The municipal pavilion António Costeira, in Oliveira de Azeméis, will host an international “speedcubing” competition on Saturday, with 100 participants from seven countries hoping to be the fastest on the magic cube.
As revealed on Tuesday by the organization of the event, the Azeméis Open 2023 will therefore go to the district of Aveiro and the metropolitan area of Porto “the largest competition of its kind ever held in Portugal”, in which the modality dedicated to solving tests with Rubik’s cubes “still have little implementation” and the holding of official events depends on the private initiative of players or supporters.
In this case, The speed test is organized by Pedro Azevedo, who is registered with the entity that regulates the sport internationally – the World Cube Association – and whose official personal best is solving a classic cube in 6.97 seconds.
“But at home, with no competitive pressure, I managed to solve it in 5.28 seconds,” the 21-year-old told Lusa, who learned to untangle the colored cube at age 16, based on the video of a record holder in online platform YouTube.
“It’s all a matter of training. We have to be quick with our hands and it gets easier as we know more algorithms because they’re the ones that help us know where to slide each color, but what’s really needed is it training a lot”, defended Pedro Azevedo.
Between 09:00 and 19:00, the competition with players from Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Angola, Brazil, Colombia and China will follow the rules of the World Cube Association, which will be in Oliveira de Azeméis to oversee the event., his Spanish representative Jesús Lindo García.
The list of planned tests includes the regularization of colors in magic cubes with four keys per side (2×2), nine keys per side (the classic 3×3 version, which is best known to the public), and also 16 keys per facet (4×4 ). .
There are also ‘skewb’ tests – the ‘skewed’/distorted cubes with slanted keys on the corners – and even blindfold tests.
The final results show each player’s unique times as well as their best average speed in the various tests, which determine the places on the podium.
“In Portugal we only have a trophy and a diploma for the winners, but in Spain, for example, there are ‘vouchers’ and gift cards, and in South Korea the main prize can be 4,000 euros,” said Pedro Azevedo.
The organizer of the initiative in Oliveira de Azeméis expects the modality to grow in Portugal in the near future, so that the country can be represented at the 2025 World Cup in Seattle, United States.
“In 2018 there were only two competitions in Portugal, in 2019 the same and then nothing was done about it due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. This year there was already an initiative in Lisbon and now we have it, but it remains little Because the person who organized these events had to leave for personal reasons, I will now try to have a race in Oliveira de Azeméis at least once a year,” he said.
Source: DN
