Fort Wayne hosts record-breaking Great Lakes speedcubing championship

Fort Wayne’s Great Lakes championship delivered the kind of number that makes a room stop and look up: Arhaan Sareen of Canada posted a 41.54 average in 5x5x5, the weekend’s standout mark. The Great Lakes Regional Championship of 2026 ran June 5-7 at the Grand Wayne Convention Center, where the posted registration list showed 247 competitors, including 33 first-timers and 214 returners, in a field capped at 325.

The schedule covered the core WCA lineup, with official events in 3x3x3, 2x2x2, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6, 7x7x7, 3x3x3 one-handed, pyraminx and skewb. That mix gave the Midwest a full test across speed, lookahead, turning accuracy and big-cube endurance, and it did it under standard World Cube Association rules in a venue that has seen this stage before. The same Grand Wayne Convention Center hosted Great Lakes in 2018, when the event limit was 300.

The title race carried its own twist. Podium places at regional championships are open to all competitors, but Great Lakes Champion honors go only to eligible residents who declare residency and bring proof of it. That meant cubers from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin were playing two games at once: the open podium race and the six-state title chase. For the local crowd, that setup kept the stakes high even when out-of-region visitors pushed the pace at the top of the standings.

Luke Griesser of Lexington, Kentucky, gave the meet a familiar speedcubing profile from the floor. He has been cubing for about 11 years, got started through a childhood interest in magic tricks, helps run CubingGG, and said his normal 3x3 is around five seconds, with a best solve of 2.76 seconds. Finals were set to start Sunday at 8:00 a.m., a time that fit the weekend’s no-nonsense, early-start rhythm.

What this changes next is momentum. A 41.54 average in 5x5x5 is the sort of result that travels well through the rest of the U.S. summer schedule, and the combination of a bigger cap, a deep returning field and a strong first-timer turnout shows Great Lakes still has room to grow. Fort Wayne did not just host another regional meet; it reminded the Midwest that the title race and the clock are both getting faster.