Tivat Open 2024

Thomas Mako delivered the defining performance of Tivat Open 2024, locking in a blistering 9.28 second winning average and a 7.81 single to capture the premier 3x3x3 Cube title. Hosted at the Knightsbridge Schools International Montenegro venue in Tivat, Montenegro, the single-day gathering on December 7, 2024, brought together 34 competitors across 14 rounds and seven distinct events. Mako faced stiff competition throughout three rounds of the classic Rubik's Cube, holding off Serbia's Aleksa Radovanović who finished second with an 11.04 average, and Montenegro's Mihailo Senić who secured third on home soil with 12.40.

The morning schedule opened with rapid-fire qualifying rounds across the side puzzles, setting an energetic pace for the packed day of speedcubing action. The 2x2x2 Cube preliminary stages immediately saw intense battles for every fraction of a second. Ivan Kapusta set an imposing benchmark early, while a crowded leaderboard fought through three rounds of eliminations to reach the afternoon finals. Alongside the shorter formats, competitors navigated the opening rounds of Pyraminx and Skewb, establishing the tone for a high-stakes cubing competition.

As the afternoon arrived, the big-cube formats took center stage, and Aleksa Radovanović completely took command of the tournament hall. Radovanović executed a flawless performance in the 4x4x4 Cube, topping the twelve-competitor field with a winning average of 36.08 seconds and a single of 32.74, while Mako secured silver with 46.27 and Đorđe Timotijević took bronze with 52.79. Radovanović then maintained his momentum into the 5x5x5 Cube, claiming victory with a 1:04.08 average ahead of Mako and Vladimir Kuznetsov to cement his multi-puzzle dominance.

Radovanović extended his exceptional run into the specialty categories by securing his third title of the day in 3x3x3 One-Handed. Navigating the single-round event with precision, he produced a winning average of 18.84 seconds and a single of 16.91. Mako followed in second place with a 25.76 average, while Timotijević rounded out the podium with 29.23. The Serbian standout left a massive mark on the official 3x3 results across both standard and one-handed variants throughout the gathering.

The drama reached a peak in the 2x2x2 Cube final, which turned into one of the closest podium battles of the entire WCA competition. Ukraine's Ivan Kapusta took the gold with an average of 3.50 seconds and a best single of 1.86. Mako was mere hundredths behind, capturing second with 3.55, while Radovanović picked up another podium spot in third with 3.63. Kapusta later doubled his gold-medal tally in Skewb, registering a winning average of 5.76 seconds over Radovanović and Timotijević.

Beyond the championship finals, the heart of the tournament was written by athletes logging monumental personal leaps on the timing mats. Nikola Gligić produced the standout percentage jumps of the weekend, slashing his 2x2x2 Cube mark to 4.81 seconds, an improvement of 67.1 percent, while slicing 43.4 percent off his Pyraminx best to hit 12.72. Konstantin Poperechnyi matched that remarkable trajectory, dropping his Pyraminx personal record by 63.3 percent down to 11.46 and his 2x2x2 Cube mark by 46.5 percent to 28.15. Leonid Agapkin also surged, cutting 34.8 percent off his 2x2x2 Cube time to hit 3.76 and reaching seventh place overall.

The depth of progress continued with Grigorii Poperechnyi, who took on seven events and finished fifth in Skewb with a personal record of 5.36 seconds, improving by 16.5 percent. Marko Kovačević tackled five events, achieving a best finish of sixth in Pyraminx while trimming his 4x4x4 Cube record by 18.9 percent to 1:07.18. Meanwhile, several newcomers made their official debuts at Tivat Open 2024. Lev Martynov completed his first WCA competition across four events, logging an opening 3x3x3 Cube mark of 1:24.36, while Mikhail Poboinyi posted a 35.90 first effort in the same category. Kirill Ivanov tackled three events in his debut, starting strong with a 6.72 Pyraminx attempt.

The Pyraminx competition closed out the side events with Đorđe Timotijević demonstrating sublime turning speed across two rounds. Timotijević claimed the title with an average of 4.57 seconds and the single fastest solve of the event at 2.84, besting Kapusta's 7.81 and Bosnia and Herzegovina's Janko Gašić at 8.32. The victory capped a remarkably balanced distribution of hardware, where Serbia took ten total podium places, Albania claimed five, and Ukraine earned three.

As the final timers were packed away, the single-day showcase in Montenegro demonstrated the high caliber of regional speed cubing. From Mako's sub-ten second average in the main event to Radovanović's three event victories and Kapusta's short-format sweep, the competition delivered non-stop drama from the opening solves to the evening awards ceremony.