# The End of the Feliks Era?



## casi (Jul 28, 2018)

With a stunning win over the Dream Team in a 2x2-7x7 relay(Chris Olsen(2x2), Mats Valk(3x3), Sebastian Weyer(4x4), Patrick Ponce(5x5), Feliks Zemdegs(6x6), Kevin Hays(7x7)) at US Nationals 2018, Max Park secured his status as the best cuber in the world.

Does this mark the end of the Feliks Era and usher in the Max Era? Post down below.

This is the best video covering the race.


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## joshsailscga (Jul 28, 2018)

I mean I would say that the "era" already changed over some time ago, and I believe most top cubers would agree with me. It is also an interesting thing to note that the actual "dream team" to try to beat Max would be more like:
7x7: Kevin
6x6: Feliks
5x5: Feliks
4x4: Sebastian
3x3: Feliks
2x2: Anyone sub-2


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## rubik2005 (Jul 28, 2018)

Max Park is really getting fast, and he took almost every WR from Feliks.Max is showing incredible times at home, and at comps. Maybe it is the Max era!!!


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## LightFlame_ (Jul 29, 2018)

joshsailscga said:


> 6x6: Feliks
> 2x2: Anyone sub-2


for 6x6 either feliks or patrick 
for 2x2... maybe maciej or rami


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## joshsailscga (Jul 29, 2018)

LightFlame_ said:


> for 6x6 either feliks or patrick
> for 2x2... maybe maciej or rami



Uhh...Feliks has a 1:23 6x6 mean, Patrick has a 1:40. There's really only 3 people in the top bracket of big cubes right now, as evidenced by results from any comp recently. 
And for 2x2, the point is that in the span of ~5 minutes, a couple hundreths of a second doesn't make a difference. Why not Will or Chris et cetera? It can be whoever.


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## LightFlame_ (Jul 29, 2018)

General complaint that Kevin decided to be rude and distract Patrick. ???

Though nice job to Max, beating that many speedcubers at the same time is very hard to do, and he made it look easy.


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## lucarubik (Jul 29, 2018)

im confused doesm't this only prove that he is better than the 7x7 guy? I'd asume he has more room to take a lead on the 6x6 and 7x7 than on all the other five combined.
For sure the guy is great and the video is great too but i don't think one is evidence of the other


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## AbsoRuud (Jul 29, 2018)

He beat 2 out of 6 opponents. He just beat them big time to compensate for losing time on the other 4 events. Nevertheless this is an amazing feat by the top cuber today. Max will break the 3x3x3 single and Ao5 soon I'm sure.


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## Mike Hughey (Jul 29, 2018)

One thing I didn't understand from the video - did everyone get to inspect for 15 seconds, or just Chris and Max? If everyone got to inspect, I'd say Max totally killed them.


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## abunickabhi (Jul 29, 2018)

It is the Max era and I am proud of it. Never have I seen a more hardworking cuber than Max.


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## turtwig (Jul 30, 2018)

Mike Hughey said:


> One thing I didn't understand from the video - did everyone get to inspect for 15 seconds, or just Chris and Max? If everyone got to inspect, I'd say Max totally killed them.



Everyone got to inspect until they started (although not everyone took advantage of this ).


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## Gomorrite (Jul 30, 2018)

I hope we are entering soon the era of specialization in which different cubers dominate different events, but Max Park is actually making it difficult to enter this era.


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## Galcor117 (Jul 31, 2018)

Honestly I want to see just Max and Feliks race (same events, 2-7)... or has this already happened?


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## casi (Aug 2, 2018)

Feliks took #1 in Nats, so...


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## ARobey (Aug 3, 2018)

Well, Feliks cant cube forever, and as he gets older and busier, he will have less time to cube. The more time that passes by, the more like someone will overtake him. The same thing will eventually happen to Max, and whoever comes after him. Thats just how things work.


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## Galcor117 (Aug 3, 2018)

ARobey said:


> Well, Feliks cant cube forever, and as he gets older and busier, he will have less time to cube. The more time that passes by, the more like someone will overtake him. The same thing will eventually happen to Max, and whoever comes after him. Thats just how things work.


