Rubik’s Cube Tournament

Posted by rossrubiknickname on August 18th, 2007 at 10:50pm

I recently had participated in the Official Rubik’s Cube tournament, sponsored by Hasbro, and it was one great experience. Although I did not get past the first round, I still had one great time. I was a little skeptical at first because there wasn’t too much information on the tournament when I called the people working there but now I have learned a lot more about it and I will pass it on to you.

First off, there were many contests like 2×2x2, 3×3x3, 4×4x4 and even 5×5x5 and other various Rubik’s Cube contests. There were contests for one-handed, blind-folded, shortest moves, and plain out speedcubing. Each contest had an admission price of around $10 but I received a complimentary goody-bag for my participation. It included a shirt, some replacement stickers, a UFO Rubik’s Cube, a Rubik’s Revolution Pin, a Rubik’s Cube pen, and other assorted goodies.

When I first arrived at the Chicago Cultural Center I was directed to a center room with a screen, many timing areas, and a watching area. I was very impressed with the layout of the Tournament. I registered and was then I was asked to sit down and wait for my name to be called. Naturally, I let my family sit down and while I looked around. I saw one man selling stickers from a company CubeSmith and many others practicing. I walked towards the timing area and saw people do the cube in thirty seconds and less. Suddenly my name was called so I walked up to the woman who had just called me. She took my cube, it was bring your own cube, took it to a station where it was randomly mixed up with a computer program, then placed in front of me with a cover on it.

The lady informed me I would have 15 seconds to look at the cube, just not move it then place it back down. Then i would be instructedf to place my handson the timer, release them, complete the cube and then place my jands back on the timer. I would do this three times and then sit down. Unfortunately, the qualifying time for one of the timed runs had to be 40 seconds, which I did not accomplish. Oh well.

After watching the competition some more I bought some great new Rubik’s Cube stickers, or tiles for my old withered cube. One person was generous enough to teach me a new shortcut to the cube that would help me. I explored some more then left because I knew I would not qualify.

It was a wonderful experience and I would participate again except that the competition will be held in Los Angeles next year, a little out of my reach.

Under Tournaments