# Negative Time Solving Contest 2013



## macky (Oct 12, 2013)

Continuing with what has now become a tradition, I'm once again organizing the annual Negative Time Solving Contest. The scrambles for this year and the time submission form will be posted there soon.

DST (Daylight Saving Time) ends in many countries in Europe during the weekend of October 26 (fixed. Thanks, TMOY!), and in most parts of the United States and Canada at 2am on Sunday, November 3. See Time and Date.com to check the clock change schedule in your area. There's also a Facebook event page (scheduled at North America time).

Please note that each solve started (not just start the timer but actually make a move) before daylight saving ends and completed after it ends counts as a negative solve. This means that you can simultaneously compete in 3x3 speedsolve, 3x3 BLD, multiBLD, etc, at the cost of some extra time in your negative solve.

Once again, thanks to Tyson Mao for bringing this great Caltech tradition to cubing. Good luck to all participants!

11/06: Results have been posted! Thanks to all who participated, and see you again next year!

macky


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## waffle=ijm (Oct 12, 2013)

that time of the year again. <3


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## Dapianokid (Oct 12, 2013)

My first time. This is gonna be big! xD


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## DrKorbin (Oct 12, 2013)

We don't use DST in Russia


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## macky (Oct 12, 2013)

DrKorbin said:


> We don't use DST in Russia



Sorry about that. =(

There also seem to be some European countries that are considering going off DST in the next few years. Compete while you can!


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## tx789 (Oct 12, 2013)

meanwhile in the southern hemisphere in New Zealand DST started about 2 weeks ago


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## qqwref (Oct 12, 2013)

I wanna do something crazy again... biggest NxNxN computer cube solved in under an hour, perhaps?


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## A Leman (Oct 13, 2013)

May you please provide a 7x7 scramble. I will make it my goal to be ready by then.


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## cubernya (Oct 13, 2013)

qqwref said:


> I wanna do something crazy again... biggest NxNxN computer cube solved in under an hour, perhaps?



Or perhaps biggest relay in an hour?


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## ben1996123 (Oct 13, 2013)

qqwref said:


> I wanna do something crazy again... biggest NxNxN computer cube solved in under an hour, perhaps?



dont you mean in under 0?

or do something that would take 1:00:10 or something

sub10sek 25x25 pls


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## AustinReed (Oct 13, 2013)

Yeah, the perks of living in Arizona. As long as I live here I can't do this


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## qqwref (Oct 13, 2013)

theZcuber said:


> Or perhaps biggest relay in an hour?


Nah, I've had enough relays...

25x25x25 should be doable in negative time. Haven't done it yet, but looking at my list of times, it shouldn't be too hard.


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## macky (Oct 14, 2013)

tx789 said:


> meanwhile in the southern hemisphere in New Zealand DST started about 2 weeks ago



Someone over there should start your own!



A Leman said:


> May you please provide a 7x7 scramble. I will make it my goal to be ready by then.



Done.



qqwref said:


> 25x25x25 should be doable in negative time. Haven't done it yet, but looking at my list of times, it shouldn't be too hard.



You crazy man....


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## Kit Clement (Oct 14, 2013)

AustinReed said:


> Yeah, the perks of living in Arizona. As long as I live here I can't do this



I'd definitely call that a perk. DST is pretty stupid.


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## brian724080 (Oct 14, 2013)

Dang, no DST in Taiwan


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## LNZ (Oct 14, 2013)

The good news that if you live in Australia and happen to live in SA, ACT, NSW, VIC or TAS you can do this in April 2014.

QLD, NT and WA do not observe daylight savings.

I did a negative solve time for a 3x3 cube in April 2013 and got minus 59 minutes 59 seconds and 33 seconds.


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## cmhardw (Oct 15, 2013)

Mike, I'm thinking 4x4x4 multiBLD again. I don't know if you have something else crazy planned, but if not you should consider 4x4x4multi


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## TMOY (Oct 15, 2013)

macky said:


> DST (Daylight Saving Time) ends in many countries in Europe during the weekend of October 19



October 26, not 19.


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## cubecraze1 (Oct 15, 2013)

I've been wanting to do this for a few years but missed it


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## ben1996123 (Oct 27, 2013)

reminder four europe if anyone wants to do a thing

i'll be doing a 20x20 slidysim solve in abit


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## Mikel (Oct 27, 2013)

cmhardw said:


> Mike, I'm thinking 4x4x4 multiBLD again. I don't know if you have something else crazy planned, but if not you should consider 4x4x4multi



I would do it, but I only have 2 4x4's and that seems a little small. Maybe 5x5 Multi? I have three of those


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## TMOY (Oct 27, 2013)

Just finished my 2-9 relay in the slooooow time of -6:27.75. (I didn't want to attempt anything BLD because I felt I would probably DNF). Now I'm going to sleep.


