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Introduction
You may have seen or heard of Rubik's Cube competitions on TV or the internet and get in on the action yourself which is great!
Rubik's cube competitions are a great way to meet new friends, challenge yourself and set new personal bests in a fun environment. We go over where to look for local cubing competitions in your area, how to prepare for them, and other speed cube competition basics.
What is the World Cube Association?
The World Cube Association or WCA is a worldwide organization that "governs competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as 'twisty puzzles'." The WCA is the go-to for all speedcubing competitions, with official competitions being organized all around the globe.
What is an official speed cube competition?
Speedcubing competitions consist of many events, most of which have the aim to solve a type of twisty puzzle, such as the 3x3 Rubik's cube, as quickly as possible in a competitive environment (excluding Fewest Moves Challenge or FMC - but we'll get to that later). This usually happens in "rounds", where entrants compete to solve a twisty puzzle as quickly as possible, with a top percentage moving onto the next round.
Most rounds of an event consist of 5 solves, giving the competitor a "truncated average", where the best and worst disregarded (but recorded), and the middle three times are "averaged" through a mean to give the competitor their average time.
The World Cube Association, at the timer of writing, recognize a total of 17 "events"
- 3x3 - the classic puzzle
- 2x2
- 4x4
- 5x5
- 6x6
- 7x7
- 3x3 Blindfolded
- 4x4 Blindfolded
- 5x5 Blindfolded
- Pyraminx
- Skewb
- Clock
- Square-1
- Fewest Moves Challenge (FMC)
Any combination of events may be present at a WCA competition, the most common being 3x3, 2x2, 4x4, and other non NxN events such as Pyraminx and Skewb - although some competitions in the past may have larger amounts of more obscure events such as FMC and 4x4/5x5 Blindfolded.
Official world records for the above events are set in these competitions and at these competitions only - for example, to get the 3x3 average world record, you would have to attend a competition, and in a 3x3 round beat the current 5.53 average set by Feliks Zemdegs.
Finding local cube competitions
A list of upcoming competitions can be found here, on the WCA competition page. They list the date and location, but you are also able to filter by event types for your favorite events. Also, you can filter by geographical location.
List of upcoming competitions globally
To register for a competition, simply click on the competition you are interested in attending, and provided the entries are open, you can enter through the "register" tab to the left of the site on desktop, and at the top of the webpage on mobile.
What do I do at a competition?
We recommend currently checking out the WCA Competitor Tutorial PDF, which goes into detail about the roles that different people play at competitions that allow such events to run smoothly. A full article on competing is coming soon.
What speed cubes can I use?
Provided that the puzzle abides by all WCA Regulations, you are to provide your own puzzle for each event when competing at official competitions. Check out our article on finding the best speed cube.
Conclusion
Official competitions are a great way to meet new cubers and set new personal records. Be sure to check out the WCA's page for upcoming competitions to sign up to.
