WCA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025!!!!!

 So I can't believe I'm writing these words BUT I AM GOING TO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025!! There's so much to talk about, I've been cubing since like 6th grade and I went to my first competition in 2015 and so I've been following pretty much every world championship along with national championship and watching YouTubers vlogs there and just being so jealous at how insane the words venues are and how many events go on and how just the entire community gets together. Childhood me would be so happy and proud knowing that I made it, its literally a childhood dream come true. 

Now I'm not competing because I only knew I'd be in Seattle this summer in February, and the registration opened way before that and the 2,000 competitor limit hits like the same day it opens. So I settled with the spectator badge and its legit perfectly fine. It's honestly crazy how its in Seattle the exact year that I'm interning here like I remember when I realized randomly one day that wait worlds is also happening in seattle this summer and i connected the dots i was like HOLYYYYYYY

The Rubik's WCA World Championship lasts for 4 days from Thurs - Sun, 7/3 - 7/6, and legit like everyone is here. Yiheng, tymon, max park, zemdegs, hiroto inaba, luke garett, and then the youtubers like cubehead, tingman, stucube, souptimmy, z3cubing. Jperm isnt here tho and so is leo borromeo. But like so many of these ppl I've never met before and its jsut like they throw it all at once and its just so cool its such a great event.

[autograph paper for my reference]:

• bottom left JPH are initials of juan pablo huanqui
• top to the left of graham sigins is yiheng wang's signature
• 
  

Day 1 - 7/3 Thursday

So this is the opening day with opening ceremony and some blind events and FMC and nations cup. I didn't go becuase I have work. This day actually I went to play poker with my intern teammate and then i hooped at UW intramural afterwards too it was rly fun.

Day 2 - 7/4 Friday

I get there around like 10 AM or something and like it just starts to hit me I legit am on the escalator and I LEGIT SEE JR CUBER WALKING AND IM JUST LIKE YO WTF so i yell at him "JR CUBER!!" LMAO and he like looks up and like he lowkey looks awkward which makes sense cuz im just yelling at him lmao but i got way too excited

So then once I entered the venue and just explored everything including the puzzle makers room, the rubiks booth, the flags, and all the stages, I accumulated a lot of autographs. Like legit I recognize so many random ppl walking around like kevin hays, derpycuber, asher kim, seung huk nahm, brennen lin, etc and I talked to a lot of them and it was rly cool getting to know them. Like for being so immersed in teh cubing community this is like all those online cubing community vids and stuff I engage with just thrown IRL and like its so immersive but all IRL and occasionally I have to just pause and be like wtf is going on

So after a while I find some Norcal ppl specifically the deligates like chris martin and ryan jew and then I run into my cuber friends that i honestly havent seen in a while cuz ive been kinda way from cubing since 2023. But most of them remember me theres some new members in the group but it was fun and we did some example solves and I got some free stuff from some booths and then i lined up for the cubicle store line which took like 1 hr and I had to miss lunch cuz i wanted to keep my spot in line too. I bought a worlds edition hoodie and mat, the new 3x3 moyu weilong 11. Oh yea that reminds me I caught up with them a lot about the new cubing youtubers which there are none and also about what cube everyone mains now and apparently no one uses the gan 3x3s anymore, eveyrone switched to moyu which is crazy so I hopped on the trian and bought the newest moyu and tried it out and I TOTALLY GET THE HYPE its like so light like it weighs so light and it moves os fast it like 100% fits my turing style like it objectively improves my times from my previous gan 11 its honestly so noticeable its so fire i love this cube. 

Also I have to mention that while I was lining up for the cubicle store i saw yiheng and bofang with their moms walking out for lunch and i was like OKAYYYY like yiheng is prob one of the top ppl i wanna meet and so i went up to his mom and told her in chinese for an autograph and she was like oh ok and when yiheng heard me speaking chinese he got super excited and was so initiative like he was "autograph? ok ok" and so he signed my thing it was so cute theyre honestly just little kids and his autograph was so bad but its characteristic of a little kid autograph thats actually crazy to think about but anyway bofang told me "you can speak chinese?" and he got happy and you could tell they were like happy to hear someone speaking chinese. I imagine so many ppl go up to them and speak english and stuff and they feel isolated and stuff so that was a rly cool like 1 minute interaction lmao I knew there was a chance i would build up a crowd cuz hes legit the best 3x3 on the planet but it was relatively quick yiheng literally like ran out after lmao.

