
Super fun comp yesterday, with pretty good results!
I started off 3x3 round 1 with a pretty poor scramble. I think I even shook my head during inspection, but I was able to consistently lookahead through the solve since pair I planned was in the back left (which I've started doing a lot recently btw). Because of that, I was able to get a nice 6.74. A similar thing happened on the second solve, however I planned two pairs on this solve (which is also something I've worked on a lot haha). I locked up a ton on the Aperm at the end, but it was still a 6.83. However, I plus 2'ed this solve, so it turned into an 8.83. The next few solves were just super mid, with a 9.0, 7.6, and 7.9. This converted into an 8.14 average (7.44 without the plus 2). I didn't care too much though, and I was pretty happy with the fact that I was able to get a 7.4 average on a pretty bad scramble set (obviously not counting the plus 2). This proved to me how much I had improved since last comp, and I was able to get 0.1 away from my PR average on the first round of the year with a subpar scramble set.
After that round I did Clock, Skewb, and 5x5. I don't care about Clock and Skewb and I'm very washed at 5x5, so I don't really care about that. After lunch, it was time for 4x4 R1. Going into the round, I had a PR single of 27.72 and a PR average of 33.01. I global around 32 at home, so I was looking to improve my average, maybe 31 if I got lucky with the parties.
I started off with a 28.52 with OLL parity, which is insane to start off the year with. I then did the exact same thing on the second solve, and got a 28.48. At this point, I was already counting a solve almost 5 seconds faster than my PR average, and they both had OLL parity. I knew I could definitely get a 31 or even a 30 average here, and I was trying not to let the nerves affect me too much. I messed up the next solve and got a 35 (OLL parity again haha), but I was still on track for PR average. On solve 4, I messed up F2L by inserting a pair into the wrong slot, but I still got to PLL at around 25. I did PLL parity, and I think I was at Tperm sub 27. This should have been worst case a high 27 or a 28, but I messed up. Somehow I did the Tperm from the wrong angle, and I ended up with an Eperm. I had to go then do the Eperm, which I locked up on, and I ended up with a 30.81 (which is still good haha). I knew at this point that I had locked in a 31 average, and I was super happy about that. But I also knew that I had sub 30 BPA, which made me super nervous. I went into the last solve super shaky, but the Luke Griesser nerve control strats managed to clutch up, and I got a 24.53 PR single, giving me a 29.27 PR Average! The single is NR62, and the average is NR75. This also obliterates my previous world rank of 1026, bringing it all the way down to 289! I'm super happy all the practice paid off. I'm pretty sure the single is overall PB3, and the average is overall PB2, and stackmat PB.
After that, I had 3x3 round 2. I wasn't feeling too nervous, and on a mid scramble set I again got a 7.4 average. I corner-twisted out of a sub 7 average here lol (video coming soon), but it's fine, another 7.4 average is good lol. After this, I had 4x4 finals. Three solves were ok (30, 31, 33), but I messed up and counted a high 36. It's fine though, at least I got the good average in round 1!
3x3 finals was left after this. I again started off with a 6.4. I also got a 5.61 fullstep PR single, that honestly kind of sucked (OLL at 2.6, but I hesitated). I didn't really care since it's not that good for me. This did mean that I had a counting 6.45, which I think is my best ever counting solve. On solve 4, I locked up on an Rperm out of a mid 6, but it's fine. I threw the last solve super hard though. I had a really easy T ZB at mid 5, but for some reason I chose to do OLL/PLL instead. I locked up there, and ended up with a counting 8.6. It was still a 7.4 average though lmao, and I got third.
So yeah, I learned a lot this comp. I found out that I'm able to consistently get low-mid 7 averages every round on mediocre scramble sets, which is cool. Another thing I noticed is that I started off the averages really well, (with 6's every round), but I ended off with high 7's/8's. I need to focus more on clutching up on my last solve, but overall still happy with how 3x3 went, and obviously over the moon about 4x4. Huge thanks to Luke Griesser for helping me throughout the day with nerve control/other stuff, don't think I could have done this well without his coaching.
Next comp is in a week. I'm feeling really confident now knowing how close I am to sub 7 every time, and 7.3 doesn't even feel like a barrier anymore after three consecutive 7.4 averages. Hopefully sub 7 average there!