UK Championship 2014

[ryanj92]

Lol I remember looking at your camera and seeing you were holding the cube for OH way out of the shot xD

Yeah, my footage for OH is pretty bad... The average was pretty meh though so I dont mind too much

 

[JunA266]

http://i.imgur.com/7QHIkin.jpg

Please explain why you were stuffing bog roll down your shirt.

 

[BillyRain]

I'm not sure if that counts...

Sorry, I obviously didn't use enough sarcasm in that post.

I was only saying it to point out how silly it was to claim having an NR when it was then beaten in the same round.

 

[scotzbhoy]

I'm terrible at DYKs, so here are a few highlights from the weekend:
Celtic drew Rangers in the Scottish League Cup (cue huge anticlimax for the majority of people who wondered what I was so excited about)
The emotional high from this apparently made me faster at megaminx
Adam convinced me to drink some coke while laughing, then made me keep laughing. There followed several minutes of everyone laughing at me laughing, while everyone else's laughter was keeping me laughing. Swallowing the coke proved difficult...
The bar staff at Premier Inn continued to serve Thom all night. This makes me question their ability to be even remotely responsible.
And of course, the main highlight (for me anyway), I finally got a sub 10 3x3 single!

 

[MichaelErskine]

Arrogant judge basically told me to [p i s s o f f] after solve 2, unceremoniously lobing my cube in my direction.

Ah, you get used to this

Not everybody even know what they are doing half the time. Forgive and forget (but call it out every time otherwise change will not happen!)

 

[kinch2002]

General unhappiness about things

Sorry to hear about your experience. If you want your complaint to go forward in a constructive manner, then please don't just post on a forum.
I didn't hear anything about this at the competition, which would have been the best time to raise the issue. The second best thing to do is to email the organisers/delegates about it so that they can discuss it with you.
By only posting on the forum it looks as if you are here just to complain and make a fuss, rather than to get an apology and some constructive discussion about how things can be changed going forward.
If you would like to discuss further, please email James and I (our emails are on the WCA delegates page).

 

[Randomno]

DYK (in order of schedule):

• I didn't go to the introduction part even though it's my first comp.
• Did badly in 2x2, but only one place behind Mollerz who clearly messed up his solves...
• Nobody got a 9.xx 2x2 average, so even though I'm one place behind Mollerz, my average is 1.36 secs slower.
• I didn't bother to learn the other 3 Pyraminx LL algs... Came 50/54th place.
• I need to learn 4x4 parity algs and stuff... would've been bottom if I competed in it for sure.
• Lunch... Didn't like any of the sandwiches, didn't like any of the crisps, took some Coke of course.
• 6x6... Ciarán defeats the UK.
• Ollie's BLD NR didn't seem to get much reaction... People weren't very quiet anyway so it wouldn't make much difference if they did react.
• All 3BLD averages were DNF, like I said before.
• I don't know much about Clock so... 5 sec single? Great...
• Pyraminx final... one day I'll be in there.
• I was originally gonna not do Megaminx, got bored though and decided to do it anyway. 4 min solve, pretty good for me (lucky LL), then a DNF since I messed up CP and couldn't be bothered to fix it as I was already over 5 mins.
• 1 4BLD success.
• 33% of 4x4 finalists weren't from the UK.
• My 3x3 times were interesting... All around 30 secs, except a 49 where the 2 pieces came out. My YuLong isn't even that loose yet it popped about 10 times while at the comp.
• 207th in the UK for 3x3 single.
• Joint 18517th in the world for 3x3 single.
• 186th in the world for 3x3 average.
• I think it was OH that this happened in, I was in the corner holding the box for Simon Crawford. Nobody took it and I guess I should've brought it up... I did eventually, he ended up really far behind, sorry.
• I judged 5x5. Andrea put her initials in judge and competitor.
• One of Johan's 5x5 times originally got mis-entered as 15 mins... It was 1 min 50.
• Only one 3x3 sub-7, I didn't judge it.
• I don't even have a Square-1 and still judged it... I think I figured out how to do it...
  1. Solve into a cube shape.
  2. Solve a layer.
  3. Solve the other layer and fix parity.
  4. CP is a step.
  5. Nailed it.
• Ciarán tenth in the world for 7x7 by a hundreth of a second.
• 5x5 final was hard to judge.
• 3x3 final was meh.
• Other stuff:
• Mollerz would make a good plush toy.
• I knew TDM before TDM knew me.
• Billy Jeffs definitely does look like his South Park avatar.
• No idea what the filming was for.
• Didn't pay much attention to the cake.
• Built cube towers near the end.
• Judged two people who made the 2:30 cut by less than a second.
• Filmed Lau and Yau in the final with people's heads blocking the timers.
• Final was quite often, "Lin did well but he's not from the UK, handshakez then".
• Brought my Skewb, can't solve my Skewb.
• Ditto 5x5.
• I'd have a bunch of NRs if I changed my nationality to St Kitts and Nevis.
• Rarely had any conversations while judging, someone mentioned they had parity on all 5 solves in 5x5, and I think someone said they had the hardest LSE case several times.
• You probably won't read all of this.