But busy with what?
Maybe Max may have a different path, but i cant imagine feliks doing anything else than cubing


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## Tabe (Aug 3, 2018)

Galcor117 said:


> But busy with what?
> Maybe Max may have a different path, but i cant imagine feliks doing anything else than cubing


Do you think he just sits around cubing all day? He goes to school, has done internships, and so on.


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## Galcor117 (Aug 3, 2018)

Tabe said:


> Do you think he just sits around cubing all day? He goes to school, has done internships, and so on.


Be more specific... Do you really know what he actually does besides cubing?


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## FastCubeMaster (Aug 3, 2018)

Galcor117 said:


> Be more specific... Do you really know what he actually does besides cubing?


He’s studying engineering at Melbourne University lol you really believe he sits at home does nothing and cubes all day.


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## h2f (Aug 3, 2018)

Galcor117 said:


> Be more specific... Do you really know what he actually does besides cubing?



In one of interviews he said hes cubing only during competition. In the same interview he said:
"It's funny that few days after I've broken new WR in single by 9% someone said my era has ended." 

It was translated into Polish so it's a translation of translation but the sense is the same.


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## Mike Hughey (Aug 3, 2018)

It's probably too early to say the Feliks era has ended, but I think it's safe to say that the "Feliks-only era" HAS ended.

For quite a while, Feliks dominated nearly every size cube. There might have been one or two specialists who had a chance at challenging him on any given single cube size, but no one else was consistently at Feliks' level on any size cube. That was true for quite a long time.

Now, Max holds all the world records for 4, 5, 6, and 7, and has the average and clearly could have the single for OH. And out of the top 10 results for 3x3x3 average, Feliks has the first, third, eighth, and tenth, and Max has the other 6.

I think it's safe to say that it's better to say we've entered the Max and Feliks era now (in that order), not the Feliks era. Of course, that could change at any time; perhaps Feliks will start practicing harder again and flip it back around. If he's really not practicing at all these days (which is highly believable - he's clearly quite busy with other things, and most cubers practice a lot less by the time they've been cubing as long as Feliks), it might not take much for him to dominate again.


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## Tabe (Aug 3, 2018)

Galcor117 said:


> Be more specific... Do you really know what he actually does besides cubing?


The internship was somehow related to investment. He mentioned studying business and economics in college. 

Listen to his interview on the Speedcubereview podcast.


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## ARobey (Aug 3, 2018)

Galcor117 said:


> But busy with what?
> Maybe Max may have a different path, but i cant imagine feliks doing anything else than cubing


I don't know, a job, school, anything. Do you really think he just sits around and cubes all day? It is hard to imagine him doing anything else, but he is just a normal guy, and at some point, hes probably going to move on.


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## Timbuktu10 (Aug 3, 2018)

casi said:


> With a stunning win over the Dream Team in a 2x2-7x7 relay(Chris Olsen(2x2), Mats Valk(3x3), Sebastian Weyer(4x4), Patrick Ponce(5x5), Feliks Zemdegs(6x6), Kevin Hays(7x7)) at US Nationals 2018, Max Park secured his status as the best cuber in the world.
> 
> Does this mark the end of the Feliks Era and usher in the Max Era? Post down below.
> 
> This is the best video covering the race.


no lmao


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## casi (Aug 3, 2018)

If Feliks is reading this:
IMO, while Max may be the best cuber in the world, Feliks is still the greatest cuber of all time.


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## Galcor117 (Aug 4, 2018)

FastCubeMaster said:


> He’s studying engineering at Melbourne University lol you really believe he sits at home does nothing and cubes all day.


ok thanks
It’s clear to see that I don’t care to keep up with the lives of cubers


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## ToastasaurusCuber (Aug 11, 2018)

casi said:


> With a stunning win over the Dream Team in a 2x2-7x7 relay(Chris Olsen(2x2), Mats Valk(3x3), Sebastian Weyer(4x4), Patrick Ponce(5x5), Feliks Zemdegs(6x6), Kevin Hays(7x7)) at US Nationals 2018, Max Park secured his status as the best cuber in the world.
> 
> Does this mark the end of the Feliks Era and usher in the Max Era? Post down below.
> 
> This is the best video covering the race.


