Blake Thompson's Cubing

This past week I found out that I will be living in the DC/Baltimore area for most of the summer, and I cannot wait for this new experience!

Funnily enough, though, this year’s iteration of CubingUSA Nationals will only be a 20-minute drive from where I will be working! However, this does present some challenges, as I will likely not be able to attend part of the competition (mainly Thursday and Friday) as those will be some of the final days of my internship.

Nevertheless, I am still incredibly excited for both these experiences, and I have decided to outline some general goals for my performance at this year’s Nationals.

Note: These are largely focused on the Saturday/Sunday events, as I know I will be attending on these days. These events include: 2×2, 3×3, 3×3 BLD, Pyraminx, 3×3 OH, Megaminx, and Skewb. 

First of all, I don’t really I have any goals/ambitions for 2×2, Pyraminx, or Skewb. I’ve never really practiced them extensively, but given that these will be some of the events I’ll be competing in most often, I might as well try to improve in them a little bit. My current official averages for them are 2.27, 4.70, and 4.36 respectively, so breaking the barriers of sub-2 and sub-4 seems to be a reasonable ambition!

3×3 One-Handed, funnily enough, has consistently been one of my worst events. As such, I hope to finally break the sub-15 barrier, as I know I should be able to do this with at least a little bit of practice. Sadly, this event is seeming more out-of-reach for me, though; after the ~50 solves I did yesterday, my left hand is still experiencing a bit of pain. Regardless, we’ll just have to see how this event goes! 🙂

Megaminx is an event that I’ve practiced off-and-on, with my latest goal being to achieve a sub-1 average. I satisfied this with a 57.77 average, but I see a lot of room for improvement in my solves. All in all, I can’t imagine that a sub-50 average is too out-of-reach for me, but perhaps I could simply aim for a sub-50 single and sub-55 average.

3×3 BLD is likely where most of my goals lie. I’ve been practicing this event more than virtually any other, and I am eager to finish learning 3-Style so that I can finally put in some concrete practice! Ultimately, I hope to be consistently sub-1, but perhaps I can achieve more by the time Nationals rolls around. My overall goal is to be sub-30, which is quite ambitious but I’ll be happy with mostly anything!

3×3 is pretty hit-or-miss. I haven’t practiced the event much lately apart from a few untimed solves each day, but I would like to get some sub-8 averages, as I don’t think I’ve gotten one yet at a Nationals. I’m not too set on making the finals this year; it would be so cool for it to happen, but I haven’t been practicing enough lately for me to feel any degree of confidence in making it. All in all, this is one of my main events, but I don’t have too high of expectations for myself.

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So, that’s all! As you can tell, there aren’t many events, as I will likely not be able to attend a significant portion of the competition. Regardless, I am still content with the events I know I will be competing in, and more importantly–I CANNOT wait to see all my friends at Nationals! It will be fantastic! 🙂

I’ve held in a role in organizing plenty of the ~30 or so WCA competitions that have been held in Ann Arbor, Michigan–and as you’d imagine, the process is pretty straightforward now. This is largely due to the fact that we are a student organization, and the process of reserving a room is relatively streamlined. In this post I will outline the process we follow to demonstrate how simple it really is:

1. Choosing the Date

This step usually does not take much effort. Generally, the primary focus is to choose a date that is far enough away from competitions that are in close proximity (as per the WCA’s policies, the baseline is such that “WCA competitions will be accepted if there are no other competitions within 100 km driving distance and less than 19 days away”) and fits with the schedule of the organizer(s) and WCA Delegate. In our case, proximity is usually not an issue–but we often stick to a schedule of having a competition every 2-3 months or so.

2. Reserving the Venue

Honestly, this is probably one of the easiest parts of the organization process for us. In our case, the university has a website that tracks what time slots are free for the different rooms on our campus, which helps us to quickly see what weekends we should focus on. Once we decide on the date, we simply fill out a request to reserve the venue for that date/time, and we are then given a contract/bill to complete. Unfortunately, we need to put forth the money to pay this bill before the competition begins, but the registration fees are designed to ensure we are able to pay this fee without taking any money out of our personal pockets.

