# Will I embarrass myself?



## Hadley4000 (Feb 22, 2008)

I am going to be in my first tournament next month. But, I am worried that I might embarrass myself with the times I hit. Here are my records and average for all of the events I'm entering.

3x3x3
Record - 26.88
Average - 45

3x3x3 OH
Record 1:10.something
Average 1:45

4x4x4
Record - 1:58.87
Average - 2:30

5x5x5
Record - 4:30.22
Average 4:50

Magic
Record - 1.40
Average 1.68


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## Brian Le (Feb 22, 2008)

Why are you so worried? Many people who have slower times than you compete...


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## Hadley4000 (Feb 22, 2008)

Brian Le said:


> Why are you so worried? Many people who have slower times than you compete...





Well like I said. This is my first competition, so I don't know the times of others.

I just don't want to be stuck in last place


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## cmhardw (Feb 22, 2008)

I think you'll find that at competitions you'll be surprised at how little people are competitive with each other, and how friendly they are in general. I love going to competitions because you get to meet other people who are just as addicted to your hobby as you are.

Who cares what times you set? Try your best of course, but think of it more as a chance to meet other cubers and have fun than anything else.

Chris


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## Jason Baum (Feb 22, 2008)

Yeah, what Chris said. It doesn't matter if you haven't broken two minutes yet, people will still be very friendly to you at competitions and will give you advice on how to improve. Don't be afraid of the fast guys 

With a 45 second average, you definitely won't be in last place either.


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## Hadley4000 (Feb 22, 2008)

cmhardw said:


> I think you'll find that at competitions you'll be surprised at how little people are competitive with each other, and how friendly they are in general. I love going to competitions because you get to meet other people who are just as addicted to your hobby as you are.
> 
> Who cares what times you set? Try your best of course, but think of it more as a chance to meet other cubers and have fun than anything else.
> 
> Chris






Chris Hardwick? Ha. You're the delegate for the tournament I'm entering! The Chattahoochee Spring Tournament. XD


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## Lofty (Feb 22, 2008)

The Chattahoochee will be my first competition as well! I am so excited for it too! 
In the 4x4 and 5x5 you don't have to worry about being in last because you are faster than I am.


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## Jason Baum (Feb 22, 2008)

I will be at Chattahoochee as well.


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## Henrik (Feb 22, 2008)

And with the Magic times you have you could even have a chance at winning
If you keep you cool and relax then there is a chance.
At Benelux I didn't relax at Magic so I had bad times.
Lots of times people are looking at the fast ones to see how they did this time and don't look as much at the slower ones. But everybody are always willing to help you get better so next time they have to look out for you  
And as said before you wont be last.


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## Tim Reynolds (Feb 22, 2008)

I'll be at Chattahoochee too. Trust me, those times are decent, you won't embarrass yourself. Henrik's right, Chris, Jason, and I (and any other cubers there) will definitely be willing to give you advice or stuff like that.


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## Jai (Feb 22, 2008)

As Harris once said, it's not about beating others at competitions, it's about beating yourself (improving since the last competition).


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## Mike Hughey (Feb 22, 2008)

Wow - it's nice to see all the people that will be at Chattahoochee. I'll be there as well. My daughters will compete too, although they've actually gotten slower since the VA Open. So Hadley4000, you're guaranteed to not be anywhere near last place. (They're both generally over 1:30 solving the 3x3x3.)


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## Inusagi (Feb 22, 2008)

It is important to meet other peoples. They may help you.

And don't think it's like a competition, think it's like bowling or something like that. Someone must get the last place anyway. And you could start practising more now then before. 30 days before my competition, I wasn't sure I was going to do it well. But since I begun to practise a lot, I did get a good place. Better then I ever believed. 

Remember this: If evryone was thinking like you, there would only be one person at the competition.


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## cubetimer (Feb 22, 2008)

One thing I like most about speedcubers is how non-competitive they are. I mean, sure, they all want to improve, and we all like to win, but mostly everyone was just hanging out with other cubers. At the *2007 San Diego Open* I placed 41 out of 49, not exactly something to brag about, but would I go again?

Definitely. And I'm bringing a bunch of friends I've taught to cube since then. I've even announced the *2008 San Diego Open* on my *speedcubing timer* page. I'm really excited about it. I hope the place is packed.

Dude, just go and have fun...


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## DanHarris (Feb 22, 2008)

If you do badly, Chris Hardwick will personally chastise you (I've been there)


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## cmhardw (Feb 22, 2008)

DanHarris said:


> If you do badly, Chris Hardwick will personally chastise you (I've been there)



haha Dan you know me, I'm like the meanest cuber around if you think about it 

Chris


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## MiloD (Feb 22, 2008)

I heard you say curse words at your cubes under your breath when you do blindfold solves.


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## Mike Hughey (Feb 22, 2008)

MiloD said:


> I heard you say curse words at your cubes under your breath when you do blindfold solves.



Those are just his memorization images: more "colorful" = easier to memorize.


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## slncuber21 (Feb 22, 2008)

yeah you wont suck cuz i am WAYYY slower than u are and i will be going to a competition soon too.. dont worry about placement for ur first comp. just have FUN!!!


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## brad711 (Feb 24, 2008)

Certainly, just have fun.
I certainly don't consider myself "serious" about cubing, its just a puzzle and a highly enjoyable passtime.


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## hdskull (Feb 24, 2008)

Yea, like everyone else said, don't worry. You're not losing anything, your life isn't dependent on this. Going to the competition will give you a chance to see how amazing the amazing are, and how you can become the next amazing cuber. Many people actually beat their personal best times at a competition!! 

@ cubetimer: I have already registered for SD 2008 also! see you there!


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## Hadley4000 (Feb 24, 2008)

Are white DIY cubes allowed? I think I heard someone say that only black cubes are allowed, but my white one is my best. So is that true?


