Info Register Competitors

WCC Western PBQ Championship - Santa Clara 2026

Date: Apr 25, 2026
City: Santa Clara, California, United States
Venue: Santa Clara University
Address: 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053
Details: Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation (SCDI Building, 3rd Floor, Rooms 3301 & 3302).
Contact: Organization team
Organizers: Abhimanyu Singhal (अभिमन्यु सिंघल), Calvin Nielson, Robert Alan Marks, and West Coast Cubing LLC Treasurer
WCA Delegates: Abhimanyu Singhal (अभिमन्यु सिंघल), Calvin Nielson, and Robert Alan Marks

: Download all the competition's details as PDF here.

Information

For the first time the Western Championship PBQ will be held at multiple locations on the same day! Please read the "Westerns PBQ FAQ tab" for more information.

This is the competition site for the SANTA CLARA Location. You can find the other locations here. Competitors at the SCU location will be required to fill out and submit SCU's liability form prior to competing. This will be collected at a later time.

This competition is organized by West Coast Cubing.

Current SCU students are eligible for a 66% discount. They must pay the full $18 fee in order to register for the competition but will be refunded 66% after they attend the competition. Professor Marks (rmarks@scu.edu) will verify SCU student status upon receiving an email from the competitor's @scu.edu account.

Events
Main event

Competitor limit: 40

Number of times bookmarked: 9

Registration period

Online registration opened and will close .

Registration requirements

Create a WCA account here if you don't have one.
If this is not your first competition, associate your WCA ID to your WCA account here.
Register for this competition here.
There is a competitor limit of 40 competitors.
The base registration fee for this competition is $18 (United States Dollar).
The registration fee has to be paid through Stripe here once registered.
If your registration is cancelled before you will be refunded 100% of your registration fee.
Registrants on the waiting list may be accepted onto the competitor list until .
If you are a registered competitor you may change your registered events until on the Register tab.
No on the spot registrations will be accepted.
Any spectator can attend for free.

Registration Process

Wait until registration opens on February 6, 2026 at 4:00pm PST. You cannot register prior to then. You cannot register after April 17, 2026 at 5:00pm PDT. No exceptions to these will be given. If deemed necessary, we may close registration early.
If you have not competed before, create a WCA account here.
Go to the Register link on the competition website.
Fill out the events you will be competing in, any comments you may have about your registration, and press register.
Pay the registration fee via Stripe on the competition website.
A member of the organization team will manually accept registrations. Wait for an email confirming your registration has been accepted.

Competitors MUST pay their registration fee before being eligible for a spot in the competition.

Waitlist

If the competition is full, a message will be displayed saying such on the competition website. If, after this time, you register and pay for the competition, you will be added to the competition waitlist.

If a competitor cancels their registration, the person at the top of the waitlist will be added to the competitor list.

If you are on the waitlist, you may cancel your registration (see below) at any time for a full refund.

If you are on the waitlist, you will be informed whether you have made it on the competitor list after April 17, 2026 at 5:00pm PDT, otherwise you will be given a full refund.

Registration Changes

If you would like to cancel your registration, email the organization team with your request and you will be refunded 100% of your registration fee. Refunds are available only until April 17, 2026 at 5:00pm PDT.

If you would like to edit your registered events or listed guests, you may do so on the Register page. This can only be done prior to April 17, 2026 at 5:00pm PDT.

By registering, competitors agree to the information in the Competitor Responsibilities tab. This tab details the responsibilitIes of all competitors at this competition. Not abiding by these responsibilities can result in disqualification.

ALL COMPETITORS MUST READ THIS TAB BEFORE REGISTERING.
Please remain silent while blindfolded events are taking place. Silence your cell phones, and take any conversations outside.

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. If you are competing and done with your event before the allotted time, please stay to help judge. Judging is very easy and is a great way to make time fly!

We will need help judging for all events. 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.

If you are planning to spectate and judge, here is a summary of judging instructions for 4x4 blindfolded and 5x5 blindfolded attempts predicted to take longer than 10 minutes:
* When the competitor indicates the start of their attempt by placing their hands down on the timer and starting it, start the stopwatch at their station.
* When the competitor is memorizing the cube, spectate their attempt and make sure that they do not take physical notes or make a move to the cube. Penalty: DNF
* Once the competitor has put on their blindfold and started turning the cube, ensure that a sight blocker is in between the competitor and the cube. This will be usually in the form of a harmonica holder placed by the competitor.
* If the competitor does not do this, hold a sight blocker between the competitor and the cube.
* Once the competitor indicates the end of their attempt by placing their puzzle down and hands down on the surface, stop the stopwatch and write down the time on their scorecard and ensure the puzzle is solved, without touching the puzzle. If the puzzle is not solved, write down the time, along with DNF. For example, if the attempt takes 16 minutes and 30 seconds, but the cube is not solved, write: DNF (16:30).
* If the cumulative time of their 4x4 blindfolded and 5x5 blindfolded solves exceeds the cumulative time limit of 90 minutes, the solve should be stopped and DNF'd. For example, if the attempts on their scorecard currently read 1) 19:00, 2) 20:00, 3) 21:00, 4) 10:00, and 5) 12:00 for a total of 82 minutes, they have 8 minutes left for the final attempt. If the solve exceeds 8 minutes, the attempt should be stopped. Only stop the attempt if you are 100% sure the time limit has been exceeded.

