How It Works

SCL is a team-based cubing league built specifically for elementary and middle school students. Instead of an individual ranking, a school's result comes from the whole team — every teammate's solve contributes to one shared score. It's a different kind of competition, built around a season, a school, and a team working toward the same goal.

No — SCL is an independent organization, not a WCA program or affiliate. SCL is built by the founder of the World Cube Association, along with many of the sport's other early organizers and builders. That experience shapes how we run things, but SCL isn't operated, sanctioned, or endorsed by the WCA.

We'd encourage both. SCL is built around team competition, season-long practice with your school, and a shared score — it's less about chasing an individual ranking and more about what the team builds together. WCA competitions are a great complement for a student who wants to explore other types of solving. Plenty of families do both, and the skills your student builds in one place tend to make them stronger in the other.

No — it's entirely optional. If your student has one, you're welcome to include it on their registration, but it's not required to register or compete.

No — SCL provides the puzzles for all official events. Competitors don't need to bring their own equipment; every solve happens on identical, SCL-provided hardware.

Elementary covers grades K–6, and Middle School covers the grades 5-8. If your school's structure doesn't split cleanly along those lines, reach out to us and we'll work with you to figure out where your students fit.

Teams are 3–5 students. Five is recommended — more solvers means more depth across the individual and pair events, and more hands actually solving cubes during the team events. A smaller team is welcome to compete, but five gives your team the most ground to cover.

Yes. If your school registers more than one team, each one is identified separately by a nickname you choose — or we'll assign one (Team A, Team B, and so on) if you'd rather skip that step.

There's no fixed deadline, but we're accepting the first 100 teams for our inaugural season. After that, additional registrations will depend on available capacity — so we'd encourage registering early. Pricing also increases after November 1, so registering before then gets your team the lower rate.

We'd recommend registering with 5 students from the start, even if your roster isn't finalized. Swapping a name on your roster later is easy — but adding a student after registration will depend on availability. If you register for 5 and end up with fewer, that's no problem either.

$175 per student if your team registers by November 1, and $250 per student after that. The rate is based on your registration date, so registering early keeps the lower price for your whole team.

An invoice is sent to the team representative email within 3 days of registering. Once payment is received, your team appears on the public list of registered teams. If you don't receive the invoice, reach out to us.

Reach out to us — we'd rather work with you than have your team lose their spot over timing. That said, since spots are limited, paying promptly is the best way to make sure your team's registration holds.

Yes — many teams find it helpful to compete against nearby schools before the championship. Schools are welcome to organize their own local meets as part of their season.

No — local meets are organized and run by the schools themselves, not by SCL. We can provide resources like scoring sheets to help, and if you want to compete on the same hardware used at the SCL Championship, our partner SpeedCubeShop carries the official puzzles for purchase.

Visit our Get Involved page to see upcoming local meets, or submit your own event to be listed for other teams to find.

For the 2027 season, the 3x3 puzzle is the MoYu RS3M V5. The 2x2 and Pyraminx models are still being finalized.

You can use your own puzzles for local events, but SCL provides the puzzles for the championships and all official events. At the championships and all official events, every competitor solves on identical SCL-provided hardware.

The puzzles are available through our partner SpeedCubeShop — useful if your team wants to train on the same hardware used at SCL events.