# What happened in his last attempt?



## DavidCalvo (Apr 28, 2008)

A friend and I usually comment funny-strange situations after checking the WCA database.

That one is very funny:

Amonk Spring Open, in the 2x2 event:

14	Tyler Wilkinson	10.22 14.19 USA	17.41 10.22 12.96 12.19 9:59.06

LOL, almost 10 minutes in the 2x2, with an average of around 10 seconds? That's hillarious, isn't it?


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## shelley (Apr 28, 2008)

Nothing can top this:

Virginia Open 2007, Rubik's Magic:

2	Adam Zamora	1.61 2.02 USA	*9:59.63* 1.79 1.64 2.64 1.61

He intentionally went for the slowest magic time (and he still got second place). I think that record's going to stand for a while.


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## Bryan (Apr 28, 2008)

Maybe I'm just a fuddy duddy, but if someone was trying to waste a whole 10 minutes just to have the slowest time, I would be kind of annoyed that they're using up the station for such a long time. I know Adam's slow magic solve actually violated A5a. 

I suppose I could set time limits and if the user goes over, a DNF is courtesey of the main judge, but not necessarily required, so instruct the main judge that if people aren't actually solving, then DNF them.


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## ThePizzaGuy92 (Apr 28, 2008)

hahaha, The judges must have been a little upset.


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## shelley (Apr 28, 2008)

I think Adam got away with it mostly because he was the tournament organizer for the Virginia Open. He also did it to make a point, i.e. if someone chose to do this, nothing in the regulations explicitly says they can't. Although he did violate regulation A5a, it's still possible for someone to do it.

For the sake of competition judges and organizers everywhere, please don't try this. Especially when the competition is running behind schedule and all the timers have to be used.

Strictly speaking I've violated A5a as well. Tyson laughed at me when I forgot how to do an algorithm one handed and I told him to shut up 

On the note of things you're technically allowed to do, you could finish a solve, throw the cube across the room, and hit the timer. Thankfully no one has tried that yet.


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## Mike Hughey (Apr 28, 2008)

shelley said:


> On the note of things you're technically allowed to do, you could finish a solve, throw the cube across the room, and hit the timer. Thankfully no one has tried that yet.



Wasn't there some list you CA cubers came up with of various things that were legal that would drive a tournament organizer crazy? I think I remember reading that, but I can't place where it was.


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## shelley (Apr 28, 2008)

Yeah.. I think that might have been on my blog, actually

http://shelley.freeserverhost.com/index.php?id=357

I guess not all of them are technically legal. But they would drive tournament organizers crazy and probably get you thrown out of the competition.


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## Mike Hughey (Apr 28, 2008)

That was it - thanks! It was even funnier reading it the second time.


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## Ethan Rosen (Apr 28, 2008)

Tyler and Peter chose to race to see who could take the longest without the stackmat stopping (or something like that.) While Tyler just hung out, Peter kept intentionally popping his. With only a few seconds left until the timer stopped, Peter's cube popped again, and he was unable to fix it in time. The funniest part of that to me though, was that they chose to do that on the scramble where most people either got a complete LL or permutation skip.


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## Hadley4000 (Apr 28, 2008)

I couldn't stop laughing while I read that!


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## Lotsofsloths (Apr 28, 2008)

shelley said:


> I think Adam got away with it mostly because he was the tournament organizer for the Virginia Open. He also did it to make a point, i.e. if someone chose to do this, nothing in the regulations explicitly says they can't. Although he did violate regulation A5a, it's still possible for someone to do it.
> 
> For the sake of competition judges and organizers everywhere, please don't try this. *Especially when the competition is running behind schedule and all the timers have to be used.*
> 
> ...



Imagine if someone tried to pull this at Princeton xD


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## Rama (Apr 28, 2008)

I think if you pulled this one of at an competition with Ron as organiser then you would be banned till you are a grand-pa/ma and if you are already one then till your grandchild is a grand-pa/ma.

