Mats Valk

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Mats Valk (born 4 May 1996) is a Dutch Rubik's Cube speedsolver. He broke the Rubik's cube single solve world record twice with times of 5.55 seconds in 2013 and 4.74 seconds in 2016. He was runner-up for 3x3x3 at the Rubik's cube world championships in 2013 and 2015. Valk is currently ranked 11th in the world for 3x3x3 average,with a time of 6.83 Seconds.

Video Mats Valk

Biography

Mats Valk is most famous for breaking the Rubik's cube world record twice and being the runner-up at both the Rubik's cube world championships of 2013 and 2015. He first broke the world record with a time of 5.55 seconds at the Zonhoven Open 2013 in Belgium on 3 March 2013. This record stood for over 2 years. He later broke the world record again with a time of 4.74 seconds at the Jawa Timur Open 2016 in Indonesia on 6 November 2016. In December 2016, Valk looked on as Feliks Zemdegs overtook his world record by just 0.01 seconds. Valk's 4.74 solve is currently the 5th fastest official single, behid 2 Feliks Zemdegs solves, a Patrick Ponce solve and a SeungBeom Cho solve.

Valk has also set three 4x4x4 world records, two for single solve and one for average of 5. His second single world record, 26.77 seconds on 15 April 2012, was the first official 4x4x4 solve under 30 seconds. Altogether, Valk has broken 5 WCA world records, 17 European records, and 94 Dutch national records. Valk also currently holds the world record for solving the most Rubik's cubes in 1 hour, 374 cubes, set in Paris on 21 October 2015.

Valk is also known as a creator of the VLS (Valk Last Slot) 3x3x3 algorithm set, which correctly orients the last layer while inserting the last corner-edge pair of the first two layers. Valk used one of these algorithms as to complete the cube in his 2016 3x3x3 world record.

Valk typically solves the 3x3x3 beginning with the green or blue face, unlike most speedcubers. This may be a result of him being colorblind.

Valk was born and raised in Amstelveen, the Netherlands, a suburb of the Dutch capital Amsterdam. Mats is in his last year of his bachelor's degree Business Analytics at the Free University of Amsterdam. In 2016, he was on a semester exchange at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Valk's mother, Anneke van Rijks, is dating WCA cofounder and Board member Ron van Bruchem. He has a sister, Natalia.

Maps Mats Valk

The Valk

Valk is also a businessman: he collaborated with the Chinese brand QiYi MoFangGe to set up his own brand, The Valk, creating cubes according to his own specifications. The design of the mechanism and the performance of the cube has to be approved by Mats Valk himself before the cube is mass-produced and sold. This is to secure all cubes released under this brand are top quality. The first cube released under this brand was the Valk3 on 15 August 2016. This cube is widely considered as one of the best Rubik's cubes available, used by many other world class speedcubers, including Patrick Ponce's former world record single. This is due to the fact the cube is very smooth, stable and doesn't have to be perfectly aligned to perform the next move. The size of the cube (5.55 cm each side) is a reference to his first Rubik's cube world record. He set his 2016 3x3x3 world record using a special magnetized version of this cube put together by TheCubicle.us, known as the Cubicle Valk3 M. According to both QiYi and Mats, they are now working on a new, better version of the 3x3x3 cube as well as a 4x4x4 cube, likely to be named Valk4. In additon, QiYi released another Valk 3x3, the Valk Power and Power M, or Valk Power Magnetic.