Max Park set a new official Rubik's Cube Single World Record with 3.13 seconds on 11th June 2023 on the Pride in Long Beach competition. He broke the previous record, the first ever "Sub-4" set in 2018 by Yusheng Du at 3.47 seconds.
Who Is Max Park
Max Park is one of the most famous Rubik's Cube speedcubers a Rubik's Brand Ambassador, with 452 gold medals and 68 World Records. Besides setting the 3×3×3 Single record he is currently tied 2nd place for the World Record Average of five 3×3 solves by WCA standards with 4.86 seconds. This is the most important speedcubing event where competitors are allotted 5 attempts. Of these 5 results, the best and worst results are removed, and the arithmetic mean of the remaining 3 attempts determines the result.
This was the very first time Max set the 3×3 Single World Record.
Max Park was diagnosed with autism when he was just two years old. Max's motor skills were severely impaired because of his condition and his parents were told that he might need lifelong care. His mother taught him to solve a Rubik's Cube that he had taken interest in. Later he started performing at competitions and slowly became one of the best speedcubers which helped him to make progress in social development by waiting in a queue and mirroring body language on a podium at competitions.
Current WCA Profile
Most Important Records
| Puzzle | Event | Time (sec) | World Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3×3×3 | Single | 3.13 | 1st |
| Avg5 | 4.86 | 2nd (tied) | |
| 4×4×4 | Single | 16.79 | 1st |
| Avg5 | 19.38 | 1st | |
| 5×5×5 | Single | 33.02 | 1st |
| Avg5 | 37.00 | 1st | |
| 6×6×6 | Single | 59.74 | 1st |
| Mo3 | 1:08.56 | 1st | |
| 7×7×7 | Single | 1:35.68 | 1st |
| Mo3 | 1:42.12 | 1st | |
| 3×3×3 One-Handed |
Single | 6.20 | 1st |
| Avg5 | 8.76 | 2nd |
Max Park, although he has serious competition with Feliks Zemdegs, they are also great friends. A Netflix Documentary called “The Speed Cubers,” is dedicated to Max and Feliks’s relationship inside and outside of cubing.
Max Park is a great cubing personality, with many people looking up to him as both a great person and a great speedsolver with consistent results.
The Solve - Reconstruction
Max used the CFOP speedsolving method to solve the cube in 3.13 seconds using just 33 rotations, an incredible TPS (10.54) and lookahead.
Scramble:
D U F2' L2 U' B2 F2 D L2 U R' F' D R' F' U L D' F' D R2
Solution
The solution consisted of a double Xcross into a free pair and a lucky PLL skip.
x2 / inspection
R' D D R' D L' U L D R' U' R D / white xxcross
L U' L' / 3rd pair F2L
U' R U R' d R' U' R / 4th pair F2L
r' U' R U' R' U U r / OLL
U / AUF
Hardware
Max used a QiYi X-Man Tornado V3 a new speedcube with magnet, elasticity and tension adjustment. The Flagship version of the cube has a magnetic core, giving the cube an extra stability while turning and the Pioneer version even has maglev feature to increase the speed.
Approaching To The Sub-3
The first Sub-5 (under 5 seconds) record was achieved by Lucas Etter in 2015. The first Sub-4 in 2018 and this begs the question: who will achieve the first Sub-3 seconds time in an official competition? So far only 7 Sub-4s have been recorded on a WCA competition but a Sub-3 is definitely approaching in the future.
Max Park has already accomplished a Sub-3 during practice and he has even recorded it. This proves that it's possible but it will take some time and luck to achieve it on a competition.
Who knows, maybe we'll see another Yusheng Du case, when someone relatively unknown shatters the record out of nowhere. Only time will tell.