Ostap Bukatiuk left the Ukrainian Nationals in Lviv with three national records, all of them averages. He matched his own Pyraminx record of 2.34 seconds in the first round, then cut it to 2.21 in the final. In the 2x2 he averaged 1.48, taking the Ukrainian record off Yurii Hnidko, who had set 1.52 in April. Bukatiuk won both events outright and came third in the 3x3, in a championship field of 66.
Forty-five competitions finished over the weekend, across 21 countries. 2,435 people competed, 392 of them for the first time, and between them they improved 2,589 personal best singles. The largest turnout was at Silesia Cubing Days in Knurów, Poland, where 132 people entered.
Twenty results carried a national record, set by 14 competitors in 12 countries. Nobody set a world record, and nobody set a continental one. The last world record fell on 22 August, when Sujan Feist averaged 0.86 seconds in the 2x2 at Cubing the Coast MS in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Timofei Tarasenko took both the 6x6 and the Megaminx averages at the Kuala Lumpur Cubing Challenge. Thirty-two days have passed since. No continental record has fallen since 13 September.
Emmanuel Kao set three Singapore records at the Singapore Polytechnic September Showdown: the 4x4 average at 23.06, the 6x6 average at 1:08.28, and then the 6x6 single at 1:01.23 in the final.
Two long-standing rivals met at that same competition. Lim Hung of Malaysia and Tristan Chua Yong of Singapore have competed against each other since 2018, and in Singapore they shared 11 rounds. They split them by puzzle. Lim finished ahead in all eight rounds of the 5x5, 6x6 and 7x7. Chua finished ahead in all three rounds of the Megaminx. The two have now met 613 times at 43 competitions, and Chua leads 309 to 304. Before Saturday he led by ten.
The fastest first solve of the week belonged to Abhay Gupta at the Galgotias Cube Open in Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. He opened with 10.50 in the first round and 10.71 in the second, then produced 8.42 in the final. That was the quickest 3x3 single of the 355 debutants who completed one. He also came third in both the 4x4 and the 5x5.
Bukatiuk first competed in March 2025, and Lviv was his eighteenth competition. Gupta has been to one.