July 19, 2024 • 7 mins
NZ North Island Championship 2024 is an official World Cube Association (WCA) sanctioned speedcubing competition.
Speedcubing is a competitive sport involving solving a range of twisty puzzles, such as the famous Rubik's Cube, as quickly as possible.
The North Island Championships are being held in Taupo at the 'Great Lake Centre' between 20-21 July.
Alex Asbery joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview the event.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're talking speed cubing now on the All Sport Breakfast.
Off to Topaul we go and we're joined by Alex
Asbury as we look toward day two of a three
day competition, and it is what it sounds like. It's
how quick you can flick your way through a cube
more commonly known back in the day one my day
anyway as a Rubik's cube. Alex, welcome to the show.
(00:32):
This is odd for us doing this, but this is
a big enough competition in New Zealand and globally too.
This is well engaged with, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Definitely? Yeah, it's very fun to have everyone here.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
As far as the competition is concerned, what are we
looking at? What are we competing for the North Island
Championships here?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, so we're competing in seventeen different events across the
weekends and it's basically who could be the fastest person
from the North Island when all the championships.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Basically seventeen different events. I don't know if you can
name all seventeen to them, but give us an idea
about what people are doing. Your standard three by three.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Cube here, and then we have a smaller than one
called the two by two. We go all the way
up four by four to seven x seven. We've got
the one handed variant, so you're just solving a three
by three with only one of your hands. You solve
a three by three blindfolded as well. And then there's
different shapes things like a pyramids which is a triangle
based pyramid puzzle, or a twelve sided dodate, a heat
(01:25):
puzzle called a megaminx blindfolded.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Could you explain that to me because it makes no
sense whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Alex, That's all good.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
So basically, the time it takes official time for a
blindfold of solver is how long it takes you to
memorize the cube and then put the blindfold on and
solve it. So basically, if you can memorize twenty letters,
then you can solve a three by three blindfolder.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
It's actually much simpler that people think of this.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Okay, I don't think it's simple at all, but I
don't engage in that is that is something for the experts.
Let's just go back to the one that I think
a lot of people, especially my generation, No, the standard
three by three. What are you looking at? As far
as the New Zealand record for how long takes to solve.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
The current New Zealand record average is six seconds flat.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
That one is. It was broken a couple months ago.
Back and crush Church this weekend.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
We're looking at times probably in the mid six seconds
will be winning the competition for an average.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay, six seconds is insane. They've taken it long to
pick it up and spin it around. So you just
talk us through the process if you can, like speed commentary,
what don't you go through it? You've don't you're actually competing?
What are people actually do it? Six seconds? Talk us?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, So they're doing an average of about nine to
twelve turns every second, which is insane. I don't do
that many turns a second. My hands are too old
for that, but they we do. Most of the people
do a combination of four steps. We call it Steve pop,
which is an acronym that stands for cross, first, two
layers orients and permute. So they're making a cross on
(03:05):
one side of one, then they're filling in the four
corners around that, and then they've been the last layer
at the top and two different steps.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
This is hard to explain that.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
No, no, no, I'm going to in my here. But
so this is standard cube solving. This is the method
that most cubas use.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
About nineteen percent of them use that.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
There are some other methods which are less common and
put some specialist souls use them, but most of our
guys use that ce FOP method.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, so you're involved probably in New Zealand, but you're
also involved globally, aren't you. You actually have a I
like't say a bit of power, but you've got a
bit of swing, and the fact that you're there ethanal
filing champs is significant for the championship.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah. So I'm called a delegate.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I represent the World Cube Association, which is a global
organization that basically officiates competitions around the entire world and
makes records official. So we have to have a delegate
all of our competitions to ensure all the regulations are
being followed, everything's been done by the book, and once
that's happened, we can submit the results and we get
ranked on the website as well. There's just over two
(04:10):
hundred thousand people have submitted official times on there across
from multiple competitions.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's huge. Where's the episine? Like, where are the fastest
cubas on the globe? Do they come from any particular place?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
The current world records single holder is from America and
the world record average is from China. The world champions
over the years have come from Australia, the US, Europe, Asia,
all over the place, so it's it's a very very
global talent.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You mentioned the word average, Is that how it's won
your fastest average time?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
We do We do records by single and average, but
competitions are won by averages because then it's fairer across everyone.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You said at the start in Baying you what beast
of three, five ten? How does that actually work? How
does that proceed?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
We do five souls for most of our events. You
get rid of the worst time, you get rid of
the best time, so you can have one really lucky
one and you can have one really bad one and
your average middle three and that's time that counts.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Is as far as the actual the friction on these things,
because the old school ones that will take your nine
seconds just to turn one corner. How one of these
cubes like I'm presuming they're all fairly standard, but they've
all got lubricated. How do they work?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Yeah, so they've gone through a lot of different iterations.
