Inigo Palisoc leads Las Piñas Speedcubing Open IV with 3x3 and 4x4 wins

Inigo Miguel B. Palisoc owned the two events that matter most to the average cuber, taking both 3x3 and 4x4 at Las Piñas Speedcubing Open IV. His 7.02-second average in 3x3 and 25.83 in 4x4 made him the clear center of the meet, even as the podiums stayed tight behind him.

The competition ran June 6 at Robinsons Las Piñas in Metro Manila, with the Main Atrium set up as the stage. Niño Francis S. Reyes organized the meet and Yuji Yoshida served as delegate, a pairing that matched the scale of the turnout. Registration hit the cap at 100 entrants, including 34 first-timers and 66 returners, before the field settled at 89 competitors on competition day. A payment-first system and a base fee of 600 gave the event the kind of administrative backbone needed for a crowded mall venue.

Palisoc’s 3x3 win was not a runaway, but it was decisive enough to separate him from the chase. Brenton Angelo Lo Wong finished second with a 7.45 average, and Gabriel Subion took third in 7.86. The margins were small enough to keep the final rounds tense, which is exactly what a healthy local scene needs: enough depth to make the podium earned, not handed out.

The same pattern showed up in 4x4, where Palisoc’s 25.83 average put him ahead of Brenton Angelo Lo Wong in second and Nikolai Harvey Sy Zipagan in third. That matters because 4x4 can expose the difference between a cuber who is merely fast and one who can stay controlled when edge pairing and lookahead get messy. Palisoc handled both ends of that test on the day.

More than the medals, the meet showed how far the Metro Manila scene has spread beyond a handful of headline names. A full registration list, a strong returner base and 34 first-timers all inside a mall atrium point to a circuit that is still widening. Robinsons Las Piñas gave the event public visibility and easy access, and the turnout showed that those spaces are helping build a deeper bench, not just filling brackets.