3. Choosing the Events

The events you decide to hold are largely decided by the scope of the competition (i.e. some competitions are meant to focus on the blindfolded events while others might lean towards the big cube events), but oftentimes there is a considerable amount of flexibility. Taking into consideration the increased presence of qualifying times for larger competitions (i.e. Worlds and Nationals), organizers should aim to hold a diverse range of events to give competitors the opportunity to qualify for a wider range of events. This might include holding one of the big-BLD events, or perhaps FMC in an area that doesn’t normally have access to these events.

Additionally, you’ll want to hold varying events between competitions. In our case, we often have some staple events that our university’s club members personally enjoy, such as 3×3, 3×3 BLD, and 3×3 OH. Alongside these, we diversify the remaining events as much as possible with the hope of covering the remaining 10 events or so between every two or three competitions. We also tend to reach out to our region’s FaceBook group to inquire about what events they prefer, which often helps to get a representation of which events we should prioritize between competitions.

4. Announcing the Competition

This part is pretty straightforward for mostly anyone; your Delegate will create an official WCA website for your competition, and you will just have to fill out the information. This mostly includes creating the schedule and event list along with writing some information about the venue (i.e. directions and restaurants). After this point, your Delegate will submit your competition to the WCAT, which is a WCA committee that reviews and announces competitions.

5. Pre-Competition Work

After your competition is announced, one of your main responsibilities will usually be to accept registrations after competitors have paid through the WCA’s website. This is essentially all you need to do until the week or so before the competition, but you should aim to maintain contact with your venue if need be (e.g. making sure that speakers and Wi-Fi are available).

After the registration and waiting list are closed, your Delegate will typically create the scorecards and groups for you, and your main responsibility will be to cut and sort these scorecards so they are ready to be distributed at the competition. Apart from that, the best you can do is make final confirmations with the venue that everything necessary will be ready for the competition, and you’re pretty much all set.

6. During the Competition…

As the organizer of the competition, you were already responsible for scheduling and reserving the venue, but DO NOT forget that you have responsibilities DURING the competition! For instance, you should be laying out the scorecards for the next event/group(s) once the current group is about to finish. You will also be responsible for making announcements in which you call up the next group(s) or call for more judges/runners. Apart from the Delegate, YOU are responsible for making this competition run, so do not slack off to practice or hang out with your friends. Making this competition run is your main priority; don’t forget about it.

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So, that’s pretty much all! It may seem like a lot at first, but your Delegate will be there along the way to answer any questions or concerns you might have. In reality, there is not as much preparation work behind a competition as you might expect, but make sure to prioritize your responsibilities as an organizer to ensure your Delegate does not need to take on more work than they should.

In light of recent events, I decided to talk a little bit about my resumé and how I approached including cubing within it.

Disclaimer: this is by no means meant to imply that my resumé is anything close to exceptional. I am largely writing this to address the notion that one should not include speedcubing within anything involving an application or a resumé.

I’ve heard this viewpoint plenty of times, and I’m of the dissenting opinion–under certain conditions.

The most prominent aspect I would like to emphasize is that I did not introduce speedcubing as a hobby/activity; rather I focused on my involvement within the WCA (re: serving as a member of the WCA’s Ethics Committee) and organizing competitions. This is why I cited “certain conditions,” as I don’t see much of a reason to include, say, your fastest time in solving the Rubik’s Cube–or something of that nature. This does have some implicit conclusions; it might display you as mathematically-minded, analytical, and/or a problem solver. However, I can think of several aspects of speedcubing that will convey these attributes, and more:

1. Organizing Competitions

In my eyes, this goal presents a solid balance of depicting the hobby in a positive light and not requiring an absurd amount of effort on your behalf. I’d like to cover the topic in a future blog post, but organizing a competition is not that difficult–but there is so much you can learn! With the WCA growing as quickly as it has been, most Delegates are more than willing to assist in holding competitions around the world, so there’s no excuse for you to feel incapable of organizing one yourself, or perhaps assisting someone else with organizing theirs.