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## Mike Hughey (Feb 24, 2008)

No, white cubes are definitely allowed. Any color is allowed, as long as they're not transparent.

But don't leave stickers off on one face so you can have a white face - all 6 sides need stickers. (I remember a guy at the US Open with a white cube with no stickers on one side - he got chastised for that.)


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## Hadley4000 (Feb 24, 2008)

Why aren't transparent allowed?


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## Bounb (Feb 24, 2008)

3i)	No modifications are allowed that enhance the basic concept of a puzzle. Some examples of enhancing the basic concept are: new moves are possible, normal moves are impossible, more colours/pieces are visible, moves are done automatically, more or other solved states.

Transparency means more colours/pieces are visible.


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## hdskull (Feb 24, 2008)

Mike is right, all sides must have stickers.

I really don't get why transparent cubes aren't allowed either, the time for me to "see through" the piece would be enough for me to solve the entire cube...


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## SkateTracker (Feb 25, 2008)

I was also wondering the same thing, my times are about the same as yours, except I average 35 seconds on the 3x3. I might consider going to a competition after reading this. What do you have to pay to get in?


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## AvGalen (Feb 25, 2008)

SkateTracker said:


> I was also wondering the same thing, my times are about the same as yours, except I average 35 seconds on the 3x3. I might consider going to a competition after reading this. What do you have to pay to get in?


That depends on the competition. Some are free, others are between 5 and 15 dollar


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## ROOT (Apr 4, 2008)

im still new to this site but i had my first comp a couple weeks ago(princeton). i had a 22 second average, but no one made fun of people who did get slower times than they do. dont worry yourself, have fun.


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## brunson (Apr 4, 2008)

Thanks to this thread I've decided to compete in the Denver Open. I posted a 45 second average on the Sunday Contest last week, but I hope to have that down below 40 for the Open. We'll see.

Thanks for all the (indirect) encouragement.


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## pcwiz (Apr 4, 2008)

Hadley4000 said:


> Why aren't transparent allowed?



Transparent cubes aren't allowed because you can sort of see through the stickers and cube and see the back face. Then you can "see" the back face without looking at it. It's not going to help you much but it might so they don't allow transparent cubes.


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## Hadley4000 (Apr 5, 2008)

pcwiz said:


> Hadley4000 said:
> 
> 
> > Why aren't transparent allowed?
> ...




I tried one at Chattahoochee(Someone brought one). I tried to see through, but was harder to look through than to just solve.


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## pcwiz (Apr 6, 2008)

Well as I said before, you can barely see through it, but you can, so that's why they ban them.


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## pjk (Apr 6, 2008)

brunson said:


> Thanks to this thread I've decided to compete in the Denver Open. I posted a 45 second average on the Sunday Contest last week, but I hope to have that down below 40 for the Open. We'll see.
> 
> Thanks for all the (indirect) encouragement.


Great, looking forward to seeing you there.


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## Feanaro (Apr 6, 2008)

I went to the Chattahoochee competition and I didn't win of course, but some people there had some slow times. They knew that but still went to just have fun. Besides, those are okay times. 

*3x3x3 PB: 18.22 sec
3x3x3 OH: 1:17
3x3x3 BLND: 2:55
2x2x2 PB: 7.35
4x4x4 PB: 2:30*


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## kubekid (Apr 7, 2008)

I'll think you'll do fine if I went to a competition I would lose by a long shot.

My fastest solving time was 46 seconds. (I use layer by layer) and i've had the 

cube for almost a year. I first got a 55 sec average 2 weeks after getting the 

cube but kept the same average for 7 months cuz i didn't learn a new 

method.


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## pcwiz (Apr 8, 2008)

kubekid said:


> I'll think you'll do fine if I went to a competition I would lose by a long shot.
> 
> My fastest solving time was 46 seconds. (I use layer by layer) and i've had the
> 
> ...



A new method will not necessarily get you faster. What makes you faster is practice, and some tricks. Using a new method will make getting faster with practice faster. Some people know the entire Fridrich Method (about 112 algorithms) but they still get a 50 second average. What good is memorizing the algorithms if you don't execute them fast or you pause too much? The beginner method (layer by layer, 4LLL) has been proven to get times of a sub 20 average. Obviously, getting a sub 20 second average with the beginner method is a bit difficult, but it's possible. Learning a faster method will just make it easier to get faster times, but it will not guarantee you to automatically get faster, unless you practice hard and learn tricks and all other kinds of stuff that will help you get faster.


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## Mike Hughey (Apr 8, 2008)

Hey, so I'm not the slowest in the world at Fridrich!  (I'm about 30 seconds with full Fridrich.) I was cubing in front of Joshua Satterfield last week (the first time a speedcuber who's faster than me ever watched me solve and commented on it), and his response was that I'm pretty good at doing the right things; it's just that my fingertricks are really bad. I don't do as many as I should, and the ones I do just aren't effective.

I've decided on a plan of attack for improving this - I'm going to start doing the same scramble over and over until I get sub-15 on that scramble (I won't move on to another scramble until I get sub-15 on the one I'm working on). That way, I'll have to work out fingertricks that work reasonably well for that particular scramble. If I do that on enough scrambles, I should be able to force myself to do good fingertricks for most F2L cases (and hopefully improve my OLLs and PLLs in the process). This will be a challenge, though - I'm pretty sure the fastest I've ever done a prepared solve before is about 18 seconds. I may never get past the first scramble!


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## Dene (Apr 9, 2008)

That is an interesting strategy, you'll have to let us know how it goes for you! I've only ever done a prepared solve like that once, and I got sub12. It was good to know that I could move that fast, but I already knew what to do so I was barely even looking at the cube by the end.


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