National speedcubing competition held in Upper Highway

THE Winter Warm-up Cubing Comp was held recently at Winston Park Primary School in the Upper Highway.

The speedcubing event attracted competitors from all over South Africa.

Speedcubing, according to the CubingZA website is: “The activity of solving a variety of twisty puzzles, the most famous being the Rubik’s Cube, as quickly as possible.”

A solved puzzle is when there is a uniform colour on each face of the twisty puzzle. Categories include 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, 6×6, 7×7 and then, additionally, one-handed or blind-folded categories. Various shaped puzzles make up other categories like Pyraminx, Megaminx, Skewb and Square-1.

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Duncan Hobbs, the World Cubing Association (WCA) delegate says, “We hosted a WCA competition in the Upper Highway recently. This event is where people try to get the fastest time in the 3×3 Rubik’s Cube and many other categories, too. We have pyramid-shaped cubes, 2×2 ones, and a bunch of other disciplines. We have competitors who will solve the 3×3 one-handed in 10 seconds, and someone who will do it blindfolded.”

Hobbs said that the African Championship will be taking place in Cape Town in October this year and that his organisation plans to host events in Durban more frequently, with the current goal of one every quarter. He says that speedcubing enthusiasts will be able to get their official times at events like these and then use the three months in-between events to hone their skills.

Speedcubing is a much larger and more lucrative sport in other countries than it is in SA.
Hobbs says, “Internationally, it is very popular with tens of thousands of people competing. The real hotspots are Europe, America and Australia. It is a smaller sport in SA. Covid hit the global community hard, but we’ve seen phenomenal desire for competitions this year.”

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Approximately 60 speedcubers competed in this event with some of the top South African participants attending. Waseem Hoosain from Pietermaritzburg won the 4×4 category with an 11.36-second time. Daniel Rush from Cape Town set a new African record with a 5.97-second 3×3 solve. This is the first ‘sub-6’ in Africa which generated much excitement in the audience. Osman Badroodin set a new South African record in the Square1 cube category with a 9.81-second solve. The youngest competitor at this event was seven-year-old Christian Swarts.

Hobbs’ advice for aspirant speedcubers is to “Get a cube, get onto YouTube and start. The biggest thing to remember is: Don’t try to figure it out on your own – watch a tutorial, start timing yourself and then watch your times plummet. When you begin achieving your personal best, that’s when the addiction kicks in.”

For further information, visit: https://www.cubingza.org