Cubing generations

[Luke8]

I would be the last generation, I started 2 months ago.

 

[asacuber]

I am pretty sure that we are approaching whole next stage. I'd like to be consistent and say "Max Park Generation", but nah.. Speedcubing is on it's way to become a real sport. Big companies like Moyu, Gans, MFG or Yuxin are recruiting world-class cubers to promote their cubes. They are now getting paid for using their flagship cubes, wearing their apparel and they travel worldwide. It's so much bigger than before. People now finally have a real motivation to break records, it's not a pointless hobby anymore. I also like the idea of rivalry between countries on Worlds this year. I hope that WCA will come up with some more exciting ideas in the future. Or will it be RSA?

Did you just predict the future?

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

I'd just like to point out that my WCA ID looks kinda old-fashioned compared to you kids' IDs.

 

[cubing master]

Probably the 5th generation. I started around 2013.

 

[Zerksies]

This is a weird unfair question. I would be considered 1st gen since I touched a cube in the early 80's. But that's not a fare answer, I first solved a cube and would consider myself a "cuber" in the 3rd generation. I'm a older cuber and it was one of them things I wanted todo in my life

 

[mitja]

I am 1st gen. Competing in 1980-1982 but after that stopped untill 2014-15. We were doing F2L, half of Oll, and 2look PLL. People were crazy about cubes. The only lube was Nivea creme

 

[shadowslice e]

This is a weird unfair question.

That's definitely an interesting way of phrasing it and I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "unfair"?

I would be considered 1st gen since I touched a cube in the early 80's. But that's not a fare answer, I first solved a cube and would consider myself a "cuber" in the 3rd generation. I'm a older cuber and it was one of them things I wanted todo in my life

There are some people who are in multiple (usually 2) generations because they properly started in one generation but then stopped and started in a later one. They denote themselves as the x/y generation.

I would probably say you're just 3rd gen though if that's when you started cubing properly rather than just fiddling around with it every now and then.

 

[Gomorrite]

5 generations definitely makes the most sense, and I'm inclined to best agree with Dene's model. Here's my very similar structure with some notes.

Generation 1: The Originals (Conception - 1983)
The people who started during the initial craze. It's hard to differentiate non-cuber from cuber during this time period, but certainly some people were notably more devoted. World championships 1982 can be seen as this generation's final hurrah.

Speedsolving theory: The formation of the idea of step based methods using algorithms, which is now realized as an essential central idea in all methods. Corner's first proved most popular, perhaps due to it being the most intuitive?

Hardware: Rubik's brands cubes were pretty much the only cube on the market, excluding poor quality knockoffs.

Generation 2: The Dark Ages (1983-2003)
The winds of popular culture were no longer at the backs of cubers, and there had not yet been an organization established to give a strong sense of legitimacy to the sport. The dark ages are the gap between the original craze and the WCA where the Rubik's cube experienced its least popularity since its conception.

Speedsolving theory: Most of the methods we use for speedsolving today were formed, though seemingly lacking compared to the theory-filled methods we have today.

Hardware: Still Rubik's, more experimentation with modding

Generation 3: The Revival (2003-2008)
The formation of the WCA gave a second wind to the hobby, one that has carried on to present day. If we were to divide the history of cubing in half, B.C./A.C. style, I think this would be the point. Competitions began being held, the WCA became synonymous with official, and times decreased rapidly.

Speedsolving theory: CFOP/ Fridrich had become the strong favorite of speedsolvers, and the theory started becoming more populated with tiny time-saves and tricks. Roux was conceived by Gilles Roux, which would lay dormant for a while until years later.

Hardware: First speedcubes, but still significantly worse than modern day cubes. Modding was often required to improve quality to competetive levels.

Generation 4: The NewCubers (2009-2012)
Feliks Zemdegs enters the scene and rapidly pushes the limits of cubing. Competitions exploded in number, and hardware significantly improved. The popularit of speedsolving booms, prompting changes within the WCA and their regulations to accommodate the higher amounts of people.

Speedsolving theory: Roux and ZZ start gaining popularity, though still dwarfed by CFOP. Lots of effort goes into optimizing algs, mainly OLL/PLL

Hardware: Enter Dayan, whose cubes represented a drastic jump in quality from its predecessors. Shengshou also releases cubes that dominate the market for pretty much every event besides 3x3, though they often require modding.

Generation 5: Modern Era (2013-Present)
An perioddefined by competitiveness, both in speedcubing and speedcube manufacturing. Feliks starts to lose records to more specialized cubers, which perhaps indicates a future without "all-rounders". The number of competitors and competitions remains rapidly increasing

Speedsolving theory: Methods diversify, Roux and ZZ are generally accepted as having roughly equal merit to CFOP, though CFOP remains most popular. Supplementary alg sets for seemingly anything are generated, as well as people who have put in the effort to learn them. Overall, it seems the community has shifted towards a more exploratory approach to speedsolving

Hardware:The market explodes, Dayan loses it's dominance to Moyu, which now seems to be losing it's dominance to various other manufacturers. Modding puzzles has become a thing of the past, except perhaps for the Shengshou megaminx. Quality wise we no longer see huge improvements, rather slow shifts to accommodate personal preference.

I think this is the most sensible and comprehensible model presented in this thread.

Interestingly, way into the "Modern Era", most top cubers are still from the 4th Generation or even late 3rd. This includes Max Park and possibly Seung Hyuk-Nahm. The exception is BLD, where a bunch of 5th generation cubers have already reached "elite level".

There will probably be a 6th generation coming in a few years in which records become much less frequent, while winning championships rather than just breaking records should become more prestigious. In general, cubing might become more similar to many other sports in many aspects.

 

[1001010101001]

5th gen. Thanks GAN!!

