Sudoku tournaments are a new phenomenon in the United States, only really becoming popular in 2007 and 2008. That doesn’t mean that Sudoku isn’t hear to stay. For one thing, the puzzles only got popular in the United States during 2005 as people discovered them as an alternative to crossword puzzles in newspapers. So for Sudoku to have progressed from an unknown game to having tournaments with $50,000 grand prizes and international tournaments featuring Olympic style national competitions is impressive. Sudoku tournaments are based upon competitors solving several puzzles. Each person is solving the same puzzle; obviously the person who completes all of their puzzles correctly and accurately in the least amount of time is declared the winner. At tournaments there are generally beginner levels, intermediate levels, and harder levels. The hardest levels pay the highest prizes as one would expect. Nonetheless, a good beginner can enter Sudoku tournaments and have something to show for their efforts if they are successful. Sudoku tournaments are generally run by newspapers that are using them as free publicity. So encouraging people to get into the game and therefore buy more newspapers is a viable strategy. Since the game is still in its relative infancy there aren’t tournaments in every big city. There are only a couple large ones each year in the United States. The de facto Sudoku national championship in the US is held in Philadelphia each year. This Sudoku tournament awards a $10,000 grand prize, and a spot on the USA Sudoku team that competes at the World Championships, and features all of the best players in the United States. The newspaper that sponsors it is the Philadelphia Inquirer and it was held for the first time in 2007. The winner was Thomas Snyder. Snyder was a good enough player that he won the individual Sudoku World Championship at the tournament in Prague in 2007. The United States team barely missed out on becoming World Champions, losing to Japan. Considering how long Sudoku (and Sudoku tournaments) have been popular in Japan, compared to the United States, what was accomplished by the US team was impressive. The USA is a nation of people that enjoy games and puzzles, so its only natural that a country of people that grew up with crossword puzzles would take to Sudoku when it began to grow in popularity. The future for the game is bright. Even though the newspaper industry has been complaining about huge losses in the past years, Sudoku has caught on and many people are able to find free puzzles online or in books that are available. Those that become devoted are driving the market for Sudoku tournaments as well. People that tend to be interested in Sudoku tend to become very interested in Sudoku. This is good for the game because the fans are so hardcore. As the game nears its fourth year in the United States, it will continue to get more popular as will Sudoku tournaments.
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