International and national success for Macleans College speedcubers
Posted on August 19, 2025
Year 12 Macleans College student Richard Tao (Kupe House) travelled to Seattle, USA to compete at the World Cube Association (WCA) Rubik’s World Championship 2025.
He was one of 15 New Zealand competitors among 2,000 participants from around the world.
The opening ceremony on the first evening featured an indigenous Pacific Northwest dance and a traditional flag procession. The program concluded with the Rubik’s Nations Cups relay, a knockout event with three-member national teams. Team New Zealand finished in the top eight; China won the tournament.
Day two and three saw solid performances from Richard across multiple events. He reached the semifinals in the 5x5 and 4x4 cube, placing 50th with averages of 50.47 seconds and 27.73 seconds respectively. He also reached the clock semifinals and placed 48th. Two years earlier, Richard had finished fifth in the clock event at the World Championships in South Korea. Since then he has focused more on 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 events.
Day four featured the 3x3 semifinals and drew the largest audience as the new world champion would be decided. The semifinals included 60 competitors vying for 16 final places. A competition ‘average’ is calculated from five solves: the best and worst times are removed and the mean of the remaining three is taken. Richard posted a 6.70 second average in the 3x3 semifinals. All five of his solves were under seven seconds. He placed 26th, ten spots shy of the final, and was the fastest of the two New Zealanders in the semifinals. Eleven-year old Yiheng Wang of China won the title with an average of 4.23 seconds.
Throughout the event, Richard served both as a competitor and as a volunteer. He judged, ran events and scrambled puzzles to support the competition. Speedcubing challenges competitors to solve twisty puzzles as quickly as possible under different conditions: two-handed, one-handed or blindfolded. The sport has grown in popularity in recent years and attracts a supportive community. Competitors often focus on personal improvement rather than direct elimination of opponents. Many participants, including Richard, learned from online tutorials and then attended local WCA competitions.
Team New Zealand achieved its best ever World Championship results. The team won bronze in 3x3 one-handed and silver in 3x3 multi-blind, where competitors solved 49 of 54 cubes within one hour. Richard looks forward to rejoining international cubing friends at the next World Championship in Sweden.
Two other Macleans College students are also making their mark on the speedcubing stage. Edwin Shen (Kupe) and Carol Chai (Hillary) impressed with their skill, speed and mastery of technique at the North Island Championships, each earning multiple top-five placings.
Edwin’s results:
- First in the clock final
- Second in the square-1 final
- Fifth in the 4x4 cube
- Fifth in the 3x3 one-handed
Carol’s results:
- First in the 3x3 cube final
- First in the pyraminx final
- Second in the 5x5 cube final
- Third in the 2x2, 4x4 and 6x6 cube final
- Fifth in the skewb and square-1 final
Richard, Edwin and Carol run a speedcubing club at Macleans College. The club offers students the chance to learn basic solves and to improve their speed.
Richard competing at the Rubik’s World Championship 2025