The Speed Cubers (2020) - full transcript

Thank you all for coming
to the WCA World Championships, 2019!

Yes!

Who do you think will win
the world championships today?

Well, it's pretty tough competition.

My bet is on Feliks Zemdegs.

Feliks Zemdegs.

Pretty much one of the greatest
cubers of all time.

I really want Feliks to win again.

From Australia, Feliks Zemdegs!

I personally think Max Park will win,

because he's
the most consistent cuber here.



I'd probably say Max Park.

- Max Park.
- Max Park will be world champion.

From the United States of America,
Max Park!

I can't really decide between them.

They're very, like, close,
so it's definitely gonna be exciting.

I think at the start,

my parents thought it was just
like a phase I was going through,

just like some random hobby
that I picked up and might get rid of.

But after the first time
I solved it, like...

I just wanted to get faster and faster.
It was just so addictive.

I just never got bored of it.

It probably took me a little while
to realize and understand how good he was.

22.78.

He's got a serious addiction as well.
Obsession.



But also an amazing talent.

He used to walk around the house
and dinner time

we would sometimes just say,
"Put the cube away."

Ah, 16.92.

But he was just doing
better and better all the time,

and then all of a sudden
setting world records,

and then media coming,
and it was just a crazy, crazy ride.

It is 22 past 7 now.

Well, our next guest
can solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle

in under 10 seconds,
and he's only 13 years old.

Fourteen-year-old Feliks Zemdegs

broke two world records by a second.

- What's your secret?
- Practice.

Please welcome Feliks Zemdegs.
Come on, Feliks!

We as parents
ended up becoming media managers,

which was totally foreign to us.

We didn't know how
to do all of this stuff,

how to manage the radio interviews
and the television interviews.

When he first broke
the single world record,

that sort of put him
on the world stage, I guess.

That world record at the time was
7.08 seconds, and Feliks got 7.03 seconds.

Yeah!

Come on! Get sub-five!

- Okay.
- Four-point-two!

Whoa! That's a world record!

He set so many world records
that I have totally lost track.

I won the world championship in 2013.

And then 2015 going to finals
I just had a lot of confidence,

and so I managed to win
that one, like, comfortably.

So, by the time
it got to the world championships in 2017,

the question was,
can anyone actually, like, beat me?

Yeah, I remember very specifically
when I first became aware of Max.

There was this video that was going around
of this kid doing, like, a 4x4 one-handed

in 40 seconds or something like that.

And I spent, like, two hours
trying to beat this time.

I was like, "What is happening here?

I can't beat this random kid on YouTube
who does a 4x4 with one hand."

That very much caught my attention.

I'd heard about, like, I guess,
the way Max was

from a couple of people
who went to the US Nationals 2016.

But he was kind of
a bit of a mystery to me.

And then, like, middle of 2017,
he got the 3x3 average world record.

Later on that year, in Paris,
Max won the world championships.

And that was his big moment of,
"Okay, Max Park is here."

He's really, really good.

Even though we were friendly,
it was a little bit hard

when it would be like
every two or three weeks

Max would just beat one of my records.

That was kind of annoying to deal with.

- What?
- Minute 30.

Got it.

- Yeah!
- Oh, my god.

I still am hanging on
to the 3x3 average world record.

Yes!

I know he still, like,
very, very much wants that back.

But that's probably, like,
one of the things I'm the most proud of.

The first thing people probably
wanna know about speedcubing

is how do you solve the cube?

When you're learning how to solve a cube,

you generally learn a set of algorithms:

move sequences
that move certain pieces to other places,

building up layer by layer
to eventually solve the cube.

Most serious speedcubers
learn around 300 algorithms

through countless hours of practice.

I think what really sets the top
speedcubers apart from the rest

is their ability to have
very quick pattern recognition,

to memorize and synthesize
hundreds of algorithms

and to put all those
into their muscle memory,

to keep this all as seamless as possible.

No starting and stopping.

The undisputed main event
is definitely the 3x3 event,

and that's the one
that everybody wants to win.

And these days,
you can't talk about winning any event

without mentioning Max Park.

I want to get three second! Come on!

Feliks doesn't react when he got four
because he's the world record holder.

As a baby, as soon as
we brought him home from the hospital,

I felt something was a little off.

We took him to the pediatrician.
We had his hearing checked.

He was just hyper-focused
on whatever he was doing.

And once we got his attention,
he wasn't very interested

in anything that we had to offer.

It was just kinda like,
"He's gonna get better.

Okay, like, by the time he's gonna
be three, he's going to be fine."

