• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

In which decade did you first start cubing?

Which decade?


  • Total voters
    213

IamWEB

Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2008
Messages
2,850
Location
Right Here
WCA
2009BOAR01
YouTube
Visit Channel
2000s, like most speedsolvers. :D

I wonder though... given the large expansion of the global speedsolving community each year, how do the number of speedsolvers that started in the 2000s compare to the number that started in the 2010s?

And Mike's story was heartwarming! Those kind of happenings make all happy and jolly inside. XP Seriously, that sounds like something out of a movie. I'm glad to see how you tow are doing now, after all the deca- erm, years. :)
 

Stefan

Member
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
7,280
WCA
2003POCH01
YouTube
Visit Channel
Decade - 2010s

That's an exact option of the poll, and looking at the poll results, I don't see your name. Please vote in the poll, not in the thread, so that 1) your vote counts and 2) you don't clutter the thread with useless posts.

Has a H-Perm that is slow on a 3x3x3 but
is really good on big cubes as it does not need slice moves and only has 90 degree turns on the U and D layers.

R2 L2 D R2 L2 U2 R2 L2 D R2 L2

There's a U2.

And it's basically the standard M2 U M2 U2 M2 U M2.

I wonder though... given the large expansion of the global speedsolving community each year, how do the number of speedsolvers that started in the 2000s compare to the number that started in the 2010s?

Well, currently the vote count is 2000s: 86 and 2010s: 68.
 

Stefan

Member
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
7,280
WCA
2003POCH01
YouTube
Visit Channel
It's odd, as he did vote in the poll, so probably saw the vote numbers. Maybe he meant in WCA competitions (he also tried sending me a private message), though that wouldn't answer the question because of people who started cubing in the 2000s but didn't officially compete until the 2010s.
 

sneaklyfox

Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2012
Messages
2,846
Location
Ottawa, Canada
WCA
2013HUNG01
YouTube
Visit Channel
i have a question for any of the cubers who started in the 90s, 80s, or even 70s. what was speed cubing like? specifically, how were competitions run, how were they organized, what were the rules, and how often they were held? Also what was the comunity like? was it anything like what we have now, or was it just the sort of thing where you could solve it but didnt have much contact with other cubers?

I started in the 80s... maybe about '86 or '87 when I was 5 or 6, when the fad was starting to die. Had no clue about competitions... never heard of them. I don't think there were organized competitions the way we have them now and as far as I knew there was no community either. So basically it was what you said last... it was "just the sort of thing where you could solve it but didnt have much contact with other cubers"... in fact no contact at all. At best I tried teaching all my interested classmates on long bus rides on field trips. Oh yeah, and Vaseline was the lube of choice lol. (My dad still thinks Vaseline is how we do it so when he sees my new cubes he asks me, "Did you put Vaseline in it?" "Of course not!")

The only other person I knew could solve the cube was my dad and I think he probably bought some of the books that were out then and taught me some version of a beginner's method (cross, corners, edges, LL algs using Sune and things) which got me 1:45-2:30 averages. I'm estimating as I didn't often time myself. Later that dropped to 1:05-1:20 when I got a bit older and more practiced but a minute was about the best I could do with that method and wrist turns. I discovered a few shortcuts that he never told me but that was about it. I never looked at the books myself. And even after 2003 when I graduated from university I wasn't aware of a speedcubing community or how it's changed so much from when I was a kid. I hardly did the cube anymore but never forgot how to do it and then my cubes all but broke (probably from the Vaseline). I didn't cube again for years but then a friend bought me a new Rubik's brand which turned quite nicely (for a storebought anyway) and somehow I watched a few videos on youtube of really fast solves and began to realize what "speedcubing" was. I wasn't even aware of it. I wish I had known a little earlier when it was just being revived then I could've gotten into this hobby earlier. Ok, enough story.
 

Ton

Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2007
Messages
738
Location
Den Haag, The Netherlands
WCA
2003DENN01
YouTube
Visit Channel
There are many more of us 90s cubers, but I guess not many are active on this forum anymore :(

--edit--
Dene I didn't know you started in the 90s! Very cool!

That effect was seen in the statistics the generation of the 90's are not very active in cubing today , also in competition the group 30-40 age cubers are often missing , the stats on age are not open so I can not verify
 

Stefan

Member
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
7,280
WCA
2003POCH01
YouTube
Visit Channel
That effect was seen in the statistics the generation of the 90's are not very active in cubing today , also in competition the group 30-40 age cubers are often missing , the stats on age are not open so I can not verify

I looked at the years and how many competitors were born in them, and the number pretty much only smoothly increases, until it hits max in 1996. So there's no significant up->down->up like the 23->2->92 (for 1980s->1990s->2000s) in the poll here, there's no "missing generation". And the "generation of the 90's" is bigger than the "generation of the 80's".
 
Last edited:

Dene

Premium Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2007
Messages
6,900
WCA
2009BEAR01
YouTube
Visit Channel
I can't believe how much of an exclusive club I have found myself in here. I feel honoured to be the only one alongside Mr Hardwick <3
 
Top