Then after the cubicle store visit I took a lime bike to get shake shack. Then after shake shack I cubed for a while I did some skewb solves with the group and then we went to watch finals, at this point it was like 5 pm. 

First finals was 5x5 which was crazy because tymon secured the win with his 4th solve AND THEN SECURED THE WORLD RECORD WITH HIS 5TH SOLVE the crowd was going crazy and i didnt realize it was cuz its a world record until the guy next to me told me its world record average like holy cow bro

And then it was clock finals, which was insane because brendyn dunagan thought he won like the crowd literally told him he won 💀 but some polish guy actually could get a 2.69 or better and he got a 2.5 lmao which is VERY GOOD TIME for clock so thats honestly such a crazy finish the way it played out. 

Then it was pyraminx finals, ezra won it who i recognize i remember watching his vids during covid time but bro this guy hasnt cubed in a year and like quit ucbing lmao and was not even boutta go to this comp and just went cuz he was already registered like thats so insane. I remember in-person seeing his reaction he was just sitting there so calmy smiling and I was wondering why bro this is like top 5 most hilarious moment bro. Everyone in that final round choked, like if u got a sub-2 u weren't even guaranteed top 20 in the semifinals. However in the final round, if u got a sub-2 you would get 2nd place, only ezra got a sub-2 average. Like legit everyone just choked in the final round thats actually crazy. Ezra's interview after is so funny too bro he legit feels bad which is insane https://youtu.be/TSLK8CHoDzU?t=36959

Finally, it was 3x3 OH finals and a philipino won it AGAIN and it wasnt the same philipino like wow and i think it was roux method too so im really happy for that guy, ive never heard of him hes prob a new guy. Max park got 2nd and some random guy got 3rd. 

Really fun 1st day for me, afterwards our group went out to get dinner and since it was 4th of july like everywhere is closed chipotle was closed some random marketplace was closed, we walked to the pike market and the businesses were mostly closed, then we walked to the ferris wheel and there was a restraunt near it that wasopen so we went there. Since im like 1-2 years older than all of them and im unc i ordered a chips and crab dip appetizer thing for everyone and i felt like mr beast. After dinner we dipped it was like 9:30 pm at this point and it was so fun, im really excited to go to day 2. Honeslty bro watching those final rounds and just the display of speed and analyzing their nerves is so fun like time flew by. I love analyzing their nerves like you can really tell who is built for the moment for eg tymon is def built for the moment and brendyn did solid too tho he was a bit sus towards the end of his clock average and overall a big takeaway is that the underdogs of ppl who have no expectations and are just vibing it out end up prospering over the higher seeds who feel pressure that they need to do well and they end up just shaking up and choking. Like it makes total sense, its a huge stage with an insane audience like i would honestly start shaking and choking too. Like the nerves are so next level its so obvious with the final rounds performances.

Day 3 - 7/5 Saturday

Today I woke up at like 10 AM, took the train to the venue, I did some cubing and met up with the norcal friends, I also went back to the cubicle shop since the line was short and I only waited like 15 minutes which is considered short and I used 3 of my gift cards from 2023 competition podiums LOL I forgot I had them until I saw them in a google keep note yesterday and I bought a bluetooth timer cuz I saw my friends using it and it legit just connects to cstimer and u dont needa do anything.

Then I went to eat lunch at the ASEAN food hall I ordered a roast beef banh mi and a black sugar boba thing and brought it back to the venue and I gotta say the BANH MI WAS SO GOOD like the carrots and cucumber feel weird but so good at the same time and it felt so healthy too I really enjoyed that sandwich it was my first time having banh mi.

Then I think we just cubed and stuff until like 4 PM, I would occasioallly get up and walk around and find ppl for autographs lmao. Then at like 4PM I went up to walk around and I ran into Taj who is this little girl that I would cube with back in 2023 and shes still the same but INSANELY CRACKED at skewb she was at a skewb table with a bunch of cracked skewb ppl there were 2 guys from spain and 1 guy from the UK and they all average like sub-2 which is insane to think about. I talked to that table for like 30 minutes just looking at their walkthrough solves and learning about what they did after full-NS and it involves memorizing MULTIPLE algs for each case for each angle like wtf? and then they memorize eg-1, 1-looking, and then starting TCLL and also in a lot of their walk through solves they would cancel into NS algs and they like never had pauses they pretty much could trace all the pieces and 1-look every scramble like thats so insane to think about but honestly expected for world-class skewbers. Taj said she would practice like 4 hrs a day and like these ppl make me look like a beginner at skewb like I was so humbled and in awe I asked them so many questions about finger tricks and stuff and it was just insane I'm probably gonna go back tmrw cuz like its jsut so fascinating. You really only get to experience all these world-class skewbers at worlds. And also I'm so proud of Taj she legit got addicted to skewb and became way better than me like way way better than me I would never practice 4 hrs a day in my prime maybe like 2 hrs or something.

