The Toronto Open series saw its second installment occur on Saturday March 8th, 2008 at Seneca Residence and Conference Center in Ontario, Canada. The competition, dubbed “TOW”, had a total of 55 competitors participate under less than ideal circumstances. Of the 55, we had 22 first time competitors, which means the community is still growing. We had two special guests come to attend the competition; both are considered blindfold specialists, though definitely not limited to those events at all. Rowe Hessler came up from the United States, and traveling all the way from Japan to make an amazing attempt in the Multiple Cube Blindfolded event was Ryosuke Mondo. The competition itself was quite good in all events.

As luck would have it, Toronto saw its worse snowstorm of the season occur on the day of the competition. Parts of Ontario were hit with 40 cm of snow, with the Toronto region experiencing around 25 cm that day. Many of the competitors travel from out of town to attend these competitions, so the snow added difficulties to many of the competitors and their families. This resulted in many of the registered competitors not showing up. If we had everyone show up that had planned to, the total competitors would have been close to 70 people.

On the organization side of things, we had scheduled 11 volunteers to come out and donate their time and efforts to the day's events. However, due to the snowstorm, only 4 actually showed up on the day of the competition, two of which arrived from Mexico mere hours before registration opened. We were in a tough spot, being extremely short staffed with a room full of 55 eager competitors wanting to get started. We had to find new volunteers quickly. It meant that we had to do on the job training for most of them. We did not manage to fill every position, so we had to make do, and it caused the competition to not run as smoothly or as quickly as we had planned, but we did manage.

As has become the norm, we started the Magic and Master Magic events first, mostly while people were arriving in the snow and trying to check in and get settled. The Magic event had a total of 12 people competing. There is not much room for error in the Magic event, as the difference between first place and fourth place was about half a second. Rhodri Mativo kept up his title as the country's Magic expert, taking first place with an average of 1.51 seconds. One can only assume that a National Record is in his future. In second place was Harris Chan, who had not competed in the event before, with an average of 1.77 seconds, and in third was Emile Compion with an average time of 1.83 seconds.

Though we had not initially planned on holding the Master Magic event at this competition due to a low turn out at the previous two canadianCUBING competitions, we decided to give it one more try. On the plus side we had twice as many competitors than we had at the previous two competitions, with 6 people competing. As is often the trend, the people who are good at Magic are also good at Master Magic, and we had nearly a mirror placement in this event. In first place, securing his role as the person to beat in the Magic events, was Rhodri Mativo with an average time of 4.13 seconds. In second place, however, with an average of only .02 seconds slower at 4.15 seconds was Doowon Joo. In third place with an average time of 5.79 second was Emile Compion who struggled with the puzzle he was using. He is someone to watch out for in this event in the future.

The 2x2x2 event has seen its number of competitors rise considerably in the past competitions, and as such, we felt it was time to move it from the First Tier into the Second Tier and add in a final round. This approach seemed to work well, as we had 15 people compete in the event. The top 10 people moved on to the final round. Again, the level of competition went up for this event. With the absence of Craig Bouchard, former National Record holder for this event, room was created for someone new to step in and show their abilities. In first place was reigning National Record Holder Derrick Eide, with an average of 5.64 seconds, breaking his old NR. In second place was Rowe Hessler, with an average of 6.27 seconds. And in third place, with an average of 7.31 seconds was former National Record holder Scott Leslie.

The 4x4x4 event had a total of 10 competitors, which was down from our previous competitions. Of the 10, 7 were able to complete their average, meeting the minimum time requirement. In first place was National Record holder Matt Walter, who actually turned in a sub par performance in comparison to his usual times in this event, with an average of 1:14.75. In second place was Derrick Eide with an average time of 1:17.63, and in third place was Jack Moseley with an average of 1:24.99.

The 5x5x5 is an event that we just don't seem to have as much interest as one would expect, but we are starting to see some specialist emerge in this event. The event only had 6 people compete, with all but one permitted to complete the average do to cut off times. Matt Walter, the National Record holder, opted not to compete in this event which left room for someone new to step in and place. In first place, with an average of 2:11.94 was Michael Chang. In second place, with an average of 2:15.84 was Emile Compion. And in third place, only 1 second slower than second place, was Derrick Eide with an average time of 2:16.87.

The blindfolded event grows in popularity with each passing competition, both in Canada and world wide. The availability of methods online and the ease in which the process can be done has created a growing interest in the event. We had a total of 9 people compete in the event. Of the 9 competitors, 7 successfully solved at least one attempt. Rowe Hessler took first place with a very impressive best time of 1:17.69. In second place was National Record holder Derrick Eide, beating his old National Record by 50 seconds, with a time of 1:35.08. And in third was Ryosuke Mondo with 2:15.15.

Shortly after announcing the TOW to the public, we received an email indicating that there was some interest in having Multiple Cube Blindfolded as an event at the competition. We like the idea of having an irregular event at each competition in the Toronto Open series, and this fit the bill, so we agreed to make it available. It was the first time we had ever taken this event on, but it won't be the last. But don't expect to see it each competition. It didn't go as smoothly as had been planned because we were unfamiliar with exactly how to do it, coupled with the lack of volunteers and the new regulation that required one judge per competitor, the event didn't get started as quickly as we had planned. All in all, however, the event was a success.

