Berkeley + Davis Cubing Comps!
My last cubing competition was Oct 14 2023, So 2 years later, this past weekend i went on a little trip to 2 cubing competitions in 2 days. Both of these competitions had the 3x3 blindfolded event. I signed up for these comps in late September, not having any real successes under my belt and not knowing any of the 3x3 BLD algs. I knew some theory because I briefly tried learning it before giving up. So I basically gave myself a month to drill down 3x3 blindfolded. It's literally such a quintessential storybook of just setting myself an ambitious goal and then pushing myself to work for it.
Friday - Berkeley
At around noon I drive over to Berkeley before picking up my friend Ashwin who took the Amtrack from Davis to Berkeley. Then we met up with Allen at this LanZhou noodle place by his apartment which was pretty good. I like the city LanZhou cuz its kinda close to inner mongolia and its an interesting city ive seen a couple of videos its kinda like a desert city but also super urban unlike other desert cities more in western China. Anyway tho after that meal we walked to his apartment and chilled for like 15 min, then we. headed out to a random library i forgot the name but it was honestly an insane library it looks like some european cathedral and i set my fantasy lineup but it was actually too late because a game started at 3:30 pm for some reason but anyway it was now time to go to "Poker Decal" which is this poker lecture run by students so we pulled up and I was like trolling lmao when I walked in the room I yelled "LETS GO POKER!!" and the other students just stared at me it was so funny lmao like i was doing so much trolling. It's pretty funny pulling up to these UC Berkeley lectures not being their student and the guy was just talking about like delayed c-bets or something and honestly I was kinda impressed by the slides like the visuals and graphics look like it takes some time and I thought it would be super low-effort cuz its all like volunteer students but anyway that was fun. After the lecture we walked around some more, we went to boba ninja and it brought me back to this one YPSO trip where me and isaac and jerry went there and got the popcorn chicken but anyway we got pop corn chicken there and boba at this sweaty boba store i forgot the name but it was okay.
Then we walked to I think the social sciences building where we just chilled more and killed more time and I was diong some last minute 3x3 blind practice. Wait now's a good time to mention like my practice routine. When I signed up for this comp in like late September early October aka when school was starting, I began by relearning pochman method and had a brief phase where I would write down memo and then check memo and once I got the hang of that after like 2-3 days I began just doing full BLD solves. At first it took a while gettingn used to letter pairs but I knew I just had to keep spamming solves. Then the Denver trip comes, yes I went to Denver for a weekend to go to a Madeon concert and I still need to write that post bruh but anyway on the airplane and at the airport I did a ton of practice solves and got some good improvement. Like I had like a 5 streak of successes and I was feeling solid. After the Denver trip I had this streak of like every day before I go to bed, I would practice 3x3 blind until I get a success. Sometimes it takes 2 tries, sometimes it takes 4, sometimes it takes 1. That one time it took 4 tries tho and I spent like 40 min or something instead of sleeping, I got a PB 6:45 minutes and it felt so satisfying and worth it. So honestly I didnt spend too much time grinding blind, just having a consistent streak because im busy with schoolwork.
Now it's competition time and I'd say I average a good like 7-8 minutes which means I only get 1 attempt due to a 10 minute cumulative time limit. If I averaged like 2-3 minutes I would be able to utilize all 3 attempts bc of the time limit but since im slow it is what it is.
So now it all comes down to 1 solve. I'm like kinda nervous but in the moment I dont think much of it and im pretty locked in. It was a pretty solid scramble like no parity no flipped edges im pretty sure only like 1 cycle that i had to redo for edges. There was like a flipped corner which isnt much and I still remember some of the memo like "OV XM" which i memorzed as "oval shimmering" since X=SH for my letter pairs. Those 2 words will always be iconic and dear to my heart because its my first 3x3 blind success. Oh yeaH AFTER LIKE 3:40 OF MEMO AND 2 MIN EXECUTION, I REVIEW MY MEMO FOR ANY MISSED LETTERS AND I TAKE OFF THE BLINDFOLD TO SEE A SOLVED CUBE!!!!
Bro I was so happy like I really did it. I only got 1 shot and my friends were watching and I delivered ON AN ALL-TIME PB LMMAOO this same thing happened with 7x7 like somehow I just got my all-time PB because I was more locked in and I think its cuz when im practicing at home I spend more time thinking about letter pairs because theres no pressure.
Like this really just reinforced the idea that if you put your mind to somethign and you want to accomplish something that you can do it. I worked really hard and I sacrified some extra late-night hours when I wanted to sleep to keep this 3x3 blind practice streak alive. Honestly I have way more fun solving just normal 3x3 or skewb while listening to music but 3x3 blind is fun to do too but it does put a testament on like just having a goal and just working for it. Like it felt so ambitious at the moment like I didn't know if I could do it but I knew that if I signed up for this comp and that I had to drive all the way there that I would somehow find a way.
