The Controversy That Almost Ended Speedcubing
Introduction
The Rubik’s cube is a famous puzzle which has been sold to over 400 million people since its release. What most people don’t know is that people from all around the world race and compete to see who can solve the fastest and set new world records The term for solving a cube in the shortest amount of time is called “speedcubing,” and it is highly competitive. The community is always supportive, with people racing to get their own best times. However, in recent times people have cheated to lower their times, and these acts nearly killed the entire speedcubing community, and hurt a lot of individual cubers.
What is Speedcubing?
At these competitions, passionate speedcubers compete with each other to win competitions, and compete with themselves to lower their personal best solve times. How do people even compete? How do we regulate solves and times so everyone can compete fairly? That’s the job of the WCA or World Cube Association. The WCA was founded in 2004, and has been organizing competitions around the globe since. At these competitions, passionate speedcubers compete with each other to win competitions, and compete with themselves to lower their personal best solve times. The WCA also keeps track of world records, and the top ranked results that people achieve.
The WCA competitions fair by stating many rules and regulations. Some of these rules are about penalties when people break the rules. If your cube isn’t solved, then you will be given a DNF penalty (did not finish). Other penalties exist also, such as a 2 second penalty (also called a +2) for incorrect uses of the timer, and a +2 for being 1 turn off from being solved. You are given up to 15 seconds to inspect the cube before you start timing your solve. The WCA also has official results for different twisty puzzles other than the standard 3x3x3 Rubik’s cube. They have all of the cubes from 2x2x2 to 7x7x7 as well as other shaped cubes such as the Pyraminx. Your results are measured in both your single best solve (single), and your average of 5 solves (average) for most events. All solves in any average you do are regulated by judges who watch your solves to make sure you aren’t breaking rules. Averages are usually more skill based because you have to perform well for multiple solves in a row.
The WCA is managed by delegates and staff members who organize and make sure competitions are legal and fair. The WCA also has groups that govern it, the WRC (WCA Regulations committee) and the WCB (WCA Board of Directors).
Timer Sliding
With all of these rules in place, cheating has become very complicated. Yet, the part of a solve with the most strict rules is how you use timers. Instead of using a stopwatch, or an online timer , official competitions use speed stacks timers, which were named after their use in cup stacking. After you finish inspecting, you place your fingers on the large pads of the timer, wait for the light on the timer to turn green, then lift off to start the timer. When you are finished with your solve, you place your hands flat down on the large pads. The two thumb pads aren’t used in speedcubing, but are used in sport stacking because of its different rules.
A timer for speedcubing.
In a WCA competition you can only start the timer with your fingers, and you will receive a +2 for starting with your palms, starting sideways, or starting with a different body part, because this will make it easier to pick up the cube. Yet, it is very hard for a judge to notice in real time if you are starting from an illegal position. Because of this, people have figured out that you can slide your hands up the timer and start the timer with your fingers closer to the cube. If you are proficient in this technique, it is almost impossible for anyone to notice this in real time. Almost always, world class cubers follow the rules, because it will make their solves disqualified or penalized if they are caught. This might seem like it barely saves any time, but it saves 0.15 seconds, which is a massive amount in small events like 2x2. This technique has been named “sliding” by the speedcubing community. People have still done illegal timer starts and stops in official competitions. Ekaterina Kaneva achieved a 0.6 2x2 solve that was Russia’s national record and Kaneva ranked 11th in the world in 2019, but they stopped the timer with the sides of their hand also called a “karate chop” timer stop.
An instance of the “karate chop”.
However this karate chop stop could only be seen when people slowed the footage down and looked frame-by-frame, and was impossible to notice in real time. This was also the case for Ellery Dillon, who in the fall of 2022, slid on a 0.53 second 2x2 solve. Likewise, the judge didn’t notice anything wrong.
Frame-by-Frame Analysis
In response, the WCA didn’t give out any penalties to these competitors for the following reason: the misuse of the timers could only be seen using frame-by-frame analysis. The WCA made this decision mainly to avoid controversy, but it was in the form of a guideline, and not a hard regulation.
This incident was concerning the 0.6 “karate chop” and the guideline about not using frame-by-frame analysis was later applied to the 0.53 slide. For a while, people didn’t slide in official solves and followed the rules, but this was all changed by Yiheng Wang.
Who is Yiheng Wang?