 

[Hazel]

I think I started in 2013, so I'm part of the 4th generation

 

[greentgoatgal]

I'm definitely generation 5.

 

[Vadim Melnikov]

I am generation 5 - I started cubing only half a year ago.

 

[TomasH]

Definitely 1st generation! I got my first cube in the 80s and was solving it in around a minute using the beginner method. Without an online community, that is all I had access to. I've had a cube ever since - for the longest time it was on a shelf and I picked it up now and then. It got replaced as it wore out. I still have some on my very early ones - the colours are pretty faded! Then around 6-7 years ago I got more into cubing again and started using the Ortega method. Finally this year I decided to get more serious about getting faster, found this website and amazing community and am now solving using the Roux method and hopefully will be able to attend my first competition this month!

 

[BenChristman1]

I think that this is an interesting thread, so it has been bumped.

I see generations of cubing like this:
1st generation: 1980s, like you described
2nd generation: cubing "dark ages", as described by cmhardw
3rd generation: the revival, from around 2003 to 2008. Pretty much when cubing was starting up again and there weren't too many advancements hardware-wise.
4th generation: I'm going to call this the DaYan generation, from 2009 to 2012, when the DaYan cubes got big, there were some okay speedcubes for other events (like SS big cubes, etc.), and cubing was getting faster and more well-known.
5th generation: the explosion; when cubing got WAY bigger, from 2013 to now. It could be characterized by the release of many modern (non-DaYan) speedcubes, cubing YouTubers getting a lot bigger (I remember around the beginning of this time period when 30K or 40K was about the maximum, and look at people like CBC and RedKB now), and many more competitions and new competitors around the world (2013 had 359 competitions and 2015 had 572).

Since this was written in 2016, magnets in cubes hadn't become popular yet, so I think that from whenever magnets were widely introduced to now is the 6th generation.

My updated generation list is:
1st generation: 1970s-80s, when the cube was very relevant in pop culture.
2nd generation: late 1980s to 2003, when the cube fell from popularity to when the first WCA competition was held.
3rd generation: Cubing came back from 2003-2008, when competitions got more widely held and competitions became more organized.
4th generation: From 2009-2012, when lots of people got into cubing and "speedcubes" stated becoming very readily available.
5th generation: Like DG said, when cubing exploded between 2013 and 2016, and hardware got much better, and Feliks had taken over.
6th generation: From the introduction of magnets (late 2016) to mid-2019, when a lot of new speedcubers have taken over, and there are lots of world-class people in almost every event.
7th generation: From the realease of the GuoGuan Yuexiao EDM in June 2019 to now, when customizability in tensioning and magnets became much easier and cheaper, with releases such as the Gan 356 X and XS (neither are very cheap, though), the Valk 3 Elite M, the MGC Elite, and the Tengyun v2 M.

As for me, I got my first cube on my 8th or 9th birthday (late 4th generation or early 5th), but I didn't learn how to solve it until about 2 1/2 years ago, after magnets had been introduced, so 6th generation.

 

[Sub1Hour]

I think that this is an interesting thread, so it has been bumped.


Since this was written in 2016, magnets in cubes hadn't become popular yet, so I think that from whenever magnets were widely introduced to now is the 6th generation.

My updated generation list is:
1st generation: 1970s-80s, when the cube was very relevant in pop culture.
2nd generation: late 1980s to 2003, when the cube fell from popularity to when the first WCA competition was held.
3rd generation: Cubing came back from 2003-2008, when competitions got more widely held and competitions became more organized.
4th generation: From 2009-2012, when lots of people got into cubing and "speedcubes" stated becoming very readily available.
5th generation: Like DG said, when cubing exploded between 2013 and 2016, and hardware got much better, and Feliks had taken over.
6th generation: From the introduction of magnets (late 2016) to now, when a lot of new speedcubers have taken over, and there are lots of world-class people in almost every event.

As for me, I got my first cube on my 8th or 9th birthday (late 4th generation or early 5th), but I didn't learn how to solve it until about 2 1/2 years ago, after magnets had been introduced, so 6th generation.

Very Cool! I'm mid 6th gen (April 2018) so it's very cool to see this categorized.

I would also like to propose a 7th generation, The Custom Era. Basically 2019+, marked with the release of the EDM on June 16 2019, making adjustable features not only outstanding and easy to use, but affordable as well.

 

[BenChristman1]

I would also like to propose a 7th generation, The Custom Era. Basically 2019+, marked with the release of the EDM on June 16 2019, making adjustable features not only outstanding and easy to use, but affordable as well.

I have added that.

 

[Hazel]

I wonder if enough people picked up cubing as a result of quarantine to have created a new generation...

 

[ProStar]

I wonder if enough people picked up cubing as a result of quarantine to have created a new generation...

I think the best way to see that would be the amount of new competitors we get after this all ends. I believe we'll see a petty big spikes in the couple months after comps start taking place

 

[One Wheel]

I would also like to propose a 7th generation, The Custom Era. Basically 2019+, marked with the release of the EDM on June 16 2019, making adjustable features not only outstanding and easy to use, but affordable as well.

I disagree. I believe that magnets are a significant change, but I am unconvinced by the idea that pre-set "customization" options are a meaningful change. The current hardware era is better defined by the fact that at least for 2-5 cubic events there are multiple equally-well performing puzzles at multiple price points, and there is no single best puzzle for any of them.

 

[EngiNerdBrian]

@BenChristman1 - quality bump.

I guess I'm 3rd/4th gen having been introduced to cubing in 2008 and walked away right before the great hardware explosion circa 2012-2013, I used to main a ghost hand cube in m first wave of cubing. It's the amazing hardware of the late 6th and 7th that's responsible for my new found interest in cubing.