And honestly to be humble now, 3x3 blind is way easier than it seems. So that also helped, like I never really spent an insane amount of commitment into it just consistency and some grit pushing thru times where I didn't want to practice.
Now with literally my primary goal set out of the way I thought there would be less pressure on 3x3 since I had also signed up for that. My main goals for that was sub-10 single and sub-12 ao5. I go up to solve and I absolutely drop TRASH for solves 3,4,5 like i have a good start of 10s, 12s, and then it immediately goes to 13s, 13s, 14s to create a 13.04 ao5 like a really embarsssing average. The nerves just really got up to me for some reason like I'm not in my element. I've honestly always kinda struggled with this like I'm never fully able to unlock that insane turning speed and lookahead that I feel at home when i'm on a heater. But it's whatever it makes me kinda salty but overall im just so happy that with the 1 attempt I got that I DELIVERED on 3x3 blindfolded. Really happy with the overall outcome from this comp.
After the comp we walked to this place called campus burgers which is mickey in&out i ordered a jalapeno double stack burger and they didnt even put tomatoes in it like wtf but the fries portion was solid but overall i thought it woudl be better but it was cheap so ig its fine. We took it to these dorms where a poker game was getting hosted. Yes we are now about to play poker with these ppl fom Berkeley poker discord server that allen found LETS RUN IT.
Blinds are like .25 .5 and once the table got to like 8-hawnded i started playing super nitty and i got dealt aces twice. The first time I get it, the flop comes some bullsht with 2 hearts in it, then the turn comes and its the ace of hearts. So I turn top set and my opponent just has flush. And so the money goe sin the middle no matter on the river and im down my first bullet lmao so I buy in for another $25 and i have an insane combo draw like nut flush draw + gutter + over and i shove the flop where he has like overpair of jacks and he calls and we run it twice and i somehow brick both runouts like i start getting a bit tilted here and i buy in for my 3rd bullet. I bleed a bit but then I get dealt ACES for the 2nd time like this is what im talking about when being dealt aces twice. I similarly just cold call a 3-bet to get action and we go 3-ways to a flop and its like a rly dry flop and the dude shoves on me and i call and he has like trash lmao so i almost triple up thru that pot. Feels good to actually win with aces and I bleed a bit I run some nice c-bet bluffs and overall the stakes are a bit high so there were some spots where I was so tempted to check-raise-shove but i just didnt have the heart to do it like if he really has it and i just lose my 3rd bullet like that and i have to dip berkeley. like this like yea all those thoughts come to me lmao but like honestly i shoudlve made some standard raise bluffs but overall its fine I cash out down $20 which is a good outcome because personally im not ocunting the first 2 bullets those were mickey because i got coolered so in my head im up like 30 yessir.
Ashwin cashes out up $50 which im super happy about bro he had pocket kings and another dude had aces and ANOTHER DUDE had ace king AND ANOTHER DUDE HAD POCKET JACKS so we have a four-way all-in and we run it twice and ashwin rivers a 1-outer king on the very last river of the 2nd runout like holy sht so he essentially triples up and the dude with aces gets a sht ton of money too like what is that hand. I've never seen that where aces, kings, aceking all meet each other, and then throw in jacks too like okay bro. Like poker is just all luck sometimes lmao
We dip at like 11 PM or something, allens house is on northside so we walk thru campus back to my car and now its time to drive to Davis. We make it at like 12 something AM and i take a shower and we sleep.
Saturday - Davis
Here we in Davis now. I drove from Santa Cruz to Pleasanton on Wed night, then Pleasanton to Berkeley on friday Noon, then Berkeley to Davis on Friday night and it's been so fun its basically vacationing.
Ashwins apartment is insane its literally a house like u could legit have a family here and live like pretty solid like theres legit 2 floors and 4 bedrooms like i cnat believe it and his rent is $750 a month like i cant even believe it. Like you really do need to have some comparisons to realize how horrible the housing in Santa Cruz is like it's so bottom of the barrel. His room is so big and long too like this is just insane like the housing in Davis is just so free bro like wtf is this.
