Reno park cubing meet draws 30 solvers, including 3 first-timers

A park pavilion changes the whole temperature of a cubing meet before the timers even start. At Bartley Ranch Regional Park in south Reno, 30 solvers showed up at the Flying B Picnic Pavilion for an official World Cube Association competition, including three first-timers who got their first taste of sanctioned speedcubing in public view.

Cubing in the Park Reno 2026 took place on June 20 at the Flying B, with Jacob Vincent Vicente Mangosing, Jason Ostdiek, Michael Larsen, and West Coast Cubing LLC listed as organizers. The meet capped at 40 competitors and carried a base registration fee of $25, which meant the field filled to 75% of capacity. By the time the competition wrapped, the WCA said results were being uploaded.

The venue was the point. Washoe County describes Bartley Ranch Regional Park as a 56-acre site with scenic pasture, multi-use trails, horse arenas, picnic areas, the Historic Huffaker School, and the outdoor Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater. The Flying B Picnic Pavilion sits beside a large lawn area near that amphitheater and the park’s 5-acre pasture, so the meet read less like a closed-room tournament and more like a live demonstration of what cubing looks like when it spills into a public space.

That matters because WCA events still run on the same rules no matter where they happen. The competition was held under the April 1, 2026 version of the WCA Regulations, so the park setting did not change the structure, only the atmosphere. Veterans could keep judging, scrambling, and pacing the rounds; newcomers could walk in without the formality that sometimes makes an indoor championship feel intimidating.

Michael Larsen’s role fit that larger pattern. He became a WCA delegate in 2023 and has organized and delegated competitions mainly in Nevada and Northern California, which makes Reno feel like part of an established regional circuit rather than a one-off experiment. CubingUSA says it supports nine Regional Championships each year, and that ladder of events is exactly what makes a 30-person meet worth watching: it is small enough to feel local, but official enough to show how the sport grows one picnic pavilion at a time.