UK Championship 2026 Unofficial Events – and a Preview of FTO's WCA Future

The main focus of Kewbz UK Championship 2026 was naturally the official WCA competition, but that wasn't the only speedcubing taking place during the weekend.

Alongside the main competition, the UK Cubing League (UKCL) ran a substantial programme of unofficial events from its stall at the University of Birmingham.

A total of 264 people participated, with events ranging from serious speedsolving disciplines such as Face-Turning Octahedron (FTO), Kilominx and Mirror Blocks to more unusual challenges including Team-Blind, Team Factory and 3x3 With Oven Mitts.

The events were:

• Face-Turning Octahedron (FTO)

• Kilominx

• Mirror Blocks

• 3x3 Team-Blind

• 3x3 Team Factory

• 3x3 With Oven Mitts

• 3x3

The results were recorded on Cubing Contests, which maintains rankings and unofficial records for a huge range of events that aren't currently recognised by the World Cube Association.

And while most of these events will probably remain unofficial, one is about to make the jump to the WCA.

FTO becomes an official WCA event on 2nd January 2027.

That makes the results from Birmingham particularly interesting, as they give us a preview of what UK FTO competition could look like next year.

Edd Dibley Wins FTO with a 19.59 Average

Perhaps the most significant result of the unofficial competition came from Edd Dibley, who won FTO with a very impressive 19.59 average, Edd Dibley also comfortably won FTO last year.

His five solves were:

19.45, 20.22, 18.07, 21.95, 19.11

That gave him an 18.07 best single and made him the only competitor at UK Championship to achieve a sub-20 average.

Sam Jones finished second with a 24.46 average, while Daniel Partridge completed the top three with 25.94.

There was then a large field behind them, with more than 60 competitors recording FTO attempts.

That's quite significant for an event which wasn't even part of the official UK Championship programme.

FTO wasn't hidden away as an obscure puzzle that only a handful of specialists wanted to try. There was already substantial interest in competing in it months before it becomes an official event.

What Does 19.59 Tell Us About UK FTO in 2027?

This is where the results become particularly interesting.

FTO becomes an official WCA event on 2nd January 2027, and the official format will also be an average of 5.

That means the format used by the UK Cubing League is already very similar to what we'll see at WCA competitions next year.

However, none of these unofficial results will transfer into the WCA database.

Edd Dibley's 19.59 doesn't automatically become the British Record.

Everyone starts again.

The first British competitor to complete a valid official FTO average in 2027 could therefore technically set the first UK National Record, even if their result is considerably slower than 19.59.

It probably won't remain that way for long.

The existing unofficial results demonstrate that British competitors are already capable of sub-20 competition averages. Once Britain's fastest FTO solvers begin attending official competitions, we could see the National Record broken repeatedly during the opening weeks of 2027.

The international situation could be even more chaotic.

There is already a highly developed global FTO community, with competitors capable of times considerably faster than those seen in Birmingham.

The first official World Record therefore probably won't remain the World Record for very long!

While technically a delegate could organise a competition in Kiribati which is 14 hours ahead of GMT and arrange a round of FTO early in the morning on January 2nd 2027 and claim a World or National Record, it won't be recognised by the World Cube Association as a Record because the World Cube Association doesn't recognise multiple records on the same day, only the fastest will ever be recorded as an official record. This quirk was made famous by Keaton Ellis and Lucas Etter on November 21st 2015 where Keaton Ellis got a new World Record 3x3 single of 5.09 but it was beaten by Lucas Etter on the same day when he got a 4.90 single, which happened to be at the same competition. Since this event, the term 'keatoned' was coined for anyone who has got a record which has subsequently been beaten on the same day by another competitor, not necessarily at the same competition.

Could Edd Dibley Become the First UK FTO Champion?

There is another reason Edd's victory could prove significant.

The UK Cube Association has already confirmed that UK Championship 2027 will return to the University of Birmingham, at the same venue and on the same weekend as this year's competition.

By then, FTO will have been official for almost eight months.

Assuming it is included in the championship schedule, Britain will therefore crown its first ever UK FTO Champion.

Edd Dibley's victory at UK Championship 2026 makes him an obvious early contender.

In 2026 he won an unofficial FTO competition at the UKCL stall.

In 2027 he could potentially return to exactly the same building and compete for an official UK Championship title.

Of course, the transition to official status will almost certainly encourage many more competitors to practise FTO seriously, so the standard could rise significantly over the next year.

Edd Dibley Also Wins Mirror Blocks

FTO wasn't Edd's only victory.

He also dominated Mirror Blocks, winning with a 28.39 average and 23.64 single.

Both results were marked as XNRs – unofficial National Records – by Cubing Contests.

Seamus Murphy finished second with a 34.90 average, while Finland's Niko Ronkainen was third with 39.01.

