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Cubing Horror Stories

speedsolvetheory

speedsolvetheory

Regular
Joined
Aug 21, 2025
Messages
29
Location
Buffalo, NY
WCA
2022MASC01
I don't see any discussion on people's bad experiences with cubing as a whole. Maybe it's hard to look back on bad memories, but it can be helpful and funny to reflect on moments and stories like that. I don't have anything to share in particular, but if you have someone who was a problem non-cuber, competitor, judge or delegate, or a problem cube or something else, like that, feel free to share your stories.

Again, I don't know if something like this has been started up or if it violates the community guidelines. If you're going to share, please be anonymous and don't drop anyone's real name without their consent. If you don't feel comfortable sharing keep it to yourself. Thanks.
 
ok i have one (it’s not really horror… or is it?)
so once upon a time a cuber named Caleb Valenzuela got his first ever Tornado V3. He loved it. He used it to break multiple PRs, including his first ever sub-10 single and his first ever 10 second average. But then one day, he accidentally hit his TV3 off the table. He thought it was just a normal pop at first, but then he soon realized that the core was broken. Upon realizing the unfortunate news, he started to break down and grieve for his Tornado V3. However, his parents and grandparents were very supportive of his cubing, so they got him a new Tornado V3. It arrived on April 7th of 2024. He was happy again— until just one month later while he was practicing for a competition, it broke from a reverse corner cut! This time, Caleb didn’t cry, he got mad. And to make things worse, it was just TWO DAYS before the competition! And so he had to switch to the only other reliable speedcube he had at the time which was the GAN XS, his previous main. At first, he was pretty bummed out because his times spiked up significantly, so he was expecting to completely bomb this comp. But he did anything but bombing it. In the first round of the competition, he got a 10.16 PR average! Dropping his PR average by about 0.51 seconds. And then in the 3x3 finals, on the fourth solve, he did something he would never expect… a 7.50 PR SINGLE!!!!! This dropped his PB single by nearly 2 seconds! With a counting 8.73 and 9.66, he was on pace for a sub-10 average, but then… HE BOMBED THE LAST SOLVE OF THE AVERAGE WITH A 12.83🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (Caleb always bombs the last solve of the average). Soon after the competition, his parents got him a new cube— the GAN 12 Maglev, which would also go on to help him break more time barriers, until it also broke.

PS. I did not expect this to be so long lol
 
I actually do have two stories to share: one where I'm the antagonist and one where I was antagonized.

Story 1: I was judging a cuber, let's call her L, who was competing in 2x2. She was in contention for the podium in that competition. I accidentally talked when I was uncovering the cube cover. She said to not talk, and as I lifted the cube cover and looked at her inspecting, I said something along the lines of "Sorry." She immeadiately stopped her inspection and called the delegate on me saying that I interrupted her focus during inspection. She got E1 and I felt really bad. She did good on the rest of her average.

Story 2: Now for my story. I was in my normal 3x3 rounds in one comp, and I sat down at the competitors table, took a breather, and said OK. I'm not very good at 3x3, only getting sub-18 averages if I'm lucky because I don't like 3x3 anymore, but back then I liked 3x3. anyway, I started inspection. It was a medium-difficulty cross. I can't consistently plan white/yellow cross in inspection, so I was obviously trying to use as much time as I can. When I started the timer, I didn't hear "8 seconds" so I thought the time was being generous. I do my solve and get a pretty mid time, around 17-18 I think. When I'm done, the judge immeadiately calls over a delegate without explaining. I was very confused. The delegate comes over and the judge explains that I went over, into 16-17 seconds in inspection. I thought I had just misheard. I did the rest of my solves. Then I remembered I recorded myself. I don't do this anymore, but I used to. I showed the senior former world record holder delegate the footage, and the inspection was called correctly, to my horror. So I went back to my seat and grudgingly ate lunch. Then I thought, wait a second, that's the wrong solve, isn't it? I knew I was getting on Sr. Delegates nerves, so I didn't want to annoy him, but I showed him the footage, and he agreed there was no inspection called. So, I got E1 (or maybe E2 idk),
15 minutes into lunch. It might've been one of the latest extras ever.
It was an OK 18.5.

