ER Champ 2026: the World Escape Room Championship is just around the corner. Calling all Slovenian teams!

The countdown has begun! This Saturday, June 20 at 6:00 PM Slovenian time, the digital doors will open for this year’s ER Champ 2026 qualifiers – the World Escape Room Championship, where teams from all over the world compete in speed, teamwork, logic, resourcefulness and keeping cool under time pressure.

ER Champ is no ordinary online game. It is a global event for everyone who loves puzzles, mysteries, codes, clues and that special moment when the team finally connects all the pieces of the puzzle. This international escape room competition is free to enter, played in teams, and the best teams qualify for the grand final, which takes place live, in real escape rooms.

This year’s edition is especially significant: ER Champ is celebrating its 10th anniversary. That is why the grand final is returning to where it all began – Wrocław, Poland. The final will take place from November 12 to 14, 2026, where the best teams from the online qualifiers will compete live for the title of world champions.

Slovenians? We know how to do this.

Slovenia has a special story when it comes to escape room games. We were among the first to recognize the magic of real-life games, and Slovenia has become home to numerous original games, gamification projects and experiences that connect stories, space, cultural heritage and the active role of players. We were the first to establish an association for escape room activities, and we brought gamification into museums and castles.

But in the world of escape rooms, Slovenians are known not only as pioneers and creators of original games, but also as excellent and passionate players. One of the highlights in the history of the industry is the Slovenian victory at the very first international Red Bull Mind Gamers competition in 2017, which showed that Slovenian teams have everything it takes to reach the very top: speed, logic, communication and team spirit.

That is why this year we are especially cheering for as many Slovenian teams as possible to take up the challenge – gather your friends, colleagues, family members or favourite teammates and accept the mission.

Nataša Potočnik once again among the ER Champ ambassadors

We are proud that Nataša Potočnik, co-founder and creative director of Enigmarium and president of the Association of Escape Room Activities of Slovenia, is once again an official ambassador of ER Champ.

Nataša sees escape rooms not merely as entertainment, but as an incredibly powerful way of connecting people. A great escape game reveals just how important communication, trust, listening, sharing information and achieving victory together truly are. That is exactly why escape room games are so popular among friends, families, colleagues and teams looking for something more than just an ordinary get-together.

At Enigmarium, we see this every day: a team that begins the game cautiously observing the room transforms, within minutes, into a coordinated detective unit. One person notices a symbol, another finds a key, a third connects a clue, and a fourth says the sentence that unlocks the entire logic of the puzzle. And when the mission is successfully completed, the victory is never the victory of just one player. It is always the victory of the team.

How to take part

To join ER Champ, you need a team, a computer, an internet connection and the willingness to dedicate a few hours to puzzles, cooperation and an exciting race against the clock. The qualifiers take place online, so you can participate from home, the office, a classroom, your living room or anywhere you can gather your team and immerse yourselves in the game without interruptions.

Before the start, the organizers will also host an official pre-game livestream, beginning 30 minutes before the qualifiers, at 15:30 UTC, or 17:30 Slovenian time. They will introduce the partners, the programme team and share the final information before the game begins.

And one more important thing: play fair. ER Champ is a competition of logic, team resourcefulness and cooperation – not a contest in using scripts, bots or blind guessing. The organizers have specifically highlighted the fair play rules, including the prohibition of automated scripts, multiple accounts for the same player and brute-force code guessing.

Why sign up?

Because it’s fun. Because it’s free. Because you can take part from home. Because it is a chance to test your team on a global level. Because in just a few hours, you will experience everything that makes escape room games so addictive: “aha!” moments, tension, laughter, confusion, euphoria, communication shortcuts and that wonderful feeling when you find the solution together.

And because perhaps it really is time for a Slovenian team to rise among the best once again.

At Enigmarium, we know very well that the best teams are the ones that know how to listen to each other. Not the ones where the loudest person is always in charge. Not the ones where everyone solves things on their own. The best teams are the ones where someone says, “I found something strange,” another replies, “Wait, that fits here,” a third adds, “What if we change the order,” and the fourth notices, at just the right moment, the detail everyone else has missed.

That is the magic of escape room games. And that is the magic of ER Champ.

Gather your team. Sign up. Let’s show what we can do.

The online qualifiers for ER Champ 2026 begin on Saturday, June 20 at 6:00 PM Slovenian time. Prepare your team, check your connection, refresh your brain cells and enter a world of Slavic myths, gods, demons and puzzles.

Perhaps your team will be the one to take Slovenia into the top 10 and all the way to the grand final in Wrocław.

Escape the ordinary. Solve with the best. And let’s show the world just how good we are at escape room games.

Add it to your calendar: Saturday, June 20, at 6:00 PM Ljubljana time (16:00 UTC)
See you here: https://erchamp.com