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The boys awoke around 9:30 am, ate breakfast at the hotel and began the journey to Cornell University. Of course, this would prove to be an adventure in itself. Matt explained, "It seemed like an easy enough task. We had printed information on how to get there; we saw signs the night before that told where to go, what could go wrong?" An hour later, the two found themselves on campus, and totally lost. "The campus was so huge, it was like a freaking city. Just when we thought we were on the right track, we hit a sign that said 'Road Closed'. We needed to cross a bridge that was apparently under construction. We had given ourselves enough time, but we were now dangerously close to missing registration. We were stressed, which is not a good thing when you have to compete that day", recalled Dave.
Through trial and error, and a bit of sheer luck, the two finally found what they were looking for. "It was like finding a suitcase full of money, we wanted to jump for joy and hug the building", said Matt. However, when the two finally entered the building, again getting lost while trying to find the room, they were presented with some unfortunate news. "We finally burst into the room, out of breath and still stressed out. A girl sitting at the table said hello and asked if she could help. We stated we needed to check in, to which she responded, 'I am sorry, registration closed at 11:45'. I estimate it was probably 11:50 at that time. It felt like we were living the movie Little Miss Sunshine!" explained Dave.
"Obviously I wasn't going to accept this as an answer. We are Canadian, so it is in our nature to be polite, but I was dangerously close to ripping into this poor girl. She just caught me at a bad time. But I held it together and asked who we should speak to about the situation. After some finagling, we were registered, and the crisis was averted", said Dave.
"Dave is a pretty laid back guy, but I knew he was being pushed to his limits. We both were. To be honest, at that point I would have let him loose on her. I just stood back and let him handle it for us", Matt said.
With the travel ordeal finally over, the two turned to the task at hand: prepare to compete. They set up camp and began to warm up. "The room itself was very small, and chaotic. There were people all over the place; you couldn't walk from one side of the room to the other without having to ask people to move. There were people standing in front of the timers, behind the timers, people sitting down and staring at the stage. I just didn't know what was going on, to be honest", said Matt. Within 20 minutes, the 3x3 preliminaries were underway.
Dave was up first. "The first solve was my best of the day. When I picked up the cube for the inspection portion, I saw the cross almost immediately. It was like a 5 move x-cross. The whole thing flowed perfectly for me. I ended up with a 14.46 second solve. It was my second fastest ever in a competition. I was happy and thought it was going to be a great day for my times. I was wrong", he said.
"The first round was a best of 3, actually, not an average of 5. This format made me look better than I am, as I sat in 1st place after the first round because of that solve. I was shocked that I was first, to be honest. There was Matt Walter, Leyan Lo and Anthony Hsu all competing, and to get a faster time than them all in a round felt like an accomplishment and a half. I have a lot of respect for all of those guys". The rest of the round, according to Dave, went okay for him, except for his 3rd solve that "was filled with mistakes". But in a best of 3, you need only hit one good solve.
Matt didn't get to do his first solve until close to the end of the preliminaries. "It was strange, I don't know what their criteria were for forming the different seeds, since Dave and I both registered at the same time. I just tried to remain focused and keep solving to stay warmed up". Matt did well in the first round, hitting a 15.02 for his first solve and a 14.80 for his second solve. "Oddly enough, I too made mistakes on the third solve which resulted in a bad time. Oh well, it isn't so bad when you start off with two good solves, I guess", he remembered.
Sometime just before the opening round, a very interesting turn of events happened. "Matt and I were sitting outside the room at a table, and suddenly I see this person walking towards me to go into the competition area. As soon as I saw her I stopped dead" recalled Dave. Jessica Fridrich, the person responsible for popularizing the most widely used speedcubing method in the world today – the Fridrich method – arrived, unexpectedly, to compete. "If there is a bigger celebrity in the cubing world, I don't know who it is. Sure she doesn't compete very often anymore, and she isn't the fastest in the world, but she is a legend. Every single cuber knows who she is, and what she has done for the community. It was amazing to see her, let alone compete against her", Matt said with a smile.
