CubingUSA Western Championship 2023

The competition hall at UC Berkeley was filled with the rhythmic click of turning plastic and the continuous reset of timers from June 30 to July 2, 2023. Across three days of intense speedcubing in Berkeley, California, USA, 269 competitors took their seats across 16 official events and 40 distinct rounds. Every discipline demanded quick adaptation, where tight cutoff times and multi-stage ladders determined who advanced and who was eliminated early.

The sheer structure of this major WCA competition tested endurance as much as raw speed. In standard average-of-five brackets, competitors had to navigate initial cut lines before earning the right to complete full five-solve sets. Meanwhile, the larger puzzles and blindfolded events featured strict time limits that put immense pressure on every turn. Surviving across multiple rounds separated steady hands from those undone by single mistakes.

Nowhere was this survival test clearer than in the classic Rubik's Cube main event. Spanning four grueling rounds and 263 entrants, the field was trimmed progressively until the final podium took shape. Max Park dominated the 3x3 results, capturing victory with a blistering 5.37 winning average and a single solve of 5.00 seconds. Park went on to complete a massive sweep of the big cubes, winning the 4x4x4 Cube in 20.17 seconds ahead of Max Siauw and Varun Mohanraj, the 5x5x5 Cube in 36.46 seconds ahead of Danny Sungin Park and Mohanraj, the 6x6x6 Cube in 1:11.30, and the 7x7x7 Cube in 1:44.64, alongside taking top honors in 3x3x3 One-Handed with a 9.60 average.

Short-format puzzles brought equally intense drama across three fast-paced stages. In 2x2x2 Cube, Tommy Cherry claimed first place with a 1.48 winning average across three rounds of 208 solvers, narrowly edging Kyeongmin Choi at 1.53 and Sameer Aggarwal at 1.61. Cherry also took the Clock title with a 4.07 average. In Skewb, Stanley Chapel worked through three rounds to secure the gold with a 2.52 average, besting Jack Flynn Stewart and Cherry. Elijah Brown claimed the Pyraminx crown with a 2.52 average, Kyeongmin Choi won Megaminx in 32.76 seconds, and Sameer Aggarwal conquered Square-1 in 5.88 seconds.

Beyond the championship podiums, the weekend served as a launchpad for remarkable breakthroughs by solvers taking on fresh challenges. Sophia Santini entered 10 events, logging a first ever attempt at Megaminx of 2:13.74, while dropping her 2x2x2 Cube personal best to 2.48, which was 62.1 percent faster than her previous mark, and taking her 3x3x3 One-Handed best down to 36.22. Andersen Katsev took on six events, recording a first ever attempt at 3x3x3 One-Handed in 34.96, a first Skewb solve of 5.19, and a Pyraminx personal best of 2.82 that improved on his old mark by 60.3 percent. Koan Kyung posted a 2x2x2 Cube personal best of 2.22, 51.2 percent faster than before, while making first attempts in Pyraminx at 7.04 and Skewb at 8.55.

Other dedicated solvers embraced the challenge of brand new disciplines across the multi-day schedule. Bowen Wang delivered a Skewb personal best of 6.12, cutting his prior mark by 49.7 percent, alongside first attempts in 3x3x3 One-Handed at 26.05 and Pyraminx at 9.15. Ivan A. Oka improved his 3x3x3 Cube personal best by 45.1 percent to 19.18 seconds while making first tries at 2x2x2 Cube in 5.61 and Pyraminx in 10.63. Trenton Beyer tackled eight events, lowering his 3x3x3 One-Handed personal best by 44.2 percent to 14.17, while logging first attempts at 5x5x5 Cube in 1:55.29 and Square-1 in 29.75. Esther Li Ma Sui Lai handled nine events, registering first ever attempts in 2x2x2 Cube at 2.60, Pyraminx at 3.56, and 5x5x5 Cube at 2:56.37. Charlie Vater entered 12 events, improving his Clock mark by 35 percent to 13.57 while logging first attempts in 3x3x3 Blindfolded at 3:11.79 and 6x6x6 Cube at 5:04.66.

The blindfolded disciplines delivered peak tension with cumulative limits and best-of formats where any misstep resulted in a did-not-finish score. In 3x3x3 Blindfolded, Elliott Kobelansky navigated three rounds to win with a 13.34 single, holding off Tommy Cherry at 14.78 and Stanley Chapel at 17.59. Graham Siggins captured top honors in 4x4x4 Blindfolded with a 1:45.77 mark over Cherry and Choi, and Siggins also triumphed in 3x3x3 Multi-Blind by resolving 47 out of 55 cubes in 59:10. Tommy Cherry added another victory to his tally by taking 5x5x5 Blindfolded with a single solve of 7:26.43.

When the final round timers stopped, CubingUSA Western Championship 2023 demonstrated the rigorous demands of multi-round speed cubing at the highest level. From the vast opening brackets to the narrow cutoffs of the grand finals, competitors from across the region proved their mettle across 16 different disciplines. The weekend in Northern California set a formidable standard for the rest of the 2023 tournament calendar.