Now we do a lot of injection molding for a
bunch of the production phases. They've got magnets inside of them,
they've got pieces cut out of them.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
They've got silicon lubes inside of them as well.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
And yeah, these guys are turning them so fast that
they just need to be that strong and that fast,
otherwise it would be possible to get the times they're getting.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Is it possible to cheat.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
It's possible, It's not common, and that's why we're here
to look out for things like that.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It would be very hard to cheat in one of
these events.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
What's to say, how would you cheat? I mean, what
step would you take?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well, in blindfolder, you can peek under the blindfold, but
we have block in place for that so that people
hold a piece of paper between the cube and their
blindfold stop them from doing that. In the size of events,
it's much much harder. It would require some stuff before
the competition and it's really really hard to get away
with it.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Sixty five competitors over three days. Is there a firm
favorite in this I.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Was probably a favorite for three by three, I'd say
between two of them actually, I'd say either Alexander Vujitch
or Richard g Hengktao would be our favorites for the weekend.
They both have sub seven second averages officially already.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And coming up in December, it's the national finals. So
can people watch this? Can they go along? Can they
a team? Can they watch it online?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Yeah, we've got both options. So we've got people can
attend in person. We let expectators company as much as
they want, so it's all three and then we also
have them live stream on some people's YouTube channels, which
we post on various discord servers.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
For more from the Your Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk said Be on Saturday mornings,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're talking speed cubing now on the All Sport Breakfast.
Off to Topaul we go and we're joined by Alex
Asbury as we look toward day two of a three
day competition, and it is what it sounds like. It's
how quick you can flick your way through a cube
more commonly known back in the day one my day
anyway as a Rubik's cube. Alex, welcome to the show.
(00:32):
This is odd for us doing this, but this is
a big enough competition in New Zealand and globally too.
This is well engaged with, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Definitely? Yeah, it's very fun to have everyone here.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
As far as the competition is concerned, what are we
looking at? What are we competing for the North Island
Championships here?
Speaker 4 (00:47):
Yeah, so we're competing in seventeen different events across the
weekends and it's basically who could be the fastest person
from the North Island when all the championships.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Basically seventeen different events. I don't know if you can
name all seventeen to them, but give us an idea
about what people are doing. Your standard three by three.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Cube here, and then we have a smaller than one
called the two by two. We go all the way
up four by four to seven x seven. We've got
the one handed variant, so you're just solving a three
by three with only one of your hands. You solve
a three by three blindfolded as well. And then there's
different shapes things like a pyramids which is a triangle
based pyramid puzzle, or a twelve sided dodate, a heat
(01:25):
puzzle called a megaminx blindfolded.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Could you explain that to me because it makes no
sense whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Alex, That's all good.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
So basically, the time it takes official time for a
blindfold of solver is how long it takes you to
memorize the cube and then put the blindfold on and
solve it. So basically, if you can memorize twenty letters,
then you can solve a three by three blindfolder.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
It's actually much simpler that people think of this.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Okay, I don't think it's simple at all, but I
don't engage in that is that is something for the experts.
Let's just go back to the one that I think
a lot of people, especially my generation, No, the standard
three by three. What are you looking at? As far
as the New Zealand record for how long takes to solve.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
The current New Zealand record average is six seconds flat.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
That one is. It was broken a couple months ago.