If you don't know him, Yiheng is the 6 time world record holder in the most competitive category: 3x3 average, as of November 2024. He is dominant in 3x3 and is ahead of the second best cuber by over half a second. He is currently 10, and has been consistently setting records since he was 9. Before 2024, Yiheng has also been in the top rankings for 2x2, holding the Asian record, and remaining within the top 5. His 2x2 and 3x3 have both had major issues and controversies. His first world record in 3x3 was a 4.75 average, but one of his solves was scrambled incorrectly by 1 move, which meant that he had to do another solve instead, even though it wasn’t his fault. However, the extra solve was much slower which lowered his average to 4.91. Another controversial topic was his first sub 1 second 2x2 average. He had beaten Zayn Khanani’s 1.01 average with an insane 0.93 second average. Yet, there was still controversy about this average. On one of his solves, his judge started his inspection period before he was ready. After the solve he asked a delegate for an extra attempt to replace the solve, because it was unfair that he wasn’t ready. Since he solved the cube already, he wasn’t allowed to ask for an extra attempt, but the delegate still gave it to him. The WRC went back and forth on this, but eventually decided (over months) that the result would stand because he was given permission by a delegate, but it was beaten by Zayn Khanani with a 0.92 average soon after. People thought that this average was close to the limit of 2x2 solving, but no one was prepared for what Yiheng would do next.
0.78 2x2 Average
On June 22, 2024, in the first round of 2x2 at Johor Cube Open 2024, Yiheng achieved a 0.78 2x2 average. But this time seemed almost too fast to be real. 2x2 world record drops are usually very small, happening a hundredth of a second at a time. But this 15% drop is something the 2x2 record hasn’t seen since the start of the WCA. When people saw the footage at full speed, it looked perfectly legal, but when they looked at it frame-by-frame, some things were off. It looked like he started holding the cube before the timer even started; which is only possible with extreme sliding.
Apparently, Yiheng had been practicing this technique, and hadn’t used it up until this competition. With penalties from frame-by-frame analysis this average would have a +2 on almost every solve. But since it looked normal without the frame-by-frame analysis, the WCA chose to do nothing about the situation.
The Community’s Response
The WCA’s lack of a response annoyed the cubing community a lot. Firstly, the average was obviously cheated, and shouldn’t be a world record. Secondly, the 0.78 average was practically unbeatable without abusing sliding. The last main reason people were upset is because the only rule keeping this average alive was an old guideline from 2019, when frame-by-frame analysis was more limited. But we now have better technology, we should definitely use it, right? On the other hand, top 2x2 solvers like Antonie Paterakis, Zayn Khanani, and Hassan Khanani started practicing sliding. Hassan uploaded a video of a 0.69 unofficial average using sliding, mainly just to show people how easy it is to get fast times using sliding. In the description, he noted that no one should slide in a real competition. Cubers also created a petition on change.org, demanding the WCA to give a DNF penalty to the 0.78 average.
This petition was supported and signed by 1,694 cubers across the world, who all wanted to see this change. Content creators also tagged their videos with #DNFthe0.78, which spread the word very quickly. Furthermore, Hassan started a protest against sliding in official competitions. In the first round of Tri-State Corner Comms PA 2024, Hassan got a 0.94 2x2 average with sliding, which was 3rd in the world at the time. However, his sliding was much more noticeable than Yiheng, which caused the competition’s delegates to penalize it to a 1.3 average.
This picture takes place almost one second into the solve, but his hands are still resting on the timer pads. This is much worse than Yiheng sliding, which saves 0.15. Later all of his solves were DNF’ed.
Although this might look like blatant cheating, Hassan wasn’t attempting to get a high ranked result. Instead, he was trying to force the WCA to do something about the 0.78. If his result was disqualified, then Yiheng’s average should be treated in a similar way. Either way, this forced the WCA to come up with some sort of standardization, instead of using an old guideline as an excuse.
The WCA’s Response
In response to this, the WRC posted an update about the regulations regarding the recent sliding drama. However, it wasn’t what the community wanted or expected. They made a new regulation that allowed frame by frame results, but it only applied to certain future results. This meant that they kept the 0.78 record. The main issue with this new rule is that it made the 0.78 almost unbeatable, since no one has gotten remotely close to that time without the use of sliding. Another issue with it was that it only applied to regional records, or personal records within the top 50. This means that you could hypothetically slide, and get 0.01 below your previous record, and it would be fine. This would give a huge advantage to the sliders in championships. After this post, emails were leaked between the WRC and WCB which revealed that the WCB actually forced the WRC to make this decision, even though they were against this. The WRC was rooting to DNF the 0.78 and remove sliding, and the WCB wanted the current changed. This caused even more backlash within the community. The issue went even more viral, so the WCB got together and held a meeting to make a conclusion. This was streamed on Twitch and Youtube available to the entire world.
Conclusion
During the meeting and after further discussion, the WCB decided to penalize the 0.78 2x2 average. They gave a +2 on most of the solves, and a +4 on one of them. This changed the result from 0.78 to 3.47. They also penalized his 0.49 2x2 personal record single. His official 2x2 results now are a 0.54 2x2 single, and a 0.92 2x2 average (tied world record). His personal record 3x3 single of 3.38 was also penalized, but he has since beaten it with a 3.27.