I'm going to say Max is definitely growing slightly bigger than Felix but I don't think his cubing career is nowhere near over. He's still the holder of both 3x3 WR's and plenty more. He's very active in competitions and such.


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## Cuberious (Aug 12, 2018)

It's not the end of the Feliks Era. The Dream Team were doing it for fun and two of them messed up.

I don't think the Max Era is going to last as long as Feliks's decade reign. Homeschooling has given him lots of time to practice and when he goes to college, he never would have learned how to balance school and practicing. At least that's my prediction


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## turtwig (Aug 12, 2018)

Cuberious said:


> Homeschooling has given him lots of time to practice and when he goes to college, he never would have learned how to balance school and practicing.



Homeschooling doesn't mean he doesn't do any studying. I'm sure his parents don't let him just practice all day.


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## Thom S. (Aug 12, 2018)

turtwig said:


> Homeschooling doesn't mean he doesn't do any studying. I'm sure his parents don't let him just practice all day.



From what I know the cubing community got him first into voluntary social interactions so I'm assuming he didn't do much except practice and school at first


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## turtwig (Aug 12, 2018)

Thom S. said:


> From what I know the cubing community got him first into voluntary social interactions so I'm assuming he didn't do much except practice and school at first



Maybe I didn't word it right, but I meant to say that I'm sure that he does other things, like studying, outside of cubing, in response to Cuberious saying that Max will have a hard time balancing cubing and school in college.


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## GenTheThief (Aug 12, 2018)

Cuberious said:


> Homeschooling has given him lots of time to practice and when he goes to college, he never would have learned how to balance school and practicing. At least that's my prediction


Why not?
You think that just because he his parents teach him and because he does his school work at home he doesn't learn anything about balancing school and cubing?
Homeschooling is (as far as I know I've never been to public school) essentially like public public school except there aren't lectures and you just get a ton of homework.
Think of it like a private school where the school is your house.
Listen to Collin Burns' interview on the cubecast podcast and here him talk about home schooling and how much free time he has.

People do homeschooling differently than others, and I don't know how Max's parents do his, but I'm sure he's learned how to balance school and cubing.


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## Galcor117 (Aug 12, 2018)

I think it’s important to mention Max’s autism because this was a major factor to his introduction (and arguably eventual success) in cubing. He and his family know that cubing is such a big part of life for him, and his autism unfortunately makes many other things difficult for him.

Whether he learned to “balance” (in quotation marks because this varies for different people, especially for max) school and cubing is frankly irrelevant. Max will continue cubing for a long time and will push himself to his limit.


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## casi (Aug 13, 2018)

GenTheThief said:


> Why not?
> You think that just because he his parents teach him and because he does his school work at home he doesn't learn anything about balancing school and cubing?
> Homeschooling is (as far as I know I've never been to public school) essentially like public public school except there aren't lectures and you just get a ton of homework.
> Think of it like a private school where the school is your house.
> ...


I'm homeschooled, so I know that while you can't cube all day, it is easier to work in more practice time over the day.


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## DavidRcv13 (Aug 17, 2018)

I don't know if the Feliks era will end any time soon. I mean, he won 3x3 after all. I think the Max era has already started for big cubes, but when it comes to 3x3, Feliks is more efficient and smarter in his solves, while Max just has great TPS... I'm leaning towards saying Feliks is still the better cuber


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## Gomorrite (Aug 20, 2018)

I wonder if Feliks will ever break a WR again. Perhaps his best chances are in 3x3, either single or average, or perhaps a 5x5 single or even 4x4 single. 6x6 and 7x7 are almost impossible for him now. Even though he broke 26 WRs in 2017 and so far 3 in 2018, it is certainly a possibility that he will not break more.


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