The chances for a building to have the perfect name for a slow smoking contest are few and far between, but in the capital of Azerbaijan this is the case. The Cigar Smoking World Championship qualifier in this most eastern corner of Europe was set in a cigar lounge inside the iconic Flame Towers in Baku this year. It was the 6^th time Azerbaijan organized a qualification event and besides the home side, there were smokers from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Poland.

It was an eventful event. The big surprise of the evening came after less than an hour, when two-time champion Elnur Adilov was out – again. In 2024 the cigar began to burn “spoon” early in the race, and in trying to fix that problem, the champion from 2023 was eliminated after just 47 minutes. This year he lasted ten minutes longer. In general the competition seemed to be cursed for former champions. Half an hour after Adilov’s exit, the cigar of the 2024 champion Samir Rzayev suddenly went out, with a third of it still remaining, leaving him with a fourth place.

Third place went to Dariusz Jacek from Poland, a second for him as he repeated his accomplishment from the CSWC qualifier in Georgia earlier this summer. He reached 1 hour 33 minutes and 20 seconds. Left were Elgun Rzayev and the runner-up from Georgia, Elena Tronina, also from Poland. The two fought it out for another 19 minutes before Rzayev had to concede, and with no Anastasia Arsenova to beat, officially at least, Tronina did what Arsenova stopped her from doing in Georgia; she secured a national champion title.

1 hour 56 minutes and 26 seconds was eleven minutes shorter than her time in Georgia, but it was enough to send her to the grand final in Split in August.

“I am glad that we managed to come to the two beautiful countries of Azerbaijan and Georgia, and of course winning the champion title in Azerbaijan,” Tronina says. “But above all, I’m grateful to the CSWC for all the people I met.”

Arsenova was there, though. She takes every chance to practice and unsurprisingly she beat them all, but it was out of contest.

“After 2 hours and 1 minute she decided to stop,” organizer and CSWC judge, Yevgeniy Zhidkov, says. “The cigar had no prospects for another hour or more of smoking.”

The next day, by tradition, the international guests went on a small trip to the Agate Mountains and Altyagaj reserve, wineries Savalan and Chabiant and Tufandag mountain range.

“It left a memory for a lifetime in the soul of our guests,” Zhidkov says.