German Nationals 2008

[BinomDreher]

Ron, at first i gotta thank you and your team for making this event possible and never loosing patience although the circumstances were very tough...It was my first competition ever and i was a bit "shocked" when I entered the room and there were so many people, not enough space, other fairy visitors passing by etc pp....
But i have still had lots of fun - I did my crappy solve and finally I could see and talk to some of you cubers I know from this forum which was very nice (although I would have really liked to stay longer at your stand, but my girlfriend was a little exhausted and there were no possibilities to take a seat around^^).

Sidenote: It was a little weird that in the finals, the (obviously non-cubing) audience just applauded at Eriks 10.xx solves, but not at Rams or anyone elses 12/13-ish solves^^ must be the magic number 10 heh

@Joey: Thanks anyway for judging mostly the slow people

 

[Rama]

Sidenote: It was a little weird that in the finals, the (obviously non-cubing) audience just applauded at Eriks 10.xx solves, but not at Rams or anyone elses 12/13-ish solves^^ must be the magic number 10 heh

Well when non cubing people see a 15s solve they want to see a 14 then a 13 etc... They are very high demanding. xD


Well it was very hectic alright, hopefully we have more space next year.
I only ate half a bread with raisins and shared a schnitzel-bread with Charlie and had one bottle of energizer.

I am very satisfied with my 3x3x3 results, I really practised for it (since DO) and despite my timer malfunction (I got a fast oll and 3c edges) so I had to retry that one and +2 on my 13.42 solve I know for sure I can get sub 12.

I wasn't really nervous, I don't know if it was because there was no time to be nervous or if I just really was relaxed, but 1 thing is for sure, I got sub-1 for 4x4x4 and I only did a few solves the day before. I will certainly practise 4x4x4 now.

It was nice to meet people who I only met on speedsolving or youtube.

 

[ParityErrors]

...hopefully we have more space next year.

I talked to one of the Jumbo staff, and she told me that the speedsolving event will bes seperated from the exhibition booth. So there should be more space next year.



Q

P.S. @Ron Good luck at the swimming event.

 

[RobinBloehm]

I think we have to mention Michael Pohl who broke the German National Record for 3x3 Average in his first competition ever, everyone was happy cause we got a record back from Lucas Garron

Congratulations again on this way.

As Rama I wasn't very nervous except for my last 3x3 try in the final, cause it would have been very easy to come in as the second best German and gain 100€
But for the 4x4 the Average of 5 was one of the best I could hope for in a competition because I liked the light of the TV-camera, making it easier to see the colours. My 1:09.XX was a 34 seconds reduction, so It should have been a sub-1, but a bad cross and double parity made that impossible for me, damn....
anyway, I powned the other Germans

Now I hope to see you all at the next competition, hopefully there will be an Aachen Open, directly at the borders to the Netherlands and Belgium at the second or third weekend in January, what do you think, are you interested?

 

[TMOY]

And also easy to reach from France with Thalys...
I couldn't attend German Nationals but I would be interested in an Aachen Open.

 

[Crazycubemom]

Robin Hood , I will and congratulations with all your new record's .

 

[DennisStrehlau]

Yeah, i was soooo happy with my results.
I got 1:23 min and then 1:19 min in blindfolded without any practise and now i really want to start bld again!
And i got 31 seconds OH, wich really pissed me off, cause it must have been sub 30 (6 seconds G-Perm ) and then, the next solve i finally got my first sub 30s in competiton. 29 seconds.

It was nice meeting all the people again, especially the Germans like Jens, Monika, Robin and Raffael. I will be at the Aachen-Open.
Too bad, that my gf, Anika, couldnt make it.
And also the other guys were really nice. Like Michael Gottlieb, Frank Morris and Dan Cohen.


Greetings...Dennis

 

[mpohl100]

Yeah,
so I don't know how to start.
Maybe to clarify some things I am Michael Pohl and thanks to you Robin for mentioning me before mentioning your own success.
He won the 4x4 competiton with a 10 secs difference to the second place. That's an awesome accomplishment.

Yeah that Nation record at 3x3 was really awesome. I wasn't shaky at all in the first round and so I reached my home level.
Unluckily in the fianl I got 2 DNFs because I was so nervous!!!

