Have you ever tried solving a Rubik’s rotating cube?
Only around 6 out of 100 people can do it 🤯
Now imagine being able to solve one in under 10 seconds – that’s how fast the UK’s Speedcubing Champion, George Scholey is!
In fact, 20-year-old George has just achieved the record for the most rotating puzzle cubes solved in 24 hours with an incredible 6,931.
Sure, he is one of the best speedcubers in the world according to the World Cube Association.
But even for him, this record was definitely a big challenge.
Here’s how he did it 👇
Located in a hotel room in London for the full 24 hours, from 8am on 9 November to 8am the next day, George tried to break the record while livestreaming his attempt on YouTube for the world to see!
The previous record was 5,800 cubes achieved in 2013 by Eric Limeback (Canada), who solved one cube every 14.89 seconds on average.
To surpass this record, George achieved an unbelievable average of 12 seconds per cube. And that’s including the time for all the breaks he had to take during those looong hours 🥴
In the first hour alone, he managed to solve 327 cubes and, by the 8th hour of the attempt, he had solved over 3,500 cubes!
Finally, after 20 hours, he reached 5,849 solves with four hours still remaining on the clock.
But even then, he didn’t stop trying to achieve the best possible result 💪
Instead, he went on and solved over 1,000 more cubes 🥳
“Toward the end of the night I saw I was getting closer to 7,000, and I’m a bit annoyed I didn’t get that result”, George said after his attempt. “But that’s fine. I also took breaks, and it’s an attempt over 24 hours.”
“In the end, I think I did the best that I could. I’m just happy to have broken the record by quite a lot.” - George Scholey
But this isn’t the first of George’s Officially Amazing™ achievements – on 13 October 2022 he also broke the record for most rotating puzzle cubes solved on a skateboard! 🛹
Yes, you read that correctly.
For this record, George had to beat a minimum of 300 solves but he skated way past that number, until he reached a huge 500 solves.
It took him only 1 hour and 40 minutes and, after the attempt, he said he wasn't sure what hurt more, his legs, his fingers or his brain 😂
Now, you might be wondering how George discovered the world of cubing.
Here’s what we know 🔎
His interest for cubes sparked when he was only 13 years old thanks to another hobby: magic tricks!
At first, George asked his dad for two rotating puzzles to learn a magic trick that involved the cubes.
He started from the very beginning, mastering the four steps necessary to solving a rotating puzzle – which he discovered through online tutorials, and are:
- Right side up ⬆️
- Top side left ⬅️
- Right side down ⬇️
- Top side right ➡️
He solved his first Rubik’s cube in about two minutes and then continued improving his skills, training every day whenever he had some free time between school and homework!
That’s what we call determination 💪
And the rest… is history.