Then after that I ran into stucube for the 2nd time (i met him yesterday and asked for his autograph) and I ended up talking to him for like 30 minutes it couldve even been longer than that we talked for a long time. I asked him a ton of questions about how he got so good at video editing and even using blender in his vids and I learned so much like it honestly lowkey changed my life kinda Im not even gonna go into it cuz if I do then this post is gonna be so long and im gonna waste like 5 minutes yapping here when I needa be going to sleep. Really good convo hes such a great guy like I told him "whenever I listen to music I'm always thinking about the edits I can make" and the fact that he connected to taht and made me realize how significant it is and everything and how he also has that aspect and yea ok lets move on

At this point finals was almost starting and I did NOT plan on these sidequests with the skewb table and stucube I was legit walking around to scrap out some more autographs LOL.

4x4 finals was first and what a story I decided to listen to the stream even tho it was 20 seconds delayed and i did not regret that CUZ KEVIN HAYS WAS LEGIT CRYING LOL his like old friend sebastian weyers stood the test of time and TOOK WORLD CHAMPION with a clutch final solve. Also timofei literally choked his final solve he legit couldve gotten 1st

Then was megaminx finals and leandro from argentina was so dominant and consistent and secured it with his 4th solve. Nicolas niang +2'd out of podium imp retty sure and timofei was the only threat to leandro but couldnt keep up. also really entertaining

Then was 2x2 finals which is the most chaotic event where anything can happen and at the end 2 ppl had the opportunity to get 2nd place AND THEY BOTH CHOKED like the nerves are insane so zayn got 3rd place and fiest got 1st place.

7x7 finals finished off with max park dominant once again and stuff im writing this the next day after so i kinda forgot the details but dude the finals are so fun to watch and so intense especially that 4x4 finals and 2x2 finals it was so chaotic and the nerves were so insane like always.

Day 4 - 7/6 Sunday

Got to venue at 10 AM or something, I sat at the skewb table for a while and learned a ton of stuff like triple sledge fingertrick which might be one of my favorites now its so fun to execute and also learned a lot of first layer techniques with this australian guy that averages like 2s. He also gave me some new algs and like bro it made me realize how bad my first layer solutions are like I thought i was pretty optimal but theres still so much left to learn and improve on. Then at 11:50 skewb second round started so I watched a lot of the skewbers compete including Taj and she did rly good she had a 2.1 single but she also had a lot of high 2's and so she had a 3.01 average or something and she got 29th which isnt top 20 so she didnt make finals and i felt so bad she grinds like 4 hrs a day and she legit deserves it so much shes literally the embodiment of skewb is life like to me and she was like crying and so frustrated like rip but the australian guy made it to finals and the spain guy from basque at the skewb table BECAME 1ST SEED WITH LIKE A 1.81 AVERAGE which is insane like HOLY HES CRACKED.

Then after that I got lunch by myself i went downstairs of the venue and bought a burrito and it was ok, then i came back up and ate my burrito and by that time finals was pretty much starting. It starts like right after lunch in this final day cuz the 3x3 cube final is head to head which takes like 90 minutes. During this time I also found the norcal kids and we began by watching skewb finals which was insane like the polish kid WR holder was so consistent and in his final solve he looked so hesitant and shaky during inspection, I was so sure he was gonna choke cuz he also already had secured a really good average, but he pulled off an insane 1.6 solve like this kid is so good and was so pumped and we were right in front of him he was like the 10th seed or something cuz he did bad in 2nd round. I was also rooting for Alex Rosario a spanish skewber who was 1st seed but he couldnt hold on and finished 4th or something. So zayn got 3rd and Dominic got 2nd all very deserved. Dean who is a norcal cuber got his PR average and was in the running for podium before choking his final solve. Really fun watching skewb finals live

Then was 6x6 finals and Max Park was again really consistent honestly not much to talk about the 3rd place guy henry lichner or something had a rly good breakout story

Square-1 finals was really dominant and consistent by sameer he had it secured by his 4th solve and he got a sub 4 in his final solve for the victory lap like so dominant and I was rootiong for him and max siauw because theyre from washington. I was also rooting for hassan khanini and he got 2nd which is rly good. Another really entertaining finals and the stream commentary was really good they like analyzed their solving styles and the steps of sq-1 like TCMLL or something and how theyre like predicting parity and stuff. Sameer's interview was so funny he was lowkey talking like some linkedin user especially with the quarterzip too. 

