RUBIK'S CUBE®, owned by Spin Master, a leading global children's entertainment company, has announced an unprecedented sponsorship with the World Cube Association (WCA). Since its release in the late '70s, the Rubik's Cube - from its Hungarian inventor Professor Ernő Rubik - has fascinated millions of people around the world. The complexity coupled with the colorful patterns led to the Rubik's Cube's immense popularity and presence in pop culture. Naturally, with the development of methods to solve the puzzle more efficiently, came a strong desire for competition. The first international gathering took place in 1982 in Budapest in which the American Minh Thai took the victory and set the first ever official World Record with a result of 22.95 seconds.

After a break of more than 20 years and the advent of internet forums, a passionate group of Cubers decided to revive the competitive spirit of the puzzle and organized the 2003 World Championship in Toronto, Canada. This competition was a massive success and prompted multiple smaller scale competitions to be organized in Europe and the USA. In August 2004, the World Cube Association (WCA) was created by the Dutchman Ron van Bruchem and the American Tyson Mao. The goal was to track records, define a uniform set of rules, and help with the organization of more competitions in more countries. The WCA has now officiated more than 7,000 competitions in 143 countries, with more than 150,000 unique participants. Since Minh Thai's record in 1982, the 3x3 Cube World Record has lowered significantly and now stands at 3.47 seconds set by the Chinese Yusheng Du in 2018.

The sponsorship will deliver the following six Rubik's WCA Continental Championships in 2022:

• Rubik's WCA African Championship 2022 - Cape Town, South Africa - Dates TBC
• Rubik's WCA Asian Championship 2022 - TBC
• Rubik's WCA European Championship 2022 - Copenhagen, Denmark - 14th - 17th July, 2022
• Rubik's WCA North American Championship 2022 - Toronto, Canada - 7th - 10th July, 2022
• Rubik's WCA Oceanic Championship 2022 - Melbourne, Australia - 15th - 18th December, 2022
• Rubik's WCA South American Championship 2022 - Brasília, Brazil - 22nd - 24th July, 2022

RUBIK'S CUBE® and the WCA have a shared goal of bringing together communities of problem-solvers and the best experience for fun, fair and professional competitions.