As a "puzzle champion", I get to travel around the world representing the US at the World Sudoku and World Puzzle Championships each year. For those that are curious about what these events are like, here I provide links to my trip reports for the last several championships. I also include links to some other events I travel to, such as the US Sudoku Championship and the MIT Mystery Hunt. These reports were all originally posted on my blog at motris.livejournal.com
2006 (Lucca, Italy) - Day 1, Day 2, Day 2 - evening, Day 3 (Playoffs), Press Coverage
2007 (Prague, Czech Republic) - Report, Aftermath, Press Coverage, More Coverage
2008 (Goa, India) - Part 1, Part 2
An event was held in 2009, but I'm not sure it was a Championship. I liveblogged it as it happened, for better or worse: 2009 (Zilina, Slovakia) - Part 1, Record "Puzzle", Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Return Home, Letter to WPF in response to the "Championship"
2010 (Philadelphia, USA) - as an organizer and puzzle constructor, not a competitor - Day 1, Day 2, Timing/Results, Final Puzzles, Videos
2011 (Eger, Hungary) - liveblogged here - day 1, here, and here - day 2 on my way to a third world championship.
2006 (Borovets, Bulgaria) - Report
2007 (Rio De Janiero, Brazil) - Report
2008 (Minsk, Belarus) - Part 1, Part 2
2009 (Antalya, Turkey) - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3.
2010 (Far from anywhere in Poland) - Pre-WPC, Day 1, Day 2, Team Finals, Individual Finals, Final Thoughts.
2011 (Eger, Hungary) - Day 1, Day 2 - Morning, Day 2 - Evening, Day 3.
2012 (Kraljevica, Croatia) - Team Logo, not at the WSC, Day 1, Day 2, Day 2 End, Playoffs (aka The Voigt Gambit), Mistakes in grids; coverage in TIME
2013 (Beijing, China) - Day 1, Playoffs
2007 - Report, Press/Yahoo Coverage, More Coverage
2008 - Report
2009 - Report, plus five entries on the Sudobomber affair that unfortunately marred the championship:
1 - initial ID, 2 - open letter, 3 - photo evidence, 4 - Dr. Sudoku versus the Sudobomber, 5 - Disqualified!
2008 - Report (as an on-site competitor with The Evil Midnight Bombers (What Bomb At Midnight!))
2011 - Report (as a remote solver with Luck, Luck Goose)
2012 - Report (as a remote solver with Luck, Stuck on Two Open Puzzles)
2013 - Report (as a live solver on Team Luck) that generated lots of comments; also see a longer story I wrote for WIRED