Then was 3x3 blind final and it started off SUPER SLOW with tommy cherry DNF'ing his first 2 solves and cheggins being mid in his first 2 solves. So with tommy's last solve and last chance HE CLUTCHES OUT THE 14 SECOND SOLVE we were all going crazy and trying to stay quiet. BUT THEN CHEGGINS BEATS HIS 14 SECOND SOLVE IN HIS 3RD SOLVE AND WOW WHAT A STORY WHAT A PLOT. CHEGGINS IS THE WORLD CHAMPION and tommy cherry still clutch like bro just imagine the amount of pressure it is to have that 3rd solve do or die for legit like money on the line if u think about it and u have to keep mentally composed when its so demanding doing the memo and everything and to block out everything ane execute like that is really some world class stuff. Apparently tho my friends were saying tommy cherry shoudlve got like a 12 or 13 realistically and that he hasnt been practicing much or improving much lately or something idk but yea

AND THEN FINALLY WAS 3X3 FINALS which was just straight up unforgettable bruh. Head to head format, so many storylines. Man this was so special like especially when it got to Tymon and he was just cranking out sub 5's so smoothly and like dude hes so killer under the pressure hes actually sensational its so impressive like Tymon is actually just so good hes like I cant even describe how good he is. I've watched so many of his solves and so many of his high pressure scenarios and I cant describe it its just so good. Then the final 2 chinese kids come on and u know theyre gonna take #1 and #2 on the podium, especiALLY AFTER GETTING SUB 4 SINGLES like bro something about witnessing sub 4 singles in person is just so magical like its just a whole another level its so insane just hte number bro like a 3 second rubiks cube solve is just insane to ome like thats legit my skewb times like dude it was so special i cant even describe it. And it came down to the final solve, yiheng needed a 5.2 or something for the title AND HE HITS IT WIHT A 4.4 AND THE CROWDS GOING CRAZY AND HES JUMPING UP AND DOWN AND BRO ITS JUST SUCH A SPECIAL MOMent im at the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS like this is so special dude im so lucky to witness this im legit so grateful for this opportunity its legit in seattle like thats insane i didnt get to compete but that didnt bother me one bit. The biggest rubiks cube competition in history and i met so many friends and talked to so many ppl and met so many new people and man this is just something so special. I legit felt it during the awards ceremony like "wow, its ending" what an insane 3 days for me i completely forgot about work or anything else this was so amazing. I legit met like everyone in the cubing community even talked to yiheng in chinese for like 30 sec and there was truly so many ppl from all over the world like so many europeans, a big group of australians, all of asia like southeast asia including philippines, malaysia, singapore, and japan, korea all there and a lot of latin america like argentina, chile, panama, and also brazil colombia too and the skewb table with the spanish kids, australian kid, american kids, british kids just all uniting here like u could tell this was so special like all these world class cubers coming together for 4 days and learning from each other like this is not a common opportunity. I just don't know what else tos ay man like im humbled and im so happy and this was such a blast it was so amazing bro like watching all those final rounds was so special and it just doesnt feel real and in the future when i watch the championships on stream these memories are all gonna start hitting back. I love cubing so much and I woudlve never thought Id go to a world chapmionship honestly and dude im so lucky and i legit had the time of my life like this whole month of june and july just doesnt feel real like ive been everywhere and experienced everything and gone so deep into so many walks of life and communities and been bouncing between different immersions it feels like like bro life just doesnt feel real right now. Man ive been cubing since 2015 like legit 10 years man like cubing is so exciting like its just given me so much i cant even describe bro like i got so emotional towards the end during awards just thinking about how much fun i had like i was just so purely happy and its so special when u know ure just living life and enjoying every moment. What an insane event like world championships bro what an insane event i bought some really nice stuff that ill keep forever, especially my autograph sheet. This community is so special bro and worlds really is so special to this community its more than the chapmionships its the community having so much fun together and gathering together where normally all the world class cubers in various events are spread across the world. The next worlds are in upsalla, sweden in 2027 and now i really wanna go again, well see what life is like in 2027 but honestly odds are its gonna be a bit tough but who knows like bro this is gonna make the local comps seem so boring. Wow man, like just so special so unforgettable.

Lyric(s) of the Post:  

Elephante, MIIA - Dynasty