After the first round of our writing competition, we launched the second round in the summer of 2017: the Big Summer Challenge. Cubers had to take pictures, watch movies, solve puzzles and come up with creative ideas, all with the Rubik's Cube. The competition has ended; here are the tasks, the best answers and the winning solution.
The second round was originally announced on cube3x3.com. You can still see the original announcement in the Web Archive.
The Rules
These were the rules of the second round, word by word:
The second round of the Ruwix Competition is meant to keep you busy and entertained during the summer. You will have to take pictures, watch movies, solve puzzles, come up with ideas while learning, having lots of fun with your friends and your Rubik’s Cube.
Taking part in this competition is a great extracurricular activity, so let everyone know about it.
Who is allowed to enter the competition?
Everyone is welcome to enter who has a Rubik’s Cube and a camera. There’s no age limit.
Who is going to win?
We are going to pick the best entry based on ingenuity, humour, quality of images and the overall effort that has been put into completing the tasks.
What is the prize?
Just like in the first round, the winner will receive a $100 twisty puzzle bundle of his choice from the puzzle webshop of his choice.
What do you have to do?
You will get a set of tasks that you have to complete filling a blank workbook and taking pictures. Send the images and the filled form to our email address before 23 August 2017.
How to fill the workbook?
First you need to download the workbook here. This is a text file that you have to fill with your answers. Please maintain the plain text format (.txt) and attach it to the email along with the images when you finished all tasks.
What about the images?
You can use any digital camera or your smartphone to take the pictures. The images need to be taken by you, not copied from the Internet!
Please compress the images before submitting them, otherwise the files can’t be published on the web or they might not come through in the email. Please name the files according to the task number to help us identify them (eg. 22.jpg for question 22).
The maximum width and height is 600 pixels, and the maximum file size is 200KB. There are many free programs to resize the images: IrfanView, Paint.Net or use the imageoptimizer.net online editor.
Only minor image adjustments are allowed on the pictures. You can change color tone, crop and resize images but don’t do major modifications that change the essence of a picture.
We can accept .jpg, .png, and .gif formats.
Something is still not clear…
No problem, we’ve put together an example solution which you can use as a guide. Please make sure you don’t copy anything from this sample because we need your own ideas!
How to submit my answers?
When you have filled your workbook and you have collected all images then you’re ready to submit your entry.
Please send everything in one email attaching your filled workbook and your image files. You can ZIP them together into one file.
Email everything attached to our email address or send us a download link where we can access your files.
Please double check your submission because we can’t accept ulterior modifications.
The rules are clear, let’s see the tasks!
Please answer the questions below, filling your workbook and taking pictures. The numbers will help you locate the questions in your workbook.
Your Details
1. Name (please enter a nickname if you wish to remain anonymous)
2. Email
3. Age
4. Country
1. Picture Challenge
Take a picture for each title and briefly explain them in the workbook. Use your imagination.
11. The Rubik’s Cube at a tourist attraction.
12. An animal with a Rubik’s Cube.
13. The Rubik’s Cube in an unusual place.
14. An unusual cube.
2. Creative Challenge
In this section we put your creativity to the test. Please fill the workbook with your answers and take pictures if requested.
21. Take the Rubik’s Cube Quiz and add 3 new puzzle-related questions with 4 possible answers, the first one being correct.
Your questions must be different from the existing ones.
22. Design a Rubik’s Cube shaped house and describe it in your workbook. You can draw, build a LEGO or Minecraft house or use any other method to illustrate your idea. Take a picture of your design. There are many Rubik-shaped buildings which you can use as inspiration.
23. Invent a trick / magic trick with the Rubik’s Cube and explain it. If you can’t come up with a Rubik trick you can simply describe an existing magic trick with the cube. Take a picture if that helps you explain your idea.
24. Describe how you would popularize cubing if you would be the advertising executive of Rubik™.
25. Come up with a new puzzle-related task/question for the next round of this competition.
3. Hard-working Challenge
Prove that you’re hard-working by completing the tasks below.
31. Watch any movie featuring the Rubik’s Cube. Spot the scene with the cube and briefly describe what happens in the following scene in the movie. This way you can prove that you’ve found the cube in the film.
32. Create a new Rubik’s Cube pattern. You can combine existing models. Make sure that your invention is not listed already (check the second page of the pattern gallery too). Calculate a short algorithm for your pattern with the solver and note it in your workbook.