Seriously tough, I think that's why there are 'time-limits' for each event.


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## Bryan (Apr 28, 2008)

Rama said:


> Seriously tough, I think that's why there are 'time-limits' for each event.



Yup, and by default they're all 10 minutes. For example, for the 3x3x3, you could set the limit to 3 minutes and that should handle most situations, however, if some 5-year-old comes and solves in 4 minutes, I'd hate to impose a limit that affected him because I was trying to prevent someone from delaying the competition.

Of course, going over the limit DNF is courtesy of the main judge. But yeah, it would be nice if those situations didn't have to be anticipated.


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## DavidCalvo (Apr 28, 2008)

shelley said:


> On the note of things you're technically allowed to do, you could finish a solve, throw the cube across the room, and hit the timer. Thankfully no one has tried that yet.



LOL!

What if you miss? 

Or even worse... if you hit another person? Would you get a penalty? There are no rules against that, right? 

Even if the issue is so funny for me now, seriusly speaking, I definitely wouldn't like something like this to happen when I am judging....


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## shelley (Apr 28, 2008)

Unless otherwise specified, the time limit is usually 10 minutes, the limit of the stackmat timer. Lower time limits are sometimes imposed if the competition is running behind schedule (e.g. we have a two minute limit for 4x4 solves; if you don't get under two minutes in your first two solves you don't get to finish the average).

You could impose a time limit on every event, but you don't want to discourage the beginner who takes 3 or more minutes to solve the cube. And if you don't impose time limits (other than the forced 10 minute limit), you're going to have to deal with the guy who genuinely takes 3 minutes the same way as the guy who's taking as long as he's allowed just to be a jerk.

EDIT: it seems I took too long to post. This is basically the same thing Bryan said.


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## dChan (Apr 28, 2008)

Another thing that would be funny to do would be solve with your feet during the regular 3x3x3 event. I don't believe there is a rule against this right?


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## signaly (Apr 28, 2008)

I wouldn't think there is but you would probably get strange looks. lol I can imagine it's your turn and you just take your shoes off and start solving with your feet and you actually beat everyone else. Man that would be hilarious


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## fanwuq (Apr 28, 2008)

That would be Anssi. He can probably beat half of the people using feet.


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## van21691 (Apr 29, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> I couldn't stop laughing while I read that!



Same! 
Drop your cube when doing OH solve on the floor, make sure that your cube is very loose so pieces fly


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## pcwiz (Apr 29, 2008)

Ethan Rosen said:


> Tyler and Peter chose to race to see who could take the longest without the stackmat stopping (or something like that.) While Tyler just hung out, Peter kept intentionally popping his. With only a few seconds left until the timer stopped, Peter's cube popped again, and he was unable to fix it in time. The funniest part of that to me though, was that they chose to do that on the scramble where most people either got a complete LL or permutation skip.



Yeah, I was there, and I heard them say to one another "hey, what's the longest 2x2 solve ever?" (they look at their laptop.) "Oh we can totally beat that!" Weird.


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## cuBerBruce (Apr 29, 2008)

pcwiz said:


> Ethan Rosen said:
> 
> 
> > Tyler and Peter chose to race to see who could take the longest without the stackmat stopping (or something like that.) While Tyler just hung out, Peter kept intentionally popping his. With only a few seconds left until the timer stopped, Peter's cube popped again, and he was unable to fix it in time. The funniest part of that to me though, was that they chose to do that on the scramble where most people either got a complete LL or permutation skip.
> ...



How would they have found the slowest time ever for 2x2x2? It's easy to find what the times are for the person whose best time is longer than anyone else's best time, but that person may not be the one with the longest time ever.

Along those lines, is Tyler's 87 fewest moves also the highest in the database? Could he have gotten the worst (non-DNF) result ever in two events at a competitition? Is that a record?

Well, if you count WC2003, then clearly it has at least been done before (worst ever non-DNF results in 2 events by one person at one competition). I haven't checked very many other early competitions.


