bakpao's puzzles

WSPC 2026 has concluded! This was my 5th year in a row participating in WSPC. I was on the A team for both Sudoku and Puzzles this year.  I finished in 25th official in WSC ( 1st within NL,  30th unofficial, same official rank but down from 29th unofficial last year) and 22nd official in WPC ( 2nd within NL,  30th unofficial, up from 38th unofficial last year) .  No terrible results by any means, but they both left me feeling like I could have done a lot better. Both tournaments were plagued by more unnecessary errors than usual, and during WPC I unfortunately was ill during the 2nd day. I was very well prepared for WSC this year. I put in a lot of practice, even doing a mini bootcamp  in China in the week leading up to the event,  simulating many of the individual rounds. I think my result is disappointing to me mainly due to an extremely poor start on the first morning, and bad performance in the non-standard rounds (Samurai and Relay). As for WPC, my pr...