I went to the Newark Open 2008! I had a great time. I brought three of my friends with me too.
First, I got there at like 8:50 in the morning, and I saw a crowd of cubers waiting in front of the Newark Public Library. I was really excited, and sort of amazed at how many people who were already there.
About five minutes later we got in and then everybody started to set up. We were in a long room with lots of chairs and and row of tables at front. The set up took like 15-20 minutes, so it was a little boring. They needed some timers so I let them borrow my timer.
Finally, we started to begin. I registered, along with my friends, and then a few minutes later I was called up for the first round of 3x3 speed. Tyson Mao judged all of my solves, and I did pretty well. I think I got a 19 second average but I'm not sure because they didn't announce it.
The first round took a long time - more than an hour. I think it might have even taken two hours. I felt bad for my friends because it was their first competition so they had to wait for more than an hour until they were called up. The first one averages about a minute, second around 1:20, and the third around 1:40. I did some judging and it was nice to see my friends officially solve their cube. I was really bored during the first round so I also ate my lunch during that time.
After a long time of waiting 3x3 OH was next. I just signed up for the fun of it, as I don't really do OH. They announced that you needed to get under 35 seconds within your first two solves or you couldn't continue. Well, I don't really do OH so I average like 2-3 minutes. Actually I didn't even solve the cube both times, kept on messing up on the U perms on the both solves, and just gave up and had DNFs.
Then, we had the 2x2 round. The first solve for me was 5 seconds, which is pretty good. The first layer was really easy, anti-sune, and PLL skip. The other solves I just got my average times - around 10 seconds.
Then I had the second round of 3x3 speed. My friends didn't make it in the second round so I was all alone.
I didn't do so well, and my average was like 20 seconds or so. Didn't make it into the 3rd round
. Also, Rowe Hessler got a 8.9x solve for 3x3. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it but the audience reaction was huge. My friend claims he was judging Rowe Hessler on that solve though....
Then, some people were doing 4x4 BLD and I was judging Tim Reynolds. Unfortunately, everybody got DNFs....
I signed up for 3x3 BLD a few days ago, guessing I would learn to memorize the cube by now, but I didn't, so I didn't do 3x3 BLD. I "unregistered" and got my $2 back
. The fastest time was 1:01.xx by Alex Yu.
Then came 4x4. Like 3x3 OH, I was doing it for fun, and they had the same qualification 2 solves thingy, because the library was closing soon. I averaged like 2:45 or something, and since you had to get a single of 1:15 or lower, I was going to be done after 2 solves. I got like 2:53 and 2:35 or something like that. The second solve was actually my 4x4 PB
Then came the 3x3 Final Round and the awards ceromony. There wasn't anything too special except in the awards ceronomy, most of the winners got called up multiple times. The "prizes" were medals and certificates.
During the competition, I met a lot of people. Some people I know that I met from this forum are Stachuk1992, Patrick Jameson, waffle=ijm, Jason Baum, Tyson Mao, and some other people I didn't get the names of. I also got an autograph from Tyson Mao.
Jason Baum can do U perms in less than a second, and he showed me how he did his clockwise U perm when the solved edge is in the back. I'm not fast at it yet, but I can see it's very fast potential. Rowe Hessler showed me him doing a T perm in less than a second! He has a REALLY fast cube and does the fingertricks most people use so he can do it very fast.
Also during the competition I made an awesome trade. This kid wanted my Easthsheen 5x5, because he "just liked it." He already had an V5 and another Easthsheen 5x5 so it was kind of weird that he wanted mine. After many times of me declining his offers, we finally decided on one. It was a very good deal for me but not really so much for him.
He offered:
- Used White V-Cube 5
- Used Old Rubik's Brand 4x4
- Barely Used Famwealth 3x3 Cube
In turn I gave him:
- Barely Used Black Eastsheen 5x5
- Barely Used Painted Version Type E DIY
It was kind of shocking how he offered this offer. He says the V-Cube 5 is too big for his hands (his hands are tiny) and he really wanted my Eastsheen 5x5. The offer was good so I said ok and I'm happy!
My friend bought a White Type A 3rd Model (not tabs) for $10 for a good. It's amazing at corning cutting, pretty smooth, and turns pretty fast. I think it's a very good cube, and I would like to buy one for myself later. The cube already had skidproof stickers on them, but I don't really like them too much - it feels weird.
Lastly, that day was the first time I tried V-Cubes. To my surprise, they were a little bit heavy, but they're turn pretty well. This competition was awesome and I can't wait until Westchester!
. This guy I met there, Phil, got the whole solve on his phone. Yeah, I had a really great time at Newark. Didn't do so well in 3x3, though.