Judging MBLD is similar and 3BLD is easier. We will also go over judging instructions at the beginning of the round.

By car:

Parking is available in the Main Parking structure adjacent to the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation (SCDI) building. Parking in this garage is free on weekends, no permit is required. Should the main garage be full, other campus parking can be used for free as well. There are a few types of spaces you should avoid, including those marked "Reserved" and "Tow-Away". There are several types of spaces labeled for campus residents, but I don't believe there are any in the Main Parking structure. These are detailed on the university website here. I believe most of the spots in the Main Parking structure are labeled either B, E, or F, and those are fine.

By public transportation:

The Santa Clara Caltrain station is very close to the main entrance (Palm Dr./Franklin St.) to campus, just across El Camino Real.

By plane:

San Jose Mineta International Airport is very close to the venue.

Food:

This competition will take place at SANTA CLARA.

Other Western PBQ locations are listed below. You may only compete at one location!

Country	City	Delegate	Address	Competitor Limit	Spots Available	Westerns PBQ Location	Notes
United States	Davis, CA	Hamza Hafeez	UC Davis TLC 1218	30	26/30 Spots Available	Westerns PBQ - Davis 2026
United States	Santa Clara, CA	Calvin Nielson, Robert Alan Marks	Santa Clara University SCDI 3301 & 3302	40	33/40 Spots Available	Westerns PBQ - Santa Clara 2026	Competitors will be required to fill out and submit SCU's liability form prior to competing. This will be collected at a later time.
United States	Reno, NV	Michael Larsen, Jason Ostdiek	UNR Ansari Business Building 102	25	22/25 Spots Available	Westerns PBQ - Reno 2026

Competitors competing in a location listed as "Private Residence" will be emailed the exact address a few days before the competition day.

The Western PBQ Championship will be held on the same day as the Western FMC Championship. Most locations will host both competitions, allowing competitors to participate in PBQ and FMC on the same day.

You can find the corresponding PBQ competition page for each location under the Locations tab. Locations will not all be announced at the same time.

FAQ

What is a multilocation PBQ?

Similar to multilocation FMC, WCC is splitting up Westerns PBQ into multiple locations on the same day. The rankings will be shared unofficially across all Westerns PBQ competitions. This will allow more people to compete in our regional championship!

How will the Western Championship podium be determined?

Once results from all competitions are in, they will be combined per event to form a single ranking. The top three competitors by result will be recognized as the Western Championship 2026 podium and receive prizes at Western Championship 2026 in Riverside, CA. This is automatically done by WCA Live for FMC and will be done manually for all other events.

Will podiums still be recognized from individual competitions?

Yes. If you place 3rd at your location, your WCA profile will be updated with a bronze medal regardless of how you placed in the aggregate rankings. FMC is exempt from this, although locations may still choose to recognize their podium with certificates. Location podiums may have a gift code associated, details TBA.

Does this mean scrambles are shared across competitions?

No. All competitions will have their own set of scrambles as per the WCA Regulations. FMC will share a set of scrambles as is typical for multilocation FMC competitions.

The Western FMC Championship will be held on the same day as the Western PBQ Championship. Many FMC locations will also offer a Westerns PBQ location. You can register for the FMC Championship here.

In the FMC registration notes, indicate which location you are competing at.

The winner of each event across all locations who reside in the Western Region will be declared the Western Champion!

All competitors, regardless of where they live, may compete at this competition. However, only competitors residing in the Western region are eligible for a Western Champion title. Please check this site for exact details and FAQ about eligibility.

Additionally, the results of each PBQ competition across all location will be used determine the podium placement for the Western Championship. These top 3 finishers will recognized at Western Championship 2026.

Want to stay connected with the West Coast community? Join the West Coast Cubing Community Discord Server! Speak with other competitors from NorCal, SoCal, Nevada, Hawaii, and Tijuana and keep in touch with fellow competitors and meet new ones! Find out about competition discussion as it happens in real time, and even announcements for competitions before registration opens!

Click here to be directly taken to the Discord Server!

We also have our SoCal Cubing Facebook Group, WCA Forum thread for California, and the West Coast Cubing website.

Time limit

If you reach the time limit during your solve, the judge will stop you and your result will be DNF (see Regulation A1a4).
A cumulative time limit may be enforced across rounds (see Regulation A1a2).

Format

The format describes how to determine the ranking of competitors based on their results. The list of allowed formats per event is described in Regulation 9b. See Regulation 9f for a description of each format.