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## Dene (Apr 29, 2008)

LMAO This is awesome. I may try something like this


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## Amba (Apr 29, 2008)

That was me. The tension in the room was insane so we did it to sort of relax everyone. It worked hehe. Probably the funniest thing I have ever done.


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## AvGalen (Apr 30, 2008)

After a lot of competitions, I know from experience many of these have actually happened:



> - Take the maximum time allowed for each solve. Even if you solve the cube in under ten minutes, just sit there until your time's about to run out and hit the timer.


I have seen many top cubers wait for specific times (20.00, 22.95, 30.00 or 1:00.00 after a bad solve or pop), but never the maximum time



> - Solve until you get to the last layer. "Accidentally" screw up the PLL and start over. Repeat as necessary.


I think Ron once did this really accidentally on 2x2x2. He just couldn't finish it and kept making mistakes, getting a 5x.xx time. (he got the WR later as his revenge)



> - Enter the blindfold competition even if you don't know how to blindfold *coughDavidBuckcough*. Spend ten minutes "memorizing" *coughRafaelAlgarincough* before donning the blindfold and then madly twisting the cube for a few seconds.


As you already mentioned, this has actually happened. Also, the Leyan Lo imposter from Letterman comes to mind (can't solve the cube, pretends to be Leyan Lo, tries to break the WR, fails, tries again????)



> - Fall asleep while wearing the blindfold.


Does dosing away, waking up, seeing three unsolved cubes, solving them, then realising I was doing FMC at that moment and those unsolved cubes had the scramble performed on them count (Sweden 2007)



> - In between solves while the judges aren't watching, pocket random pens, stopwatches, cube covers, and anything else that isn't bolted down.


Happened to me by accident. I found 3 stopwatches and 3 pens in my pocket after 30 minutes of judging



> - Start the timer, take the cube, and start walking away as you solve.
> - Run laps around the solving tables while you solve.


Erik did a mixture of these this while solving some puzzle (I think MegaMinx)



> - Register for every event in the competition. Don't bring a single cube with you and insist on borrowing other people's.


Happened to Dennis (20 borrowed cubes for multi-blind among others) because he left his bag of cubes at a bar the night before (the cubes have safely returned since)



> - Insist on using custom built teeny tiny cubes. Like the size of Shelley's cube earrings.


Do those actually turn?  I have seen people use mini-cubes, mini-magics, but also huge 3x3x3 and best of all, Adams H U G E 2x2x2




> - Sticker your cubes with nothing but gold, silver and other shiny, glittery, metallic, holographic, etc. stickers. (side note.. holographic stickers? that could be pretty cool...)


You should look at some of the pyraminx stickers. Those are "nice" 



> - Lube your cube with something nasty, drippy and smelly *coughLemonPledgecough*. Make sure it leaks out of the cube and into the scrambler's hands.


The opposite has happened to me. I gave a perfectly clean an nice cube to the scramblers and they returned a greasy, sticky, sweaty cube (not nice for one-handed. Scramblers should be wearing gloves and/or not eat chocolate)



> - Hand the scramblers a very stiff, almost impossible to move cube. When they finally finish scrambling it, tell them you changed your mind and wish to use a different cube. Or just disappear from the venue. Hell if you're going to solve that cube.


I have scrambled some horribly stiff cubes/pyraminxes/clocks/megaminxes, but also some puzzles (especially pyraminxes-tips) that can turn just by blowing


None of the above have resulted in penalties by the judges or disqualification of the competitor.


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## shelley (Apr 30, 2008)

AvGalen said:


> None of the above have resulted in penalties by the judges or disqualification of the competitor.



Yeah.. we were being silly when we came up with these, but that was kind of the point. Most of them are not explicitly against regulations, but it would be annoying for tournament administration if a competitor did them on purpose.



AvGalen said:


> > - Fall asleep while wearing the blindfold.
> 
> 
> Does dosing away, waking up, seeing three unsolved cubes, solving them, then realising I was doing FMC at that moment and those unsolved cubes had the scramble performed on them count (Sweden 2007)



Haha, that's hilarious.


