My first ever competition, Caltech Fall

[hdskull]

Hey guys so i went to Caltech Fall today, overall it was a good experience. I got to meet many great cubers (tristan, tyson, chris dzoan, leyan, macky, etc). Chris was very very friendly, he even allowed me to borrow his 2x2x2 for the 2x2x2 speed (which was put in because we had more time, i obviously did bad since i haven't practiced it, haha).

I did really good first round for 3x3x3 speed and i averaged 18 (i think), but the 2nd round ticked me off, haha i did the wrong PLL on one of the solves, and that affected basically all my solves there after, so on the last solve i basically gave up (21 sec avg ?).

For one hand, i did REALLY bad first round cuz i was really nervous cuz like i didn't warm up OH haha(i didn't even realize until i went up). Then, i executed J perm wrong(i think i did T instead, haha), and i avged like 37. 2nd round, i was calmed down, so i got 26, 27, 28, then i executed the wrong N perm and i ended up with a H (i used the alg chris taught me today) i ended up with 41, the last solve was 34. the average was 30.17, so close to sub 30! darn.

Chris got the WR for OH in the first round with a 20.9 average. Congratz to him!

I thought I placed 2nd for OH, because basically it looked like everyone was having a bad 2nd round or something, but nobody got under 30 except for Chris. and at the awards ceremony, 3rd place was 31.xx, but i wasn't called for 2nd place -__________________- so i went to go check, it ended up that they didn't sort the scores before they wrote the name for the award. So i ended up with nothing since they didn't want to take anything back.

So yea, it was a good experience. By the way, I think they should respect other ppl more, ohter ppl as in ppl not from caltech or reknowned cubers, because i asked tyson if i was gonna get a certificate cuz it is after all my first tournament and i placed, he said not now(which i'm okay with). and he's like oh how can u get so fast, i'm like uh.. practice ? and he's like wow, so then as i was walking away i heard something like some people practice 5 hrs a day and stuff. I don't know i just think they don't really see ppl that's never been to competition as ppl with potential.

EDIT: It's truly amazing to see Chris Dzoan's fast fingers live in person, it's just amazing.
and I don't practice more than 1 hr a day.

 

[ExoCorsair]

I thought I placed 2nd for OH, because basically it looked like everyone was having a bad 2nd round or something, but nobody got under 30 except for Chris. and at the awards ceremony, 3rd place was 31.xx, but i wasn't called for 2nd place -__________________- so i went to go check, it ended up that they didn't sort the scores before they wrote the name for the award. So i ended up with nothing since they didn't want to take anything back.

Caltech has been doing a really crappy job with recording scores lately, from what I gather. (Caltech Summer 5x5x5 comes to mind.)

Anyhow, nice report! Aren't competitions loads of fun?

 

[hdskull]

yea it is, it's loads of fun, but i thought they should've given me 3 bld attempts... they only gave me 2. i DNFed both, first one i did M' U one more time than i was supposed to for EO, and 2nd one i reversed the D' part of the setup move for the last algorithm as D2. darn it.

beside the fact that the place was hard to find, the rest was cool.

 

[hdskull]

Also, the judges had some problems:

- people were inspecting OH solves with 2 hands.
- people not getting penalized for stopping timer with wrists/arms.
- judges do not know when to count +2s.

 

[AlexandertheGreat]

Caltech Fall was also my first competition ever and I thought it was a pretty cool experience. I understand though, there were some problems with how the whole thing was run. The judges kind of assumed I knew all the rules already, which I did only to a certain extent.

The 'mystery puzzle' thing that Tyson did was pretty funny. Tyson had a mystery puzzle covered up on one of the solving tables and had an unsuspecting Caltecher come over to solve it without inspection. When the puzzle was revealed and the guy saw that it was a 5x5x5, he just kind of shook his head, but decided he would give it a try. When he tried to pick the cube up, the whole thing just fell apart and pieces went all over the table and floor. Everybody was cracking up. It must have taken awhile to rig that.

I did fairly well personally, and made it to the finals for 3x3x3 speedsolve and OH. During the finals for 3x3x3 speedsolve, though, on my first solve, after I put the cube on the table after solving, it fell off and the top layer shattered on the floor. Unfortunately, the cube was not a DIY and couldn't be repaired. As a result, I had to use a much worse cube that I had brought with me, and ended up doing not so good.

OH was probably my most consistent event, even though I fumbled the cube once or twice.

For blindfold they probably should have allowed for three solves during the qualifying round, to give more people a chance to advance to the finals. I DNF'd my second one, and didn't get such a great time on the first one because I was trying to make absolutely sure that I remembered everything. Next time, hopefully my memo will be a lot faster.

Overall, the tournament was pretty good, despite its setbacks. Just watching the Chris do one handed and everyone in the final blindfold round was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to being able to go to another competition soon.

EDIT: oh and btw props to Tyson for letting me have a set of stickers so that my cube could be legal for competition.

 

[hdskull]

Hey, you must be Alex Mason !

you did very good throughout until that cube splattered, that really sucked. good job on everything else though.

 

[Mike Hughey]

What was required in 3x3x3 BLD to get into the finals? Just curious where they're setting the bar.

 

[Me]

The CalFall was good for my 3rd competition ever, and despite practicing the 3x3 for the last 2 months (i can't solve parity on a 4x4 anymore), my averages were... well... terabad (not megabad or superbad). I really only improved my OH and 2x2 averages.

Despite all the DNFs and terrible times i got, the 14.28 (PLL skip on 3x3), and the 4.40 on the 2x2 made up for all of it, can't wait for my next competition.

 

[hdskull]

What was required in 3x3x3 BLD to get into the finals? Just curious where they're setting the bar.

sub 4:00

The CalFall was good for my 3rd competition ever, and despite practicing the 3x3 for the last 2 months (i can't solve parity on a 4x4 anymore), my averages were... well... terabad (not megabad or superbad). I really only improved my OH and 2x2 averages.

Despite all the DNFs and terrible times i got, the 14.28 (PLL skip on 3x3), and the 4.40 on the 2x2 made up for all of it, can't wait for my next competition.

it was nice meeting you, i do have one of your solves on video. I witnessed both of your skips! haha, good job.

 

[AlexandertheGreat]

Hey, you must be Alex Mason !

you did very good throughout until that cube splattered, that really sucked. good job on everything else though.

yup, that's me! thanks, i knew i didn't really have a chance in the finals once my good cube broke. i got a DIY from Tyson though so I should have another good cube once i finish assembling it. who were you? I probably saw you or talked to you, but i can't tell from your name.

 

[hdskull]

who were you? I probably saw you or talked to you, but i can't tell from your name.

 

[AlexandertheGreat]

aha, i remember that sweatshirt. nice solve

 

[hdskull]

haha thanks, hope to see you and talk to you next time at caltech winter!