Matt was scheduled to also compete in the 4x4 and 5x5 speedsolve events, while Dave had signed up for the 4x4 and 3x3 one-handed. "We brought a video camera with us to capture the day's events. But we soon realized that when we are both competing in the same event, we cannot record each other. It was really too bad", said Matt. Added Dave, "Too bad is an understatement. Because of this, we missed Matt's amazing 11.15 second solve! I didn't even get to see it as I was solving at the same time. That solve set a new Canadian record for single solve. I can't imagine solving that fast in a competition; it isn't too long ago that that time would have been a world record". When asked what it did feel like to get a time so quick in a competition, Matt responded with a smirk, "It was good. I wish I could do it more often".
But Matt's 11.15 was not the only National record broken that day for Canada. Matt also set a new record for the 5x5 single solve. "I was pretty happy with the time, I have gotten sub 2 minutes on the 5x5 several times in practice, so I was really hoping to be able to pull that off that day. But I will take the 2:06.11 record. That is the whole thing about competing, you just never know what is going to happen". Matt finished in 1st place in the 5x5 event, which was only a best of 3 due to time constraints.
Meanwhile, Dave was having his own success in the one-handed event. "Actually, I was pretty disappointed with my one-handed times in general. I managed to do 3 solves that I was pleased with. But out of 8 solves, that is not a good record", he explained. During the preliminary round for the one-handed event, Dave beat his previous record with a 27.27 second time. "It was my last solve of the round. I had messed up on the first two terribly. I was having trouble with my cube, actually. I wasn't sure which one to use, I switched from the one I practice with at the last minute and went with a back up. I was happy to get that time, though". The time, as it turned out, was enough to put him in first place after the best of 3 round. "Matt and I were practicing in between rounds, and I tried his 3x3 cube, the one he uses in competition. I was getting really good times one-handed with it. Most were sub 30, so he told me I could use it in the finals", Dave stated. "This is bad practice. I don't recommend switching cubes to one you don't know minutes before you are to compete. Why, it is almost as silly as lubing your cube minutes before you are set to compete." said Dave with a grin, glaring at Matt.
The cube, it turned out, had a bit of luck in it. "Again, my first couple of solves were horrid. We have them on tape, and I don't want to ever see them again. But then there was the third solve. It went really smoothly, over all. As I finished the OLL, I could see solid blocks coming up. It took me about half a second to realize that the cube was now solved. I quickly slammed it down", confessed Dave. The time, 24.13 seconds, set a new Canadian record for the one handed event. "There is something about getting a really good lucky time in a competition that makes me feel dirty. Like I cheated or something. But what can you do?" Dave finished in 1st place in the one-handed event with an average of 34.08 seconds, beating the famous Leyan Lo by only 0.19 seconds. "I fully expected Leyan to win. But, as he told me, he doesn't practice one-handed anymore. If he did, I assure you, he'd beat me. Hand down. Get it, hand down? Sheesh, tough crowd". We get it, Dave.
The two competed in the 4x4 event, with Matt cleaning up, as usual. Matt finished 1st in the event with an average of 1:13.34, almost 10 seconds faster than the second place finisher, Leyan Lo. "It was good, I was happy with the win, even though I would have liked to have done some faster times. I always seem to get at least one parity per solve. Yet other people get lucky solves, I must be doing something wrong. However, it also could have gone worse. So I won't complain", he confessed.
Of the 40 competitors, through two preliminary best-of-3 rounds, the top 10 cubers competed in the finals for the 3x3 event. The format was an average of 5 solves, removing the fastest and slowest, and averaging the remaining 3 solves. Matt remembered, "I started out well, with a 12.69 second solve. That was my second fastest in a competition, actually. But it went down hill after that solve". Dave interrupted, "I was the complete opposite. I started off so badly. In fact, my first solve in the finals was slower than my fastest one handed time. Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?" To put it in perspective, a bad average for Matt still left him with a 15 second average. Dave, on the other hand, finished his average with two sub 17 second solves which resulted in a sub 20 average. "It was bad, let me tell you. I was hoping for at least a 17 second average. It just wasn't flowing for me at first". The end result for the boys was Matt finishing in 3rd place, and Dave finishing in 6th place.