It was my kinda big goal
and hope and, you know, belief.

Dang you, Feliks!

Look.

We took him to the hospital,
where we met with a child neurophysician,

and he, at that time,
formally diagnosed Max with autism.

First thing I was thinking is...

I don't know, it's just a...

you kinda lost your... future,
kind of thing.

You had a beautiful...

"I'm going to do this with my child
and do this and that."

And then, it's just kinda like,
shut the door in front of you.

I remember we were sitting
at the edge of our bed,

and we were just hugging each other,
and we just both lost it.

We were just crying, and I think...

to me it felt like, "Let's cry
our hearts out now and get to work."

Hey Max, are you tired?

From that point on
is when we started to look for answers.

I kinda knew that there is
a reason why this is in my life

and this is my child.

And I cannot just...

give up.

One day I just sat down
and I was just kinda devastated.

He doesn't look at me,
he doesn't play with me.

He is in his own world by himself.

So I just did it together.

He lay down, I'd lay down.

He did this, I'd do this,
and then just kinda...

not asking him anything.

"I'm here.

But, you know, when you're ready,
I'm here with you."

And then one day we were playing
with this phone. "Hello, hello."

- Hello?
- Hello?

And he was holding my hand,
and then he was looking at Daddy.

It was kinda like,
"Daddy you're not invited."

Zip down.

That's a breakthrough thing.

So he started to open up his world.

I think that was sorta like the first time

that Miki started to enjoy her child
as a child.

It lit sort of like a fire
within us to want more.

Go, go, go, go!

How can we get more of this?

As a child, Max could not do anything
with his fingers.

His fine motor skill was really stunted.

So we did tons of therapy
working on his fingers.

We had a Rubik's Cube in the house,
and so he just wanted to solve.

I thought, "Why not?"

He just gravitated towards it.

Miki right away went on YouTube,

and figured out how to solve it,
and then taught Max.

So she had two agendas in mind.

Here was something that I can use
as a teaching component,

but, at the same time, he loves it

and... it would be a great thing
for them to connect together,

not knowing at that time that he was just
gonna rapid-fire down this rabbit hole.

Oh!

- What is it?
- Thirty-one seconds.

Okay!

The very first competition
he went to, it was just an exercise

in me and Miki bringing him
to a social event

where he was gonna learn to stand in line,

look at somebody else
for a cue to start cubing.

Wait your turn,
wait till somebody says it's okay.

It was a giant play date situation

that we were going to exploit
for Max's social development.

So we went there and I was surprised,
because this pointing--

We tried everything to teach him pointing.

Pointing is something that is a hallmark
for autistic kids to not have.

When he went to the competition,

we remember he was pointing
at people and saying,

"Here's this person."
You know, all these people.

9.15. He got sub-10.

We were like, huh? He's pointing,
and this is coming out naturally.

That was when we realized,
"Wow, this is... this is great."

Max's first award came

at the very second competition
he ever went to.

In first place, we have Max Park.

That's when it dawned on us.
"Wow, I think he has something."

I remember thinking,
"If he's really good at this

and this is something that he loves to do,

we are going to run with this."

Yeah!

Yes!

Yeah!

2017 Worlds was the first time

that Max competed
against his idol, Feliks Zemdegs.

He ended up winning 3x3 at Worlds
that year, which was a really big deal.

But the big win for us
was when he was up on the podium.

He looked at the way
he was holding his prize and his shingle

and he looked at the podium next to him

and he immediately readjusted himself
to be like the person next to them.

Me and Miki, we looked at each other
and were like, "Did you see that?"

Because for us, an autistic kid
looking at his peer and mimicking

is like the ultimate goal.

I heart you.

You too.

Obviously, when you look at Max,
he's a 17-year-old kid.

He's six foot tall.

But emotionally, he's about,
I would say, seven, eight, maybe nine.

And so going into these competitions,

we were just concerned
about his ability to deal with failure.

Okay, ready? Let's go.

Yeah, no problem.

Ready.

Max, a few weeks back, had somebody else
in North America get a really good time,

and he... he had really high expectations
of beating that.

Bam! Let's go!

Max! Kill 'em!

All right, that concludes
the first half of the day.

We're ending a little bit early.

And then it just didn't happen,
and when that happened he just--

He was very, very disappointed.

Because the luck happened!

In the meantime,
we're holding back our own heartache,

because regardless
of if it was warranted or not,

it still kills us.

We have the window of hope still open
for his emotional skills developing.

Okay.

Okay.

