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My first comp experience

Iwannaganx

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2019
Messages
464
Location
Victoria, Australia
Hey guys,

A little while ago, back when I first joined the forums I posted a thread asking whether or not I should go to a comp. At the time I was averaging 45. Everyone said to go, nobody cares what time you get and its a great experience. Yesterday and today i went down to Altona for my first comp, Altona Algorithms 2019. It was just over an hour away from my house, and this is a review/story/idk about what happened.

On Saturday, I woke up early and got ready, and when I arrived there was a huge line of people outside the door. I lined up and got a lanyard, and got ready for my first event, 2x2. At home I average about 8 or 8.5 on 2x2, and I did way better than I thought I was going to do and got a 7.55 average. (This actually got me too the second round!) I was shocked, and then I judged, and met a guy who hadn't been to a comp before either. We talked in between judging, and then I was called up to go for 3x3.
Now I average about 33 seconds on 3x3, and on my first solve I went and got a 25. (My goals for 3x3 were a sub 30 single and a sub 35 average.) On my next solve I got a 23. Then a 26. Then a 24! Then I got a 32, but still a sub 30 average! (My average was 25.55, for those of you who cant be bothered figuring it out ;)). I was shocked! And even though I didn't make the next round I consider this an incredible result.
After some more judging and lunch, I had pyra. Now I don't really care about pyra, I average about 20 with no practice, and I got a 15 average and came 93rd. I was happy with it of course, but I didn't really care as only the top 12 get into the 2nd round.
Finally for the first day, I had skewb. I REALLY don't care about skewb. I average 30, and yet with no fingertricks or practice I got a 19 average with a 9.88 single. I came 94th but I really didn't care and I thought that was hilarious.

On Sunday, I woke up even earlier and arrived on time for 2x2 round 2. (This time we didn't get lost :p). This was my only event for today, and I was up first. I crashed out with two counting 9s, a 14 and two sixes. well... yay.... After that I got a bit bored of judging and on the way out, I saw FELIKS ZEMDEGS practicing 6x6. On the first day, he was practicing 4x4, and I raced him on 3x3 (while he was on 4x4). He still beat me. BUT when he was practicing 6x6, we had a rematch (with him on 6x6). And I beat him!! That's right, I beat Feliks Zemdegs in a race.

Overall, this was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I thank anybody that told me I should go to a comp, and I also want to thank Feliks and Jack Cai for being so humble and amazing people. I will definitely go to another comp when one pops up, and that's about it!


you have no idea how long that took to write with no auto-capitalization.
 

Iwannaganx

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2019
Messages
464
Location
Victoria, Australia
L
Well done!
I didn't get any pbs at the comp I went to, but I did get a really good pyraminx single because the third scramble was ridiculously good. All I needed to do was insert one edge and do an antisune and it was done.
Lucky. The thing is, I think all of my solves were fullstep and not super good scrambles! I'm really happy with how I did.
 

RisingShinx

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2022
Messages
31
Location
Earth
Uhhh. I dont know if i can ask this here but What time should i average before i go to a competition? I started about a month ago and my average is about 45 secs. I Use the begginers method but im learning CFOP. Any advice on anything at all?
 

GenTheSnail

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
2,249
Location
Illinois, USA
WCA
2016GEEN01
YouTube
Visit Channel
Uhhh. I dont know if i can ask this here but What time should i average before i go to a competition? I started about a month ago and my average is about 45 secs. I Use the begginers method but im learning CFOP. Any advice on anything at all?
As long as you can solve the cube in under 10 minutes you should definitely go to a competition. It's much less about the competing aspect and more about being to actually meet other cubers in person - you don't want to miss out on that!

As for CFOP, there are tons of youtube tutorials around. Jperm is usually a pretty reliably source for beginner and intermediate tutorials.
 
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