CHAMPS Glass Games Returns to Las Vegas
Six live competitions, a legend on the torch, and the kind of pressure that separates hobbyists from masters.
Every CHAMPS show has a wholesale floor. Not every CHAMPS show has artists building under a clock in front of a crowd. That's what the Glass Games are for, and this August, they're back in Las Vegas from the 26th through the 28th at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The format changes the pressure entirely. This isn't a studio session with unlimited time and an empty room. Competitors work live, on the show floor, against a clock and whatever constraint that specific game throws at them. This year's lineup runs six competitions deep. Some hand artists a device and ask them to build around it: the Switch Go, the Switch 2, the Ghost 2, each with its own shape and its own set of problems to solve on the fly. Others strip the brief down to something almost absurd on purpose, like naming a pipe after a joke you have to look up to get, or handing someone three tools and a torch and calling it a night. The constraints aren't obstacles to the craft. They're the whole point. Anyone can build something beautiful with time and no restrictions. The Games ask what an artist can build when the only thing between concept and finished piece is skill.
Suellen Fowler, a name that carries real weight in flameworking circles, is on hand for live demonstrations alongside the competition. That's worth sitting for on its own, regardless of whether you're there to compete or just to watch someone who's spent decades getting this good move a torch.
There's real stakes on the table too. Top finishers in each contest walk away with cash, and the first place winner in each category earns a seat in the 2027 CHAMPS Masters Competition, the kind of credential that follows an artist's name for years. For anyone who's spent time in this world, watching that pressure play out live, in real time, with real consequences, is a different experience than seeing the finished piece on a shelf months later.
If you're heading to CHAMPS Vegas this August, the wholesale floor is worth your time. The Glass Games are worth building your schedule around.