Now, in order to win the giveaway,

you'll need to be at one of
the West Coast competitions.

So make sure you include in your comment

which competition you'll be attending,
right, Max?

Right, Feliks?

- "Right, Feliks."
- Right.

No, go, "Right, Feliks!"

- Right, Feliks.
- Yeah, that's right.

Okay. Ready? One more time.

All right, one more time, Max.
One more time.

The first time
that we ever saw Feliks

was when we went to the 2013
World Championships in Las Vegas.

Feliks was the first person
that Max ever asked for an autograph,

and he was the very first person
he ever took a picture with.

He just had this mythical,
legendary status.

So four years later now,
Max is bigger than Feliks.

And, you know, it was really...
yeah, it was awkward.

After he broke
the 3x3 world record average,

I, like, messaged his Facebook account.

I was just like,
"Congratulations, you guys.

Really well done.
You should be really proud."

And then... yeah, met him
for the first time at the Championships,

and he was very, very excited.

Max and Feliks,
they're cut from the same cloth.

They push each other...

but I think
they also understand each other.

4x4 top three, right?

- Top three, that's us.
- In the world, right?

- Get 17, okay?
- You're first, right?

Okay, ready. Go!

Come on.

Feliks got it.

One more.

- One more time?
- Yeah.

What do you wanna sing, Max?

"Bohemian Rhapsody"? That's so hard.

- Yeah.
- Let's do it!

Clearly, they're rivals,

but they're friends,

and it's just beautiful to watch Max
looking up to Feliks in a way.

Anything Feliks does, Max will do.

You gotta brush your teeth every night
before you go to sleep and after dinner,

because Feliks does it.

- Right, Max?
- Right.

Every time Max does really well
or breaks a record,

we get a text from Feliks and he says,

"Tell Max I'm so happy for him
and congratulations."

And I'm sure that it doesn't feel good,

especially if it's his record or something
that Max breaks.

Nice one. Good job.

What a great human being he is

that he just makes sure
that he's a good friend first.

I think
if I won Worlds this year,

that would be pretty epic.

And to win it in, like, Melbourne
where, you know, I've grown up,

that would just...
that would complete everything.

I moved to Sydney in February this year.

I, like, did an internship
with this trading firm.

But I have no idea
of what I want to do for a career

or, like, the rest of my life.

Cubing is, like, the thing
that I'm really, really passionate about,

so I want to keep that
a big part of my life.

I know in cubing,
people start to slide down the rankings

about the time
that they would normally enter adulthood.

Because life happens.

You have to pay rent,
you have to find a partner,

you have to buy ketchup.

I mean, there's all these things
that you have to make happen.

You just can't cube as much.

Which event
have you prepared the most for?

3x3 is always the most exciting.

It's the Rubik's Cube.
It's the original cube.

You can lose everything else,
do really terribly,

but if you win 3x3, it's great,
it's all that matters.

Is Max, like,
the best cuber in the world?

Max is the king.

2016, it's like, "Oh, there's this kid
and he's quite fast."

2017, it's like, "Oh, you won
the world championships."

And then 2018, it's like,
"Oh, now he holds every world record."

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

He's just the best at everything.

Okay, Max. Go in.

All right Max, let's go.
Let's meet Feliks.

Be careful, okay? It's slippery.

Oh, look who it is! Hey, Max.

I missed you.

I missed you too a lot. How's it going?

Hi! Nice to see you!

- Hey, Jason, what's going on?
- Hi, what's up?

- Feliks, how are you?
- Good evening.

Welcome to dinner.

Congrats, Feliks.

Congratulations, Feliks,
on your world record average, 5.69.

Thank you, Max. It's good, right?
When are you gonna beat it?

Vegetables, Max.

Oh, sure.

Yes, and green.

- Green. Yeah.
- Yep.

One, two, three. One more.
One, two, three. Good.

All right.

Well, these days,
I think a lot of people would say

that Max is what we would call
the favorite.

But when Feliks won
the US Nationals last year against Max,

I thought, "Hang on. It could be
whatever happens on the day."

In looking at the competition
between the two of them

coming up
to the current world championships,

who knows?

Max, time to get up.

Three, two...

My teeth is hurting right now.

Thank you all for coming
to the WCA World Championships 2019.

So, next up, we have
the biggest of the biggest.

- We've got Max Park.
- Look who's next to him.

First solve by Feliks.

- Not ideal for him.
- No, definitely not.

- Holy guacamole.
- Holy guacamole.

That is a ridiculously good start.

Feliks is at... 1.30 right now.
He's not even in podium.

One-seventeen!

