I’m a new team member of Opoloo and very happy about it. So I guess I should introduce myself: my name is Max.

The most important thing about me is probably my hobby. No, it’s more like my whole life. Kinda. It’s called “Speedcubing”. This is what it is.

Speedcubing is all about solving the famous toy of the 80s, the Rubik’s Cube, as fast as you can. But this is not the only reason for me to be a speedcuber. The architecture of the cubes improves month after month. It’s crazy how small improvements can make you a lot faster. “A lot” means something about 0.5 seconds in my time range. You don’t think that this is a lot? Well, the current world record of solving the original 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube is 5.55 seconds, by Mats Valk. You need a time below 8 seconds to join the Top 100 world ranking!

The whole speedcubing community, competitions, and organisations are volunteer work. There’s no money in it for anyone. The official World Cube Association (WCA) was founded years ago and they wrote a huge document of rules which is continuously updated. I especially like the part of the rules that concerns the cube itself.
You can’t participate with any cube. You may use your own cubes but they need to fulfill many guidelines. For example: a clear and complete color scheme must be provided and the stickers must be in a good condition. Some cubes have a logo-sticker on it. It’s not allowed to have more than one of these logo-stickers on the cube. Also:

"Stickerless" cubes, and other cubes whose face colours are visible inside the cube, are not permitted.
Puzzles must be clean, and must not have any markings, elevated pieces, damage, or other differences that distinguish any piece from a similar piece.

It’s easy to work without constraints, but being limited in certain ways is what makes you creative and efficient.

I’m interested in technology, especially web technology. My work and my hobby fit together perfectly, I guess.

So this is how I spend most of my spare time. Scramble, solve, scramble, solve. I drive a lot through Europe to participate in competitions. At the end of July, I will be cubing at the world championship of speedcubing in Las Vegas.

This hobby should describe best how I roll. For those who don’t like to read, here’s me in icons: