Toowoomba Twist Off 2025

Seventy-five competitors assembled on June 28, 2025, for a packed day of twisting at St Paul's Lutheran Church Toowoomba in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. The schedule challenged entrants across four disciplines and eight rounds, drawing solvers from across Australia, Malaysia, and New Zealand. While standard speedcubing events require raw turning pace, blindfolded solving in the broader cubing landscape demands total memorisation and supreme focus before the turns even start. That intense discipline carried over to the tables at Toowoomba Twist Off 2025, where every entrant had to balance sheer velocity with calculated precision throughout a high-stakes cubing competition.

The premier 3x3x3 Cube contest stood as the centrepiece of the day, featuring all 75 competitors over three rigorous rounds. Matthew Ban of Malaysia emerged victorious with an exceptional winning average of 7.88 seconds, anchored by a best single solve of 6.42 seconds. Joseph Burnett of Australia pushed hard across the final round to secure second place with an average of 7.99 seconds, while Tommas Austin-Milne took third place with an 8.54 mark. These 3x3 results highlighted how narrow the margins can be at an official WCA competition when turning accuracy meets timer pressure.

In the 2x2x2 Cube event, Lachlan Adams-Romyn put on a masterclass of rapid resolution across two rounds featuring 65 competitors. Adams-Romyn captured the title for Australia with a blistering 1.68 average, having registered a tournament-best single of 1.22 seconds alongside personal best marks of 1.26 single and 1.79 average earlier in the day. Matthew Ban claimed the second step of the podium with a 2.79 average, while Moses Limmer of New Zealand earned third place with a 3.08 average. Several Australian solvers posted official bests in the event, including Joseph Hodgetts with an 8.36 average and Bojan Kotur with a single of 8.60.

The big cubes provided plenty of intrigue for the field as puzzles scaled up to the 4x4x4 Cube and 5x5x5 Cube brackets. In the 4x4x4 Cube contest, which gathered 45 competitors over two rounds, Hao Do took first place with a 33.26 average and a best single of 29.52. Thomas Smith finished runner-up with a 35.05 average, edging Joseph Burnett who captured third place with a 35.18 average. The longer solves gave competitors ample room to demonstrate lookahead techniques on the larger layers.

The 5x5x5 Cube brought 37 competitors to the solving stations for a single deciding round. Joseph Burnett secured victory with a commanding 56.48 average and a best single of 51.75. Hao Do took second place with a 1:05.72 average, while Jay Kapoor claimed third place with an average of 1:12.22. Burnett finished the day with podium placements across three separate disciplines, cementing a versatile showing across both classic speed cubing formats and larger nxn challenges.

Away from the podium battles, several competitors achieved remarkable milestones in their personal progression. Bailey Dixon entered three events and delivered a massive leap on the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, recording a personal best of 21.68 seconds to finish 52.7 percent faster than a previous mark of 45.85, alongside a 2x2x2 personal best of 6.63 and a first ever attempt at 4x4x4 of 2:17.97. Mark Kukharenkov took on three events, achieving a 35th-place finish in 5x5x5, a first ever attempt at 4x4x4 of 1:54.85, a first ever 5x5x5 try of 3:56.21, and a 3x3x3 personal best of 23.62 that was 17.6 percent faster than before. Charlie Hughes logged a first ever attempt at 2x2x2 of 10.42 and improved on 3x3x3 by 37.4 percent with a 21.08 personal best. Thomas Strenzel tackled four events, earning a 9th-place finish in 2x2x2, a 2.27 personal best on 2x2x2 that was 21.7 percent faster, and a first ever attempt at 5x5x5 of 1:54.98.

Other solvers similarly seized the occasion to record breakthrough marks. Ruairi Moloney competed in four events and achieved a 9th-place finish in 5x5x5 with a 1:30.97 personal best, shaving 30.2 percent off a prior record, while also dropping 16.9 percent in 4x4x4 to 38.77. Blake Aiken improved by 38.9 percent on the 3x3x3 Cube to set a personal best of 14.12. William Cormack dropped 29.8 percent off his 4x4x4 time with a personal best of 1:26.68 across four events. Felix Westerberg lowered his 2x2x2 personal best by 28.9 percent to 5.89 and his 3x3x3 time by 26.8 percent to 22.45.

The international spread was evident across the final award distribution, with Australia capturing nine podium spots, Malaysia taking two, and New Zealand earning one. Debut competitors also made their presence felt, as Harry Wastney tackled three events in a first career appearance, posting a 20.30 single on the standard cube. Toowoomba Twist Off 2025 delivered an engaging showcase of precision, speed, and steady nerves across all four featured categories, wrapping up another successful gathering for the regional community.