Try Cubing Hobart 2024

The competition floor inside Howrah Primary School buzzed with focused energy as timers clicked across the tables in Howrah, Tasmania, Australia. A field of 44 competitors gathered on April 6, 2024, to test their speed across three distinct puzzles. Solvers adjusted tensioning, applied fingertip turns, and watched official displays for fractions of a second that would define the entire program of four hard-fought rounds.

The narrowest battle of Try Cubing Hobart 2024 arrived in the 3x3x3 One-Handed final, where the title came down to three tenths of a second. Jode Brewster took first place with a winning average of 13.87 seconds, backed by a quick single solve of 13.11 seconds. Arisandra Soo pushed the champion all the way to the final stop, securing second place with a 14.17 average, while Trần Đăng Quang locked in third with 18.67.

Brewster maintained that same high standard across the rest of the schedule to complete a clean sweep of the weekend. In the 3x3x3 Cube event, Brewster topped 43 competitors across two rounds to capture first with an 8.30 winning average and a single of 7.84. Vietnam representative Trần Đăng Quang took runner-up honours with 8.82, and Soo picked up another podium finish in third with 9.02 in the final 3x3 results.

The 2x2x2 Cube saw Brewster finish out the treble, claiming victory among 40 competitors with a blistering average of 1.88 seconds and a best single solve of 1.50 seconds. Darcy Andrikonis finished second on 3.28, just ahead of Ethan Tenaglia in third with 3.51. Across all three disciplines, Australian competitors claimed seven podium spots, while Vietnam earned two.

Beyond the championship podiums, Try Cubing Hobart 2024 offered a stage for massive leaps in performance from developing competitors. Lyric Fok Chak produced huge gains across all three events entered, dropping their 3x3x3 personal best to 18.74 seconds, a 61.2 percent improvement over their previous 48.30 mark, while lowering their 2x2x2 best by 50.7 percent down to 8.30, and completing a first ever attempt in 3x3x3 One-Handed in 1:23.19. Ben Walton achieved a 70.2 percent cut on 2x2x2 to reach 6.88 seconds alongside a 41 percent improvement to 32.77 on the classic puzzle.

Several competitors also took on unfamiliar challenges for the first time on the official stage. Lachlan Tucker tackled their first ever attempt at 3x3x3 One-Handed with a time of 1:10.47, on top of improving their standard 3x3x3 mark by 10.8 percent to 28.20. Will Locke made their maiden single-handed attempt in 1:32.28, improving their 3x3x3 personal record by 11.8 percent to 41.96. Malachi Davis dropped their 2x2x2 personal best by 34.3 percent to 4.88 seconds, while Daniel Lu improved their one-handed standard by 30.8 percent to 44.90.

First-time competitors also made strong debuts during this speedcubing meeting. Michael Everett contested their first WCA competition, entering all three events and finishing 13th in 3x3x3 One-Handed with an initial attempt of 48.87 seconds, alongside opening marks of 17.83 on 3x3x3 and 6.40 on 2x2x2. Benjamin Schramm likewise opened their career across three events, posting a 20th-place finish in One-Handed with a 1:15.15 attempt and recording a 30.54 mark on the standard Rubik's Cube.

With 44 solvers tackling events ranging from standard three-layer cubes to quick pocket cubes and single-handed execution, this cubing competition in Tasmania showcased the full depth of the community. Every round delivered intense speed cubing moments, setting a demanding benchmark across the region as competitors prepare for the next turn on the calendar.