33. Use the 15-puzzle maker to create a fun and challenging sliding puzzle with a new image. Add your custom link in the workbook.
34. Add the link of cube3x3.com to a website. The link needs to be clickable and accessible without login. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites don’t count because that would be too easy. Try to find a forum, comment section, blog which allows you to add the link.
Note the URL of the page where you added the link so we can check it.
35. Find a solution for the scramble below which is shorter than the scramble (27 moves). You can use the online Rubik’s Cube solver to calculate the solution for this question.
F B2 R’ – D2 B R – U D’ R – L’ D’ F’ – R2 D F2 – B’ U F – B’ L2 U2 – L2 F’ B – U2 L2 U
_________________________________
1. By sending us an email you accept these terms and conditions and you enter the competition.
2. The entries that don’t follow our guidelines can be disqualified.
3. We might slightly change/adjust the rules at any time.
4. We can decide whether an entry is valid or not.
5. If we receive less than 100 entries then we are going to read all of them and pick the best one. If we receive more than 100 applications then it will be impossible to pick the best one. In this case we randomly select one hundred and award the best from that bunch.
6. Use English language.
7. Only one entry is allowed per person.
8. We are going to announce the winner by email and on this website once we have evaluated the submitted works according to these T&Cs.
9. The winner will be contacted and asked to send us his shipping address and a 100$ wish list from a puzzle webshop of his choice: TheCubicle.us, SpeedCubeShop or Lightake. The 100$ budget needs to cover shipping costs. If we are unable to place the order because the webshop doesn’t ship to the winner’s country or other reasons then the 100$ will be sent to a PayPal account named by the winner which he can spend on puzzles.
10. By entering the competition you agree to send us a picture of you and your new puzzles to be published on the website if you win the prize.
11. We are going to edit and publish some entries on this website.
Sample solution
To help you better understand the tasks
by Ruwix
This example solution contains answers to help you understand the questions and help you fill your workbook. I’ve put the questions, answers and images in rich-text format for a better readability. Remember that you’ll have to send your answers in plain text format (.txt file) and the images separately.
1. Name: Johnny86
2. Email:
3. Age: 23
4. Country: Monaco
1. Picture Challenge
11. The Rubik’s Cube at a tourist attraction.
I took this picture at the Post Medieval Fortress in Târgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Romania which was built in 1602 and it’s lying on 11 acres.
11.jpg
12. An animal with a Rubik’s Cube.
This is my dog Maya thinking about solving the cube.
12.jpg
13. The Rubik’s Cube in an unusual place.
The fridge is definitely an unusual place for the cube.
13.jpg
14. An unusual cube.
We were really excited to come across this 80’s themed bar with this huge Rubik’s Cube billboard in Greece so we immediately took a picture of it. Notice the unusual color scheme with the orange-red pieces and the white-white-white corner.
14.jpg
2. Creative challenge
21. Take the Rubik’s Cube Quiz and add 3 new puzzle-related questions with 4 possible answers, the first one being correct.
Your questions must be different from the existing ones.
Question 1: Who holds the Rubik’s Cube single world record and what’s his time?
correct answer: Feliks Zemdegs – 4.73
incorrect answer 1: Lucas Etter – 4.90
incorrect answer 2: Mats Valk – 4.74
incorrect answer 3: Minh Thai – 4.69
Question 2: Which one of the following is not an electronic cube?
correct answer: Geranium puzzle
incorrect answer 1: Rubik’s Touch
incorrect answer 2: Futuro Cube
incorrect answer 3: Rubik’s Spark
Question 3: What is the easiest way to start disassembling a Rubik’s Cube?
correct answer: Twist a layer by 45o and pop out an edge piece.
incorrect answer 1: Take off the cap of the center pieces and remove the screws.
incorrect answer 2: Pull out a corner piece.
incorrect answer 3: Twist the white face counterclockwise 10 times to unscrew the layer.
22. Design a Rubik’s Cube shaped house and describe it in your workbook. You can draw, build a LEGO or Minecraft house or use any other method to illustrate your idea. Take a picture of your design. There are many Rubik-shaped buildings which you can use as inspiration.
