Do you do better in competitions or at home?

[joshsailscga]

Definitely better in competition. Examples:
Peach State 2015: Global Avg of 40.89, official average of 36.16
US Nats 2015: Global Avg of 34.16, official average of 31.51
Atlanta Open 2015: Global Avg of 31.44, official average of 30.13.
So yeah.

Just for reference, the idea of an average is to give an average time for your solves. So if taken literally, saying your global average is 31.44 is saying every single time you do an average, you get 31.44 plus or minus a few thousandths. A more reasonable way to say it would be a 31 second average (obviously your offical average is reported in the decimals). If you think about it, reporting a global average to the hundredths place would mean your global average changes every single solve.
Not trying to be mean, just wanted to explain the concept, you're not the only new person who's done that.

 

[TDM]

Decided to check global averages vs comp PB averages. I've only been to four comps since getting to the speed I'm at now so I haven't had many opportunities for lucky official averages.

I used averages except for 3BLD, Mega and Multi, where I don't have one.

Most of them seem to be near enough 8% faster in competition, with a couple of exceptions (3BLD is much faster, and 2x2/Mega are slower).

 

[YouCubing]

how do you average 31.44

Uh... why wouldn't you?

 

[frogmanson]

I'm about 3 seconds slower in competition than I am at home.

 

[TDM]

Uh... why wouldn't you?

That's a very specific time to say that you average.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

bumpy
I can has more datums:
KCubbng 2015: Global avg around 13, comp averages 12.82, 12.10, 13.88, average difference = -0.5%
Moozik City Winter 2016: Global average around 12.4, comp averages 11.91, 11.20, 13.68, average difference = -1.1%
OKCupid 2016: Global average around 12.2, comp averages 11.88, 10.86, 11.86, average difference = -5.5%
KClappfest 2016 Spring Edition 2016: Global around 12.4, comp averages 11.01, 12.56, 12.54, average difference = -2.3%
US Cats 2016: Global around 11.9, comp averages 12.03, 11.93, average difference = +0.7%

Averagy average = -1.7%, i.e. I am still a bit better at comps but not that much better than at home anymore (would probably be like -1.8% if they DIDN'T HAVE THE NATIONALS VENUE AT 52 DEGREES GOD lol)

 

[Rcuber123]

I'm so bad at comps...

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

Oh btw I hope there isn't another mDiPalma on the forums

 

[Matt11111]

Wow. Pretty even split so far.

 

[Loiloiloi]

I do better at comps because the lighting is much better. At home it's hard to find good lighting where yellow and white stickers don't look the same, I have considered switching to black stickers (I already use them for squan) instead of white just for this reason.

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

I do better at comps because the lighting is much better. At home it's hard to find good lighting where yellow and white stickers don't look the same, I have considered switching to black stickers (I already use them for squan) instead of white just for this reason.

At KCupping competitions the lighting isn't very great I can't even see my cups

 

[newtonbase]

I seem to do better in competition in longer events but worse at the short ones. I can't get close to my home tines in 2x2 and Pyraminx but my 5x5 competition single is an overall PB by a huge margin. I haven't voted.

 

[DGCubes]

I ran a similar test to TDM's, and here are my results:

A couple notes:
I used significant figures for these calculations.
I used single for 3BLD and MBLD (one of which adds to my average quite a bit).
When eliminating the two where I used single and only looking at averages, my average percent difference drops to -4.6%.

This is really surprising to me; I always feel like I do way better in comps than I do at home, which apparently isn't true overall. Although, it is interesting to note that in 2x2, 3x3, Skewb, and Pyraminx, my comp averages are 10% better or more, which is probably because these events are relatively scramble based.

 

[turtwig]

I screw up some rounds and get really lucky in others, overall I think I do much better than I expect, especially for longer events, I've gotten 5x5, 6x6, 7x7, and 3BLD PBs in comp, I guess the pressure lets me comcentrate better. I've gotten better than expected in basically every event except maybe 3x3 and 4x4. I placed first in a 2x2 round mostly because I knew some easy EG cases no one else in the competition knew, did much better than I averaged in Megaminx with almost no practice prior, got a Pyra average with 4 PLL skips, got a 6.35 Skewb average, which placed me 3rd at the comp despite averaging just sub-8, and got 2 sub-20s, including a 16 and a 21 average in OH despite averaging 25. So I guess I'm really lucky in comps

 

[JustinTimeCuber]

I screw up some rounds and get really lucky in others, overall I think I do much better than I expect, especially for longer events, I've gotten 5x5, 6x6, 7x7, and 3BLD PBs in comp, I guess the pressure lets me comcentrate better. I've gotten better than expected in basically every event except maybe 3x3 and 4x4. I placed first in a 2x2 round mostly because I knew some easy EG cases no one else in the competition knew, did much better than I averaged in Megaminx with almost no practice prior, got a Pyra average with 4 PLL skips, got a 6.35 Skewb average, which placed me 3rd at the comp despite averaging just sub-8, and got 2 sub-20s, including a 16 and a 21 average in OH despite averaging 25. So I guess I'm really lucky in comps

I've gotten a 5x5 and 6x6 overall PB at the same competition and didn't make the cutoff in either one
that's not even mentioning by 7.21 pyra average which was I think almost a PB (I know you guys are lauging atm)
neither are still PBs lol

 

[GenTheSnail]

Lol I do way worse in comp than at home.
The things that make me think that because I was expecting a normal average
20.62 average when I averaged 17 3x3
26.56 average when I averaged 23 OH
1:24.49 average and a 1:40.86 single (corner twist) when I was sub-1:20 3x3 fw
5.47 average when I was sub-4.8ish 2x2
4.02 2x2 single. 1-move CLL layer that canceled into a sune -> T-Perm+AUF.

idc but it was still bad
5:23.02 single when I averaged 5 on 6x6
45.22 single when I was just around sub-45. soft cutoff was 45. sq-1

Things that shouldn't make me think that:
16 single when I wasn't sub-20 3x3
28 single when I wasn't sub-33 OH
12.96 average when I was idk sub-15? pyra
13.13 average when I was like sub-15 also? skewb
2:29.46 5x5, I was pleasantly surprised because I was just hoping for sub-2:50
2:41.05 mega, I think this was a little good, I was just hoping for sub-3? (But I like mega now)

My conclusion:
I do bad in comp at the things I care about.
If I could[n't] care less, then a result in general is good enough for me.

 

[tx789]

I can do well in comps and have like in 6x6 and 7x7 I have gotten quite a few PBs by significant margins. My last comp I got a 5:19.xx mean my PB single was 5:12.xx before the comp. I might of beaten it slightly. On 2x2 recently I have failed. However I need to work on revising EG-1 very well. Usually I did pretty well in all event but 3x3 in the past.

 

[FastCubeMaster]

Some events I do better, some worse. For 3BLD at the only competition I've done it, I did significantly worse than home, Probably cos I was trying to make it a safe success.

 

[Slowto Speedy]

I get super nervous. My hands shake and I get a it of lock ups. That's why my comp PB average is 18.18 :/

 

[gateway cuber]

can't say for sure yet cause my first comp is next saturday, but I've always been slower in front of groups...