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## RamanuJ (Apr 30, 2008)

LOL those techniques are genius xD

thanks for the laugh ^^


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## ExoCorsair (Apr 30, 2008)

Alternatively, get Peter's "T-perm" cube use it for a solve or two.

Or a puzzle that won't stop popping (this has happened to my Pyraminx at Pleasantville, unintentionally).


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## shelley (Apr 30, 2008)

- Violently pop a cube during BLD and run around crashing into and tripping over people and furniture trying to find the pieces while blindfolded.

- Yell for the duration of all your solves. Most effective during BLD. (Yelling helps me concentrate! And by concentrate, I mean makes everyone else DNF!)


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## Bryan (Apr 30, 2008)

shelley said:


> - Yell for the duration of all your solves. Most effective during BLD. (Yelling helps me concentrate! And by concentrate, I mean makes everyone else DNF!)



2k4?


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## Swordsman Kirby (Apr 30, 2008)

shelley said:


> - Yell for the duration of all your solves. Most effective during BLD. (Yelling helps me concentrate! And by concentrate, I mean makes everyone else DNF!)



On a lesser scale, Leyan made Devin DNF in a blindfold solve because he was saying his cycles aloud.


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## dChan (Apr 30, 2008)

I think I saw Dan mess up at DSC08 on an OH solve and he tried to stop the timer dead on 30 seconds or something like that. 

Maybe we should have rules for intentionally delaying the competition? I would be annoyed if I was judge and someone was wasting time idling or intentionally popping their cube.


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## Lucas Garron (Apr 30, 2008)

dChan said:


> I think I saw Dan mess up at DSC08 on an OH solve and he tried to stop the timer dead on 30 seconds or something like that.
> 
> Maybe we should have rules for intentionally delaying the competition? I would be annoyed if I was judge and someone was wasting time idling or intentionally popping their cube.


Were you watching the 3x3x3 finals?

I was almost the only one left and on a bad solve I waited for a 1:00.00. Stephanie (was she my judge?) kept telling me that they really needed to get going for finals. 
The next solve was an 11.74. 

Micheal went for 1:33.70 on Magic at EPGY.


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## dChan (May 1, 2008)

Lucas Garron said:


> dChan said:
> 
> 
> > I think I saw Dan mess up at DSC08 on an OH solve and he tried to stop the timer dead on 30 seconds or something like that.
> ...




I have no idea. Is it possible that we were competing at the same time(probably not as you were one of the judges but I don't know)? Because I really don't remember you doing anything like that. I did see your 11.74 solve though. That was amazing but no one clapped. Didn't Tyson say something like, "That's a pretty good time you know" to the audience?


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## Dene (May 1, 2008)

I think that a rule of something like "clearly and intentionally delaying for excess periods of time, at the discretion of the delegate, could result in a ban from the event". I mean, it would be very vague but it is a good point. It could really screw around with the competition.
I personally, if I screw up a solve, will do the get up and walk across to the other side of the room and set it up so it is extremely close to a +2. In fact, if I were to stop the timer at around 9:59.90 ish (wouldn't want to risk the timer running out!) and then get a +2 so the time would be 10:01.90 would that still count? I am so aiming for that (if I have the chance!)


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## dChan (May 1, 2008)

Ha, that would be awesome! I would love to see that. What is the current slowest time? I can't figureo ut how to find that.


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## Dene (May 1, 2008)

Here it is.

Looking at the first few, it's amazing that Yu is so far down on the list.


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## shelley (May 1, 2008)

That's only the slowest fastest solve. Err.. that made no sense. Slowest personal best solve. If a sub-20 cuber decided to wait around and get a 9 minute solve, that wouldn't show up on the list.


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## van21691 (May 1, 2008)

Why not? 
It will be fun if it shows up at the results page


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## Dene (May 1, 2008)

shelley said:


> That's only the slowest fastest solve. Err.. that made no sense. Slowest personal best solve. If a sub-20 cuber decided to wait around and get a 9 minute solve, that wouldn't show up on the list.



