LBr
Member
I was remembering when a cuber I knew said he thought the golden age of cubing was 2016 due to magnets in cubes and maybe also the community growing a lot. I think JR cuber was the biggest youcuber and sponsorships etc were flooding in. But I noticed that was when he first started so was maybe seeing that period with rose tinted spectacles.
For me this would be around 2020. There weren’t competitions but I was still quite new, learning as much as I could, improving fast etc. I also really enjoyed watching cubing content. Z3cubing, J perm Tingman and Cubehead, the latter when they had 12k and 30k subs only and were revolutionary at the time. Also live-streamed events were fun to watch like when Leo Borromeo kept getting sub 4 and everyone thought he would smash WRs. Remember the main innovations in cube hardware were customisability and core magnets, which have probably marginal improvements but nevertheless have been implemented going forward.
These days in 2025 I feel like some things are still developing rapidly: world records are still being demolished at an astonishing rate. But I can’t help but think that cubing YouTube isn’t what it was sadly. Z3, ting and cubehead are massive now but I think their content is quite stale and makes for much less compulsive viewing. J perm has p*ssed off to play Nintendo games for a living. Hardware is constantly being thrown at us but I think at least for 3x3 it has stalled, but for other puzzles (big cubes) it probably still is improving. And the cubicle had everyone solves which was my favourite puzzle review format but fsr they stopped. I’m not improving or practicing too much but I still like learning new events/techniques.
I think other candidates probably would include early 1980s, with loads of methods and interesting communities. Early 2000s as a revival of this and the emergence of CFOP, as well as competitions being more established. ~2010 as Feliks emerged and hardware rapidly improved on many puzzles. And I do think 2020 and 2016 era probably are valid candidates.
So my question to older cubers is: what would you consider the golden age of cubing and how have things changed recently. Do you agree with what I said or not?. Newer cubers, how did you find the scene was when you first engaged and have you noticed any substantial changes yet?
For me this would be around 2020. There weren’t competitions but I was still quite new, learning as much as I could, improving fast etc. I also really enjoyed watching cubing content. Z3cubing, J perm Tingman and Cubehead, the latter when they had 12k and 30k subs only and were revolutionary at the time. Also live-streamed events were fun to watch like when Leo Borromeo kept getting sub 4 and everyone thought he would smash WRs. Remember the main innovations in cube hardware were customisability and core magnets, which have probably marginal improvements but nevertheless have been implemented going forward.
These days in 2025 I feel like some things are still developing rapidly: world records are still being demolished at an astonishing rate. But I can’t help but think that cubing YouTube isn’t what it was sadly. Z3, ting and cubehead are massive now but I think their content is quite stale and makes for much less compulsive viewing. J perm has p*ssed off to play Nintendo games for a living. Hardware is constantly being thrown at us but I think at least for 3x3 it has stalled, but for other puzzles (big cubes) it probably still is improving. And the cubicle had everyone solves which was my favourite puzzle review format but fsr they stopped. I’m not improving or practicing too much but I still like learning new events/techniques.
I think other candidates probably would include early 1980s, with loads of methods and interesting communities. Early 2000s as a revival of this and the emergence of CFOP, as well as competitions being more established. ~2010 as Feliks emerged and hardware rapidly improved on many puzzles. And I do think 2020 and 2016 era probably are valid candidates.
So my question to older cubers is: what would you consider the golden age of cubing and how have things changed recently. Do you agree with what I said or not?. Newer cubers, how did you find the scene was when you first engaged and have you noticed any substantial changes yet?
and i thought it was the 3rd for months until i went through my old pics and saw one on the 1st of september that in bopd captions said yayayaya 1 year of cubing.
as well as i only really watched unboxings and j perm tutorials for cubes i never thought i was going to solve then.
