Is China Taking Over Speedcubing?

In the past month, a lot has changed in global 3×3 rankings. We have seen some huge time drops in the top 5 single and averages. Some new speedcubers have also emerged like Yezhen Han and Yiheng Wang. A lot of these new cubers have two things in common, they’re all young, and they are all Chinese. What does this mean, in terms of the future of speedcubing? Will speedcubing be taken over by a new generation of Chinese cubing prodigies? Well, not really but in the following years, speedcubing definitely going to change a lot. 

Yiheng Wang

Yiheng went from averaging 30 to averaging low 7 in just 1 year!

     If you have a decent knowledge of the cubing community or have recently checked WCA live. You probably have seen Yiheng Wang and his #3 in the world 4.91 3×3 official average. This is an incredible feat, but what makes this truly amazing is that he is only 7 years old! Just being able to solve the Rubik’s cube at the mere age of 7 is impressive, but learning hundreds of algorithms and being able to apply them all cohesively at such a young age is something most people in the cubing community didn’t even know was possible. Yiheng Wang has shocked the world with his extraordinary skills and may very well be opening up the future of speedcubing to younger generations. But it’s not only Yiheng, other young talents like him such as Yezhen Han have been emerging with consistent sub-6 official averages. 

     What does China have to do with this?

Chart found on WCA stats page showing that there were 0 comps in China in 2022

     Well, the thing is, all these new young cubers are from China. But what does that mean? Honestly… it could mean a few things. First, it could be that cubers from China are just born talented and have a hidden niche for cubing. But most likely it’s because of COVID. While it may seem like the infamous virus had nothing to do with China’s sudden boom in cubing, it actually played a big role. In the past 2 years, while other countries were competing and getting better cubers like Tymon, Max, and Matty, China wasn’t able to because of their strict no-covid policy. Because of this, there were no competitions held for the past 1 – 2 years. During this time, a lot of new people in China had time to improve without outsiders hearing of them. This is why, after 2 years, it feels like these cubers have just popped out of nowhere.  

What Impact Do These New Cubers Have On The Future Of Cubing?

     Well, not much really. These new younger cubers are just like any other world-class competitor. However, in the coming few years, we are definitely going to see a huge increase in the competitiveness of 3×3 and a substantial decrease in 3×3 averages. It’s also extremely likely that we will finally see the 3×3 world record single be broken sometime soon. For us average cubers, this means more interesting matchups and some insanely fast times to be watched. Who do you think will be the next great cuber?