Feliks Zemdegs solved his 5x5 cube at Melbourne Cube Day in 44.837 seconds. And the crowd went not at all wild.
The 5x5 Rubik’s cube—or Professor’s cube—has over 282 trevigintillion (10^72) permutations, and requires intimate knowledge of the solving algorithms for both the 3x3 and 4x4. Even the tutorial for solving one of these complicated toys is over 40 minutes long. Because of all the moving parts, a Professor is also much more delicate than the run-of-the-mill Rubik’s—just watch how much more gingerly this guy treats his bigger cubes. Long story short, it’s really, really difficult. Why was no one else in the room impressed?
Zemdegs, an Australian, broke the previous world record of 46.97 held by... himself. In fact, Felix has held onto and slowly whittled away at his own records for the Professor since 2009, when he wrestled the title away from the comparatively molasses-fingered Dan Cohen, who clocked 1:07.25 as his best.
Maybe everyone else at Melbourne Cube Day was too busy solving their own puzzles, or maybe watching Zemdegs win was simply the expectation (“Oh great, this guy again”). Either way, it’s a remarkable feat of puzzle solving not soon to be beaten, except maybe by Feliks himself.