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## ben1996123 (Oct 27, 2013)

well i really ****ed that up







9 cycle omfg

final time -17:23.912, 19962 moves, -19.122 tps

whatpulse got ****ed up because timetravel and kept making an alert every minute which made the sim window lose focus too so yeah


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## Mike Hughey (Oct 28, 2013)

Mikel said:


> I would do it, but I only have 2 4x4's and that seems a little small. Maybe 5x5 Multi? I have three of those



3 5x5x5s sounds rather challenging. Not that hard, but still a little scary - I could see going positive if memo is bad. But I admit 5x5x5 multi sounds more fun than 4x4x4 multi. Besides, my 4x4x4 multi record is perfect - I'd hate to ruin it. I've only done one 4x4x4 multi ever, it was done in negative time, and it was 4/4. I don't want to mess up my record. 

I haven't done a really big cube in ages. I was contemplating a 7x7x7. But again, a bad solve could go positive, especially with me out of practice.


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## Coolster01 (Nov 2, 2013)

I'm so excited! Gonna do 3x3, Feet, Pyraminx, and Megaminx.


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## BoBoGuy (Nov 2, 2013)

Im gonna do 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 relay. and OH


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## soup (Nov 3, 2013)

Going with 143puzzle, also will make recording of it.


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## Mike Hughey (Nov 3, 2013)

7x7x7 BLD: -17:02!

Memorization time: 22:18
Execution time: -39:20

I started early because I wanted my execution time to be negative.  FTL execution time!


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## Sa967St (Nov 3, 2013)

I almost missed it, but I got in a -59:49.49 3x3x3 solve just in time. I didn't have time to set up my video camera, unfortunately. I remember how the solve went, so I'll post the reconstruction tomorrow morning.



Spoiler: reconstruction



Scramble: B U2 F U2 R2 B L2 B' D2 R2 F2 R' F L' D U' B D F' D2

z2 \\ Inspection
R' u U2 L F' y2 r U' r' D2 \\ Cross
y2 U' R U R' U y' R' U' R \ First slot
y2 R U R' U' y R' U' R \\ Second slot
U2 y' R U' R' U y R U' R' \\ Third slot
y' R U' R' U2 R U' R'\\ Last slot (CLS)
U2 y F2 L' U' r U2 l' U R' U' l2\\ PLL


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## That70sShowDude (Nov 3, 2013)

Literally jumped out of bed realizing there were less than 2 minutes left. -59:46.96 3x3 solve.


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## qqwref (Nov 3, 2013)

24x24x24 solved in -7:43.562, 8077 moves


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## Noahaha (Nov 3, 2013)




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## kcl (Nov 3, 2013)

I finished watching a movie and did the same thing as Sarah when I remembered. I did a -59:50.35 3x3 solve, unfortunately not filmed. It was 9, so I don't even care that I couldn't do something cooler because it was a really nice solve.

Edit: Scramble before I forget 

D' U' B2 R2 U B2 D F2 U B2 L2 B D2 B D L F' D' R F' R2


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## qqwref (Nov 3, 2013)

You got a 5.65?!?


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## kcl (Nov 3, 2013)

qqwref said:


> You got a 5.65?!?



Wat.. My bad. lol typo. I'm honestly not even sure how I did that.. Clearly I need to get some sleep. 

Ok fixed now  9.65


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## cmhardw (Nov 3, 2013)

I had a blast this negative time contest! I did a 3x3x3 BLD at a Waffle House in -56:28.39 minutes! The adjacent booth was a group of drunk people, and their commentary both during and after my solve was hilarious! The Waffle House negative time run was me, my fiancee Katie, and my friend Paul from high school. We had a successful negative time Waffle House run, arriving back at our place 9 minutes before we left 

This was definitely one of my most fun and memorable negative time contests!


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## AJ Blair (Nov 3, 2013)

-59 minutes, 47.17 seconds. Only .17 faster than last year, but whatever. Still had fun 




kclejeune said:


> I finished watching a movie and did the same thing as Sarah when I remembered. I did a -59:50.35 3x3 solve, unfortunately not filmed. It was 9, so I don't even care that I couldn't do something cooler because it was a really nice solve.
> 
> Edit: Scramble before I forget
> 
> D' U' B2 R2 U B2 D F2 U B2 L2 B D2 B D L F' D' R F' R2



So you didn't use the scramble provided?