Anyway we gotta wake up at 8:30 AM because blindfolded starts at 9 AM. We drive over to UC Davis campus and my first attempt FINISHES WITH A TWISTED CORNER at 7 minutes. Like honestly I'm not even bothered. The time limit in this competition is 15 minutes which is nice because I get 2 attempts now since i average like 6-7 minutes. The 2nd attempt is really hard bro like theres like flipped edge + parity + 2 flipped corners or something crazy like that and im pretty sure i had to memorize 5 letter pairs for corners which is super rare. I solve and once I take off the blindfold I MISS CORNERS AGAIN! This is like honestly ragebait because corners are supposed to be the easy part of blindfolded like theres less letter pairs to memorize and its basically like solving a 2x2 blindfolded. BUT SOMEHOW I CHOKE CORNERS IN BOTH ATTEMPTS. The first one I made the wrong memo callout like I know what I did wrong I flipped the corner to the wrong side which is really unfortunate looking back because I could've made final round and had more attempts if I just delivered. Honestly kinda cringe and ragebait because i got all the edges correctly in both attempts I just failed the easy task like bruh but all in all I'd much rather have that success at Berkeley just because my friends were watching and becaues it was just such a good time like idk like I didnt care that much because I already got my success at Berkeley so its ok if I fail here.
Then after that I do 3x3 round 1 and I throw on mid after mid I put up 5 straight 12 second solves like hello lmao.
This is insane how I'm able to be consistently mid like 5 straight 12 second solves is so funny. I just tell myself its whatever and ill lock in for 2nd round. I decide to skip 4x4 even tho I signed up for it because with that 3x3 average I actually got a PR so I keep my PR streak alive. I also legit just dont care about 4x4.
So we first head to canes to eat lunch since were kinda hungry since we skipped breakfast to go to the comp. THe canes was so good like the sauce is just so good like they ahve this salty like red seasoning in it that makes it have this like spicy salty kick to it like I cant describe it like its just different than ur average thousand island sauce like special sauce that all fast food joints have anyway enuogh glazing we then head back to his apartment so i can pick up my charger and airpods oh yea my excuse for performing so bad in 3x3 was that i didnt have airpods to listen to music before my solves lmao.
Anyway we then head back to California Hall at UC Davis at 1:30 PM where they do this raffle thing and I put all 3 of my tickets into the QiYi void cube and to my surprise theres 3 winners and like I saw the box there was at most like 10-15 tickets in there so like I legit have a rly good shot of winning this void cube. I'm so confident i begin standing up each time before they even announce my name. And when they announce the 3rd winner bro I had this instinct gut feeling that its just all me bro like im just him so I stand up and I begin walking and they announce "HARRISON!!" and then they ask if I'm harrison 💀💀
It's all fine tho like realistically ive always wanted a void cube in my collection but i aint touching that after playing with it after 2 times and some little kid can have it. After this we have like 3 hrs before 3x3 round 2 so me and ashwin head out to walk around campus. It's been a couple of days so I forgot some details but we went to the football stadium which is this small and pleasant stadium with like grass near the endzones and its a vibe. We also went to some random places that i forgot the names of but like a lot of the surroundings reminded me of like corporate parking lots like you go to hacienda drive or near the workday parking lots in Pleasanton and it literally feels like that at UC Davis. I honestly do say I like UC Santa Cruz campus better even tho theres so many flaws with it but like UC Davis campus is just so mid and boring and its pretty stale and lackluster. They do have a nice downtown community and they have this nice like collegetown smalltown vibe to it kinda like cal poly slo so if u like that youll like davis but personally this campus is mid to me. Also you go near the dairy courts area and it legit just smells like sht. You do get to see cows tho but like bruh and all the students get used to the smell but like lmao. Anyway tho after that trip we rented a scooter and ran duos on it. It was lowkey wobbling like crazy lmao and halfway thru we switched and I went to the back AND I WAS HOLDING ON TO MY DEAR LIFE like ashwin weighs sub-100 pounds bro or something so this was not the play and i felt like i was boutta fall down and i was preparing myself how to catch my fall but anyway we figured it out and we made it back to Califoirnia hall lmao. It was some fun times just vibing at UC Davis we sat and goofed aorund at the football field for a while.
Now, I start warming up for 3x3 round 2. Ashwin has nothing to do so I tell him he can go judge and its rly funny he learns how to judge and now hes judging 3x3 group 1 and group 2 and its jsut funny lmao cuz he lowkey fits in like ppl prob think hes a cuber but anyway its my time to shine now and by the fifth solve I now hvae a BPA thats sub 12. Im pretty sure like anytime under like 11.30 gives me a sub-12 average which is a goal for this weekend. That is totally in my range so with my fifth solve I'm so locked in AND I THROW DOWN A SENSATIONAL 13 SECOND SOLVE!!!! LETS GOOOOOOO. I LOCK IN MY WORST POSSIBLE AVERAGE AND CHOKE ONCE AGAIN this is just the story of my 3x3 averages like ill figure it out eventually but for now ill just keep being misrepresented by my 3x3 official times like i average almost sub-11 at home.
