Cotacachi Open 2023

The interior of the Teatro Ciudad por La Paz in Cotacachi, Ecuador provided a classic stage setting as tables filled with timers and tournament mats over the two days of competition. Across November 3 and November 4, fifty solvers assembled under the house lights, preparing their hands and puzzles for fourteen rounds of intense action. The atmosphere inside the theater was focused and industrious from the early morning setup to the final turns, setting the scene for an eventful weekend of precision solving.

A major story of the weekend was the flurry of benchmark marks recorded in the 2x2x2 Cube event. Throughout the preliminary and final rounds, competitors continuously pushed their single solves and five-solve averages down into uncharted territory. Solvers traded fast times across both rounds, highlighted by Anthony Gerard Álvarez Ludeña registering a 1.91 single and a 2.75 average, while Raúl Gómez produced a blistering 1.69 single and a 2.77 average. Sebastián Joel Herrera Manangon posted a 2.57 single and a 3.70 average, while Juan Pablo Suárez Narváez logged a 2.19 single alongside a 3.99 average.

That wave of recorded marks in 2x2x2 extended deep into the tournament bracket. Adrián Leandro Pazmiño Aldás turned in a 3.71 single and 4.93 average, Felipe Lozada secured a 4.65 single and 5.33 average, and Germán Daniel Beltrán Jarrín delivered a 4.91 single and 5.41 average. Further down the roster, Jhonatan Caicedo logged a 4.29 single and 5.61 average, Steven Daniel Dueñas Anisete clocked a 4.66 single with a 5.62 average, and Abiel Rosero added a 3.73 single and 5.63 average to round out the historic collection.

At the summit of the standings, Anthony Gerard Álvarez Ludeña put together a staggering display across multiple puzzle categories. In the traditional 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, Álvarez Ludeña took the title through three rounds of racing against 49 competitors, securing the top step with a winning average of 10.98 seconds and a best single of 9.28. Caicedo finished second in the 3x3 results with an average of 12.85 seconds, followed closely by Suárez Narváez in third place with a 13.25 average.

Beyond the premier puzzle, Álvarez Ludeña claimed first place in six other events. He won the 2x2x2 Cube final with a 2.48 average, ahead of Gómez at 3.18 and Herrera Manangon at 4.06. In the 4x4x4 Cube, Álvarez Ludeña produced a winning 37.49 average to lead Oscar Burga at 50.95 and Caicedo at 52.11. His Megaminx victory arrived with a 55.29 average, once again placing Burga in second at 1:18.26 and Suárez Narváez in third at 1:30.05. In the 5x5x5 Cube, his 1:18.92 average led the podium over Suárez Narváez at 1:35.81 and Caicedo at 1:46.01.

Away from the top of the podiums, the official sheets revealed massive progress for competitors across various disciplines. Karina Abigail Gonzales Défaz achieved one of the largest leaps of the competition, dropping her 3x3x3 Cube personal best to 23.57 seconds, which was 46.4 percent faster than her prior mark of 43.96. Williams Catota contested two events and sliced his 2x2x2 Cube personal best down by 42.3 percent to 13.79 seconds while also lowering his 3x3x3 Cube best to 43.47 seconds. In the Megaminx, Nicolas Alejandro Mena Gómez delivered his first ever attempt in official play, logging a time of 5:51.68 on his way to an eighth-place finish, while also trimming his 3x3x3 personal best to 29.88 seconds.

First-time official attempts and multi-event campaigns brought fresh milestones throughout the schedule. Eduardo Gael Alvarez Arévalo took on four events, securing a career-best sixth-place finish in Clock with a maiden attempt of 18.71 seconds alongside a 24.73 personal best in 3x3x3. Alan Ismael Chandi Jara contested four disciplines, recording his first ever official attempts in 4x4x4 Cube at 1:53.72, Pyraminx at 17.48, and 2x2x2 Cube at 7.09. José María Tamayo Vaca completed their first WCA competition by entering three events, highlighted by first-ever official marks of 31.98 in 3x3x3 Cube, 14.73 in Pyraminx, and 9.48 in 2x2x2 Cube. In addition, Felipe Lozada debuted with a seventh-place finish in 4x4x4 Cube on a 1:05.31 effort, while Andres Martín Salcedo Bastidas marked their first competition with a 11.84 initial effort in Pyraminx and 20.57 in 3x3x3.

The remaining puzzle categories at Cotacachi Open 2023 offered strong variety. In 3x3x3 Blindfolded, where competitors must commit the puzzle to memory before donning a blindfold to execute their solution, Álvarez Ludeña won with a best single of 1:02.15, leading James Montero at 4:48.67 and Suárez Narváez at 4:56.79. Steven Daniel Dueñas Anisete earned two event victories, capturing Skewb with a 6.92 average and Square-1 with a 22.36 average. Jean Carlos Echeverría Jácome took the Clock title with an average of 16.31, ahead of Belén Tapia at 17.67, while Ivan Alexander Bonilla Morales topped the Pyraminx field on a 4.89 average.

With thirty-three total podium places awarded to home-nation competitors, the Cotacachi Open 2023 closed out an ambitious schedule of eleven events. The combination of established champions, multi-category sweeps, and personal breakthroughs illustrated the vibrant depth present at this speed cubing gathering in the Imbabura province as athletes look forward to their next official speedcubing challenges.