Championship disciplines under the microscope: Blitz

Blitz the fastest and most dynamic discipline of the championship; it is a fast elimination tournament. Competitors are standing forming a “circle” and holding their cylinder or padlock in their hands, having extra tools stuffed in their pockets. Each competitor has only one minute to open the lock to advance into the next round. If they fail to open they are, of course, eliminated.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST 

Sometimes, interesting locks appear in the competitions. In 2017, in the championship held in Orlik Marina, an Austrian lockpicker Heinrich Sparber brought an intimidating extremely long euro cylinder that was used on a boat, its size was several tens of centimeters.

The same year the youngest contestant ever to compete in the contest, Nelly Coufalová (9 years old) who competed under supervision of her father eliminated several opponents with her tiny padlock from her diary. It was so small it proved difficult to hold or tension it.

In the last year’s competition, our Czech contestant from the Association of Czech Lockpickers, Miroslav Buchbauer, was the only one to open the lock with several contestant remaining, thus eliminating all other Czech and International lockpickers and was the only one to obtain the medal for blitz that year.

BLITZ IN THE CZECH LOCKPICKING CHAMPIONSHIP 2019

In this year’s championship, the rules of blitz reman the same. The maximum number of competitors is set to 48. The rules are described in more detail below.

COMPETITION RULES – BLITZ

Allowed tools

• Any lock picks, commercial or hand-made
• Tension tools, commercial or hand-made

Requirements

• Arrive early (at least 15 minutes before the start of the competition)
• Every contestant brings his own padlock or cylinder to provide it for the competition (the opening of the cylinder must not require specialized non-standard picks, specific to lock model)
• Every contestant needs to have his/her own equipment!

Rules

• The contestants form a “circle”. The positions on the circles are drawn randomly.
• In one minute, the contestants have to open the lock they brought. If the contestant fails to open the cylinder, he/she and their cylinder are eliminated from the competition.
• After one minute the contestants pass their locks to the right. Again the contestants have one minute to open the cylinder of their neighbor.
• Then the locks are checked by their owners whether they are open.
• The contestants that failed to open their neighbor’s cylinder are eliminated.
• Each person swaps the place/lock with the person on their right and the next round begins.
• This process continues until only 3 contestants remain.
• Because of organizational reasons, the locks have to be opened in hand.
• Before each round starts, the contestant may try to use the tension tool in the cylinder, but he may not use any opening or manipulation tools. Before the start, the tension tool must be taken out of the lock.

Additional info

• The maximum number of participants is 48 (in the order of registration).
• If a contestant were to get the same cylinder for the second time, the cylinder will be replaced by a randomly selected one by the organizers
• The cylinder is considered open when the core is turned at least 90 degrees and there is no tool inserted, a padlock is open when the shackle is loose and there is no tool inserted.