Phillips Exeter Hosts Second Annual Cube Day

Senior Brandon Liu, with a 3x3 Rubik's cube in his left hand, sat quietly and solved the puzzle before most people could even process the task of doing so. Liu broke his personal best in his 3x3 one-handed average by about a second, with a time of 19.2 seconds. As the founder of Cube Club, Liu was proud to organize and participate in Phillips Exeter Cube Day with his fellow members.

Phillips Exeter Cube Club hosted Phillips Exeter Cube Day 2016 this past Saturday and Sunday in Grainger Auditorium. The competition included all 18 of the World Cube Association (WCA) events, ranging from the classic 3x3 cube speedsolve to more uncommon puzzles such as the Pyraminx and solving a 3x3 cube with feet. Competitors arrived before 8 a.m. on Saturday, and many participated in events until 6 p.m. Sunday’s competition featured the more unusual events and concluded at 3 p.m. The Cubicle, a cube vendor, set up a booth near the competition area and sold twisty puzzles of all types. Liu estimated that from the approximately $1000 that the club made last year, and the $1500 more that it earned this past weekend, the club will only continue to profit and grow.

Cube Club planned to host the event since last spring and finalized tournament details during the summer. The tournament was registered under the World Cube Association through a WCA delegate, making it an official competition under WCA standards. Cube Club had originally planned to hold the tournament in the middle of October. However, at the request of WCA, the date was changed as there would be another competition held in Maine during the same time.

Lower Calvin Henaku, a co-head of Cube Club, was glad that the club started planning well ahead of time. “The exact date was tentative, and we had troubles there but then again, we’ve been preparing for about six months,” he said.

“It’s always fun to have dedicated competitors because you can just watch and admire their speed.”

Liu explained that the first Phillips Exeter Cube Day was a tremendous success, and this year, the co-heads aimed to make it larger in terms of competitors and events. Lower James Wang, another co-head of Cube Club, said that the club plans on hosting only one event per year because of the time commitment required. “It does take quite a lot of time to organize everything, plus it takes up a whole weekend,” he said. However, Wang found the tournament worth it, appreciating the talent it drew from all over the country. “It’s always fun to have dedicated competitors because you can just watch and admire their speed,” he said. Henaku agreed with Wang’s sentiment. “This [event] is definitely going to be an annual thing,” he said.

Wang was pleased with the turnout, crediting the uniqueness of the tournament. “We have every single event in our competition like clock, big blind and multi blind. A lot of competitions don’t have these events so this is a rare event that lots of people want to attend,” he said.

Competitors explained that events allow them to meet others who share the same passion. Daniel Doherty started cubing a year ago out of his own interest. This event was the second competition he has attended, and he hoped to make it to the Pyraminx finals. “I put in two hours per day to practice because I want to go to more competitions in the future,” he said. He explained that it was a convenient and enjoyable experience because the commute from Massachusetts was not long. “It’s nice coming here because at school I only had my friends who were interested in cubing like me,” he said.

Most of the attendees began solving cubes out of curiosity and self-interest, competing without intention of joining the professional stage. Will Russo, a competitor from Manchester Regional High School in New Jersey, competed in every event on Saturday. Russo explained that a teammate on his baseball team in seventh grade showed that he could solve a cube. Russo felt doubtful and even tried to solve it five times, but it was not until a year later that he figured it out. He broke several personal records in his 3x3, 5x5, one-handed and Pyraminx this past weekend. “I did badly in 2x2 as always. I average a lot better at home,” he said. He enjoys solving cubes because it serves as an effective stress reliever and competitions provide a “good social experience.”

However, many competitors were veterans to the competitive scene who have devoted themselves to cubing. Mark Zhao, a student from Yukon, said Exeter’s Cubing Competition was his 14th event. Zhao has practiced for over 11 years and hoped to win a lot of titles. “Everyone says cubing is just their interest, but you can’t deny that a large part of competing is to increase ranking,” he said.

Jerich Lee from the Cardigan Mountain School in New Hampshire said that he used to enjoy solving cubes because it would impress others, but now, he loves making other people want to learn how to solve it. “When they solve it, it makes them feel good. And then there’s just that chain reaction,” he said, explaining the effect of sharing something that he personally enjoys with others.

Lee’s favorite event from the competition was the 3x3 blindfolded. Before the event began, he memorized the orientation of the cube and kept that image in his head as he solved it. There are memory tricks such as making them into stories or audio strings. Not only is he currently 52nd in the United States in the blindfolded 3x3, he also lives in Hong Kong and placed second in the region’s championship this past summer.

The event ran smoothly and competitors felt that there was ample time to refocus between events. Liu explained that there were no major setbacks. In fact, there was additional time to add an additional round of 3x3 for eager competitors. “On the first day, we were doing so well and so ahead of schedule that we added a fourth round of 3x3. People were really impressed and happy to compete in a fourth round,” he said.

Liu expressed confidence in the future of Cube Club and Phillips Exeter Cube Day in the hands of the current co-heads.

“James and Calvin are lowers right now, and I have a lot of faith in them to pull off a great competition next year,” he said.