Bonus: My main 2x2, old main 3x3, main 4x4, 5x5, all of my 6x6, 7x7. and 8x8s are irreversibly broken. My YJ MCG 4x4 was holding on for dear life with some internal pieces missing but she finally blew just last week. RIP ig
 
There was a cuber once, who had trouble deciding what method to use. But he was sure of what cube he wanted to use: an Rs3m V5. He got one, and was very happy. The thing was, he was a bit clumsy, but never had to worry about that with his Rubik's brand. But, unfortunately, an Rs3m is not as strong as a Rubik's brand.IMG_20260223_225116.jpg
(yeah I know, I shouldn't do a ceiling reveal guys, especially with my hand) (also the vertex on the corner is broken if you can't tell)
 
long rant about my bad judge in my only 2x2 round at Aus nats 2025

Even though the list below are the things that my judge did that I didnt like, for some reason I was just too overstimulated by the relatively new environment to tell the judge that he was doing the wrong things, and also he looked like he was a few years younger than me so I didn’t want to put him down

1. After I got a possible +2, my judge touched the cube. I think this violates regulation A6g, except the delegate takes over the job of determining the final state.

2. On the 2nd solve, my judge copied my signature after writing the time down. This violates regulation A7c I think. According to the regulation:
The competitor must check the recorded result, and sign the score sheet to acknowledge that the result is correct, complete, properly formatted, and clearly readable. This finishes the attempt.
Click to expand...
It’s a must, so it’s absolutely not legal for him to sign the score sheet to acknowledge the result is written properly. And it’s MY signature so he not only broke the regulations, but the LAW!!! HE COMMITTED IDENTITY THEFT!!! /j

3. Also on the 2nd solve, while committing identity theft 🙄🙄🙄 his head got in the way of the camera. This made my solve not visible. This also happened again multiple times on solves the rest of the solves (though he didn’t commit identity theft 🙄🙄🙄 on those solves)

4. After blocking the camera on the 3rd solve to write his signature 🙄🙄🙄 he gave the scorecard for me to write the time for some reason. Still don’t know why. Also I accidentally wrote X:XX instead of X.XX but when I asked him if it’s readable he just made the circles in the numbers slightly bigger. IMO I think it made it slightly more unreadable but I probably should have been more clear to him, and to the data enterer.

Sorry if this post is a bit rude and not polite. anyway 3x3 round 2 Aus nats 2025 rant coming soon!!!
 
i was in a comp, about to get pr avg, 3 solves in, a delegate told me tht the angle of my camera recording was not allowed (it wasnt tht visible to me!!) and my solves had to be disqualified....if they were couned maybe i could've made finals as well..
 
Japanese 5BLD NR mean was 10:48, and that was my biggest goal at the time. I got a 10:54, 9:26, then DNFed by 2 mistakes(would have been NR). That was the closest I've come to NR and now big BLD NRs have been lowered a lot(I was also going for 4BLD) so it's not really a goal anymore.

Last comp I qualified for 3BLD finals in 2nd place so I was in group 2, which I thought meant I would be competing second. I completely forgot there were 2 stages so both groups were on at the same time and I missed my round. Scrams were really good and I probably would've podiumed. Wasn't as annoyed about this time but it was a way dumber fail.
 
bldcuber314 said:
Japanese 5BLD NR mean was 10:48, and that was my biggest goal at the time. I got a 10:54, 9:26, then DNFed by 2 mistakes(would have been NR). That was the closest I've come to NR and now big BLD NRs have been lowered a lot(I was also going for 4BLD) so it's not really a goal anymore.

Last comp I qualified for 3BLD finals in 2nd place so I was in group 2, which I thought meant I would be competing second. I completely forgot there were 2 stages so both groups were on at the same time and I missed my round. Scrams were really good and I probably would've podiumed. Wasn't as annoyed about this time but it was a way dumber fail.
Click to expand...
That's just painful...
 
Michael𒐫 said:
So I was loosening the tensions on my old non-magnetic 4x4, and I loosened it too much and it popped and it took me 4 HOURS to put back together. It was non-magnetic, too, which made it extra hard...
Click to expand...
I feel you. I had that problem too, and I had recently relubricated it, so it was slippery. I cleaned it with a towel first because I didn't want to deal with that.
 
a few days after christmas, visiting some relatives, using my brand new Weilong V10, Turning fast. Out of nowhere, the cube explodes. Some internal parts were messed up, But I figured that I could fix them, as I had assembled Moyu cubes before (Particularly the RS3M), But for some reason I couldnt get the internals to stay in place. I looked in horror as I saw a bit of the core had fallen off. I immediately ordered a V10 Ferrocore and it hasn't had any problems since.
 
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