VIC State Championship 2025

The open hall at the Belgrave Heights Convention Centre buzzed with activity from morning to evening across the two days of action. Competitors gathered in clusters between rounds, sharing scramble tables, trading puzzle hardware, and breaking down inspection methods. Friends cheered from the sidelines as solve timers flashed, and newcomers found immediate encouragement from seasoned participants. Over May 31 and June 1, the venue served as a bustling meeting ground for the local solving community in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, bringing together 344 competitors across 19 rounds of official competition.

The VIC State Championship 2025 provided an expansive platform for speed cubing enthusiasts to test their skills across seven official disciplines. While the chase for podium spots naturally drew eyes to the stage, the social atmosphere across the venue defined the weekend. From parents tracking live brackets to competitors offering each other tips on fingertricks and cube maintenance, the tournament proved that a major WCA competition thrives just as much on camaraderie as it does on raw speed.

Beyond the top-tier podium battles, the heart of the event lived in the personal breakthroughs achieved right across the main hall. Talisin Howden took on six events and logged a massive personal best in Skewb of 8.96 seconds, shaving 61.7 percent off a previous mark of 23.37 seconds, while also cutting their 4x4x4 Cube best by 26.3 percent to 56.14 seconds and logging a first ever official attempt at Pyraminx in 11.88 seconds. Maxwell Colin also demonstrated sharp improvement across five events, securing a Skewb personal best of 4.25 seconds to beat an earlier mark by 60.9 percent, dropping their 2x2x2 Cube standard by 24.8 percent to 4.51 seconds, and recording a first ever attempt at 3x3x3 One-Handed with a time of 34.71 seconds.

Other competitors similarly embraced the challenge of new puzzles and posted dramatic leaps in personal performance. Jacob Strelnikov entered five events, recording an opening try at 3x3x3 One-Handed in 56.58 seconds and Skewb in 11.98 seconds, while improving their classic 3x3x3 Cube personal record by 58.6 percent down to 17.07 seconds. Gerrard Hallis posted a personal best of 1.72 seconds on the 2x2x2 Cube, an improvement of 56.2 percent over their previous best of 3.93 seconds, and tackled both Pyraminx and Skewb for the first time with single marks of 15.74 and 16.91 seconds. Aarav Verma contested six events, registering a first Skewb attempt of 11.91 seconds, a 4x4x4 Cube best of 1:08.42, and an impressive Pyraminx best of 3.04 seconds that cut 56.3 percent off their prior benchmark. Harvey Knight cut their 3x3x3 Cube best by 51.9 percent to 24.39 seconds alongside initial attempts in Pyraminx and Skewb. Lachlan Strainge tackled seven events, clocking a 2x2x2 Cube personal best of 6.13 seconds which was 50.2 percent faster than before, alongside initial attempts in 3x3x3 One-Handed at 53.70 seconds and 5x5x5 Cube at 2:46.01. Oliver Thomas rounded out the weekend with five events, posting first ever attempts in 3x3x3 One-Handed at 22.79 seconds, Pyraminx at 6.84 seconds, and Skewb at 7.94 seconds.

At the sharp end of the main bracket, the 3x3 results delivered world-class times as Australia native Feliks Zemdegs took the victory in the 3x3x3 Cube final. Out of 338 competitors across four rounds, Zemdegs secured first place with a winning average of 6.06 seconds, supported by a round-best single of 4.97 seconds. Riley Dexter claimed second place for Australia with an average of 6.21 seconds, while Firstian Fushada of Indonesia took third place with a 6.89-second average on the classic Rubik's Cube.

Zemdegs extended his dominant form across the bigger puzzles, securing a total of three event victories across the weekend. In the 4x4x4 Cube final featuring 144 competitors, Zemdegs took the top step with a 25.91-second average and a fast single of 21.73 seconds, finishing ahead of Fushada in second with 26.24 seconds and Dexter in third with 28.62 seconds. Zemdegs also won the 5x5x5 Cube title against 95 competitors, recording an average of 42.30 seconds and a best single of 39.80 seconds, while Fushada took second with 47.70 seconds and Andy Gong took third with 55.23 seconds.

The 3x3x3 One-Handed event brought another high-stakes showdown among the 128 competitors entered across two rounds. Firstian Fushada took the victory for Indonesia with an average of 11.61 seconds and a best single of 10.40 seconds. Australia competitors filled the remaining podium positions, as Riley Dexter followed closely in second place with an 11.76-second average and Hamish Bassig earned third place with a 12.30-second average in a tightly contested final.

Fast-paced side events rounded out the schedule, starting with the 2x2x2 Cube where Roman Rudakov took victory among 273 competitors with a winning average of 1.67 seconds and a best single of 1.26 seconds. Lukas Nguyen placed second with a 1.94 average, and Benjamin Kao finished third with a 1.97 average. In the Pyraminx final of 221 entrants, Ziqi Ding captured first place with an average of 1.84 seconds, followed by Junqi Feng of China in second at 1.99 seconds and Ethan Stevens in third at 2.84 seconds. Max Parris won the Skewb final against 158 competitors with an average of 2.22 seconds, ahead of Rudakov in second at 2.63 seconds and Eli Panetta in third at 2.73 seconds.

With 16 podium places earned by Australian competitors alongside four for Indonesia and one for China, the VIC State Championship 2025 concluded as an undeniable triumph of both competitive excellence and shared community spirit. The speedcubing faithful departed Melbourne with hundreds of personal milestones achieved, memorable multi-event victories in the record books, and enduring connections formed across two days of intense, collaborative play.