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## Mikel (Nov 3, 2013)

So I went to bed before the change time and had my phone wake me up at 1:56am so I could do my solve. I think it somehow woke me up at the 2nd 1:56am and not the first one  

If anyone cares, I did a 3x3 BLD solve in 1:52.00 Maybe I can achieve negative time next year.


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## shelley (Nov 3, 2013)

At 1:50am I made a last minute decision to do a team BLD attempt with Kenneth (ToastyKen). This gave us just enough time to give him a crash course in the Berkeley calling method and one practice solve before starting the real attempt. We ran into a snafu near the end and our PLL involved three corners on the top and bottom layers, but we managed to finish in -56:41.14.

Why the sudden inclination toward teamwork? As of last night, Kenneth is now my fiance


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## stoic (Nov 3, 2013)

shelley said:


> Why the sudden inclination toward teamwork? As of last night, Kenneth is now my fiance


Woah, is nobody commenting on this? Is is legit?
Congrats!!!


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## cmhardw (Nov 3, 2013)

shelley said:


> Why the sudden inclination toward teamwork? As of last night, Kenneth is now my fiance



Congratulations Shelley!!! That's great news!  



shelley said:


> At 1:50am I made a last minute decision to do a team BLD attempt with Kenneth (ToastyKen). This gave us just enough time to give him a crash course in the Berkeley calling method and one practice solve before starting the real attempt. We ran into a snafu near the end and our PLL involved three corners on the top and bottom layers, but we managed to finish in -56:41.14.



That sounds like it was a lot of fun, especially the quick crash course and trying to get ready before the time change part!


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## kcl (Nov 3, 2013)

AJ Blair said:


> -59 minutes, 47.17 seconds. Only .17 faster than last year, but whatever. Still had fun
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wat.. No, apparently I didn't


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## Sessinator (Nov 3, 2013)

Finally got around to doing a negative solve!

3BLD in -59 minutes 7.1 seconds.


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## shelley (Nov 3, 2013)

Thanks!

The Berkeley calling method for F2L is surprisingly quick for even beginners to learn. However, I forgot to take into account the issues we would run into with the last layer - he only knows a few OLLs and PLLs, and even when I tried calling basic 4LLL, it turns out he does them differently from how I originally taught him. Also, he wasn't quite comfortable with doing all his algs blindfolded and would sometimes get stuck or do wrong moves by accident, so I ended up telling him the final PLL move by move.

He also got confused when we started and the first moves for the cross were "F2 L!"


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## antoineccantin (Nov 3, 2013)

shelley said:


> He also got confused when we started and the first moves for the cross were "F2 L!"



Haha, I would be too!


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## macky (Nov 6, 2013)

Results have been posted! Thanks to all who participated!


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## cmhardw (Nov 7, 2013)

Macky, thank you for your work in continuing the Negative Time solving contest again this year! Thanks for tabulating the results and for all the work you do! It is much appreciated!


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## Mike Hughey (Nov 8, 2013)

Hah! I love that Ravi did a juggling negative time solve!

Chris, it looks to me like your solve is listed as if it's a DNF, but yours was successful, wasn't it?

And did Lucas do a speedBLD attempt? By the time, it looks like one. If not, there must be some other fun explanation for the time, I'm sure.

All told, some very creative attempts this year. Lots of fun!


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## cmhardw (Nov 9, 2013)

Mike, congrats on your negative time 7x7x7BLD success! 

Yes my attempt was a success, Ravi already informed Macky about it on facebook it looks like.


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## Lucas Garron (Nov 9, 2013)

Mike Hughey said:


> And did Lucas do a speedBLD attempt? By the time, it looks like one. If not, there must be some other fun explanation for the time, I'm sure.



Nope. I just waited for Ravi to finish, then tried to be very careful. The latter didn't work, but the former was impressive as usual.


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## macky (Nov 9, 2013)

cmhardw said:


> Mike, congrats on your negative time 7x7x7BLD success!
> 
> Yes my attempt was a success, Ravi already informed Macky about it on facebook it looks like.



It's been fixed!

Also, I know the section headings don't look right now after some css changes I made (1.5 year ago), but I unfortunately really don't have the time to take care of things like this these days.


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