Step inside ER Champ 2025 preparations: from ghostly storylines to puzzle design and Sofia’s role as the host of the world’s biggest escape room finals.

Building the Storyline

Every edition of ER Champ begins with a story. This year’s Finals take place in Haunted Dalloway Manor, a setting inspired by ghost stories and classic detective novels. The initial concept came from our own team member Ania, who shaped the atmosphere around playful, slightly clumsy spirits rather than dark horror.

The narrative evolved for months, adapting to the puzzles created for the online qualifications. By the time the 12 best teams earned their spots in the Finals, the storyline had taken its final shape. At this stage, the competition was fully in the hands of Bartosz Idzikowski and Jakub Caban, the founders of ER Champ, who designed both the puzzles and the continuation of the story that began during the qualifications. The Finals pick up right where the online adventure ended: players remain trapped inside Dalloway Manor.

Designing the Puzzles

Puzzle creation is one of the most time-consuming and demanding parts of the process. It happens in two distinct phases:

• Phase one – Qualifications: The Program Team, a group of enthusiasts and professional puzzle designers, spends about two-three months developing the online qualification game. Their focus is on structure, flow, and puzzle logic.
• Phase two – Finals: The Finals are designed exclusively by Idzikowski and Caban. They handle everything: the story, the rooms, and every single puzzle. The physical escape rooms built for the Finals go through months of construction, testing, and refinement. Test players provide feedback, and puzzles are repeatedly adjusted to ensure both fairness and challenge.

Developing the Online Games

Over the years, the online side of ER Champ has grown significantly. We transitioned to a new engine to improve performance and stability, allowing more players to compete at the same time without server overload. Alongside the technical upgrades, we refreshed the website and introduced new features within the games themselves.

Players now benefit from a clearer interface, a progress bar to track advancement, a live results list during qualifications, and a responsive inventory that makes it easier to manage items found in-game. These improvements are added regularly to ensure the online experience is as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

Choosing Sofia as the Host City

When it came to selecting the host city for the 2025 Finals, Sofia was an easy decision. Our goal is to make the World Championship truly global, which is why each year we aim to host it in a different European capital.

This year’s event is co-organized with Funky Monkeys, our local partner in Bulgaria, with tremendous support from ER Champ Ambassadors Nadia and Dimitar of Team Fury. Their help was invaluable in securing the venue and managing logistics far from our home base in Wrocław, Poland.

The choice of Sofia also means months of travel, planning, and paperwork. Organizing a Finals of this scale involves more than just preparing the rooms: it also includes coordinating technical crews, building schedules, securing speakers for the Escape Room Conference, and planning activities for the Fan Zone. Preparations began even before the June qualifications and will continue until the very last day. In many ways, it is a year-long project.

Behind the Scene: Part 2

Part 2 will take you further backstage, covering livestream production, the team behind the Finals, the challenges along the way, and what happens in the final days before the event.