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All Attendees (Spectators/Families)

• All spectators are welcome to attend this event for free without any prior registration.
• We enthusiastically welcome all non-competitors who want to assist with judging during the competition! It's a wonderful way to support the event that your child or loved one enjoys and make the time fly by as well.

All Competitors

All competitions are volunteer-run. We will have staff to cover the core responsbilities, but we will need help with judging throughout the competition.

We will provide a judging and competitor tutorial at the beginning of the day, right before the start of 3x3, which will also overview our new procedures. This will allow anyone with questions about how to judge to be properly prepared when they are expected to help.

Before the competition, you will receive a card/nametag with personalized information detailing your events and what group you will be competing in for each event in an email. We will be relying on competitors to help by judging whenever they are not competing. Judging is very easy, and is a great way to make time fly!

We will need help judging for the second/final rounds of events as we can not assign staff for those in advance. Spectators are encouraged to learn how to judge; you do not need to know how to cube in order to be a great judge. Having enough judges ensures that we stay on schedule and are able to leave on time.

By registering for this competition you agree that you understand and will follow all the information listed above.

For those of you new to cubing, WELCOME!

We wanted to let you know this event is perfectly fine for cubers of any age and experience. We just ask you know a couple things before coming to compete!

First, please be familiar with the WCA Regulations, found here:
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/regulations/

This video will explain most of what any cuber competing for the first time will need to know, however, it is still required that they are familar with the full set of regulations above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPL3eV-A0ww

If you have any questions after this video, we will be having a new competitor/judge tutorial the morning of the competition. That would be the perfect time to ask those questions and clear up any confusion.

If you are stoked to compete and ready to sign up, head over to the registration tab, click register, and fill out the information it asks for. This will help you get set up the WCA's system and one step closer to your first official solve!

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Do I use my own cube to compete?

A: Yes! You are responsible for your own hardware in order to compete. Please refer to section 3 of the WCA Regulations for more information on what puzzles are okay to use in competition. If you have any questions, please reach out!

Q: What is the competition like?

A: Competitions are a ton of fun! Competitions are a great opportuity to meet new cubers, make new friends, and be able to compete and get official times recognized by the World Cube Association. Competitions can be as social of an event as you would like them to be. The communitiy is extremely welcoming and you can always sit at any table and strike up a conversation with another cuber. They are great places to try new cubes as well, just in case you are looking to get a new main cube! Once you walk into the venue, you will most likely see your nametag at a check-in table. If you are a first-timer, you will be asked to verify your information on your registration (name, DOB, country). Once you grab your nametag, go ahead and find a seat and start cubing! There will be a competitor/judge tutorial, which can be found on the schedule. After that, we will begin with the first event and will be calling events up by group. Your group numbers can be found on the back of your nametag. After you compete in an event, you will most likely also be expected to help judge another group (typically the following group). Competitions are very self-sufficient, so we rely heavily on the assitance from other cubers and parents like you! Your assisgned helping groups should also be listed on the back of your nametag. Once you are done competing in your event, you can go back to your table and continnue to socialize! To see if you made it to the next round of an event, you can check your results.

Q: How do I find results?

A: For the day of competing, WCA Live will have all of the results manually entered throughout the day. Once on WCA Live, scroll to the competition in question and you're good to go! After the competition, official results will be posted typically within a few days to a week after the competition happens.

Q: How do I get a WCA ID?

After official results are posted after the competitions (see question above), you will receive an email with information on your WCA ID.

Q: Why am I not on the registration list yet?

A: Make sure you pay you registration fee in order to be eligible to be placed on the competitor list. If the competitor limit has been reached by the time your registration is completed, you will be placed onto a waitlist, which is listed in the order of when competitors pay. If you are not advanced from the waitlist before the waittlist closes (date found on Register tab), you will be issued a full refund.

Q: What is the typical age of competitors at these events?

A: All ages are welcome, but in general competitors are between 10 and 20 years old. Don't let this stop you though! Everyone can and should cube!

Q: Are there age divisions?

A: Nope! All cometitors compete in the same groups.