From organizing a competition, one is able to demonstrate significant leadership and organizational skills, and these will look great on most any resumé.

2. Community Outreach

This is an attribute that I don’t have much experience in, but this largely entails visiting organizations (namely schools or camps), or perhaps creating a club at your school, and teaching individuals how to solve the cube. This shows an incredible degree of passion towards your hobby–especially to the extent that you aim to integrate it within a larger audience. This could be as simple visiting your elementary school and showing a class how to solve the cube, but the nature of this will go a long way in displaying your commitment to spreading your passion and teaching others!

3. Staffing at Competitions

This is so, so, so easy! Assuming you’re able to attend competitions, there is nothing stopping you from becoming more involved in the inner-workings of a competition you are attending. All it takes is asking if you can help out with scrambling, entering data, or even running/judging; all of these can go a long way in expressing your involvement within the hobby (especially if you’re able to staff at one of the larger competitions, such as Nationals or Worlds).

In the case of myself and Michigan competitions, I started off as just helping out with scrambling and judging as need be, and I was all of a sudden declared as an Organizer for competitions at a school that I didn’t even attend. Obviously your case won’t be exactly like this, but I cite this example to demonstrate the potential of serving as a staff member leading you to pursue the hobby further and play a more significant role in competitions.

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As emphasized earlier, I don’t claim to be an expert on resumé building, but I figured I might as well include the relevant chunk of my resumé in case one wants to use it as a reference for constructing theirs:

Admittedly, it’s not very well thought out, and I’d like to condense it more (alas, internship season is over, so that will be a future endeavor 🙂 ).

As you can tell, I mention nothing about my official results (apart from my WCA ID), largely because I feel they aren’t entirely relevant to the scope of my resumé. I would like to emphasize the section highlighting my WCA involvement, though, as my ultimate goal was to convey the three aspects that stood out most to me: WEC involvement, staffing, and organizing. Sure, this section will not be directly applicable to everyone, but it accomplishes its purpose of highlighting the extent to which I am involved with the WCA, along with focusing on conveying some essential background information of the WCA that ensures this makes any sense. Feel free to use this as a reference to which you can implement this section within your own resumé! 🙂

 

The college application process in the United States is incredibly daunting; after years of trudging through high school, the time comes to present yourself to schools throughout the country, in the hopes they will grant you admission to their school. Over the first half of their senior year, high school students will polish their achievements, take their ACTs or SATs, and construct applications that will best convey themselves to a set of anonymous reviewers. After submitting these applications, students anxiously wait months for each school to respond with their decision: acceptance, rejection, deferral, or wait-list.

The “Common Application” is a standardized application that a large percentage of schools in the U.S. utilize; apart from the standard personal information, there is a 650-word essay that haunts students throughout the entire process. While the prompts are rather vague and open to interpretation, countless students struggle with deciding what experience of their life will best convey themselves within the word-limit of this essay. With the multitude of thousands of students applying to their school, students must utilize this essay to distinguish themselves from the endless pool of students.

Undoubtedly, most anybody who knows me has associated the Rubik’s Cube with my name. For those who don’t know, the Rubik’s Cube is a three-dimensional twisty puzzle that saw great popularity in the 80s but has undergone a significant resurgence within the past few years. This puzzle has conceived a hobby known as “speedcubing,” which is simply the act of solving the Rubik’s Cube and its variations as quickly as possible. Seeing as I had been speedcubing for six years by the time I was applying to colleges, I decided to base my essay around this hobby, as I knew this abstract topic was my best chance at separating myself from this pool.

