January 1, 2012 : Interview with Speedsolving.com member Phillip Espinoza : Currently (at the time of this interview) is ranked 5th in the United States in both 3x3x3 Single (7.80 seconds) and 3x3x3 Average (9.98 seconds). He is the former NAR holder for 3x3x3 Average (10.21 seconds - 2010).

Location:
San Diego, California

Occupation:
Philosopher

What is your favorite event, why?
3x3 One-Handed is my favorite event, because it's probably the only event I really have any chance at being remarkably good at. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing too well in competition but expect something amazing to happen. I just love the feeling of doing a good OH solve, and pressing the boundaries of what is possible. The computer simulator is my 2nd favorite.

What made you become interested in solving puzzles?
When I found out that someone in my High School (200 people) could solve a Rubik's Cube in 1:30 minutes, my goal became to beat him since I have a naturally competitive personality. I got down to 50 seconds eventually because I found out that another schoolmate had gotten 52 seconds. From then on I wanted to see if I could get world class times. And here I am.

What, in your opinion, is your biggest "cubing" accomplishment?
My biggest cubing accomplishment would be my first ever blindfold solve in competition. Although I suck majorly at BLD, I was extremely happy at the fact that I was able to solve a Rubik's Cube blindfolded in my life, something that seemed so impossible to me at one point, and doing it in competition made it official. Getting a sub-10 average is at the same level. And being the only one so far to ever have taken away NAR 3x3 average from Rowe.

What are your other hobbies?
A lot of my hobbies are finger/dexterity-oriented. I used to play Guitar Hero competitively and ranked 84th in the world at one point. I was also going to get involved with speed-knitting but didn't want to stick out at competitions too much. More seriously though, I have been playing guitar for 10 years and play other instruments such as mandolin, ukulele, harmonica, and anything I can get my hands on really. I also write songs and hip hop is a big part of my life.

What is/are your pet peeve(s)?
Okay, my number one pet peeve of all time cubing-wise, is when strangers who have never even made the effort to do any research on the subject feel confident enough to assert that, "Oh, it's not that hard, it's just AN algorithm". JUST ONE?! Ya, try a couple hundred. Trivializing something I spent years trying to be good at is not cute and really only serves to show how ignorant the person is about the issue. Like saying "Science is just a theory". Non-cubing related pet peeve I hate the most is jealousy. It's such an ugly feeling.

What will the future of cubing be like and how would you like cubing to progress?
The future of cubing will be much like it is now, obviously with more people, but I think it will die off again around the year 2020. I predict that for 3x3 times will get around 5 seconds but no faster than that, guaranteed. Hopefully televising at least Worlds will happen in the next couple years. Fridrich will stay the most common method, until one develops a highly advanced form of algorithmic multi-slotting that combines F2L pairing/insertions to get F2L consistently in 3 seconds and over all move counts to average 30-35.

So far, what has been your most enjoyable cubing experience?
My most enjoyable cubing experience would be US Nationals 2010, and/or Worlds 2009. But that was a mess of a trip.

December 15, 2011 : Interview with Speedsolving.com member Zane Carney : Currently (at the time of this interview) holds the world record in 3x3x3 Multi-Blind (23/25 cubes in 57:48), is ranked 4th in the world in 3x3x3 Blindfolded (31.41 seconds), and is the 2011 World Champion in 3x3x3 Blindfolded.

Location:
I live in a rural area called Gherang, it’s around 100km west of Melbourne, Australia.

Occupation:
Student.

What is your favorite event, why?
I’ll say 3x3 blindfolded. Besides being quite a short event, one of the reasons I enjoy it is because of commutators. Intuition is fun and creates more of an accomplishment than solving with brain-dead memorised algorithms. Another reason is I find the mnemonic systems interesting, and they can sometimes be applied to non-cubing situations. Also, due to me using images to memorise edges, 3x3 BLD benefits both multi and big cubes BLD.