Q: Is there anything else I should know before attending my first competition?

A: Yes! Attending your first competition can come with a lot of nerves, so try and focus on having fun and meeting new people. If you aren't as fast as Max Park or Feliks Zemdegs, just remember that all cubers faster than you have been at your speed at some point! I also point people to Mats Valk's WCA Profile since he started competing whe he averaged well over a minute and now averages 6-7 seconds. People often do slightly worse in competition than at home too, so don't beat yourself up if you don't do as well as you had hoped! Once you lock in your first set of results, you'll have new personal records to break and goals to achieve at every new competition! If you plan on bringing any of your own puzzles, we highly rercommend marking them somehow (sharpie mark under a center cap or something similar) or keeping them in a box/bag. It happens far too often that many cubers bring a bunch of puzzles, put them on a table unattended, and accidentally take someone elses' puzzle, thinking it was theirs. It's easy to lose track of a single puzzle, especially since so many of them look the same at first glance!

PLEASE READ THIS TAB BEFORE REGISTERING.

When you register at the competition, you will receive a card/nametag with personalized information detailing your events and what group you will be competing in for each event. We will also be relying on competitors to help by judging whenever they are not competing. Judging is very easy and is a great way to make time fly!

We will provide a judging and competitor tutorial at the beginning of the day, right before the start of 3x3. This will allow anyone with questions about how to judge or compete to be properly prepared when they are expected to help or compete!

We will need help judging for the second/final rounds of events as we can not assign staff for those in advance. Spectators are encouraged to learn how to judge; you do not need to know how to cube in order to be a judge. Having enough judges ensures that we stay on schedule and are able to leave on time.

Venue

The competition will be held at the Salem Convention Center in the Willamette River Ball Room, located on the 2nd floor. 4x4x4 Blindfolded, 5x5x5 Blindfolded, and 3x3x3 Multi-Blind will be held in the Croisan Room, located across the hall from the main ballroom.

Parking

The venue offers free parking for those attending the competition. This lot can be accessed in the garage off of Liberty Street SE.

Food

There are many restaurants nearby, within walking distance or a short drive.

Hotel

The Grand Hotel is connected to our venue. They are offering a discounted rate to competitors. In order to receive this discount, you must book by calling this number. Mention you are participating in the Northwest Cubing Championship. (503) 540-7800. They include free breakfast and free parking.

The Holman Hotel across the street is also offering a small block of rooms at a discount. Use this booking link. Enter this group code: 91T
The Holman requires valet parking but is offering a discount of $15 per day (regularly $32), but you are solely
responsible for informing attendees of parking fees for PNW cubers. Their rate for our group also includes complimentary breakfast for two. Rooms available until July 21st.

There are many other hotels in the Salem area. Click here for a list of hotels.

This competition is a CubingUSA Regional championship. More information can be found on their official website

We will be awarding Northwest Regional Champion titles in each event to the highest-ranked competitor from CubingUSA's Northwest region, which is defined as the following states:
- Washington
- Oregon
- Alaska

Navigate to the CubingUSA website and follow the instructions at the top of the page to fullfill your requirements to link your state to your profile.
You must do this by July 31st in order to be eligible for Northwest Regional Titles.

We will be looking for dedicated staff members to support the smoothness and quality of this competition. Below are the following perks provided for staff members:
1. Registration fee reimbursement (If you attend all of your staff assignments. You will be assigned more staff assignments than per usual, and will require your assistance in running final rounds if you are not in them).
2. Staff lunch for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

If you are interested in applying, please fill out our form.

This competition will be sponsored by SpeedCubeShop!

They will be providing gift-card prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in every event.
If you haven't checked out their store already, we highly recommend you do! They will not be selling puzzles onsite.

To be redirected to their site, click HERE!

TBA

Fill out the registration form to register for our unofficial round of FTO at Northwest Championship 2026! You must be registered for the official WCA competition first to compete in FTO.

Cutoff for the average is 2:30 (within 2 attempts) and the time limit for each solve is 4 minutes.

All FTO results will be posted at this link: TBA