Feliks is like, "Okay, Max."

Wow!

Oh, my gosh, it's a world record!

Jeepers creepers!

I can't believe it.

Is Feliks nervous,
or are his hands cold?

He's really pissed.

Hell yeah.

Max is like, "Just get out.
This is my competition."

- Feliks going for his third now.
- Oh no.

You don't want to see that.

- Nineteen-oh-eight!
- Another 18!

Max Park showing who's boss.

That is five world championships
for Max Park so far.

Okay. Okay, everybody, one, two, three.
Look up here, Bill!

One, two, three, smile.
Come on, Bill.

One more.

- Oh, one more?
- One more.

All right, we're gonna go, folks.

All right, Juliette, you can come up.

The first female 3x3 finalist
in the world championship since 2003,

please welcome
France's Juliette Sébastien.

Juliette Sébastien
looking at yellow right now, switching--

- The cube dropped!
- She knows she could have got faster.

Oh, my god.
There are no pauses, straight into pink.

Yellow, J Perm, 6.29!

He'll be really happy with that.
Nod of the head.

And that's a pause. Oh, six!

He did it. He's taken the lead!

I'm speechless.

- Aw, the hug from Kian to Sean.
- That's great sportsmanship.

Sean's probably on his way
to, if not a podium,

at least a top-five finish.

Remember, he's trying to beat
a 6.78 average by Sean.

- It's looking good.
- Now, that's a good solid 5.97.

Five-point-nine-seven.

Best case scenario
is 6.49 average,

which would put him ahead of Sean.

Let's see what he can do.
This is gonna be really, really important,

so don't blink, stay tuned,
hold your breath.

It's looking good.

He's still looking good.
No chokes, no chokes.

What a-- What a solve!

Oh, my god, he just slotted himself
into first right now!

Six-seventy-four,
that is first place right now.

- That guarantees Philipp for the podium.
- Guaranteed podium for Philipp.

Very impressive.

Next up is gonna be
the local hero,

our favorite, Feliks Zemdegs.

Our sixth place seed
has won Worlds twice in 2013 and 2015.

Please welcome Australia's Feliks Zemdegs.

This is what we want. Yeah!

Yeah, Australians standing up.

Applauding him.

I imagine Feliks is gonna have
a fair bit of pressure.

He's only gotten one podium this weekend
and this would be the first Worlds

where he isn't a world champion
if he doesn't take it home here.

So you could say there's
a lot on the line for that reason.

But then again,

if anybody can do well under pressure,
it's Feliks.

Yeah, he is still the greatest
of all time, regardless.

No lockups thus far.
At least no big ones.

- Looks like... Okay.
- Good. Six and four. A perm.

- Plus two.
- Oh no.

Feliks with a 9.60.

Two second time penalty,

'cause
that cube is not solved completely.

Over 45 degrees off
with a 90 degree off, one turn off.

That's gonna put the pressure on.

Now we'll see
what Feliks is made of.

Yeah, nerves of steel or...

Or is it game over?

- Rats.
- Okay, that's not a good start.

And that's gonna be diag.

E perm.

Six-sixty-one, though. I mean,
for those cases, for that solve--

It was not an easy solve
and he still got a 6.6.

- But he's not gonna win.
- That's not enough.

Guaranteed no world champion
titles for Feliks Zemdegs.

First time this has happened since 2011.

We are officially in a new era of cubing.

I think it's almost safe to say
he will not be on the podium this year.

Twelve seconds.

There he goes, with blue.
He chose to start on blue.

- Okay, this is--
- This is gonna be good.

Slight lockups, but...

Feliks with a 6.45.

...secures his current third place,

but he's got to get through
really good competitors

if he wants to keep the podium.

- Could've been worse.
- It's not too bad.

Cheers. It's not bad.

I'm so proud of you.

No matter what happens,
it doesn't matter, okay?

- All right.
- Okay, guys.

Okay, go, Max. Go, go!

- You can do it.
- Okay, Max.

You can do it.

I don't need to get podium.

I'm just gonna get
sub-six average, okay?

Yeah, and I know
you're gonna get lots and lots of...

I can get a sub... I can get
a sub-six average, okay?

I don't need to get podium...

Max, when you compete with who?

Feliks Zemdegs.

You're gonna get lots of?

World records.

Yeah! You did it already, right?

So don't worry! Just have--

- I got this!
- Go for it, yeah.

I can do it, sub-six average, okay?

Yes.

And now, the GOAT.

Our number one seed...

- Sub-six average.
- ...the defending world champion.