Back and crush Church this weekend.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
We're looking at times probably in the mid six seconds
will be winning the competition for an average.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Okay, six seconds is insane. They've taken it long to
pick it up and spin it around. So you just
talk us through the process if you can, like speed commentary,
what don't you go through it? You've don't you're actually competing?
What are people actually do it? Six seconds? Talk us?
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, So they're doing an average of about nine to
twelve turns every second, which is insane. I don't do
that many turns a second. My hands are too old
for that, but they we do. Most of the people
do a combination of four steps. We call it Steve pop,
which is an acronym that stands for cross, first, two
layers orients and permute. So they're making a cross on
(03:05):
one side of one, then they're filling in the four
corners around that, and then they've been the last layer
at the top and two different steps.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
This is hard to explain that.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
No, no, no, I'm going to in my here. But
so this is standard cube solving. This is the method
that most cubas use.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
About nineteen percent of them use that.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
There are some other methods which are less common and
put some specialist souls use them, but most of our
guys use that ce FOP method.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Okay, so you're involved probably in New Zealand, but you're
also involved globally, aren't you. You actually have a I
like't say a bit of power, but you've got a
bit of swing, and the fact that you're there ethanal
filing champs is significant for the championship.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah. So I'm called a delegate.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I represent the World Cube Association, which is a global
organization that basically officiates competitions around the entire world and
makes records official. So we have to have a delegate
all of our competitions to ensure all the regulations are
being followed, everything's been done by the book, and once
that's happened, we can submit the results and we get
ranked on the website as well. There's just over two
(04:10):
hundred thousand people have submitted official times on there across
from multiple competitions.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's huge. Where's the episine? Like, where are the fastest
cubas on the globe? Do they come from any particular place?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
The current world records single holder is from America and
the world record average is from China. The world champions
over the years have come from Australia, the US, Europe, Asia,
all over the place, so it's it's a very very
global talent.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
You mentioned the word average, Is that how it's won
your fastest average time?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
We do We do records by single and average, but
competitions are won by averages because then it's fairer across everyone.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You said at the start in Baying you what beast
of three, five ten? How does that actually work? How
does that proceed?
Speaker 4 (04:58):
We do five souls for most of our events. You
get rid of the worst time, you get rid of
the best time, so you can have one really lucky
one and you can have one really bad one and
your average middle three and that's time that counts.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Is as far as the actual the friction on these things,
because the old school ones that will take your nine
seconds just to turn one corner. How one of these
cubes like I'm presuming they're all fairly standard, but they've
all got lubricated. How do they work?
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Yeah, so they've gone through a lot of different iterations.
Now we do a lot of injection molding for a
bunch of the production phases. They've got magnets inside of them,
they've got pieces cut out of them.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
They've got silicon lubes inside of them as well.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
And yeah, these guys are turning them so fast that
they just need to be that strong and that fast,
otherwise it would be possible to get the times they're getting.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Is it possible to cheat.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
It's possible, It's not common, and that's why we're here
to look out for things like that.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It would be very hard to cheat in one of
these events.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
What's to say, how would you cheat? I mean, what
step would you take?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well, in blindfolder, you can peek under the blindfold, but
we have block in place for that so that people
hold a piece of paper between the cube and their
blindfold stop them from doing that. In the size of events,
it's much much harder. It would require some stuff before
the competition and it's really really hard to get away
with it.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Sixty five competitors over three days. Is there a firm
favorite in this I.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Was probably a favorite for three by three, I'd say
between two of them actually, I'd say either Alexander Vujitch
or Richard g Hengktao would be our favorites for the weekend.
They both have sub seven second averages officially already.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
And coming up in December, it's the national finals. So
can people watch this? Can they go along? Can they
a team? Can they watch it online?
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Yeah, we've got both options. So we've got people can
attend in person. We let expectators company as much as
they want, so it's all three and then we also
have them live stream on some people's YouTube channels, which
we post on various discord servers.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
For more from the Your Sport Breakfast with Darcy Watergrave,
listen live to News Talk said Be on Saturday mornings,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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