We had a total of 4 people compete in this event, 2 of which, as stated above, were guests from out of country. Canadian Eric Limeback was a late addition to the event, but he did not disappoint. He won the event completing 3 cubes out of 3 in total, in a time of 41:42, setting the National Record. Due to the WCA manner in scoring, 100% success wins over anything less in a success rate. In second place was Rowe Hessler, who completed 2 out of 2 in 5:21.91. This was done in his second attempt. Earlier in the day he had attempted to solve 12 cubes blindfolded, and succeeded in 9 of them.

In third place was our special guest from Japan, Ryosuke Mondo. Ryosuke thrilled everyone that day, and I honestly feel it had a big impact on the cubing community here in Toronto. Ryosuke attempted to do a mind-boggling 18 cubes blindfolded, well above the current world record of 10 cubes. It took Ryosuke over 2 hours in total to complete his attempt. In the end, sadly, he was one cube off, and not by much, completing 17 of 18 cubes, and thus, missing the world record. It must have been a little shocking for him to take his blindfold off to see probably 20 people gathered in front of his table, in sheer awe of his amazing abilities. He received a loud round of applause for his efforts.

Amazingly, he decided to try the attempt again in the afternoon. It is hard to imagine just how mentally draining that must be, as he spent another 2 hours again on the attempt, putting his total time for the event at almost 4.5 hours. In the end, his second attempt came up much shorter, as he completed 14 of 18. We cannot thank Ryosuke enough for coming all the way from Japan and showcasing this event in a way that had not been seen elsewhere in the world at the time. He was an absolute gentleman, and it was an honor to have him at our competition.

The one handed competition has quickly become the second most popular event at competitions, with a total of 20 people competing in it. Again, we offered two rounds for the event. The first round, however, was notable because Harris Chan, who appears to be claiming events one at a time now, broke the National Record for both single solve and average, with times of 18.31 and 24.48 seconds, respectively. It is unfortunate that because it is Harris, it seems like some of his amazing accomplishments seem less impressive because people just come to expect such a high level performance from him. But it is absolutely impressive that he is so fast at so many events. It only serves to force the community to be that much better that much sooner, but Harris definitely keeps pushing the limits in many events. Congratulations to Harris for becoming the first Canadian to hit a sub 20 one handed time in competition.

Harris was not the only one to set an amazing time that day. Rowe Hessler also shocked the crowd with an unbelievable single solve time of 16.21 seconds, which at the time put his solve as the second fastest ever in a competition.

In the final round, Harris kept his first place with an impressive average of 25.72 seconds. In second place was Doowon Joo, with an average of 26.63 seconds. In third place was Jack Moseley with an average of 28.86 seconds.

The 3x3x3 event is the main event that everyone is interested in, with 54 of the 55 competitors competing in this event. The lone exception was Matt Walter who, for the second time in a row, opted not to compete in the event and instead act as the main judge and scrambler. A very special thank you goes to Matt for this, as it allows everyone else to compete in the event and have fun.

For the last year, this event has been held to see who can come in second place as first place goes to Harris Chan, he is just that fast. This competition was no different as Harris once again won the event with an average time of 13.75 seconds. However, this time Harris did not run away with the event. In second place, with a time of only .05 seconds slower, was Derrick Eide with an average of 13.80 seconds. Everyone knew Derrick was fast in most events, but to come that close to beating Harris Chan was quite amazing. In third place was Rowe Hessler, with an average time of 15.52 seconds.

Congratulations to Derrick for becoming only the second Canadian ever to average sub 14 in a competition, and to come that close to beating Harris is fantastic. Granted, Harris had a sub par performance by his own admission, it goes to show what can happen at a competition. One never knows what will happen, all it takes is a few bad cases for someone, and a few good cases for someone else, and everything can change. It will be interesting to see what happens at future competitions as everyone gets faster.

There were many story-lines that happened at the competition, with many people setting new personal best times, some improving by leaps and bounds over their previous times. We cannot acknowledge everyone here, but you should all be proud of yourselves.

A few performances stood out above all others. The obvious ones are Rowe Hessler, who placed in a total of 4 events and set some really impressive times; Harris Chan, who once again secured his rank as the fastest 3x3 puzzler in the country, and added in the One Handed event to his already impressive résumé. Derrick Eide had another strong performance overall, placing in 5 events.

However, in addition to these obvious ones, we had a few noteworthy performances that didn't necessarily show up in the awards ceremony. Jai Gambhir, for example, performed extremely well in the 3x3 event, dropping his personal best average by 7 seconds, going from 22 seconds down to a very impressive 15 seconds. He will be someone to keep an eye on in the future. Doowon Joo also turned in an impressive performance in both the 3x3x3 and One Handed event.

Sarah Strong showed everyone that girls can cube too, as she upped her personal best times to make the second round of the 3x3x3 event and become the first sub 30 female in Canada. We don't want to differentiate between boys and girls really, as we are all just cubers. But with so few females in cubing, it is really nice to see a Canadian girl getting fast, and felt we should acknowledge her accomplishment. If she sticks with it, she can be competing in the finals soon enough. Congratulations, Sarah.

The competition had some bumps along the way, but in the end everyone really enjoyed themselves and, once again, Canada showed the rest of the world that we are serious about cubing, and with every passing competition we get that much better. Everyone should be extremely proud of themselves, as we are proud of all of you. Just remember, winning is nice, but it is not the ultimate goal. The goal is to have fun, make friends, and enjoy this interesting event with other people just like you. Keep practicing, and we will see you all at the next Toronto area competition.