Nevertheless I hadf a great time at the German Nationals.
Meeting all the guys I know from the internet was really awesome and also seeing those masters of the big cubes: Erik, Michael Gottlieb, Dan Cohen, Frank Morris and Michal Halczuk
and seeing the masters of blindfolded: Dennis and Tim and also Kai
and of course meeting the crew from Aachen Robin, Jens, Monika, Sebastian, Axel and Florian.

You guys are all awesome!!!!!

 

[Markus Pirzer]

Wow, this competition was hectic:
= A lot of people in a very small room
= Huge audience walking among us
= Not a planned time schedule for the morning, anyone competed when he/she was ready
= No time for lunch, toilet, I only had a small drink
= Germans and international competitors together, so we had to make double certificates (except for blindfolded, top 3 Germans)
= It was hot
= With some guys being at two stands (Jumbo and V-Cubes) we had some delays finding the missing guys
= Pim was not able to help us, so Ton and I had to run the show with only two guys
But... we had good help from our friends, especially Rama, Arnaud, Maria and Sébastien, but also the others.

I hope you had a great time.

Ron

Yes, I agree with almost all points. The competition definitly doesn't met point 7b of the regulation "Audience should be at least 1.50 meter away from the competitors". But I know this from previous German Nationals. Since we had much more competitors than last year, it was clear that it would be very difficult to match the time schedule.

Nevertheless I had a great time at the competition.
I'm very happy with my times (apart from 4x4x4 and blindfolded) especially with my first 3x3x3 solve. I improved my single solve time at exactly 10 seconds!!! Although it was a alomost perfect solve, I couldn't believe the time when I looked at the timer. It was even almost 2 seconds faster than my best time ever while practising.
I also had good times at magic and improved my records. I thought it could be enough for a Top 3 place, but I was 0.05 seconds behind the third German.

Unfortunately I missed the winning ceremony (it was about 1 hour later than planned), otherwise I would have missed my train.

 

[KJiptner]

Hey guys, Janine and me just came back a few minutes ago. It was an awesome competition for me. Michael had some bad luck in the 3x3 finals, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to beat him. Congrats for the NR! Robin, Dennis and Timo also did an awesome job in "their" events!

Incase somebody is wondering about my almost 3 min BLD, I saw how every good German besides Tim and Dennis DNFed his Blindsolves, so I knew I just had to get one, and that's what I did, using my new system, which I'm not fast with yet (Letterpair system M2+Turbo Corners ) My second attempt was a 1:08 but Memo mistake and therefore DNF (4-5 pieces).
My 4x4 Final was horrible! I made a mistake on EVERY solve, on my last one I had only paired like 2 edges in 47 seconds and just threw the cube away, Erik or Rama like
Also congratulations to the Internationals, who pretty much pwned the comp. It was nice meeting some new faces. Erik was close to getting 2 more WRs btw.
And a big "thank you" to the organizers/judges, who handled the awfully crowded situation pretty well. Arnaud has invented a new judging, timekeeping system, "Stack-Management" ("Look away, I scramble" )

Janine, Tim, Katja and me did not go to the V-Cube competition today, because we were all not very excited to do so. Janine was ill and had an exausting day at the fare yesterday already. Tim and me are not fast at the V-cubes yet (maybe me a little on 5x5)

 

[Ron]

Markus, sorry that we were indeed running late. You probably know I hate that too. There were some factors here:
1) in the last week we received a lot of new registrations and some already registered competitors added events
2) we could not add more timers, there simply was not enough room for that
3) we missed Pim, so Ton was not able to help much with judging/scrambling at the beginning of the competition
4) we intentionally do not reserve a specific time for the preliminary rounds of the events, because we know some people arrive later than others (Germany is a big country)
5) we decided to use only 2 timers for the 3x3 final, otherwise it would be a real mess. We also had to enable the camera team to get good shots of the final.
6) during the competition we had printed the wrong (=international) certificates, so in the end we still had to print the German certificates, which took a long time. Luckily Germans took top 3 positions in blindfolded...

Personally I did very poorly in the competition. But I am not surprised about it. I started building up at 9am and after working all the time on two timers and scrambling in between, at 1:35pm I was finally ready to do my solves. Those were my first solves of the day.