I drew a cube-shaped 3-story house with a twisted upper layer which would make place for balconies on the top floor. The staircase would be in the middle core and I could climb up to the rooftop. The building would be painted as a scrambled cube, having a door or a window on each “sticker”. I would use stained window glass and painted doors to belnd in with the design.
22.jpg
23. Invent a trick / magic trick with the Rubik’s Cube and explain it. If you can’t come up with a Rubik trick you can simply describe an existing magic trick with the cube. Take a picture if that helps you explain your idea.
First I was thinking about describing how to pull a Rubik’s Cube out of a top hat, then I realized that I know a better trick specially with the Rubik’s Cube. With this simple trick you can even win some money if you bet with your friends that you will manage to balance the cube on its edge. Twist the middle layer a little bit to make a little stand to hold the cube on its edge. The cheat is barely noticable, as seen on the image.
23.jpg
24. Describe how you would popularize cubing if you would be the advertising executive of Rubik™.
I would think about making some viral ads like The Epic Split Volvo ad with Van Damme. In the world of marketing and advertising any exposure is a good exposure so I would also think about a controversial ad campaign which would be widely shared on social media.
I would also encourage teachers to talk about cubing in schools and extracurricular activities.
25. Come up with a new puzzle-related task/question for the next round of this competition.
Create a funny Rubik’s Cube meme for this list: https://ruwix.com/the-rubiks-cube/rubiks-cube-memes/
3. Hard-working Challenge
31. Watch any movie featuring the Rubik’s Cube. Spot the scene with the cube and briefly describe what happens in the following scene in the movie. This way you can prove that you’ve found the cube in the film.
I’ve chosen to watch Wall-e. He took the cube out of a box and put it on a shelf. In the next scene he watched TV and he went to sleep because of a sandstorm.
32. Create a new Rubik’s Cube pattern. You can combine existing models. Make sure that your invention is not listed already (check the second page of the pattern gallery too). Calculate a short algorithm for your pattern with the solver and note it in your workbook.
I crossed the snake and the checkerboard patterns.
I named this the ZZ-Line pattern: R L U2 R L’ U2 F2 R2 U2 F2 D2 B2 L2 U2 L2
33. Use the 15-puzzle maker to create a fun and challenging sliding puzzle with a new image. Add your custom link in the workbook.
I used the image of celebrities playing with the Rubik’s Cube because the tiled images give an extra difficulty to the solution: https://ruwix.com/online-puzzle-simulators/sliding-15-puzzle?scale=1&rept=1&scram=1&nums=1&pic=https%3A%2F%2Fruwix.com%2Fpics%2Farticles%2Fcelebrities%2Fcubing-celebrities.jpg
34. Add the link of cube3x3.com to a website. The link needs to be clickable and accessible without login. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites don’t count because that would be too easy. Try to find a forum, comment section, blog which allows you to add the link.
Note the URL of the page where you added the link so we can check it.
I added a link to the SpeedSolving.com forum.
The thread can be seen here: https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/cube-3×3-competition.64511/
35. Find a solution for the scramble below which is shorter than the scramble (27 moves). You can use the online Rubik’s Cube solver to calculate the solution for this question.
F B2 R’ – D2 B R – U D’ R – L’ D’ F’ – R2 D F2 – B’ U F – B’ L2 U2 – L2 F’ B – U2 L2 U
The solution in 26 steps: U’ L2 U2 B’ F L2 R F U F L2 B L D F’ U’ R2 F’ D’ L2 U2 D’ R2 L2 U’ R2
The Entries
We haven't received as many entries for this round as for the first one, but all the 12 cubers who entered the competition would deserve a prize because they all put serious effort in completing the tasks: Marina (10), Nikita (15, Slovenia), Kaidrich Keolo Pobre (17, Philippines), Daphne Qin (12, USA), Eli Jay (14, UK), Benjamin Voller-Brown (16, USA, the winner of the first round), Mervyn Teo Ye Hang (13, Malaysia), Timo Norrkniivilä (16, Finland), an anonymous cuber (15, USA), Yusuf Serhat Altınyüzük (14, Turkey), Twigs (14, Canada) and Zac (12, USA).
You can browse all entries in the Web Archive.
