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)