So honestly my Davis results are HORRIBLE like no 3x3 blind success, no sub-10 single, no sub-12 average. Yeah lmao theres like no good takeaways besides having broke my mid PR from 2023 back when I was way worse. Whatever tho I dont think too much about it honestly it doesnt rly make any difference from anything.
So now the competition is over for me and its like 4 pm or something so we head back to his apartment and get boba along the way. We chill at his apartment for some hours, we play some 2k, i do some fantasy research and attempt to do some work but i cant focus and we watch flightreacts to UDY episodes. Then at 9 PM we head out to play basketball at the Dairy courts and it was pretty fun but those courts are right next to the cows and it legit smells like dogsht like bro were literally doing rigorous exercise and sweating balls and im not a uc davis native so like it legit smells like dogsht like ive never hooped under these circumstances before.
But it was fun we ended up playing like best of 7 with a 5v4 it was some really intense games and me and ashwins chemistry along with this dude name marcus chemistry was insane. We leave at like 12 AM and as im driving from UC Davis campnus back theres this stopsign on the campus and i dont see it until very late so i just like brake a lil and its literally 12 AM so I just run the nonchalant brake + continue strat like i had no time to spam brake and run up the fullstop tech like its 12 AM and then as we continue driving Ashwin tells me "you know kush got court order for rolling a stop sign at Davis downtown" and im like dang thats crazy and i look at the rearview window and i see these flashing lights
So that's how i got my first pulled over and my first career ticket like alright bro like no way police are pressed up like that like im not even a threat theres no one on campus its 12 AM on a saturday night but u got it. My dad ended up telling me that i shoudlve said some bullsht like "PLEASE SPEED I NEED THIS. IM KINDA HOMELESS IM BROKE COLLEGE STUDENT" like i def shoudlve said some of that because although i didnt get court order i have to pay the fine which is like around $200 or something i still ahvent paid it yet.
But bro its so dumb likepaying $200 for this like its actually so dumb like theres literally nobody and its on the campus and like i did decelerate and press the brake pedal although it was nowhere near a fullstop but alright bro i learned my lesson.
One of Ashwins housemate was with us and he were talking about it and he was like this is ridiculous and stuff like theres no way they have police pressed up like that and they have to reach quotas but anyway we stop by in&out along the way like okay pause real quick BECAUSE HOW DOES UC DAVIS HAVE IN AND OUT AND CANES AND BOBA SPOTS like Santa Cruz is just so bad bro like what do we even have bro we have taco bell and chipotle but everywhere has it like we dont have daves we dont have in and out we dont have canes we dont have boba we have to drink "boba zone 💔" or mickey ume tea but anyway we watch some more udy and i think we sleep at like 2 am or something like i was getting super tired at this point cuz we didnt get much sleep the night before.
Sunday - Davis
So we wake up at like 11 AM or i wake up at 11 AM cuz Ashwin woke up at like 9:30 and was playing 2k until I woke up but anyway we were planning on going to sum cafe or playing basketball but with that ticket yesterday its prob the right move to just go home like a good boy so we hit up canes and by the 4th chicken finger im lowkey already kinda sick of it like im legit eating so much fried food and seed oils like i ordered 4 of the canes sauces like it does start to hit me after a while like my diet in this whole trip was so dogsht i dont think we ate any veggies but its ok. After canes i drop him off at safeway and we like walk around there for no reaosn and he also gets a haircut a great clips so I dip and its time to go home. On the drive home they had me avoid the highway traffic by driving thru this city called Dixon and I was honestly so appreciative of that becaus eits just like pure farmland and its a really cool vibe like its just so flat its such a valley. I really liked that drive it was rly nice.
Conclusion
So there we have a really fun weekend. I had a major goal of mine completed that I've been preparing for every day for the past month. Like just check out my updated WCA profile like its just so rewarding seeing that 3x3 blind succes on my profile.
This summer I got my joy for cubing back after going to the world championships and now that I have a car this schoolyear and i have more freedom it just felt like a no-brainer to sign up for a cubing comp at berkeley just like the good old days. Also insane bonus points for that comp being on a weekday and there conveniently being a comp at Davis the next day like we went on tour lmao. Really wanna sign up for some more cubing comps in the future, might have to be next quarter tho because ive done enough bullsht this quarter and its time to lock in on other stuff kinda. I do wanna start doing skewb again tho even tho im just stagnant by choice but i wanna see if i can still get 1st. i know i can still podium but its been a while since i grinded skewb.
Lyric(s) of the Post:
"I'm immortal, cruising down Pacific yea, floating making you my mission"
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