Afterwards I felt sorry for Michael P. because of his 2 DNFs. There were actually quite a few competitors who did not wait for the green light to start. If you haven't done any moves, then normally I let a competitor start again. But if you have already done moves, then I think we have to be strict. Otherwise you can abuse this case for example if you have a bad cross. You just hit the timer and start solving. In exchange you get an extra attempt with a different scrambled position. We should not accept it.

Next year we will also have the stand on the other side, next to the wall.
We will have the competition over there with (at least) 6 timers in a row and noone behind you, only the wall. It will also make it better for the audience.

Have fun,

Ron
PS: looking forward pictures and videos!
Post them on http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/media.php

 

[mpohl100]

Thanks for the honour Kai but I was so nervous in the final that I wouldn't have reached a sub 16 avg. so I am a hundret per cent sure that I wouldn't have been able to defeat you.

Edit: @Ron: Those 2 DNFs in the final didn`'t really affect my mood. I have reached more than I expected at my first competition and getting the NR for 3x3 avg and finishing second at 4x4 final is really making me happy. In a nutshell: I wasn't disappointed at all after my mess in the final.

 

[Kenneth]

How come Michal Halczuk wasn't in the 4x4x4 finals?

 

[Ton]

How come Michal Halczuk wasn't in the 4x4x4 finals?

The format was 6 German + 6 Internationals with best of 2 to qualify, Michal was just not fast enough.... by 0.01 sec , he was nr 7 of the internationals in the qualification

 

[Lucas Garron]

everyone was happy cause we got a record back from Lucas Garron

Hey, there!

Yeah,
Yeah that Nation record at 3x3 was really awesome. I wasn't shaky at all in the first round and so I reached my home level.

Congratulations on that. It wasn't a surprise to me at all, but still...
The record was from February, and deserved to be broken. I've missed opportunities to get an official sub-14 average (US Nationals was sad, because I made enough stupid mistake to barely not qualify for semis, barring me from easy entry into finals. 3 squandered rounds...), and it's time.

However, I have two competitions next month, and I vow to take back the average record. I also plan to get 2x2x2 single and finally get a cubic NR sweep after a depressing Nationals performance.

Furthermore, I plan to make it to the DM next year (unless maybe Worlds complicates it), if Verdes is willing to sponsor a flight for me to help at the V-Cube stand. I missed the opportunity this year because of a misunderstanding (very sad lost opportunities, but I'm getting over it), but my goal is to stay on top for a year and visit in 2009 to take all the main event titles.

 

[AvGalen]

Did you know that:
* I went to German Nationals with Joey? (who stayed at my place for a week after Dutch Open)
* I came back from German Nationals with Joey, Charlie, Erik and Laetitia?
* Joey and I stayed at Dennis place the first night?
* Anika stayed there as well, but favored clubbing/sleeping over cubing?
* Joey, Charlie and I stayed at Dennis place the second night?
* Anika stayed there as well (again), but favored clubbing/sleeping over cubing (joined by Dennis this time)?
* Charlie and I got the exact same (bad) average time for 3x3x3?
* That I did really well on all other events: 4x4x4 (1:30 worst), 3x3x3_bf (all succesfull, ranking me 4th only behind Dennis, Tim and Kai), 3x3x3_oh (all sub 40) and magic (sub 2)?
* That I only did 16 solves in total on saturday, but scrambled about 300 cubes?
* Charlie was my judge on the first solve for 4x4x4? And that solve was performed like this: "table with timer and cube, Charlie (judge) standing in the competitor position, me (competitor) standing behind her with my arms around her actually performing the solve"?
* That that 4x4x4 solve was one of my best 4x4x4 solves ever (1:18)? And definately the most enjoyed one?
* That I continously scrambled and judged 3x3x3 competitors for 3 hours without leaving my 60x40 cm location on the podium?
* That I think it is a little weird that the German National was almost entirely run by non-germans (Ron, Ton, Rama, Maria, Charlie, me and others)?
* That a human body kind of fits through a tennis racket?
* That me laughing while wearing a tennis racket will NOT be viewable on youtube?
* That I was disappointed about Mátyás not being at the V-Cube tournament?
* That I was disappointed about Yu and other Asian top-big-cubers not being at the V-Cube tournament?
* That I was really happy about all the top-big-cubers (Dan, Michael (2x), Frank and 'Paris') that were at the V-Cube tournament?
* That mr. Verdes was at the V-Cube tournament (a little like Erno Rubiks being there) and that he gave signed 7x7x7's to the top-big-cubers?
* That Laetitia was solving 7x7x7's for over an hour, while NOT touching a megaminx?
* That Arnaud's silicon oil is now the most wanted item by each and every v-cube solver?
* That about 2 out of 3 bigcubes were actually scrambled correct?
* That I don't want to talk about my 5x5x5 results?
* That I broke my PB on 6x6x6 (4:23) and did another sub 5 on the second solve?
* That I broke my PB on 7x7x7 (6:55) and did another sub 7 on the second solve?
* That I was by far the most consistent 7x7x7 solver (6:55.08 and 6:55.88)?
* That I only solved 9 big cubes during this competition, but scrambled dozens?
* That black V7's exist in very limited quantities?
* That blue stickers for black V7's are even rarer?
* That I restrung the Magic 3 times (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and that it is currently in need of more restringing
* That Joey and I will be doing our entire weekly competition tonight in 1 go?