 

[BillyRain]

someone mentioned they had parity on all 5 solves in 5x5

Are you saying that's a weird thing?

 

[Randomno]

Are you saying that's a weird thing?

I dunno, I can't solve a 5x5.

 

[Mollerz]

https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/posts/alexander-lau-wins-uk-rubiks-cube-championship-2014

Results!

 

[kinch2002]

someone mentioned they had parity on all 5 solves in 5x5

In case anyone cares: Given that there were 42 averages of 5 in 5x5x5, there is a 73.6% chance that at least one person will get 5 parities (and same for at least person getting no parities).
Meh, parity in 5x5 barely matters because you can just learn all last 2 edge cases, and the parity ones are barely slower than the non parity ones.

 

[GG]

Things that happened:
>Met 5BLD, Joey, lolben, TDM, Kirjava, Rob, Ciarán, Mollerz, Callum.. etc (met a ton of people!) and a lot of people knew me (?)
>Did a "phone swap"
>Got my phone back
>Got my phone taken again
>Exchanged for hug (?)
>Did ~okay at everything...

overall super fun experience! can't wait for next year!

 

[LucidCuber]

DYK:

-Didn't do a single solve of any puzzle for almost 2 weeks before the comp.
-Managed to get a 5x5 single PB by over 12 seconds, and an average PB by 9, lolwut?
-Didn't make it Saturday, as I had a job interview (and got the job )
-Me and Nick swapped aochuangs
-Ciaran's 7x7 solve and reaction were epic.
-Adam
-Spontaneous mid comp geocaching.
-On the way home I went into an average speed check area at 70 ( in a 40 zone) for a while before realising, so I had to hold up traffic and crawl for half a mile at like 10mph until I reached the last camera.
- I'll get some PB's in 2015. Haven't had much time to practice this year :/

I have booked days off around Oxford btw, so don't worry about me going AWOL

 

[Myachii]

Are you saying that's a weird thing?

That was me lol.
Didn't affect my average, it was just a pain xD

 

[newtonbase]

Looking at the results I've realised that despite my advanced years there are several events where I wouldn't come last in if I ever made it to a competition.

 

[mark49152]

Looking at the results I've realised that despite my advanced years there are several events where I wouldn't come last in if I ever made it to a competition.

Yeah I was thinking exactly the same - I would love to make it to a comp next year and it would be nice to not come last!

 

[LucidCuber]

Adam, clear your inbox, we're all trying to message you

 

[~Adam~]

DYK...

Spoiler

the traffic wasn't horrific leaving Guildford at 11am? =D
McD's hot wings?
Chrisi offered to buy a round for our entire group in PI?
uncooperative guillotine?
good deal you got on that hotel room Daniel?
I slept through 2x2?
iirc that's a 1st but was intentional?
Billy would rather be on the radio than solve tetrahedrons?
horrible solves from me all weekend long but got a 4x4 pb somehow?
Ollie doesn't appreciate sandwiches during 4BLD practice?
I almost noobed my way into a chess win against Laurence?
I sold every cube I wanted to?
I spent £130 on Sat night so it's a good thing I did?
mine and Thom's head to head?
epic night at Mosh with just as epic rain for our walk back?
Zak was too drunk to undress himself?
I rang Sarah for a chat at 4am?
she was less than amused?
James didn't let me sleep through 3x3? Thanks I guess =P
Nick and Zak sleeping on the floor?
have a crisp Seb?
Coggers comical coke catastrophe?
I really enjoyed failing miserably at 5x5 whilst being judged by Edward Lin?
I found the geocache from about 15 metres away?
Jess is hooked?
so that's why Greg wears shoes and a shirt?
mystery puddle?
the drive back turned into a lesson in critical thinking with Rob?
stationary traffic at 11pm on the M25?
only 15 min delay and was home just before Monday?

Special thanks to Daniel, James, Laurence, Billy, Maria and Chrisi for everything you did to provide such a great and smoothly run competition. One of my favourites.

 

[LucidCuber]

so that's why Greg wears shoes and a shirt?

Well this time I had the Competition shirt, and for some reason slept-walked into putting my work shoes on, and that didn't stop me

Seriously though, I just always wear shirts like all the time, and my shoes are very very comfortable, moreso than my trainers. I promise.

 

[newtonbase]

Yeah I was thinking exactly the same - I would love to make it to a comp next year and it would be nice to not come last!

Yes. If I can get permission off the wife I'll do a comp next year I think. I only need to be available for first rounds!

I'll need a significant improvement to get "not last" in 4x4 or anything bigger though despite them being my favourite events at the moment.