I submitted this essay to a few schools: notably Miami University (Ohio), Purdue University, and the University of Michigan. I was fortunate enough to be accepted to all of these, and I ended up choosing the University of Michigan. Over the course of my 2.5 semesters here, I’ve wondered why I was accepted here; my grades were decent, my extracurriculars were adequate–but I can’t help but believe that my essays were a large part of the reason I was accepted. While some considered my decision to focus my Common Application essay around speedcubing as a “shot-in-the-dark,” I disagree. This is a topic that my reviewers were unfamiliar with, but I focused on providing as much background of my hobby as possible to ensure the reviewers understood the true purpose of my essay, and I believe I succeeded in this respect.

In total, my goal of this essay was to explain how I took a task that seemed near-impossible (i.e. solving a Rubik’s Cube) and shaped it to become such a significant portion of my life. This was in response to the prompt of: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”     

(So, naturally, speedcubing fit perfectly within this topic).

 

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To preface this essay, I will gladly admit that this is not my best work of writing. I definitely felt the 650-word limit forced me to refine my writing, but there were certainly stylistic choices and segments that were removed in order to account for this. While it did achieve its purpose, as I got into my dream school, there are certainly areas I would alter. Regardless, I will divide this essay into sections, focusing solely on the structure, content, and purpose of each so that prospective college applicants (or speedcubers) reading this can learn a thing or two.

“You’ll never be able to solve that; it’s impossible!”

My mother’s words echoed through my mind as I unwrapped my final Hanukkah gift, a Rubik’s Cube. I grew up with a hunch for solving puzzles, so naturally I was intrigued yet slightly intimidated by its complexity. Nevertheless, I mixed up the cube and attempted to bring the colors back together, quickly realizing that any hope of completing the puzzle was rapidly fading. After months of searching for the seemingly impossible solution, the thrill transitioned from simply completing the puzzle to solving the cube as fast as possible.

Admittedly, this section does not contribute much to my essay’s purpose; rather, it was designed to preface my introduction to this hobby and provide some background into how I was introduced and describe the goal behind the Rubik’s Cube. In some sense, this section was designed to be “artsy” and entice the reader. I felt the quote succeeded in intriguing the reader to discover what exactly was considered “impossible,” which is a concept that shaped the foundation of my essay’s purpose. Looking back, I would have preferred for my thesis to focus more on the cube taking over such a significant degree of my life, as “solving the cube as fast as possible” seems to over-simplify the impact. Regardless, the thesis at least demonstrates that my interest in the cube increased, and I believe this is sufficient to transition into the body of the essay.

About a year after indulging in this hobby, I had the opportunity to travel to Columbus, Ohio for the U.S. National Championships. I distinctly remember spectating the finals of the main event, the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube, and intensively watching the finalists perform their solves. Dan Cohen, Rowe Hessler, Anthony Brooks: these were just meaningless names to any non-speedcuber, but these were the idols of my hobby. I was inspired, to say the least, and I hoped to have the opportunity to compete on this stage someday.

So, my intent for this essay was to briefly discuss my first experience with the cube and quickly progress to attending U.S. Nationals 2010, which I knew would be a solid benchmark to focus on within this essay. Through this description of the finals, I wanted to convey my feeling of awe from spectating. These were individuals whose videos and solves I analyzed day-after-day, and to see them in person made me feel as though I was in the presence of celebrities. My desire was to highlight the idea that this selection of highly-dominant speedcubers were just average people to mostly anybody, but I idolized them and sought to be as fast as them someday. This idea was included to demonstrate the “niche” aspect of this hobby, as my fascination with these individuals was not shared with many; the hobby was so small that seemingly nobody would comprehend the overwhelming impact these individuals had on my passion.

I think this is one of several sections that suffers from the word-limit. It almost seems as though I am setting the scene for the focal point of my essay, but I quickly move on and ignore this. I would have loved to elaborate exactly on what these individuals meant to me, but sadly I don’t believe there was much I could have changed, given the word-limit.

