World Champs 2013 Stories Thread!

Dene

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Hey everyone,

I had a story from World Champs I wanted to share, so I figured I'd make a thread about it and open it up for other people to come out with their own cool stories from World Champs, whether at the competition, in Las Vegas in general, or even from people who didn't attend.

My story is something that happened to me a couple of days after the competition. I was wandering around Las Vegas and found myself at Aria completely by accident. While there I decided to book a ticket to see the Zarkana show by Cirque Du Soleil, which I had seen advertised on the tram. When I went to the counter there was only one other family there being served by someone else. There were three boys with their parents, and the youngest two (maybe 11 and 13 years old) had Rubik's Cubes on them. While I was waiting to get my ticket I said to the boys something along the lines of "so were you guys here for the World Championships over the weekend?" As it turned out they weren't, nor did they have any idea the competition was on. I started talking to their parents, and it turned out the boys had only recently started playing with the cubes. They didn't know how to solve them yet, but they were already addicted to playing around with them. I ended up talking to them for about half an hour, showing them some of my other cubes and giving them information on where they can get better cubes and learn how to finish them (including this forum). If they've stuck at it, they've probably already visited here, and that would be two new cubers to add to the community!

I just thought it was such a crazy coincidence that I happened to be in Las Vegas (on the other side of the world) for the World Champs, in a hotel I didn't even mean to go to, getting tickets to a show I didn't even know existed about 10 minutes earlier, and I happen to run into some kids with Rubik's cubes who didn't know a thing about the World Champs or the cubing community in general. What are the chances?!


I had one other cool little story: I went on a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon, and the pilot for the helicopter which I happened to be on just so happened to be a big Doctor Who fan! Super cool :cool:


So those were a couple of my stories, what about everyone else?
 
So I arrived at the Riviera around 12:30 am on the day of the competition, and my dad, brother, and I were all really hungry. We remembered a great pizza place from our 2011 trip to Vegas, and the place was conveniently right across the street. We went in and bought the pizza, but my dad was really thirsty so he wanted to grab a 2 liter soda from a nearby store. By now it's 1:00 am in Vegas and we walk out to see drunk people, strippers, and other shady people. As if that wasn't bad enough, my dad WANTED to walk around Vegas at 1 in the morning with a large pizza in my little brother's hands.... While we were walking to Food Mart (that place will forever be my greatest inside joke among my friends I, lol) a really tall white guy that looked like a thug jumped in front of us and said "AYE, YOU BETTER GIMME DAT PIZZA!". After about five seconds of silence (and horror for us) the guys said: "haha, just kidding guys".

>__________________________>
 
So I arrived at the Riviera around 12:30 am on the day of the competition, and my dad, brother, and I were all really hungry. We remembered a great pizza place from our 2011 trip to Vegas, and the place was conveniently right across the street. We went in and bought the pizza, but my dad was really thirsty so he wanted to grab a 2 liter soda from a nearby store. By now it's 1:00 am in Vegas and we walk out to see drunk people, strippers, and other shady people. As if that wasn't bad enough, my dad WANTED to walk around Vegas at 1 in the morning with a large pizza in my little brother's hands.... While we were walking to Food Mart (that place will forever be my greatest inside joke among my friends I, lol) a really tall white guy that looked like a thug jumped in front of us and said "AYE, YOU BETTER GIMME DAT PIZZA!". After about five seconds of silence (and horror for us) the guys said: "haha, just kidding guys".

>__________________________>

tall white guy who says aye and looks like a thug?

BV.
 
My story is something that happened to me a couple of days after the competition. I was wandering around Las Vegas and found myself at Aria completely by accident. While there I decided to book a ticket to see the Zarkana show by Cirque Du Soleil, which I had seen advertised on the tram. When I went to the counter there was only one other family there being served by someone else. There were three boys with their parents, and the youngest two (maybe 11 and 13 years old) had Rubik's Cubes on them. While I was waiting to get my ticket I said to the boys something along the lines of "so were you guys here for the World Championships over the weekend?" As it turned out they weren't, nor did they have any idea the competition was on. I started talking to their parents, and it turned out the boys had only recently started playing with the cubes. They didn't know how to solve them yet, but they were already addicted to playing around with them. I ended up talking to them for about half an hour, showing them some of my other cubes and giving them information on where they can get better cubes and learn how to finish them (including this forum). If they've stuck at it, they've probably already visited here, and that would be two new cubers to add to the community!
A few friends and I went to see Zarkana too. It was good, no doubt, but prob. wouldn't recommend it based off the price ($100). We did get a free upgrade to the front, though ;). I think the Mystere prob. would have been more interesting to me. We also saw Crazy Girls at the Riviera, which was only $30, and was well worth it.

I've had a few similar situations that you mentioned happen as well. It is pretty wild how well known the cube is - almost anywhere you go in the world, people know of it. Did you know Uwe Meffert has sold over 210 million puzzles, including over 100 million pyraminx? It was great having some conversations with him - people don't realize how much influence he has had on the puzzle world. Really friendly and open guy.

Also Dene: didn't get to meet you. The comp. went by so fast, and so many people to see. Next time!
 
While running a 3x3 event, I spotted a cube with adjacent red and orange sides. "What's with this Doug Li color scheme?" I wondered aloud. Chris Krueger and Dan Lo were probably the only ones in the vicinity who got the reference.

About an hour later, Chris excitedly told me he had something to show me. He then brought me face to face with Doug Li, who just happened to be vacationing in Las Vegas and just happened to be staying in the Riviera without knowing about our event. What were the odds?
 
About an hour later, Chris excitedly told me he had something to show me. He then brought me face to face with Doug Li, who just happened to be vacationing in Las Vegas and just happened to be staying in the Riviera without knowing about our event. What were the odds?

Haha, I actually met him on Monday after the comp at the food court where a whole bunch of people were hanging out. I had no idea who he was, he had to explain it >.<

A few friends and I went to see Zarkana too. It was good, no doubt, but prob. wouldn't recommend it based off the price ($100). We did get a free upgrade to the front, though ;). I think the Mystere prob. would have been more interesting to me. We also saw Crazy Girls at the Riviera, which was only $30, and was well worth it.

Also Dene: didn't get to meet you. The comp. went by so fast, and so many people to see. Next time!

I think Zarkana would have been my preferred in hindsight, had I known there were other options and had to make a decision before I had already gone to see Zarkana >.< . It did cost a lot, but I got an upgraded seat too XD

Funny story; my first job as staff was scrambling 7x7 next to Richard Meyer, whom I also didn't know before the comp. At one stage he was chatting to someone, and after they left he was like "that was Patrick Kelly" and I was like "wuuuuuut", but I didn't see you, and I don't really know what you look like so I wouldn't recognise you >.<
 
About an hour later, Chris excitedly told me he had something to show me. He then brought me face to face with Doug Li, who just happened to be vacationing in Las Vegas and just happened to be staying in the Riviera without knowing about our event. What were the odds?

Chris also said Doug was there for the skating event after us. Might be the same they had last year before us. So maybe you'll see him again next year.
 
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