 

[BinomDreher]

Arnaud i can assure you that i "didnt know" most of those facts
Congrats to your good results, you deserved it at least for the massive amount of scrambles you had to do for other people^^

* That I think it is a little weird that the German National was almost entirely run by non-germans (Ron, Ton, Rama, Maria, Charlie, me and others)?

Thats what i thought also - it felt a little like a "Dutch Open"

Ah btw: Could you post the V-Cube competition results perhaps?

 

[Jens]

One more nice Competition, even though i wasn't really satisfied with my results. Except for the 3rd place in 4x4 of course (Aachen 1st and 3rd, yeah ). Too bad i didn't make it to the 3x3 finals...

my goal is to stay on top for a year and visit in 2009 to take all the main event titles.

Big Plans

PS: Big thanks to the Organizers! I think you had a hard day

 

[Ton]

* That I think it is a little weird that the German National was almost entirely run by non-germans (Ron, Ton, Rama, Maria, Charlie, me and others)?

Yep , and not to many helped us at the start, still looking for the Germans organizing competition in Germany or at least assist us as volunteer . I was hoping a Germans cubers would volunteer, we can assist as WCA delegate if the Germans want to organize their competitions.
btw Stefan Pochmann is the German WCA deligate

 

[CharlieCooper]

Whhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttt a mission. oh my god.

ok finally home!

german nationals was good but deeply stressful. thank you so much to ron and ton and maria and rama for being so helpful. i tried to help as much as possible but i went to the loo once and there was a queue 90384km long which kept me away for so long. it would have been nice to maybe have time for a short break for everyone who was scrambling and judging. it really isn't cool when people only judge their friends and then just disappear. very disrespectful to those who are taking the time to organise a competition.

thank you to maria for providing rama and i with schnitzel, i don't think we would have coped without it. also, i love how maria always has noodles, coffee, tea and chocolate with her. always!!

it was really really cool to meet some new cubers who weren't from europe, who are usually just screen names. it was also nice to see so much interest in cubing on both days (one guy at the v cube stand watched ALL day in the same place!! how amazing!)

v cube day was just as busy.only 4 people in the final was a bit silly in my opinion, because they all started solving at the same time, during which time 4 other cubes could have been scrambled (allowing 8 people in the final). otherwise it was really fun, i broke a lot of pbs on the bigger cubes and i got a black 7x7

after the competition we got some food before dropping me off at the station, where i found out there was no train to hannover. disaster. but i phoned arnaud, who is the master of solving problems (Except ones where he has to get out of a tennis racket), and i went back to rotterdam. then i got a train to hannover this morning. this is a map of my journey:

seriously, what the hell.

my favourite part of the weekend was arnaud in the tennis racket. i hope i have a video. it *may* appear on youtube...

also, if there is an aachen open i will definitely come, as long as it is not the same weekend as the swiss open. i might also need to stay at arnaud's for a month beforehand so that i can sub 2 on 5x5