Rubik’s WCA European Championship 2024 – Pamplona, Spain
Photo from Friday’s opening ceremony, with local traditional dancing by giant figures. Photo: Daniel Wallin
Rubik’s WCA European Championship 2024 – Pamplona, Spain
In July 2024, a strong team of 36 participants made the trip down to Pamplona in northern Spain to represent Sweden at the 10th European Rubik’s Cube Championships. With 1136 participants, the competition was the second largest Rubik’s Cube competition ever and for four days the Navarra Arena was filled with cubers, guests and spectators. The competition will go down in history as one of the most professional and grandiose championships ever organized, so now with just over a month’s distance to the championship, I (Daniel Wallin, Cuboss employee and professional speedcuber) will try to retell the story for those who could not be there on site.
Team Cuboss member Alwin Federsel during the 3×3 head to head final. Photo: Bostak Films
The Event
The competitions were hosted by the Navarra Arena, a gigantic indoor sports and events venue. As usual at major speedcubing competitions, participants and spectators were greeted by an impressive setting when they entered the arena. The raised stage housed 70 timing stations for solving in the different events and in front of it, the audience could follow the competitions from a two-part sloping grandstand. Behind and around the competition area itself, there were around a hundred tables and chairs for participants to socialize and warm up for their events.
As usual at speedcubing championships, the championship featured not only competition events, but also a small speedcubing festival all around. The opening ceremony, with its flag parade and display of local cultural dance with giant figures, will not be forgotten. During the participants’ breaks, there were plenty of opportunities to keep busy with everything from sponsor booths, sales and try-out activities. An appreciated effort from the organizing team was also the possibility to compete each day in two rotating unofficial events in the Spanish Speedcubing Federation’s booth. Popular favorites such as Face Turning Octahedron (FTO), 3×3 Team Blind and Magic were among the events on offer and many people took the chance to compete with their friends.
Those who wanted to follow the competitions but were unable to attend in person could do so via both YouTube and Twitch.
The flag parade during the opening ceremony. Photo: Bostak Films
The competition
Day 1 – Thursday July 25th
As is traditional at championships, the first day of competition started mostly in a calm way, with first rounds in some less popular events. There were also no finals on this day (except for the initial attempts in 3×3 Multi-Blind and 3×3 FMC). However, the day was not without excitement just for that, as there were a number of national records from many of the participating countries. For those on the verge of advancing from the first rounds to the finals in the various events, the day certainly offered a lot of nerves, where the mere achievement of advancing to the finals of a continental championship in fierce competition is a victory in itself.
3×3 Multi-Blind memorization phase. Photo: Bostak Films
Day 2 – Friday July 26th
Just like at the 2023 World Championships, Sweden’s biggest medal chance was the final of the 4×4 cube blindfolded, where I (Daniel Wallin) have held the European record for the past three years. Therefore, I am happy to have been able to secure a bronze medal in fierce competition with a 1:38.60 time in the last attempt of the final.
The morning then continued with a bunch more first rounds. The 5×5 blindfolded final was also held this day, where Swiss Ezra Hirschi managed to secure a second gold after his triumph in the 4×4 blindfolded that morning. After a lunch break and the opening ceremony, the day continued with the first rounds of the popular 4×4 and Pyraminx events. However, in the side room, Poland’s Radomił Baran managed to complete the feat of both taking gold and breaking the European record in 3×3 with the least number of moves, with an impressive 21 moves on average out of three solves.
A member of the organization team gets interviewed. Photo: Bostak Films
Day 3 – Saturday July 27th
Apart from a couple of semi-finals, Saturday was dominated by the first rounds of the 3×3 (Rubik’s Cube) and 2×2 classics, the events with by far the most participants at all championships. However, among the more impressive achievements of the day was young Russian Timofei Tarasenko’s European record for the Megaminx average (28.66). In addition, Swiss Ezra Hirschi managed to secure the triple in the long blindfolded events by winning and breaking the European record in 3×3 Multi-blind, where he managed to solve 55 out of 56 cubes blindfolded in 58 minutes and 8 seconds.
Saturday evening also saw the first final rounds of the European Championships, where European champions were to be crowned in 6×6, 7×7, Megaminx, Clock and in the nations cup. Here, both Russian Timofei Tarasenko and Polish crowd favorite Tymon Kolasiński managed to secure two medals each. In addition, Norway took the double in Clock after gold to Niklas Aasen Eliasson and silver to Anders Barhaugen. The evening was ended by the nations cup, which proved to be more eventful than anticipated. After quite a few upsets in many of the mathces, 13th seed Sweden managed to secure the silver in a final against 7th seed Great Britain.
Team Sweden celebrating the surprise semifinal victory against Russia in the Nations Cup. Photo: Bostak Films
Day 4 – Sunday July 28th
Sunday mostly featured semi-finals in various events. The only world record of the competition (from American Tommy Cherry with 14.05 seconds average in the 3×3 blindfolded) was accompanied by newly Swiss citizen Dhruva Sai Meruva’s European record in the 3×3 one-handed (8.74 seconds average out of five solves). The nerve-wracking 3×3 semi-final also showed that it was 7.08 seconds on average that would be required to grab a place in the grand final. We at Cuboss were pleased to see Team Cuboss represented in this final, with Austrian Alwin Federsel taking a place in the final with 6.98 seconds in the semi-final.
Just as usual, the last day of competition ended with a set of final rounds, where medalists in nine events would be crowned. Among the highlights were an exciting final in 3×3 blindfolded where Adrian Dębski from Poland unexpectedly broke a personal record and won a gold medal and extremely close finals in Pyraminx and 2×2 where the medals were literally separated by margins of one hundredth of a second each.
During the 3×3 head to head final. Photo: Bostak Films
3×3 Final
The final of the Rubik’s WCA European Championship 2024 was held in the classic ‘head to head’ format, with two competitors at a time going out and doing all their solves until the medalists could be crowned. It turned out to be a close final, with Israeli Ben Baron coming close to securing a highly unexpected bronze medal, but losing out to Russian Alexey Tsvetkov. Russia enjoyed a strong performance, as early starter Timofei Tarasenko set the bar high with an average of five solves of 5.95 seconds. That mark stood all the way to the final pair, where Poles Olaf Kuźmiński and Tymon Kolasiński went out to break it. As expected, it was the current European record holder Tymon who put the best pressure, where after his first four solves he had everything in his own hands. However, he needed a time of 6.00 seconds or better in the last solve to take the gold, which meant that literally the whole championship would be decided on the last solve of the competition. The crowd therefore held its breath as Tymon started the final attempt, and despite nerves and lock-ups, the timer stopped at 5.89 seconds, bringing his average of five solves down to 5.92 seconds, three hundredths of a second better than runner-up Timofei.
After this thrilling final, only the awards ceremony remained, where medalists would be honored and prizes awarded. There was, of course, a special cheer when Tymon Kolasiński lifted the trophy as the winner of the Rubik’s WCA European Championship 2024.
For those who aspire to take this title away from him, it’s just a matter of getting back to work. Apart from the next World Cup in 2025 in Seattle, USA, it is not yet known where the next European Championship will be held. This will reportedly be announced in spring 2025, so keep an eye out to see where parts of the summer of 2026 will be spent for the next European Championship.
The medalists of 3×3 at the Rubik’s WCA European Championship 2024. Photo: Bostak Films