Ah yes of course, my mistake, grr.


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## fanwuq (May 1, 2008)

Imagine this:
For speedsolving event, memo cube during inspection time. Then solve BLD. Anyone tried this?


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## shelley (May 1, 2008)

fanwuq said:


> Imagine this:
> For speedsolving event, memo cube during inspection time. Then solve BLD. Anyone tried this?



When I can consistently memorize in 15 seconds, I'll do it


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## fanwuq (May 1, 2008)

shelley said:


> fanwuq said:
> 
> 
> > Imagine this:
> ...



awesome! I would want a video of that! Well, you can always spend 10 more seconds staring at cube and then start.


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## cuBerBruce (May 1, 2008)

dChan said:


> Ha, that would be awesome! I would love to see that. What is the current slowest time? I can't figureo ut how to find that.



I think the slowest time in the WCA database is probably:

3x3x3 Multi-BLD Rowe Hessler 22/30 4:24:11 USA Armonk Spring 2008

Stefan listed the top 4 not exceeding 10 minutes in late 2006.
See: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/speedsolvingrubikscube/message/31746

The only other times in that range since then that I know of (and I was present at both) were Adam's and Tyler's.

Incidently, 25% of the competitions I've been to have had a solve time between 9:58.00 and 9:59.99.

One more thing, I believe the new rules allow you to get +4 in penalties.


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## shelley (May 1, 2008)

I'm curious as to what the slowest non-DNF solve time is for 3x3 speedsolve. I think it's a good bet that Tyler Wilkinson and Adam Zamora have that distinction for 2x2 and Magic respectively.

Where's Stefan? *shines Stefan Pochmann searchlight into the clouds*


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## Mike Hughey (May 1, 2008)

shelley said:


> I'm curious as to what the slowest non-DNF solve time is for 3x3 speedsolve. I think it's a good bet that Tyler Wilkinson and Adam Zamora have that distinction for 2x2 and Magic respectively.
> 
> Where's Stefan? *shines Stefan Pochmann searchlight into the clouds*



<singing> Pop - Man (da da da da da da da da da da da da) Pop - Man (da da da da da da da da da da da da) ...


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## Stefan (May 1, 2008)

I skipped this thread, but you're lucky, egocentric as I am I just ran a search for my name. So here's the current "top 10 not exceeding 10 minutes" list:


```
10:00.00  Doug Li                    333bf  CaltechDallas2005
10:00.00  Mark Gaines                333ft  SwedishOpen2005
 9:59.66  Brent Morgan               333bf  US2004
 9:59.63  Adam Zamora                magic  VirginiaOpen2007
 9:59.10  Josh Ito                   555    FloridaOpen2007
 9:59.06  Tyler Wilkinson            222    ArmonkSpring2008
 9:58.28  Bruce Norskog              555    US2006
 9:57.72  Bertrand Bordage           555    Euro2004
 9:57.20  Dennis Nilsson             555    SwedishOpen2005
 9:54.96  Diego de Pereda Sebastian  333bf  MadridOpen2008
```

Oh and the slowest 3x3 speedsolve took 9 minutes 6.04 seconds.


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## shelley (May 1, 2008)

Hooray, it worked! Thanks Stefan


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## Lucas Garron (May 1, 2008)

Hmm, you know, I wonder which 10 WCA cuber's results have the most averages/means (on any/all puzzles) that agree in the last digit with the sum of all constituent non-DNF, non-DNS results from that round (including dropped times). 

EDIT: Oh!
Where's Stefan? *shines Stefan Pochmann searchlight into the clouds*


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## Dene (May 1, 2008)

StefanPochmann said:


> I skipped this thread, but you're lucky, egocentric as I am I just ran a search for my name..



