Watch Sussex teenager complete fiendish Rubik's Cube puzzle to claim title at World Cup

Engineering student Chris Mills, 18, from East Hoathly, near Uckfield, East Sussex, has been crowned the winner in the re-scramble category in the Red Bull Rubik’s Cube World Cup final, which took place on Saturday (November 7).

It was held online due to the pandemic, unlike previous years, and all finalists used the brand new, fully digital Rubik’s ‘Connected’ Cube, which tracks players’ every rotation and solve times via an app. The UK contestant beat Ricky Meiler from German and Manuel Gutman from Argentina with a solve time of 17.569 seconds.

The re-scramble is one of the most complicated elements of the competition, according to the organisers. Competitors are given a solved cube and need to match the pattern of a randomly scrambled one. A spokesman said: "With 43 quintillion possible scrambles of a Rubik’s Cube, this event is regarded as considerably trickier than a traditional solve."

You can watch his victory 2 minutes, 30 seconds into the video above.

The teenager said: "I totally surprised myself. I really didn't expect to do that well. Competing online was quite a lot different. Firstly, a little bit of stress was relieved because I was in a very comfortable environment. It also took a while to get used to the style of racing through the app, and the Rubik’s Connected Cube took some time to get used to as well.

"Obviously, I would've much preferred to compete in person because meeting speedcubers from all around the world is incredible and really what keeps me cubing. I hope that next year we will be able to compete on site again and I'll be able to hang out with everyone I competed with this year.”

Another highlight of the competition was Max Park from California, USA, aged 18, beating Feliks Zemdegs from Melbourne, Australia, aged 24, in the grand final. He solved his cube in just 5.90 seconds, compared to Feliks' 6.04 seconds. The pair starred in the recent Netflix documentary The Speed Cubers.

The final marked the 40th birthday of the Rubik's Cube, which was invented by Professor Ernő Rubik to teach architectural students and has since become one of the world's most famous toys since its debut in 1980. Nearly half a billion cubes have been sold to date with another 20 million Rubik’s products expected to be sold globally in 2020.

Professor Rubik watched the proceedings online and said: “The Rubik’s Cube speaks to the noblest, universally shared human characteristics: curiosity, playfulness, problem-solving and intelligence. No matter your social background, colour of your skin or gender, the cube encapsulates the puzzle of us all. Young people in particular seem to be captivated with solving the cube at speed."

The Red Bull Rubik’s Cube World Cup results are as follows:

Speedcubing (mixed):

1st - Max Park (US) - Final solve times (secs): 6.456 - 6.463 - 5.908

2nd - Feliks Zemdegs (AUS)

3rd - Bill Wang (CA)

Speedcubing (female):

1st - Juliette Sébastien (FR) - Final solve times (secs): 9.336 - 6.922 - 8.196

2nd - Dana Yi (US)

3rd - Kalina Jakubowska (PL)

Fastest Hand:

1st - Philipp Weyer (GER) - Final solve times (secs): 13.074 - 13.161

2nd - Juliette Sébastien (FR)

3rd - Andrey Che (RUS)

Rescramble:

1st - Chris Mills (UK) - Final solve times (secs): 20.364 - 17.569

2nd - Ricky Meiler (GER)

3rd - Manuel Gutman (ARG)