It all started when his tablet was taken away. This gave junior Caleb Fox the opportunity to solve the Rubik’s Cube more in-depth then he had previously done. What started as a hobby quickly turned to a passion. Fox would shortly be ranked in the top 100 for solving time.

 “It is a long story, so I will not get too into it. I started in March of 2015 when I had my tablet taken away for a month. Essentially I had a cube for a while and I figured out the first step to solving it, but I could not figure out the rest. So, I brought it to my home school group. At that point, there was someone there who knew how to do it, so he showed me how. I decided that I would learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube,” Fox said.

When competing in Rubik’s Cube competitions there are a variety of different events, such as puzzles and cubes. There are different puzzles and cubes; not just the standard three-by-three. Fox take part in a majority of these events

“[I do other types of cubes too.] For official competitions, I believe they have 18 other events. Out of all of the different events, I can do 16 out of the 18, so I do a lot. Some of [the events] are five-by-five cubes, the largest they do is the seven-by-seven. They have blindfolded events and other things like that,” Fox said.

Depending on the level of the competition—whether it is local, national or worldwide almost anyone can join in. Fox has attended many competitions in the past years.

“Overall, they have a lot of small competitions, you just have to pay about $10 and you can just show up.  They do not really care who shows up, except for the national ones; you have to have a certain time. They will let you compete if you are only okay at it, you do not have to be perfect at it to compete. But there are time qualifications for the national and world championships but not for the smaller ones,” Fox said.

Fox ranked in the top 100 out of any solves ever done of a Rubik’ puzzle called the Rubik’s Clock. The Rubik’s Clock is made by the same company as a traditional Rubik’s Cube, but it is just a different puzzle. Caleb went to Georgia in order to compete in this event. 

“[For the puzzle that I qualified for the top 100 in] I went to Georgia. I was top 100 out of every person that has ever done a solve in that competition category ever [not just the people at the event]. I went to Georgia and people down there hosted the competition,” Fox said. “If you were to compete in a world championship there would be tons of people there. And If you get a top 100 result there then you may just be top 100 out of 1000 people. Those results will show up for the competition section, but all the same results will also show up on another page of any solve anyone has ever done for that event. For example, back in 2007 if someone got an eight second solve, in ranking I would be competing against that solve too. So it is just I got top 100 out of any solution anyone has ever done.”

Out of the people attending this event in Georgia Fox placed second in the Rubik’s Clock event.

“I have not really set any records, but I was second place out of the people who attended the competition. The solve that I got was only a singular solve, and at a competition you are ranked by your average and my average was not too good. I have not set any records,” Fox said.

Fox also likes to solve other Rubik’s Cubes in his free time as well. Fox used to be able to solve a three-by-three Rubik’s in just over seven seconds. 

“The fastest I can solve a three-by-three is around seven seconds back when I practiced a lot. Now because I have not practiced a lot recently, if I get it in like 14 seconds I will be happy,” Fox said.

Fox really enjoys solving Rubik’s cubes with a rare technique that is not often used. He can also solve blindfolded.