Berkeley Spring 2023
so i signed up for another comp and this one was at berkeley, when scouting out the competitors I thought i had a legit chance at winning skewb. Last time I went to a Berkeley comp i hard choked and got 3rd in skewb, so I was legit looking to regain myself.
here's how it went
3x3:
I pretty much just wanted to get a sub-10 single, it's so coveted for me and idk i've overvalued it so hard but it's jsut such a symbol whenever I whip out a sub-10 when solving at home.
For average, I guess getting sub-12 would be really cool, also kinda unrealistic.
But none of that happened lmao i just straight choked. It was a combination of nervousness and also like my cube just felt so loose cuz i was warming up on a tight cube.
4x4:
I legit haven't solved a 4x4 for like half a year probably, i legit can't remember the last time i sat down with a 4x4 in front of me and motivation.
But either way, i signed up cuz it went along with the schedule pretty well and i wanted to try. I packed up my angstrom YJ MGC 4x4.
SO upon the first solve I see taht cutoff is 1 minute and 10 seconds so im like BRUH cuz normoally its 1 minute and 20 seconds im pretty sure. so i was just like "whatever imma just go for single or something"
but the second solve was INSANELY FLUID and I got 4 free edges already solved upon entry, and i didn't get a single parity, I ended up getting a 1:08 and making the cutoff, allowing me an entire average. That was straight up crazy to me.
I use yau with half centers and scuffed edge pairing methods. I was straight up lucky on the 2nd solve, but i was even luckier on my like 4th solve or something cuz i got ANOTHER 1:08, proving that it's NOT A FLUKE. jk it was probably a fluke, but I ended up with a 1:16 average which is pretty insane, idk what to say, i guess improving at 3x3 helps unconsciously improve my 4x4 times becuase last time I timed myself in 4x4 I was averaging like 1:30 era.
So yeah, DEFINITELY VERY SATISFACTORY. If I got a single parity in my second solve, I wouldn't have made cutoff and my average wouldn't have occurred. THANK YOU to whoever controls that luck!!
Skewb:
Most importantly, the main reason why I came, was for skewb. Like I said, I scouted out and the main threats was Danny Sungin park. Spoiler alert: he skipped skewb for whatever reason...but zeke miller got a 3.08 AVERAGE ON THE FIRST ROUND LIKE WHAT??
I saw him when scouting but he was getting like 5 second averages so I just brushed him off but like WHAT. THe scrambles werent even that good!! for reference, i got a 3.74 on the same scrambles as him.
I talked to him afterwards and he just said he was in his bag and popped off, which matches up with how he normally performs. Him doing THAT well made me really stressed, and I legit thought I had no chance of winning skewb at Berkeley, I just had to aim for second place.
But final round came, and something really weird happened. I got a Pure-Pi miscramble. It's pretty much one of the easiest possible scrambles to intuitively execute as it's like one of the fastest 8-move algs as it's just 2 sledges. SO lockups happened and i got a 1.6, which i just straight up did the right thing to do and told the delegates that i prob got a miscramble cuz no one else was getting times as low as mine. I knew I'd be guilty if I stuck with that result, it's unethical. It's also worth putting some blame onto the scramblers, how do you lack such basic self awareness to see that it's pure-pi on the skewb when u hand it in?? When you see that, do you not think "wait thats super weird." It's a super spottable pattern. I know how scrambling works from the cal poly comp so like yeah...
but anyway they replaced it with the actual scramble and my average went on and I got a 3.91 average which is kinda good considering HOW NERVOUS I was. There's rly not much I can do to control my nerves other than safetying literally every solve, it kinda sucks, hopefully i can break out of that shell.
BUt zeke ended up returning back to original form and he got a mediocre 4.2 average and that made me win. I remember looking at his scorecard after finishing and being like "OH MY GOD."
This comp win honestly might mean the most. Nothing may beat the SACCubing comp where I did it for the first time, but skewb at a Berkeley comp with literally a super big venue and 200+ competitors is special. I've been to Berkeley comps the most out of the competitions I go to, and so to finally have this really is special. Last time I choked and was straight up unsatisfied. I got a 5 second average in finals.
I really deserve this. I can't believe it's done.
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the comp was rly fun too, i met zeke and hes rly nice, also met this kid named seungjiu who is really goofy and funny, also very nice. he sat next to me during the miscramble in final round, i remember seeing him shocked lol.
also this girl taj from the cal poly saw that i won skewb and i taught her a bunch and raced her a bunch, she seems very dedicated to skewb, just like how I was after, similarly, seeing potential in early comps. She will definitely blossom as a skewb solver, especially since at cal poly she was averaging 7, and now, averaging 5 and 6 seconds.
Honestly such a great comp bruh, so rewarding. I still can't really believe it. I still remember going home after 3rd place in the Berkeley comp in August, and thinking that i won't ever win at a Berkeley comp. I could've easily choked today and gotten slower than zeke's 4.2 average, but ultimately, my NS knowledge really helped on the scrambles.
https://live.worldcubeassociation.org/competitions/2245/competitors/220644
Lyric(s) of the Post:
"
Where there's a will, there's a way, kind of beautiful.
And every night has its day, so magical.
And if there's love in this life, there's no obstacle...
That can't be defeated.
"
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