Speed cubing legends Max Park and Feliks Zemdegs race each other in wholesome showdown
A pair of speed cubing legends faced off in the ultimate showdown when they visited Guinness World Records HQ in London.
Well, we say “ultimate showdown”, but it was all very friendly and wholesome.
That’s because Max Park (USA) and Feliks Zemdegs (Australia) have a brilliant friendship that hasn’t been spoiled by competition.
This was their first reunion since they starred together in Netflix documentary The Speed Cubers.
Sat side-by-side in matching “Cube Camp” T-shirts, they had various cubes to work with.
They had the classic 3x3x3 cube, as well as more complicated 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 models.
But the one that proved the trickiest was a ‘flat’ 3x3x1 version.
Max giggled as he fumbled with the blocks, trying to align all the colours.
He couldn’t hold in his laughter as he told Feliks: “It’s so hard to solve that.”
Max, left, and Feliks at GWR HQ
“Yeah, this one is so hard,” Feliks agreed.
He further explained: “It’s not an event we do in competitions so we’ve just never really solved it before.
“It turns a bit differently to a regular cube.”
The dexterous duo went head-to-head to solve the rest of the cubes, both wowing with their unbelievable speed.
When asked how many times he’s broken the world record, a humble Feliks said: “Um, it’s a good question. I don’t know.
Max and Feliks with a young fan
“I think maybe like the single and average both about 10 times.”
He went on: “The first time I got the world record average it was nine seconds and then I brought that down to about five and a half.
“Max got a six second average along the way.”
They’ve each broken numerous puzzle cube records, even taking titles off each other again and again.
The ultimate record is the fastest time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube, which of the two of them, Feliks, 29, held first in 2010 with 6.77 sec.
He broke his own record a couple of times before it changed hands, and then Max, 23, claimed it in 2023 in 3.13 sec.
Max and Feliks have both also held the fastest average time to solve a 3x3x3 rotating puzzle cube at various times in their cubing careers, with Max scoring 5.32 sec in 2021 and Feliks most recently getting 5.53 sec in 2019.
Both records are now held by Yiheng Wang (China) with times of 3.08 sec and 4.05 sec, respectively.
Turning the attention to Max, Feliks asked him how many times he’d solved a cube in under three seconds at home.
“I got plenty of sub threes,” Max said with a smile.
Max and Feliks playing Rubik's Race
Perhaps he’ll take his record back one day.
Feliks added: “Max has all the world records in almost all of the bigger size puzzles.”
After finishing on a draw in their competition, Max and Feliks were handed a Rubik’s Race board game to act as a tie-breaker.
“This is so intense,” Max giggled as they each tried to slide the coloured blocks on their side into the right order.
The day wasn’t over until Max and Feliks met some of their very excited fans, who got the chance to ask them some questions.
The kids asked them which world records have been their favourite to set, what inspired them to take up cubing and even got them to autograph their own Rubik’s Cubes.
One girl described meeting them as “a dream come true”.
Feliks said: “If you’ve been watching this and you want to get into Rubik’s Cubes, it’s as easy as going and getting a cube from a store and looking up a YouTube tutorial.
“It’s something that anyone can get into, no matter who you are.”
The day ended with Max and Feliks both being presented with official Guinness World Records certificates for the most wins of the WCA World Championship. They share the record with two wins each.
Max also currently holds the following records:
- Fastest average time to solve a 7x7x7 rotating puzzle cube – 1 min 39.68 sec
- Fastest time to solve a 4x4x4 rotating puzzle cube – 15.71 sec
- Fastest average time to solve a 5x5x5 rotating puzzle cube – 34.76 sec
- Fastest time to solve a 7x7x7 rotating puzzle cube – 1 min 34.15 sec
- Fastest average time to solve a 6x6x6 rotating puzzle cube – 1 min 5.66 sec
- Fastest time to solve a 6x6x6 rotating puzzle cube – 58.03 sec