The need for speedcubing
The fast and the furious aim for best times
They came from across Canada, the U.S. and even South Korea to cube.
With fleet fingers and Rubick’sstyle resolve, more than 200 puzzle solvers gathered at Scotiabank Convention Centre for this weekend’s Canadian Speedcubing Championship. Over and over, they put their skills to the test against the clock, hoping to join the worldwide rankings.
Categories included the basic 3X3X3 classic made famous by Rubik’s Cube in the early ’80s, to a brain-bending 7X7X7 cube. Some people did it blindfolded. Some did it with their feet.
All brought a level of problemsolving the average cube player couldn’t comprehend. Some players solved their cube in less than 30 seconds … and looked disappointed. Show organizer Dave Campbell of CanadianCUBING knows the feeling. Once you beat the cube for the first time, there’s a constant need to do it faster and faster.
“First, you just want to solve the thing,” he says. “It took me about seven days to learn to do it, and then it was a natural instinct for me to say, ‘I want to solve it again.’
“Then at some point, you say, ‘How long did that take me to do it?’ If it’s five minutes the first time, you think, ‘Wow, I wonder if I can do it faster than that?’ Then it becomes this thing of, like, ‘Can I do it in less than a minute?’”
Most categories came with a modest $25 to $50 prize for first place. The most popular category, the 3X3X3 cube, had a $300 firstplace prize. The event was officially recognized by the World Cube Association.
Invented in 1974 by Hungary’s Erno Rubik, the classic Rubik’s Cube became an obsession in the early ’80s, selling 200 million units worldwide.
But its popularity quickly faded, and about 1983 it virtually vanished for 20 years. Then in 2013, Campbell says some of the original players connected over the internet and held a competition in Toronto.
“Since that one in Toronto, it’s just been huge,” he says. “Now, I don’t think there’s a weekend that
“You don’t just pick it up and start solving, there’s a process.” DAVE CAMPBELL CanadianCUBING
goes by where there isn’t a competition somewhere in the world.”
Actual Rubik’s Cubes are not used in competitions, he adds. They’re designed more for casual use — speed cubers use a more fluid, smooth-turning cube.
It results in some mind-blowing feats: The best speed-cubers in the world can solve the traditional 3X3X3 cube in about seven seconds, says Campbell.
“I don’t think anybody learns to solve it on their own,” he says. “You don’t just pick it up and start solving, there’s a process.
“It’s kind of like learning a musical instrument — you don’t just pick up a guitar and learn to play, you’ve got to learn some chords.”