St. John's Spring 2025

Thirty-one competitors gathered at Memorial University of Newfoundland on April 26, 2025, for an intense day of Rubik's Cube mastery. St. John's Spring 2025 featured five distinct events spread across eight rounds of head-to-head solving. The competition in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada brought together seasoned hands and emerging solvers, delivering sharp turnarounds across multiple formats. From the opening moves on the tables, the atmosphere reflected the focus of seasoned competitors setting the benchmark for the region.

Veteran solver Alex Lin established his rhythm early, capturing top honours in the premier 3x3x3 Cube contest. Across three testing rounds in the main cubing competition, Lin produced the weekend best single of 9.97 seconds and secured victory with a winning average of 10.71 seconds. He outpaced a 30-person field to lead the podium, followed by Ukraine's Timothy Chabanenko with a 12.25 average and Alex Andersen at 12.73. These decisive 3x3 results confirmed Lin's composure in high-stakes finals.

Lin extended his winning form into the larger puzzles, securing a second gold in the 5x5x5 Cube. In a single-round contest among five contenders, he assembled an unmatched winning average of 1:51.43, backed by a best single of 1:41.91. Nick Slade secured the second spot with an average of 2:07.92, while Damon Squires locked down third place in 2:10.91, giving Canada a clean sweep of the podium steps in the five-layered event.

Alex Andersen countered Lin's big-cube dominance with a masterclass in short-format and technical solving. In the 2x2x2 Cube, Andersen claimed the title over 26 rivals, posting a winning average of 3.73 seconds and a sharp single of 3.37 seconds across two rounds. Chabanenko took the runner-up position with a 4.02 average, edging Lin, who also registered a 4.02 average in a tightly contested final round at St. John's Spring 2025.

Andersen carried that swift execution directly into 3x3x3 One-Handed, demonstrating absolute stability under the single-round format. He captured the victory with a 23.93 average and a top single of 20.80 seconds among 14 entrants. Lin took second place with a 27.80 average, while Chabanenko completed the podium in third place at 31.24 seconds, cementing Andersen's status as a dual-event winner at this WCA competition.

Beyond the title fights, numerous competitors delivered massive personal breakthroughs across the scorecards. Clark Bambrick achieved the sharpest surge of the weekend, dropping his 2x2x2 Cube personal best by 41.9 percent to 6.80 seconds, while also trimming his 3x3x3 Cube mark by 20.2 percent to 34.41 seconds. Eli Green knocked 34.4 percent off his previous standard to record an 8.46 single on the 2x2x2 Cube. Theodore Milley improved his 2x2x2 Cube personal best by 33.4 percent to 6.58 seconds and lowered his 3x3x3 mark to 29.00 seconds, showing rapid progress across two events.

Kyle Budden lowered his 3x3x3 Cube best by 26.5 percent to 16.89 seconds, took on three events, and logged his first ever attempt at 2x2x2 Cube with an 8.04 single. Lauren Moore sliced 23.2 percent off her 3x3x3 Cube time to reach 55.80 seconds and took on her first 2x2x2 attempt at 12.74 seconds. Oliver Tulk improved his 2x2x2 Cube best by 21.2 percent down to 4.12 seconds on his way to seventh place, while Burgess Doyle tackled four events, making first career attempts in Clock at 24.57 seconds, 3x3x3 One-Handed at 52.96 seconds, and 2x2x2 Cube at 5.69 seconds. Adam Liam Martin recorded a 3.71 personal best in 2x2x2 to place eighth and logged a first ever attempt in One-Handed at 2:21.94.

The specialised Clock event brought a standout performance from Damon Squires, who took the title with an impressive 9.46 average and a single solve of 7.79 seconds. Tai Sullivan claimed second place with a 16.60 average, while Jonathan Chafe rounded out the podium at 20.56 seconds. The event capped a diverse programme that tested the dexterity of solvers across mechanically distinct disciplines.

When the final timers stopped at St. John's Spring 2025, Canadian competitors had claimed 12 podium positions alongside three podium finishes from Ukraine. The single-day speed cubing gathering highlighted both seasoned execution from multi-event champions and significant progression across the roster. As the speedcubing community looks ahead to future meets, the benchmark marks recorded at Memorial University establish an inspiring standard for the rest of the 2025 competitive season.