Discover how ER Champ’s online adventure becomes a physical world of Slavic myths, electronic puzzles, and championship challenges.

An online escape room adventure unfolds through a screen. You explore illustrated locations, examine objects, and click your way towards a solution. But what happens when the next door in that story becomes a real door - one you can reach out and open?

For the ER Champ 2026 finalists, that transition begins at a tavern in the settlement of Sabath. Behind its doors waits the continuation of a mystery they first encountered online. Bringing it into the physical world takes a shared creative vision, months of building, and a willingness to rethink even the most spectacular ideas.

The Next Chapter Begins at the Tavern Door

The qualifications ended with Milena and Sambor standing outside a tavern. The man inside, who was supposed to help them uncover the truth about their settlement’s missing inhabitants, had deceived them. He was not who he claimed to be.

That is exactly where the Finals begin.

As the finalists enter the tavern, they will have to discover what happened in the village, where its inhabitants have gone, and who the mysterious man really is. Above all, they must find out why their instincts tell them that both the siblings and the missing villagers are in serious danger.

For players who followed the online adventure, this is the moment to step inside a place that previously existed on their screens. The mystery continues, but the way they interact with it changes.

A World Designed to Continue Beyond the Screen

The tavern was part of the plan from the earliest stages of developing the story and game flow. It belonged in Sabath, and it was intended to become the setting for at least the opening part of the Finals.

That early decision gave the online games and physical rooms a shared direction. The Finals continue the story introduced in A Tale of the Turnip Field and developed in The Mystery of Holy Mountain, while also bringing their world into a new medium.

The creators of the final puzzles and story, together with creative studio My Cuda Robimy, have worked to immerse the finalists in a setting inspired by Slavic myths, Polish folklore, and the lands of fourteenth-century Lower Silesia.

The challenge is to make that world feel coherent across both formats. Players should be able to recognize the atmosphere of their earlier adventure while discovering a space they can now explore in person.

When Clicking Becomes Physical Interaction

Moving from an online game to a physical room changes the relationship between players and their surroundings. On screen, the interface mediates every action. In a room, players share a space, approach objects from different angles, and coordinate their actions face to face.

This year’s final rooms are fully electronic. There will not be a single padlock puzzle.

That choice makes the connection between physical actions and the room’s electronic systems an essential part of the design. The puzzles, the objects players interact with, and the technology running behind the scenes must work together.

It also creates a different kind of development challenge. A puzzle needs a clear logical solution, but its physical implementation must respond reliably when players act on that solution. Designing the task and making it work in the room are closely connected parts of the same process.

One Adventure, Several Teams of Creators

The story reaches the Finals through the work of several teams, each responsible for a different part of the experience.

ER Champ founders Bartosz Idzikowski and Jakub Caban are responsible for all the final-room puzzles and the story outline. Their chapter continues the narrative written by Anna Kryśkow for the stress test and qualifications.

My Cuda Robimy, the creative studio that has worked with the championship since its beginnings, turns those ideas into physical rooms. Its responsibilities include construction using the WonderWallz wall system, set design, and special effects. This is where the fictional setting takes shape as a space that players can enter.

The team from Funky Monkey handles the electronics and connects the rooms to WonderControllz, our proprietary game management system.

These elements have to come together as a single experience. A story creates a reason to enter a place. Set design gives that place a physical identity. Puzzles give players something to discover and do, while the electronics and game management system support how the room responds.

Why a Spectacular Puzzle Might Not Make the Final Cut

Some of the most important design decisions happen once testing begins.

After the first tests of this year’s rooms, one puzzle had to be removed. It was visually impressive and delivered a strong wow moment, but there was too much risk that it could break down or fail to behave as intended. For a championship room, that uncertainty was unacceptable.

A memorable effect cannot come at the cost of dependable gameplay. Teams need to be able to trust that the room will respond as designed, especially when every moment matters. Removing a striking puzzle can therefore be the right decision for the competition as a whole.

We cannot reveal what that puzzle involved just yet. Perhaps, after the Finals, we will share the story of the idea that almost made it into the room.

Testing Is Still Shaping the Adventure

More tests lie ahead, and they may change the form of some puzzles before the finalists encounter them.

Testing is a chance to observe what happens when people who do not know the intended solutions step into the room. Do they understand what they can interact with? Do the clues lead them in the intended direction? Does the difficulty come from solving the puzzle, or from uncertainty about how something works? Those questions matter in any escape room. In a championship, they become especially important: the challenge must hold up under competitive pressure, and the physical mechanisms must support the logic of the game.

The room that reaches the Finals will be the result of both creative ambition and practical decisions made along the way.

Step Inside the Story This November

For the finalists, the tavern door marks the beginning of the final chapter. For everyone watching, it will be a chance to see how a world first explored online becomes the setting for a live competition.

On November 14, 2026, the ER Champ Finals at Leśnica Castle in Wrocław, Poland, will bring that transformation to life. Join us in the Fan Zone or follow the competition on YouTube and Twitch to discover what awaits beyond the door.

Find out more about the ER Champ 2026 Finals.