Please welcome
from the United States, Max Park.

Park, defending world champion.
Max Park from the United States.

Will he be the first person to win
six events at a world championship?

- So he's already--
- Previous record of five.

So, he's already won
the 4x4, the 5x5,

the 6x6, the 7x7, and one-handed events.

Insane!

Now, don't blink, it's Max Park time.

And he's off. He chose the yellow cross.
One pair, two pair, three pair, four pair.

- OLL.
- Ah, V perm.

Oh, that is not very good.

Max with a 7.70.

Where's Phil?
Where's Phil?

Eight-point-five.

Max is in a bit of danger here.
It's really up in the air.

Philipp could be world champion.

- Clean. Looking good.
- That is good. That is good.

Max with a 6.42.

Yup, Max is bringing it back big time.

His counting is a 6.57
going into the last two.

A lot on the line,
especially for Max Park.

Nothing's decided yet.
It will all depend on the last solve.

This is going to decide
if Max Park is the world champion

or if Philipp Weyer gets the upset.

What does he need?
Robin, what does he need?

- Like a 6.7, I think.
- What does he need?

6.7?

Dude, this is so huge.
This is literally everything right now.

Will he get back to back GOAT status?

Or will it be Philipp?

Guys, make space for Philipp to run.

No, don't. Max is a boss.

Like, come on. I know he's gonna get this.
I'd be expecting a six.

Seven flat? Seven flat!

- Philipp did it!
- Philipp did it!

Philipp is the new world champion.

Wow.

I don't think anyone would've
predicted this podium, by the way.

Okay, Max, let's go out.

I didn't inspect well, right?

Yeah, it's okay, Max.
You know, everybody makes mistakes.

Yeah.

This is a good learning, okay?

- Okay.
- You can do it next time.

Here you go.

I tried, I tried.

So close.

- You did good. You did fine.
- Yeah.

- Okay.
- You destroyed everyone.

It's okay.

- Yeah, it's okay.
- It makes us stronger.

Yeah, it makes us stronger, okay?

- Exactly. You still beat me.
- Yeah.

"No podium"
makes us stronger, right?

Exactly.

The thing that me and Max
always say is,

"If you mess something up,
it makes you stronger."

So I think that was what he was saying.
"No podium" makes him stronger.

And then I still told him,
he still beat me by 0.01 seconds.

But yeah, I could tell
he was like pretty bummed

that he didn't win the 3x3.

It's okay, right?

- It's okay.
- Right. It's fine.

Dude, you're five time...
five world championships.

It's okay.

- You won everything.
- Yeah, you did great.

Yeah.

It's a hard thing:

Max just dominating
the entire competition,

but then missing out on the big one.

And yeah, I've been in that situation,
so I know how...

I know how he must feel
at the moment as well.

Dang, Feliks didn't get podium.

- Dang it, right?
- Yeah.

But he did okay average, right?

Right, yeah.

Max looked at Feliks in the backstage,

and I could--

I know Max.
He was looking at Feliks.

Feliks didn't make a lot of things,

and he was really feeling sorry for him.

I knew that Max didn't know
how to say the words, but...

lot of things he wanted to say.

So I felt like, ah...

friendship.

But Max cannot express.

So I wanted to talk about that
to Feliks in person.

Let him know that Max really loves him.

Whoo!

Max! You gotta go!

Out of his way.

Out of the way, Kieran. Go, go, go!

Nerves at world championships
are very much real.

It's pretty draining,

for, you know, four days
to try and be solving

while catching up with everyone,
not sleeping much.

For me, like, you know,
not doing especially well this competition

also adds to that exhaustion. 

It was a big letdown for me.

Any last thoughts
about this Worlds in general?

Um...

I started out so long ago,

solving cubes
with a couple of people here in Melbourne,

meeting up
and having these fun little competitions.

And to know that like...

you know, they would hold
the world championships here...

and so many friends
from all around the world

and family and my friends
from Melbourne here

could come along and enjoy this...

it's very, very special. Very special.
It's pretty sad that it's over.

The biggest fear
that I've always had

was how Max was going to deal with loss.

And so when he lost,

it almost felt like,
"Okay, the time has come.

Now time to get to work."

The big win for us is that Max,

he did okay emotionally.

He managed his nervousness
and made new friends.

He told me that it's okay.

"It's okay. Mama, I didn't cry."

So... that's winning for us.

Podium. You get a podium.

I don't think Feliks knows
how big of an impact he has on Max's life.

Without a doubt,
Feliks is going to be Max's hero forever.

Boom, baby!