Mirror Blocks is mechanically essentially a 3x3, but instead of identifying pieces using colours, competitors recognise them using their different shapes and sizes.

That means most normal 3x3 solving techniques still apply, but recognition becomes considerably more difficult.

A sub-30 competition average demonstrates just how quickly experienced Mirror Blocks solvers can overcome that additional challenge.

With victories in both FTO and Mirror Blocks, Edd was therefore one of the standout competitors of the entire unofficial programme.

Finley Norris Wins Kilominx

The Kilominx competition was won by Finley Norris, who produced an excellent 17.01 average.

His best solve was 15.40, and he finished comfortably ahead of Rufus Prabhu-Desai, who averaged 18.90.

Rufus Cripps completed the top three with a 20.84 average.

Kilominx is effectively a smaller relative of Megaminx, consisting only of corner pieces without the edges and fixed centres found on a standard Megaminx.

Like FTO, it has developed into a genuine speedsolving event outside the WCA, with dedicated speedcubes and increasingly advanced solving techniques.

The top six competitors in Birmingham all averaged around 21 seconds or faster, demonstrating the level the event has reached.

Could Kilominx Eventually Follow FTO?

FTO's transition into the WCA inevitably raises questions about events such as Kilominx.

For years, FTO existed in much the same position.

It had dedicated hardware, serious competitors, unofficial competitions and online rankings, but no place on a WCA profile.

That changes in January.

Could Kilominx eventually do the same?

There is currently no guarantee that it will, and adding an event to the WCA requires considerably more than simply demonstrating that some people enjoy competing in it.

But competitions like this provide useful evidence.

Thirty competitors attempted Kilominx during the weekend despite it having no impact on their WCA profiles or official rankings.

If unofficial events continue attracting that sort of participation, they provide a useful indication of which puzzles have genuine competitive interest.

Team Factory Produces an Unofficial World Record

One of the most impressive results of the weekend actually came in 3x3 Team Factory.

In Team Factory, two competitors solve one cube together, completing alternating stages of the solve.

For CFOP, the stages are:

Cross → first pair → second pair → third pair → fourth pair → OLL → PLL

For Roux, equivalent stages are used.

The challenge is that each competitor has to pick up immediately from what their teammate has done.

Fabio Schwandt and Daniel Partridge were incredibly effective at this, winning with a 9.75 average.

That result is marked by Cubing Contests as an XWR – unofficial World Record.

Their five solves were:

9.03, 9.78, 8.88, 10.44, 12.99

James Alonso and Johnny Morello Kerlaff finished second with a 10.65 average, but actually recorded the faster single of 7.93, which is marked as an unofficial National Record.

Monty Fox and Jesse Cohen were third with a 10.89 average.

A sub-10 average for a format which requires repeatedly passing the cube between two different people is seriously impressive.

Noah Calderon-Kamata and Alan Fang Win Team-Blind

3x3 Team-Blind produced another highly competitive result.

In this event, one competitor is blindfolded and physically solves the cube while their teammate can see it and tells them which moves to make.

The caller isn't allowed to touch the cube or the solver's arms below the elbow, and there is no inspection time.

Noah Calderon-Kamata and Alan Fang won with a 23.98 average, with a best solve of 22.96.

James Alonso and Xavier Morgan finished second with 27.11, while Johnny Morello Kerlaff and Luke Burns took third with 27.54.

However, Johnny and Luke produced by far the fastest individual solve.

Their 15.80 single is marked as an unofficial National Record.

That means they managed to inspect the cube, communicate an entire solution to a blindfolded teammate and execute it in less than 16 seconds.

Deni Mintsaev Wins 3x3 With Oven Mitts

Then we get to perhaps the most important test of speedcubing ability:

Can you still solve a cube quickly while wearing oven mitts?

Apparently, the answer is yes.

Deni Mintsaev won 3x3 With Oven Mitts with a 34.01 average.

His best solve was 29.46.

The competition was remarkably close.

Glib Vedmid finished just 0.42 seconds behind with a 34.43 average, while the owner of this very store, Daniel Evans, was only another 0.42 behind with 34.85.

So the entire podium was separated by just 0.84 seconds.

Interestingly, neither the winner nor runner-up had the fastest single.

Daniel Evans recorded 28.11, Urho Kinnunen managed 28.02, and Freddie Stone went even faster with a 25.85.

Considering that they were trying to control a speedcube through a pair of oven mitts, a 25-second solve is surprisingly impressive!

Modern speedcube manufacturers spend years improving corner cutting, magnetic systems, coatings and adjustment mechanisms to give competitors greater control over their cubes.

Oven mitts successfully undo almost all of that work.

Bertie Longden Wins the Spectator 3x3

The UKCL even ran an ordinary 3x3 competition.