The winner of the 3x3 event was Anthony Hsu, which surprised more than a few people. "Oh, i know Antony is fast, we have competed against him a couple of times before already. But with Matt and Leyan both competing, I was just not expecting that to be the order. I figured it was going to be Leyan and Matt duking it out for first", stated Dave. "No, i knew Anthony was capable. Both times i have competed against him, he has not been far behind me. He seems to perform better under pressure than he does at other times. He was just the better cuber that day".
For their winnings, Dave and Matt received a signed certificate, and their choice of prizes. Matt and Dave both chose a new red 3x3 DIY from one of the Asian companies that the community had been talking a lot about. Both said they were surprised at how good the cubes were. Matt also took home a Megaminx to add to his collection. "It was funny, actually, when they called Dave up for the one-handed event, I went to get the video camera. Well, he didn't take as long as I had expected. By the time I got back, which was all of 20 seconds, they had already called me up for my 3rd place finish in the 3x3 event. So we have this crazy video of me walking up to get my certificate because I had left the camera recording while in my hand. But i wasn't pointing it at anything. It is funny to see and try and make out what is going on", recalled Matt. "I thought he should have just held it out and filmed the whole thing from his perspective, that would have been great footage. Of course, everyone would have thought he was a nut. But hey, it is all about the art", Dave interjected.
The organizers of the event were kind enough to arrange dinner for all the competitors at the university's cafeteria. "The food was amazing. You name it, they had it", Matt recalled with a hint of satisfaction. "And Matt, for whatever reason, decided to grab almost everything. Even if it didn't make sense. The guy comes back with a hamburger, a plate of pasta and a bowl of cereal", told Dave. "I love my Fruit Loops", said Matt. "Matt, let it go, buddy. You won't get an endorsement deal", said Dave with a smile.
Shortly after they finished eating, Daniel Beyer, known for his blindfold abilities, joined the two for some interesting conversations. "We had seen Daniel at one of the previous competitions, Rutgers i believe, but we didn't speak with him. This time we did, and he is awesome", Dave explained. Daniel had successfully completed a 5x5 blindfold solve earlier that day. Including memorization and execution, Daniel solved the 5x5 in a mere 32 minutes. "That is mind-boggling, we caught the end of it when we arrived that morning. I can't imagine doing that, but he helped us to understand what it was like", said Matt. Jim, the organizer, had the scrambles from the day with him at dinner. The group asked Daniel if he would walk them through what he sees and thinks while memorizing. Daniel was kind enough to oblige.
"It is awesome, we recorded it on video, and he did not disappoint. It is great because it is funny, just the random things he sees, as well as amazing to begin to understand how someone could go about doing such an incredible feat", Matt said. According to Daniel, he assigns letter combinations to all pieces, and then creates a story depending on the scramble from the letters using objects that represent each piece. "We will have to do something with the video, for sure. It is just too entertaining to not release some of it. We really enjoyed getting to know Daniel, though. He is an interesting guy".
The two also played some group games with the organizers of the event, and a couple of other competitors. The group did relay races, where each person would do one step of the Fridrich method, then pass the cube on to the next person in line. "It is silly, but a lot of fun. It is the kind of thing that we don't get to do when we go to other competitions. Before, Matt and I would just go back to the hotel after the competition and wait to go to sleep. But this time, the way the organizers handled it, we got to meet these new people, and have a lot of fun. I wish more people did that. It really makes the entire experience that much better. Competing is only one part of what makes this speedcubing thing so addicting. The other part is the interesting people we meet. On that note, thank you Jim, Carlos, Kristen, and Joe".
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