Picking a winner proved to be a real challenge because almost everyone had an outstanding answer/solution for at least one question. Daphne's house design, Marina's cat picture or Yusuf's movie recommendation, In A Better World (which we watched and enjoyed really much) are all worth mentioning. Zac took the cube from the USA back to Budapest, to its birthplace, and took a picture with it in front of the Hungarian Parliament. The most popular movie was Despicable Me 3, where the villain Balthazar Bratt uses a self-solving Rubik's Cube as a bomb.
Most of you solved the scramble of task 35 in 19 moves (F U2 D2 R L U' D F B R U2 R2 U2 F2 L2 U2 F2 L2 B2), and Eli was the only one who managed to solve it in 16 steps: U' F' R' D' L' U' B R F L D B D F B' R'.
Daphne's Rubik's Cube house: a room for each cubie and a ladder room in the core
Marina's cat and Zac's cube in front of the Hungarian Parliament
The Winner: Timo Norrkniivilä
Timo's trick was an outstanding stunt. When we saw him solving the Rubik's Cube behind his back riding a bicycle we suspected that he might have swapped the scrambled cube with a solved one. We had to check his WCA profile to see what he's capable of. When we realized that he has completed a 5x5x5 cube blindfolded on a competition and has a 9/11 multi-blind score we knew that his bicycle trick wasn't a hoax. According to one of his quiz questions, there are roughly 280 cubers who had succeeded in the 5x5x5 Blindfolded event, and he's one of them. Timo completed all tasks and gave really good answers to all of them. He has put effort in the solutions so he's officially the winner of the second round.
The winning solution
by Timo Norrkniivilä (16, Finland)
1. Pictures explained
11. Tourist attraction:
I went to the capital of Finland, Helsinki, and photographed my 7×7 on the Senate Square. In the back you can see Helsinki Cathedral, one of the most popular tourist attractions and symbols of Helsinki. Because it’s built on top of a high staircase, it’s a famous landmark, rising above all the surrounding buildings. Approximately 500,000 people visit the church every year, and as much as
half of them are foreign tourists.
In the middle of the square is the monument of tsar Alexander II of Russia. You can see the bottom and surroundings of the statue on the left.
By the way, I thought my Valk looked so elegant in the same place, that I had no other choice than to include it as well.
12. Animal:
My friend’s turtle got in touch with the cube for the first time. Who solved it – nobody knows.
13. Unusual place:
When Cubing meets Disc Golf. I apparently just did a hole in one with the cube. This is how you can combine two of your hobbies.
(yes, the metal thing is a disc golf basket if someone was wondering)
14. Unusual cube:
Shame that I haven’t really faced any funny cubes in different places. But here is my friend’s barrel cube which I find very unusual. It has a totally weird color scheme with the total of 10 colours. The octagon shape is funny too, and the cube actually turns surprisingly well.
2. Creative challenge
21. Quiz questions
I’ve made up questions mostly based on the WCA statistics.
Question 1: What is the oldest currently standing world record in a WCA competition?
correct answer: Multiple Blindfolded single
incorrect answer 1: Rubik’s Clock single
incorrect answer 2: 3x3x3 Cube average
incorrect answer 3: 3x3x3 With Feet single
Explanation: Marcin Kowalczyk broke the Multi-Blind world record in 2013 with the result of 41/41.
The record has been standing for over 1300 days.
Question 2: How many people approximately have competed (and succeeded) in the 5x5x5 Blindfolded event?
correct answer: 280
incorrect answer 1: 540
incorrect answer 2: 60
incorrect answer 3: 1500
Explanation: 5BLD having least competitors out of all the events, only less than 300
people have got an official success.
Question 3: Who won the 6x6x6 event in the Rubik’s Cube World Championship 2017?
correct answer: Kevin Hays
incorrect answer 1: Max Park
incorrect answer 2: Felix Zemdegs
incorrect answer 3: Mats Valk
Explanation: Even though Zemdegs seemed unvincible after breaking both single and average
world records during the first round, he lost to Hays in the finals.
Couple extras:
Question 4: Who has done the most solves in official competitions overall?
correct answer: Sébastien Auroux
incorrect answer 1: Feliks Zemdegs
incorrect answer 2: Erik Akkersdijk
incorrect answer 3: Bence Barát
Explanation: Auroux from Germany has competed in 165 competitions and completed an astonishing 12700 solves totally!
