces on (and team shirts) and took the title for the evening in 30:42, which in turn knocked ‘Puzz Lightyear’ off the podium and out of Champions Night (at least for now). Round 1 team ‘Puzzling Prodigies’ retained their overall title for March and due to their fantastic time of 26:59 caused a ripple effect on Champions Night for February, resulting in team ‘Eat Our Puzzle Dust’ earning a Champions Night spot!
APRIL - Manarola at Sunset Puzzle
NIGHT #1 - The final puzzle of this season! Once again, team “Puzzling Prodigies” exerted their dominance over the rest of the competitors with a blazing fast 38:23 to earn their 3rd top finish (plus 1 second place) of the season.
NIGHT #2 - Competition was fierce as the last set of teams for the 2026 Season battled for the final champions night spots. Team ‘Our Cat Ate Your Last Puzzle Piece’ brought their A-game and missed knocking the odds-on favorite for winning champions night by just 20 seconds, finishing in 38:43!
The other teams that will be joining them and Puzzling Prodigies to compete on the 1000-piece ‘TBA’ puzzle will be ‘Fit it to Win it’, ‘Dance a Fine Jig(saw)’, ‘Come Together’, ‘Eat our Puzzle Dust’, ‘I See Hot People’ and ‘The Piece Keepers’.
CHAMPIONS NIGHT - SWEET DELIGHTS PUZZLE
Teams were hyped and ready for the 2026 Puzzle Season Champions Night. We stuck with the ‘panorama’ puzzle format but selected the 1000-piece Sweet Delights puzzle to provide a little more challenge. The top 3 teams of ‘Fit it to Win it’, ‘Puzzling Prodigies’ and ‘Come Together’ were separated by just 3 ½ minutes, but it was ‘Fit it to Win it’ that come out on top in 1:29:12, beating out the season leader ‘Puzzling Prodigies’ and claiming their spot on the Wall of Champions plaque for a second straight season. They also took home exclusive tap house pint glasses and the $30 prize.
Thank you to all our Champions Night teams and all teams that competed throughout the season. We look forward to seeing you again when we start our 2026 Fall Puzzle mini-season in September (just a heads up that we will be mixing it up a bit!). Signup is now open (reach out to Erik on erik@coloradotaphouse.com or 303-358-3208) and will start at 6:00pm to allow just a little more time for teams to gather.
