Mind Gaming
American Max Park overcame his great rival Feliks Zemdegs with a lightning-fast solve of 5.9 seconds to take the speedcubing crown at the Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Cup Final.
As the iconic Rubik's Cube celebrates 40 years, 14 of the fastest solvers in the world went head-to-head from home and competed for their share of US$30,000 at the Red Bull Rubik's Cube World Cup.
Taking place entirely online for the first time ever, the 2020 tournament saw all the finalists compete in the World Cup by using a brand new, fully digital Rubik's 'Connected' Cube, which could track players every rotation and solve times via an app.
While the tournament had a new format, there were plenty of familiar faces competing and in the speedcubing event it was American Max Park and Australian Feliks Zemdegs – the stars of the acclaimed Netflix documentary The Speed Cubers – who battled for the title.
Two-time champion Park eventually came out on top thanks to an incredible solve of just 5.9 seconds, edging out current world record holder Zemdebs, who took 6.04 seconds.
Following his victory, Park, who's still just 18-years-old, said: "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 to see that the speeds could be accurately measured to one thousandth of a second."
Germany's Philipp Weyer won the Fastest Hand title, beating Canada's Bill Wang 2–1, while the competition's fastest solve came in the semi-finals of the speedcubing event, with Phillip's brother Sebsatian recording a lightning-quick time of 5.516 seconds.
In the women's event, France's Juliette Sébastien, who also came second in the mixed Fastest Hand event, secured a comfortable victory, with a 6.922-second solve over favourite Dana Yi of the USA.
There was also a new world champion crowned when 18-year-old Chris Mills won the gold medal in the Re-scramble event. Different from regular events, competitors are given a solved Cube and need to match the pattern of a randomly scrambled Cube.
Despite there being 43 quintillion possible scrambles of a Rubik's Cube, the Brit took just 17.569 seconds in the final solve to overcome Germany's Rick Meiler and take the title.