Question 5: How many colours there are in a Gigamorphix?
correct answer: 4
incorrect answer 1: 6
incorrect answer 2: 12
incorrect answer 3: 1
Explanation: Gigamorphix is a 5×5 shape mod, however with the colours reduced to 4.
22. House design explained:
This twisty tower here is a Rubik’s Cube based lighthouse. It turned out to be kinda cool, even though I had to fill it with weird colours because they were the only coloured pencils I could find.
23. Trick explained:
I decided to combine my blindsolving skills with – something? That’s how I came up with the idea of memorizing and then solving a 3×3 behind my back while riding a bicycle hands-free. It took multiple attempts since I somehow made tiny mistakes in most of the solves. Still, the trick was very fun to execute!
24. Advertising plan:
I would really take cubing closer to people. I’d share cubing-related information, news and guides in social media or other online platforms. I’d start sponsoring multiple non-cubing events and schools and try to collect potential hobbyists from different places. As an executive, I’d take care that our organization arranges for example cubing clubs. These ways work especially locally.
Globally, Rubik’s Cube is a “toy” recognized by almost everyone. Unfortunately almost everyone views it as impossible. If our brand could manufacture a proper speedcube and let people know about it, we could turn Rubik’s also into a speedcubing brand. There would be two kinds of a marketing; the original Rubik’s Cube would be advertised to them with no idea about the cube and who think “it’s impossible”. It could be branded as a difficult challenge at first, like it is nowadays (selling well). After one knows how to solve the cube, he might start wanting more. I’d start advertising speedcubing as a hobby and include this with a new speedcube product. Also “Revenge” and “Professor’s Cube” would be included in this second advertising group.
So, I’d clearly add a new category into the brand so that those interested in cubing wouldn’t necessarily move to other brands. That would make us more money and strengthen the image of
the Rubik’s Cube, also as a hobby.
25. Task for the third round:
Come up with an idea of a cubing-related website or mobile/desktop app. Briefly explain your idea. You could think about something that doesn’t exist but what you always have wanted.
Or maybe some of the current sites/apps are missing something you could fulfill in your upgraded version. Your ideas may be even crazy, you have the power!
3. Hard-working challenge
31. Title of the movie and the scene described:
Movie: Despicable Me 3
Appearance: Balthazar Bratt, a child star from the 80s has become a supervillain due to the lack of his popularity.
He decides to make his old TV show scenes true and revenge to the world. First, his headquarters have a giant Rubik’s Cube as an entrance (it seems like it could drop from the tower at any moment). Also, one of his weapons is a self-turning Rubik’s Cube, which acts as a “rainbow” smoke bomb. Besides the smoke, the cube is also used to distract his enemies.
32. Pattern algorithm: B U2 L2 F2 R2 F D2 F2 R2 F’ R2 U2
I made up this fun pattern which has my initial, T, on 3 faces. Since every face only has opposite colors, I find the pattern really pleasant-looking.
33. 15-puzzle link: Since I’m a huge fan of all the events, I made this 15-puzzle which acts kinda as a cubing quiz too. Every block has an image representing one WCA event (every event except Feet, FMC, MBLD).
Your task is to put them in the right order based on the world record singles of each event. The order is left to right, up to down, fastest event being on the top left corner.
[Link not available]
SOLUTION: 2×2, Skewb, Pyraminx, Clock, 3×3, Square-1, OH, 3BLD, 4x4Megaminx, 5×5, 6×6, 4BLD, 7×7, 5BLD
34. URL with our backlink:
I linked the webpage to some popular Youtube videos.
youtu.be/rmnSpUgOvyI
youtu.be/MaltgJGz-dU
youtu.be/R07JiT0PlcE
Also at Reddit Cubers daily thread:
reddit.com/r/Cubers/comments/6ufqgp/daily_discussion_thread_aug_18_2017/dlt9ocj/
35. Solution algorithm:
Scramble: F B2 R’ – D2 B R – U D’ R – L’ D’ F’ – R2 D F2 – B’ U F – B’ L2 U2 – L2 F’ B – U2 L2 U
Solution: R L U D’ F B’ U2 R F2 B2 L2 U2 D2 L F2 R L’ F2 (18 moves)
Timo Received His Wishlist
Two weeks after the announcement Timo Norrkniivilä got the prize and he sent a picture with his collection completed with the new arrivals.
Congratulations, Timo!