American produces 5.9 second solve as Mills, Sébastien and Weyer triumph.
As the iconic Rubik’s Cube celebrates 40 years, the stars of acclaimed Netflix documentary ‘The Speed Cubers’ American Max Park and Australian Feliks Zemdegs went head-to-head at the Red Bull Rubik’s Cube World Cup final. Here is all you need to know:
– More than 2,000 entrants were whittled down to 14 of the fastest solvers with the global competitors head-to-head from home in four competition tracks for the $30,000 prize pool.
– The 2020 tournament – taking place entirely online for the first time ever – saw the two-time 2019 champion Park win the mixed speedcubing event following a lightning-quick final solve of 5.9 seconds with current world record holder Zemdegs at 6.04 seconds.
– The competition’s fastest solve came in the semi-finals with Germany’s Sebastian Weyer recording 5.516 seconds to the amazement of fans watching worldwide.
– Park, 18, revealed: “My motto is ‘don’t think just solve’. It was amazing that at a time of social distancing the speedcubing community could gather together and compete in such an exciting Red Bull Rubik’s Cube World Cup. It was fascinating too, to see that the speeds could be accurately measured to one thousandth of a second.”
– Sebastian’s brother Philipp won the ‘Fastest Hand’ title beating Canada’s Bill Wang 2-1, after Russia’s Andrey Che recorded an incredible 8.5s solve in the semi-finals.
– Philipp, whose fastest times of 11.875 and 13.074 in the decisive last solve sealed victory, said: “It wasn’t a particularly good solve, but sometimes you just need luck!”
– The Red Bull Rubik’s Cube World Cup is the only speedcubing tournament to offer a women’s only event, with the objective of encouraging more women to take up the sport.
– France’s Juliette Sébastien, who also came second in the mixed ‘Fastest Hand’ event, secured a comfortable victory with a 6.922s solve over favourite Dana Yi of the USA.
– The UK also has a new world champion after 18-year old Chris Mills – who has earned the nickname ‘Rescramble’ for his exploits in qualifying – won the ‘Re-scramble’ gold medal.
– Mills, whose final solve of 17.569 seconds was enough to beat Germany’s Ricky Meiler, admitted: “That was one of my best solves ever, both in competition and at home.”
– The ‘Re-scramble’ event is different from regular events in that competitors are given a solved Cube and need to match the pattern of a randomly scrambled Cube. With 43 quintillion possible scrambles of a Rubik’s Cube, this event is considerably trickier than others.
– All finalists were able to compete in the World Cup by using the brand new fully digital Rubik’s ‘Connected’ Cube, which tracks players every rotation and solve times via an app.
Speedcubing (mixed)
1) Max Park (USA) – Final solve times (secs): 6.456 – 6.463 – 5.908
2) Feliks Zemdegs (AUS)
3) Bill Wang (CA)
Speedcubing (female)
1) Juliette Sébastien (FRA) – Final solve times (secs): 9.336 – 6.922 – 8.196
2) Dana Yi (USA)
3) Kalina Jakubowska (PL)
Fastest Hand
1) Philipp Weyer (GER) – Final solve times (secs): 13.074 – 13.161
2) Juliette Sébastien (FRA)
3) Andrey Che (RUS)
Rescramble
1) Chris Mills (UK) – Final solve times (secs): 20.364 – 17.569
2) Ricky Meiler (GER)
3) Manuel Gutman (ARG)
Watch all the World Cup action again HERE.
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