LMAO, this made me laugh almost as much as the other stuff


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## Stefan (May 2, 2008)

Lucas Garron said:


> Hmm, you know, I wonder which 10 WCA cuber's results have the most averages/means (on any/all puzzles) that agree in the last digit with the sum of all constituent non-DNF, non-DNS results from that round (including dropped times).


I intend to work on that this weekend.


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## Tim Reynolds (May 3, 2008)

Stefan, a while back, I remember seeing Macky mention that he had a string of 100 consecutive sub-20 3x3 speedsolves. If you have time and the ability to do so, I'd be interested to see who has the longest such strings.


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## Stefan (May 3, 2008)

Longest sub20 streaks:
http://stefan-pochmann.info/misc/sub20streak.png


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## Tim Reynolds (May 3, 2008)

Thanks Stefan!

An interesting thing about Thibaut's 85-cube streak: The average he took before the streak started was
13.57 13.74 13.91 DNF DNF
If we omit those DNFs from his streak, that's another 29 solves sub-20. So Thibaut's last 114 completed 3x3 solves have been sub-20. That's pretty impressive. (I'm not saying that we should omit those solves, but it is interesting to see that fact anyway). Harris Chan's also really impressive; before the DNF that came before his streak started, he had 33 sub-20 solves, so his last 83 completed 3x3 solves have been sub-20.


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## Hadley4000 (May 3, 2008)

> Enter the blindfold competition even if you don't know how to blindfold *coughDavidBuckcough*. Spend ten minutes "memorizing" *coughRafaelAlgarincough* before donning the blindfold and then madly twisting the cube for a few seconds.




I just realized, I actually did that. For the 4x4x4. Jason Baum wanted to enter it for Stetson, but there needs to be a specific number of people.

I decided to try to get the centers. Just the centers. Got 2 of them, was 1 turn off from getting 2 others.


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## ROOT (May 20, 2008)

peters 2x2 kept popping and tyler stayed with him to the end.


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## striderxo (May 20, 2008)

One of the competitors at Drexel's local competition got a 9:58.54 in his 3x3 solve. Beginner's method and he wasn't waiting for the timer to hit 10 either.


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## pcharles93 (May 20, 2008)

Hmm, when it comes time for the Cincinnati Open I should enter under a fake name and submit my diy set as tight as possible so it is just a plastic brick. And if it comes back scrambled, I am in for one hellishly embarrassing solve.


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## hdskull (May 21, 2008)

pcharles93 said:


> Hmm, when it comes time for the Cincinnati Open I should enter under a fake name and submit my diy set as tight as possible so it is just a plastic brick. And if it comes back scrambled, I am in for one hellishly embarrassing solve.



If they can't scramble it, then you have to use another cube, its under the regulations, lol.


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## DavidWoner (May 21, 2008)

i think i am going to go for the 1337 move FMC solve. or maybe i will go all the way down to the very last turn and just RUR'U' until time is almost up then finish it to get the ultra high score.


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## shelley (May 21, 2008)

pcharles93 said:


> Hmm, when it comes time for the Cincinnati Open I should enter under a fake name and submit my diy set as tight as possible so it is just a plastic brick. And if it comes back scrambled, I am in for one hellishly embarrassing solve.



"Lube" it with a little superglue and you should be okay


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## ROOT (May 21, 2008)

actually at around 6 minutes we all noticed their judges werent even around anymore


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## popopopolo (May 22, 2008)

Oh~It's so wonderful~


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## Alex DiTuro (Jun 1, 2008)

van21691 said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > I couldn't stop laughing while I read that!
> ...



Drop it??? You need to blatently *throw* it on the floor and then blame it on the judge insisting that they distracted you!

BTW he's talking about this: http://shelley.freeserverhost.com/index.php?id=357


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## pcharles93 (Jun 1, 2008)

Right when you finish a solve, pop out an edge "accidentally." Put it back in the wrong way and repeatedly apply M U M U M U2 M' U M' U M' U2 to flip opposite edges. While you are doing that, slowly lower yourself to the fetal position and roll around the judge while applying that algorithm.


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