SCU I: May the Fourth Be With You 2025
- Date
- May 4, 2025
- 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 3115 & 3116)
- Contact
- Organization team
- Organizers
- Robert Alan Marks and West Coast Cubing LLC Treasurer
- WCA Delegates
- Calvin Nielson, David Karalli (داود قراعلي), Nolan Yiu, and Ruby Lu (卢红)
- Download all the competition's details as PDF .
- Information
This competition is organized in partnership with West Coast Cubing and Speedcubeshop.
- Current SCU students may register for free by sending Professor Marks (rmarks@scu.edu) an email from their @scu.edu account prior to registering with this site.
- If we run ahead of schedule, we will start first round events no earlier than 20 minutes, so please show up at least 20 minutes before your first event.
- We will be assigning judging assignments to competitors for the group before or after their own competing groups.
- Please inspect the schedule for this competition carefully before registering. In particular, note that there is a 4-5 hour gap between the first rounds and final rounds so that we can hold the multi-location Fewest Moves Challenge (FMC) Western Championship. Better yet, if you would like to participate in FMC, it will be held in the same location and can be registered for here.
- Events
- Main event
- Competitor limit
- 40
- Number of times bookmarked
- 33
- Registration period
-
Online registration opened Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 11:00 PM UTC and will close Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM UTC.
- 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 $12 (United States Dollar).
The registration fee has to be paid through Stripe here once registered.
If your registration is cancelled before Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM UTC you will be refunded 95% of your registration fee.
Registrants on the waiting list may be accepted onto the competitor list until Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM UTC.
If you are a registered competitor you may change your registered events until Saturday, April 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM UTC by contacting the organization team.
No on the spot registrations will be accepted.
All competitors (of any age) must complete and sign Santa Clara University's release of liability form.
One form can be used for both this competition and the FMC competition occuring on the same day at Santa Clara University.
The form can be submitted by:
(1) Preferred: emailing a scanned in and signed copy to Robert Marks (rmarks@scu.edu) as soon as possible. (You can even submit it before registration opens.)
(2) Bringing a signed paper copy of the form to the competition.
(3) If you forget, blank forms will be available at the competition, but they must be completed before you can participate in the competition.
If you are a minor (under age 18), your parent or legal guardian must complete the form.
If you are a minor, you must be accompanied by an adult at the competition.Adding/Dropping Events
- Competitors may update their registration BEFORE registration closes. It is also acceptable to not show up for any event you do not wish to compete in, although it is not encouraged.
- Competitors may not add events after registration closes.
Waitlist: PLEASE CHECK THE COMPETITOR TAB ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE TO SEE HOW MANY COMPETITORS HAVE BEEN APPROVED
If Registration fills up, we will place competitors on a waitlist. In order to get on the waitlist, you must register and pay. You are not on the waitlist until you pay the registration fee. If you do not make it off of the waitlist, you will be fully refunded. If a competitor drops out, the first person on the waitlist will replace them. People can be replaced up until the registration close date indicated above.
In a catastrophic event where the event will be compromised and cancelled, a full refund shall be offered to all competitors, in contrast to the typical 95% registration refunds.
| Event | Round | Format | Time limit | Proceed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3x3x3 Cube | First round | Ao5 | 10:00.00 cumulative* | Top 12 advance to next round |
| Final | Ao5 | 10:00.00 | ||
| 4x4x4 Cube | First round | Ao5 | 15:00.00 cumulative* | Top 12 advance to next round |
| Final | Ao5 | 10:00.00 |
All competitors (of any age) must complete and sign Santa Clara University's release of liability form.
One form can be used for both this competition and the FMC competition occuring on the same day at Santa Clara University.
The form can be submitted by:
(1) Preferred: emailing a scanned in and signed copy to Robert Marks (rmarks@scu.edu) as soon as possible. (You can even submit it before registration opens.)
(2) Bringing a signed paper copy of the form to the competition.
(3) If you forget, blank forms will be available at the competition, but they must be completed before you can participate in the competition.
If you are a minor (under age 18), your parent or legal guardian must complete the form.
If you are a minor, you must be accompanied by an adult at the competition.
Check out live results here!
Event details on cubingcontests can be found here
You can check out the rules here
You must register for this competition on the WCA website before signing up for FTO.
FTO will be a standard Ao5 format with a 15 minute cummulative time limit. There is a 16 competitor limit for FTO, and the top 8 will advance to a final round.
Standard rules for WCA puzzles apply; e.g., 15 seconds of unpenalized inspection, 2 second penalty for a solve that is incomplete by one move (no penalty if less than half a turn, <60 degrees for FTO), maximum of one missing piece, assuming its a trivial one (face triangle cover), otherwise DNF. Any twisted corners or popped pieces may be fixed before stopping the timer, but if they are not fixed, it's a DNF.
To sign up for FTO, submit this Google form. Sign ups will be accepted in the order submitted; however, you must have registered for "SCU I: May the Fourth Be With You 2025" before submitting your FTO sign up. Your registration for "SCU I: May the Fourth Be With You 2025" does not need to be approved before signing up for FTO.
FTO Competitors as of 3/24/25 6:49pm PDT:
1. Anrui Zhang
2. Ben Streeter
3. Calvin Nielson
4. Ethan Mendelson
5. Isaac Marks
6. Robert Marks
7. Stanley Tran
8. Trevor Mendelson
By car:
Parking is available in the Main Parking structure adjacent to the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation (SCDI) building where the competition is being held. 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.
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:
TBD
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 the competitors responsibility to be familiar with the full set of regulations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPL3eV-A0ww
If you have any questions after watching this video, we will be having a new competitor tutorial right before 3x3. That would be the perfect time to ask those questions and clear up any confusion.
Head over to the registration tab, if you are ready to sign-up for your first competiton! Click register, and fill out the information that it asks for. This will help you get set up into the WCA's system and one step closer to your first official solve!
Q&A:
Q: Do I use my own cube to compete?
A: YES! You are responsible for your own hardware in order to compete.
Q: What is the normal 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: What is the competition like?
A; Competitions are a bunch of tables where nerds like us get to sit and discuss our favorite thing, Cubes! Of course in addition there is competing, which will occupy one side of the competition hall, where you will see lots of timers flickering with contestants new personal bests. Most competitions have a break for lunch, and the competing is split up into groups, as to better organize who competes when. (Check the Groups tab and listen at the competition for more info on this.)
Q: How do I find results?
A: All results are posted on the WCA page a couple of days after the competition finishes. However, for the day of competing, search "WCA Live" (https://live.worldcubeassociation.org) to find information about current events. This is also where you will find information about 2nd and 3rd rounds of events.
Q: Why am I not on the registration list yet?
A: Make sure you pay your registration fee in order to be automatically placed on the registered list, which will also guarantee you a spot in the competition. If payment may be any issue, or you are not sure if you can attend, use the contact button to talk to us, and see if we can work out another payment strategy, or have you pay on arrival at the compeition. No matter what you situation may be however, please register online. It is much easier for us to have you register now and pay later, then to have to input information at another time.
Q: Are there age divisions?
A: Nope! All cometitors compete in the same group.
Q: Can I have fun at this event?
A: HECK YES! Cubing is amazing, and we sincerely hope you enjoy the competition!
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 a NorCal Cubing Community Facebook group!
This competition is in partnership with West Coast Cubing, LLC
This competition will be sponsored by SpeedCubeShop! They will be providing gift-card prizes for this competition. They will not be selling puzzles onsite.
Use code "WCC" for 5% off all orders at SpeedCubeShop?
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 (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.