The Weekend Ahead: April 24-26, 2026

Highlighting competitions from around the world of speedcubing.

Caleb Chen. Courtesy of the WCA.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Weekend Ahead! Although it’s a bit of a slower weekend, there’s still a ton of great competitions to keep your eyes on, including an interesting FMC slate in California, as well as a major regional championship elsewhere in the United States.

Southeast Championship

Get your country on, y’all, cause we’re headed to Huntsville, Alabama, for our first competition. This year’s edition of the CubingUSA Southeast Championship is headlined by Caleb Chen, who’s sure to use this as a dress rehearsal for the high-stakes North American Championship in July.

Chen is the clear favorite for the 3x3 event: his closest competitor, Dominic Redisi, has a PR average that’s nearly a half-second longer than Chen’s, so it’ll take a considerable amount of effort from Redisi to mount a challenge to Chen.

As for other events, be sure to check out Redisi’s performance in the Skewb event. He’s got the third-best average in the world, and although he’d have to perform exceedingly well to take the world record from Ignacy Samelski, don’t be surprised if he ends up taking the NA title from Carter Kucala.

Also, watch out for a battle in the Clock event. Four top-100 solvers are competing for the Southeast title: Drake Denton Richard, Eddie Artze, Drew Windham, and Jasper Wolfe-Tham. It’s sure to be a close contest, and one you’ve gotta check out.

Western FMC Championship

FMC mentioned! Although it appears to be a conventional regional championship, this competition is interesting mostly because of its unconventional format: four different competitions will be held (three in California, one in Nevada), and then an aggregate ranking of the best performances from each competition will determine the champion.

The two highest-ranking competitors both represent China: Dewei Tan and Yunhao Lou, who are both tied with a PR average of 21.33. Meanwhile, the US representatives are led by Calvin Nielson and SCTV’s finest, Manu Singhal.

Midwest Cubing Classic

Rounding out our trio of US comps is this Wisconsin event that features a lot of big names competing. Although there are only four events (3x3, 2x2, Clock, and Pyraminx), there’s sure to be a lot of competition nonetheless.

Brian Johnson is a strong favorite to win the 3x3 contest, although he’ll face some stiff competition going up against world number-one Sujan Feist in 2x2. Other names to look out for include Carter Thomas, Simon Kellum, and Zeke Mackay.

If you’re in the Milwaukee area this weekend, be sure to check this one out.