[WR] Marcin Zalewski Blindfolded 23.80 (Polish Nationals)

I'm astonished that some are questioning the validity of this solve, Marcin is an extremely talented BLD solver and this time is well within his reach without the need to cheat. I'm not even going to bother arguing the legitimacy of this WR. There's nothing wrong with being super confident with a success, especially at his level. :cool:
 
IMHO it's because it occurs only shortly after the Telesforo affair, people are getting paranoid about WRs when something unusual happens.

Personnally I don't really believe in the "He knew it was solved" - from my own BLD experience, you never know. Noah's argument:

Also don't forget that there would have immediately been a huge groan from the crowd if he had DNFed.

is probably the best one.
 
I think that in a rush to put on the blindfold he didn't completely cover his eyes and he was able to have a smal sliver of visibility. The cube was covered by the judge so it's still legit, but when he put down the cube he could see the time on the stack mat timer. He felt very strong about his execution so he assumed the cube was solved.
 
I think that in a rush to put on the blindfold he didn't completely cover his eyes and he was able to have a smal sliver of visibility. The cube was covered by the judge so it's still legit, but when he put down the cube he could see the time on the stack mat timer. He felt very strong about his execution so he assumed the cube was solved.

Very plausible.

I usually obviously close my eyes under the blindfold to help concentration/its more comfortable... but I will admit there have been a few times when I have opened them and have caught a glimpse of some if not almost all of the timer.
 
I think that in a rush to put on the blindfold he didn't completely cover his eyes and he was able to have a smal sliver of visibility. The cube was covered by the judge so it's still legit, but when he put down the cube he could see the time on the stack mat timer. He felt very strong about his execution so he assumed the cube was solved.

I suggest you watch the videos (right here in this thread) before posting such nonsense.
 
Augh.. so fed up with dumb cubers. No need for it.

(Also, I consider it rude to suggest Marcin could see and to suggest that I can't read)

Well.... As I stated in my first post the judge still covered the cube, so I am not implying that he took advantage of this visibility during the solve. I am merely providing a possible explanation to how he knew he broke the record while he was still wearing the blindfold.

Edit. Also if you watch Arcio's video and pause right when the judge puts down the the cover ( about 23 seconds in), you can see a small gap in the blindfold that could provide some downward visibility.
 
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Why are we snapping at each other over this? It's kind of off-topic and unnecessary in my opinion.

If you really want to suggest that he was cheating, then here's my answer: he's a well-established world-class blindsolver...it doesn't seem surprising that he knows when he got a good solve. When you get a really smooth and easy sighted solve you don't have to see the time to know it was good. Seems perfectly plausible. :)
 
Like Noah said, on easier scrambles world class solvers have extremely high success rates. At such speeds, you just "know" the difference between a 23 and a 29. Marcin was obviously very confident in his execution and ballparking his approximate time. I have no doubt this solve is 100% legit. And further more, I can't believe anyone would have any doubt.

Congrats Marcin. I'd love to see you improve it at Worlds. :)
 
Well.... As I stated in my first post the judge still covered the cube, so I am not implying that he took advantage of this visibility during the solve.

Well.... As I stated in my first response to BillyRain: I can read.

Judging by the two videos, I'm fully convinced that he couldn't see the timer before celebrating. Plus, as explained an estimated ten times in this thread, there's a much better simple explanation - experience.
 
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If you think about it, if he did want to cheat, then he wouldn't want anyone to be suspicious and wouldn't celebrate at all until he took the blindfold off.

Great solve, Marcin! Very impressive!
 
lol So much for keeping quiet for the other BLD competitors.

Congrats Marcin! Spectacular solve!

Everyone else was probably done with their solves since Marcin's was an extra solve.

On the topic of cheering, I used to listen to the crowd's reaction first before taking off my blindfold after the solve to know if it's a DNF or not. Groans = DNF, gasps = success :)
Not that it's related to this WR, just sayin'
 
In the second video you can see many other competitors memo'ing and blindsolving. I would be pretty disrupted by such a huge, long reaction. But they could ask for another attempt.
 
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