This wasn't designed to give UK Championship competitors a second chance at recording a 3x3 average.

Instead, the event was available to people who weren't registered competitors in the main WCA competition.

That gave parents, friends, spectators and other visitors the opportunity to experience a competition-style average of 5.

Bertie Longden won the event with an 11.86 average and a best solve of 9.86.

That is a fairly good demonstration that being a spectator at UK Championship doesn't necessarily mean you're slow!

For someone who has never competed officially, this sort of side event could also provide a much less intimidating introduction to competitive speedcubing.

The Unofficial Event Winners

The seven UKCL events therefore produced the following winners:

Event	Winner	Result
Face-Turning Octahedron	Edd Dibley	19.59 average
Mirror Blocks	Edd Dibley	28.39 average
Kilominx	Finley Norris	17.01 average
3x3 Team-Blind	Noah Calderon-Kamata & Alan Fang	23.98 average
3x3 Team Factory	Fabio Schwandt & Daniel Partridge	9.75 average (XWR)
3x3 With Oven Mitts	Deni Mintsaev	34.01 average
3x3	Bertie Longden	11.86 average

There were some particularly notable individual results too, including Johnny Morello Kerlaff and Luke Burns' 15.80 Team-Blind single, James Alonso and Johnny Morello Kerlaff's 7.93 Team Factory single, and Freddie Stone's 25.85 Oven Mitts solve.

What Happens When FTO Becomes Official?

FTO is what makes this year's unofficial competition particularly interesting historically.

From 2nd January 2027, it will no longer belong on a list like this.

FTO becomes a full WCA event using an average of 5.

Instead of recording an unofficial result at a side table, competitors will receive official WCA scrambles, compete in scheduled groups and have their results permanently recorded on their WCA profiles.

We'll suddenly have:

FTO World Records.

FTO Continental Records.

FTO National Records.

And an official worldwide ranking.

For perhaps the first time since Skewb became official in 2014, we'll get to watch an entirely new WCA ranking develop from nothing.

The First Records Could Be Chaotic

One particularly entertaining aspect of January 2027 could be the records.

Unofficial FTO has been developed for years, so the event already has extremely fast specialists.

But those results don't carry over.

The WCA database starts from zero.

Therefore, the first valid official result could technically become a World Record regardless of how fast it is.

As competitions begin around the world, those initial records could be broken over and over again.

Eventually we would expect the official rankings to begin resembling the existing unofficial rankings, but it could take several weeks or months for all of the world's fastest competitors to record representative averages.

The same should happen in Britain.

We now know that Edd Dibley can produce a 19.59 competition average. If Britain's top FTO solvers are already around or below the 20-second barrier, that gives us a rough idea of where the UK National Record could eventually settle during the early stages of official FTO.

Of course, becoming official is also likely to encourage considerably more people to practise the event.

The standard could improve very quickly.

FTO Could Effectively Take Clock's Place

The timing of FTO's introduction is particularly interesting because it comes alongside another enormous change to the WCA event list.

Clock is being removed as an official WCA event following the 2027 World Championship.

For part of 2027, Clock and FTO will therefore coexist.

After Worlds, only FTO remains.

This doesn't technically make FTO a direct replacement for Clock. Competition organisers can decide which official events they offer, and there's nothing requiring them to allocate Clock's former schedule time directly to FTO.

But practically, the transition makes a lot of sense.

A competition like UK Championship has limited time available.

Adding FTO means finding time for hundreds of additional solves, along with scrambling, judging and competition stations.

Removing Clock frees some of that time again.

UK Championship 2026 therefore gives us an almost perfect picture of the transition:

2026: Clock is on the official schedule. FTO is at the UKCL stall.

2027: FTO becomes official. Clock leaves the WCA event list after Worlds.

And UK Championship 2027 has already been confirmed for the same University of Birmingham venue.

From the UKCL Stall to a UK Championship Title?

That means we could return to the same building next year and see a completely different FTO competition.

Rather than around 60 people heading to the UKCL stall for unofficial attempts, FTO could have scheduled groups on the main stages.

Instead of results appearing only on Cubing Contests, they would appear permanently on WCA profiles.

And instead of simply winning an unofficial side event, Britain's fastest eligible competitor could become the first ever UK FTO Champion.

Based purely on UK Championship 2026, Edd Dibley would have to be considered one of the early favourites.

But a lot can change in a year.

Official status will give hundreds of cubers a new reason to learn and practise FTO, new hardware will undoubtedly continue to appear, and the first eight months of official competition should push the standard considerably higher.

That's what makes the 2026 results so interesting.

For Mirror Blocks, Kilominx, Team-Blind, Team Factory and Oven Mitts, they were a fun addition to a huge weekend of speedcubing.

For FTO, they may eventually be remembered as something else:

A preview of the next UK Championship event.