Certainly Uncertain in the CSWC

Halfway through the Cigar Smoking World Championship qualifying season only one thing is certain; the outcome has never been this uncertain. The reason is of course the new competition cigar from Oliva. The Oliva Mareva CSWC 2025 has been the talk of the town all year. It was specifically designed to keep the times down, and initially it seemed to do just that. At one of the first qualifiers in Norway neither Tormood Skaaras nor Rolf Broch, two seaseond three-hour smokers, even came close to their former performances. Skaaraas did best when he smoked for about two and a half hours, thereby defending his title as champion, while Broch came in eight minutes behind, but in numbers their performances were bleak in comparison.

After a while, things started picking up, though and then one day it happened. Somebody smoked for more than three hours. The stage was the Baltic qualifier and it wasn’t just one, but three experienced smokers who were the first to prove it possible. Sergey Galevsky, Alexander Shagai and Oleg Pedan are all well-known in the world of slow smoking. Shagai won the grand final in 2017 and Pedan two years later while Galevsky is the former Latvian champion, and they’re all in the Top 20 list of all times.

Galevsky won this one at 3 hours 18 minutes and 7 seconds. Pedan, who made a spectacular comeback last year after a few years’ hiatus, would later go on and win in Belarus, once again breaking three hours. The most impressive performance so far belongs to Anastasia Arsenova, though, and it didn’t even happen when she won the Georgian national championship at 3 hours 21 minutes and 29 seconds. At a pre-qualifier in Kazakhstan last year’s runner-up at the grand final showed the slow smoking world she’s ready to take that last step up on the podium when she smoked for 3 hours 42 minutes and 6 seconds.

Other favorites have also met the expectations by defending or reclaiming their titles, albeit on a lower level. In Denmark, Nick Shawnley who won his third title in a row and fourth in total and in North Macedonia Nikola Popovski didn’t just win his third title, he even set a new personal record with 2 hours and 8 minutes. In Austria Daniel Friedenthal also won for the third time and in Sweden Mikael “Zeke” Zander reclaimed the title after an early exit in 2024 – his fourth in total.

Others have fallen varyingly hard. In France, the 2023 national champion, Mathieu Ginglinger was the first one out, in Latvia the cigar of the reigning champion Oleg Roshchin lasted only 33 minutes and in Romania Felix Matei failed to win his fifth consecutive championship as he came in third.

As always, there have been some close calls, as well. In Finland Matti Vesala claimed his first title by 20 seconds, in Slovakia the margin was 21 seconds when Július Honsch beat the favorite Peter Novysedlák and in Greece rookie Alkis Panagiotis Intzirtzis was just 25 seconds ahead of fellow rookie Kalliopi Katsoulidi. In debuting Hungary Péter Adonyi won by 50 seconds and in Qatar the largest margin since 2022 has been one minute and four seconds. This year Aran Manukyan won by 27 seconds.

The most dramatic finish probably happened in Lebanon, though. Due to a penalty for momentarily moving the cigar from his hand, Imad Abi Khali had to hold on for at least another ten minutes after Mag Demian’s cigar had gone out to claim the title, and so he did, by a mere ten seconds.

There has also been a lot of firsts. Hong Kong, Hungary, Jordan and Uzbekistan have all made their debut, and the most impressive first was in Jordan, where Abdul-Hadi Hammoudeh smoked for 2 hours 11 minutes and 58 seconds; a respectable performance by any standard.

But the big question was still how reigning world champion and the dominating force of the slow smoking world for the last few years, Hauke Walter, would handle the cigar. The answer came one evening at a cigar lounge in Düsseldorf in Germany. Although he won his seventh national title in a row, his performance was far from what we’re used to. He joined the ranks of Skaaraas, Broch and the others and came in at 2 hours 40 minutes and 30 seconds, and he was fairly disappointed.

“My time wasn’t good by my standards,” he said. “The cigar didn’t have a nice, even burn and it wasn’t smoking as I liked it to. It kept wanting to drag itself forward, and I had to counteract it.”

With some of his main rivals putting up significantly better performances, Arsenova especially, one can’t help but wonder; will he be able to improve his technique and learn the cigar enough to defend his title in Split later this summer? Or will Arsenova have her revenge? There’s still a lot of time to practice. With the skill and talent Walter possesses, this is far from over, but it’s certainly uncertain enough.

Behind them names like Pedan, Galevsky, Shagai, Friedenthal and Zander are lurking, as is UK’s Etan Patel. His winning time of 2 hours on the dot doesn’t paint a just picture as he laid down his cigar in favor of socializing.

“He could’ve continued longer, even breaking the 3 hours mark, but he stopped smoking early in order for the prize giving and socializing to take place with enough time before the venue closed,” organizer and CSWC judge Sarah Saunders said.

Also, considering the new cigar you can never disregard from former giants like the 2021 world champion Henrik Kristensson, despite his second place in the Swedish qualifier. Come August, he might be able to pull out the big guns and become a contender once again. And let’s not forget, far from all the results are in. We still don’t know how other favorites like Poland’s world record holder Klaudia Ide, 2022 world champion Borys Szkodziak or reigning national champion Marcin Sakowski will perform, or how Drew Emch from the US or Dejan Pažin from Slovenia has done.

“Will Walter rise to the occasion under the bright lights in Split,” Marko Bilic wonders on the CSWC website. “Or will new names steal the spotlight? The pressure is mounting, and newcomers are emerging. The Oliva Mareva is rewriting the script, and Hauke Walter, the Iceman of CSWC, will need to summon everything he has to hold onto his legacy.