Speed Cubes is no more a game or hobby but a global business

History – Gradual growth

The smart Rubik's cube was first invented in 1974 by a Hungarian professor of architecture, Erno Rubik, thus named as Rubik’s cube. Later, Erno Rubik made a partnership with Ideal Toy Company to broaden the concept developing international interests in the cube which started in 1979, soon developed as a global craze. On June 5, 1982, the first world championship was held in Budapest, Hungary.

About nineteen people participated in the event and an American Minh Thai won with a single solve time of 22.95 seconds. It was considered as the First World Record of the Rubik’s Cube. Other recognizable competitors were Jessica Fridrich and Lars Petrus. These would later be leading in the development of solving methods and speedcubing community. This Rubik’s Cube craze was found fading away soon after 1983.

However, with the Internet emergence, sites working on speedcubing also came into existence. Soon after, spreading effective speed solving methods and teaching people new to the cube helping solve it for the first time. These sites brought in a new generation of cubers produced a well-grown international online community and raised the profile of the art.

Some popular and prominent names in the online community include Tyson Mao, Ron Van Bruchem, Chris Hardwick, and Ton Dennenbroek. These planned to meet in person and compete. Then, twenty years after the first world championship, they organized a second championship in Toronto in 2003.

Later in the same year, another competition was arranged in the Netherlands. This initiated a new wave of organized international competitions. There were twelve competitions in 2004, 58 more took place from 2005-6, about 100 in 2008, and over 1150 in 2018. Since Budapest’s 1982 competition, about nine more further World Championships, were being held annually, the most recently in Melbourne, Australia.

This new wave of speedcubing competitions has been and still is being arranged by the World Cube Association (WCA), founded by Tyson Mao and Ron Van Bruchem. In 2018, Red Bull Rubik’s World Cup was introduced. Red Bull collaborated with Rubik’s Brand Ltd to give wings to the world speedcubing phenomenon.

GAN and Rubik’s Collaboration

GAN and Rubik’s joined hands to make two speedcubes for the Red Bull World Cup. They have many GAN elements as they were usually designed by GAN. But, they have tiles like Rubik’s 2.0 series. They are average cubes that are though not bad but couldn’t hit the market at the top. There are presently just a 2x2 and a 3x3 called RSC2 and RSC3 respectively.

Conclusion

With the increased speedcubing in popularity, various businesses have opened up. These are specified in either the making or selling of speedcubes.

Now, Rubik is not a single company specialized in making cubes. There are dozens of businesses and companies manufacturing their cubes. These speedcube even come with advanced technology, thus allowing faster solving. This supported the launch of speedcubes on a global level, not merely as a game or hobby, but as an international business. More information can be taken from gancube.com.