What made you become interested in solving puzzles?
Around mid-2008, my dad found an old cube at home. We decided to buy a new Rubik’s cube from Toys R Us. After a week, I learnt how to solve it using a LBL method in the solution booklet. I began timing my solves, but lost interest after a few months.

A while later in July 2009, I realised I was never good at cubing and solving from the ‘memorised instructions’ wasn’t skilful at all. This random thought motivated me to get back into cubing and do it properly. I’ve been cubing since.

What, in your opinion, is your biggest "cubing" accomplishment?
Becoming 3x3 BLD world champion at WC 2011. It was an amazing feeling to know I performed my best at the most important time.

What are your other hobbies?
I enjoy going outside, just about every night I go for a run. Other activities I do include climbing, shooting and fishing. I love learning about the natural world/universe and reading random science.

What is/are your pet peeve(s)?
Littering and babies crying. I also find it annoying when naive people are conned into scams and expect sympathy.

What will the future of cubing be like and how would you like cubing to progress?
I think in a few years the rate at which world records are broken will have greatly decelerated. Perhaps the ‘human limits’ of cubing aren’t that far away. The rankings will become extremely tight between the top cubers and I expect there to be more people tied on world records.

I hope cubing continues to be regarded as a fun hobby rather than a competitive sport.

So far, what has been your most enjoyable cubing experience?
Definitely World Championship 2011. This was my first time overseas, so Bangkok itself was a very interesting experience. It was awesome to finally meet some really great people in person. The competition was both a friendly and competitive atmosphere.

September 20, 2011 : Interview with Speedsolving.com member Breandan Vallance : Currently (at the time of this interview) is ranked 4th in the world for 3x3x3 Average (8.81 Seconds). He has won 13 different competitions (in 3x3x3), including the 2009 World Championship (10.74 second average).

Location: Scotland, United Kingdom. About 20 miles from Glasgow.

Occupation: Traveller I guess. If I'm not travelling I'm planning my next trip. I've finished school so right now I'm just enjoying the freedom.

What is your favorite event, why?
That would have to be 3x3. I just love the aesthetics of a 3x3 speedsolve. It's also a great way to pass time on the move.

What made you become interested in solving puzzles?
I first solved the cube by myself when I was 12 or 13 using a corners first approach. I had no idea speedsolving even existed and after I solved it I did some research on the cube and came across Macky's 12.11 video which was the world record at the time. It completely blew my mind! Not long after that I decided to learn the Fridrich method and got sucked right into speedsolving.

What, in your opinion, is your biggest "cubing" accomplishment?
Winning the World Championships in 2009. I had always done so badly in competition before then, even in the first 2 rounds. I can't even describe how overwhelmed I was to finally get a good official result and for it to be in the finals of still the biggest competition to date.

What are your other hobbies?
Hmmm, I guess my main other hobbies are flying RC planes(though not so much recently) and juggling. I have many other smaller interests/minor obsessions/things I enjoy such as cycling, tetris, pen spinning, collecting cool stuff, unicycling, badminton, tennis, bowling, swimming, reading, movies....

What is/are your pet peeve(s)?
I have a bunch of cubing ones. Most of the things non-cubers say about cubing, people who say "finally" for no reason, but worst of all people who steal cubes! It really makes me sick. Speedcubing is supposed to be a friendly community. A non-cubing one is people who complain so moving on...

What will the future of cubing be like and how would you like cubing to progress?
I'm not even going to bother predicting, almost all of my WR predictions have been surpassed, mostly by a lot. For me, speedcubing is about making and hanging out with friends from all over the world. I hope the community will continue to spread and grow so I can keep meeting more awesome people.

So far, what has been your most enjoyable cubing experience?
My best cubing experience was my entire trip to the US and Canada. There were a lot of American cubers who I'd wanted to meet for so long as well as many who I'd spoken to online but never had the chance to meet in person who were there. I had so many great experiences there, as you can see from the picture I'll definitely be going to Nats again next year.