I am drawn to these competitions due to the consistently encouraging, positive atmosphere. Contrary to most other sports and activities, each competitor is competing against him or herself. I attend these competitions not to triumph the other competitors but rather to have a joyful time with like-minded individuals–with the hope of breaking some personal records. Each competition is an opportunity to share speedcubing knowledge and create friendships that often stretch beyond the activity: these privileges are much more sacred to my heart and my experience at these competitions than the sheer aspect of competing.

Looking back at this section, I feel I should have included the number of competitions I had attended (which I believe was somewhere around 70-80) and mentioned how far I have travelled to attend some of these competitions. This would have helped greatly in conveying how much I committed myself to this hobby, but I once again believe the word limit led me to cut this from my essay. Regardless, I believe I succeeded

My main intention, though, was to convey the atmosphere of the competitions since this is a significant portion of the reason I continue pursuing this hobby. As those who have competed will understand, speedcubing competitions are unique in the sense that they are less focused on “competing,” per se, but rather they are a “gathering” of like-minded individuals who share a niche passion. Although getting personal bests is nice, the memories that persist throughout the plethora of competitions I have attended often occur outside of competing, and the friends I have made through the years I have committed to this hobby certainly outweigh any of my experiences through competing.

Although there is more I would have liked to include, this section forms a rather natural progression from the preceding and proceeding sections. With the previous section focusing on my feeling of awe, and the next section focusing on what I have given back to the community, this paragraph was designed to explain what inspires me to contribute to others’ passion for this hobby.

I began as merely a competitor at these competitions, but I quickly became interested in their inner-workings. Currently, I work with the Cubing Club at the University of Michigan to organize competitions that have recently attracted over two hundred competitors, a growth of over 200% since the first Michigan competitions. Our hard work has rewarded us with the opportunity to collaborate with the diverse, hard-working staff of the U.S. National Championships to ensure the competition runs smoothly and efficiently. Organizing these competitions becomes hectic at times, but I acquire such an immense amount of experience with leadership and organization from collaborating with my fellow organizers that each sweat and tear becomes a trophy of my dedication.

I wanted to transition from the previous paragraph by highlighting that within a few years my focused shifting from simply attending competitions to assisting with the organization and staffing duties wherever possible. Essentially, I wanted to show how I “gave back” to the competitions that sucked me into this hobby in the first place. Throughout this section, I mentioned how I helped with the organization and gained experience, but I fail to explain my role within the organization and exactly what “experience” I gained. I should have at least mentioned the importance of quick decisions, coordination, and professionalism as an organizer/staff member, and perhaps included some kind of an example of these qualities within this paragraph or my conclusion. Then again, this would have taken a significant toll on my word-limit, but I should have given priority to this specific area regardless.

P.S. I have no idea where I pulled the “200%” figure from, but I believe it was based upon the first Ann Arbor competition, which had somewhere around 60 competitors, and Michigan 2016, attracting nearly 200 competitors. I personally am not a fan of this usage, but it was definitely a concise way to explain to what magnitude Michigan competitions have grown since their inception.

Along with the honor of being a staff member, I qualified for the final round of the U.S. National Championships this past summer, a goal that I set out to achieve since my first U.S. National Championships. After the tens of thousands of hours that I spent practicing and perfecting my skills, I had finally achieved the pinnacle of my speedcubing career. As I walked up to the stage, I remembered how envious I was of the competitors on this stage a few years ago, and I realized that I was now one of them. I thought back to my timid, reserved ten-year-old self, filled with awe and envy towards my idols. I have shaped myself to be a passionate, hard-working individual due to the time I have dedicated to this hobby. Although I may not be well-rounded in athletics, proficient in musical instruments, or a natural genius, I am gifted with a hobby where I am able to form unimaginable bonds with like-minded individuals from around the world. Pursuing the hobby of speedcubing has allowed me to grow more as an individual than I could ever imagine, and I take pride in every single friendship and quality that the hobby has gifted me over the years.

The fact that the summer before submitting this essay was my first time making finals at U.S. Nationals was quite convenient, and I used the experience to highlight my feeling of “awe” from spectating the finals of the first U.S. Nationals I attended. I remember not being too satisfied about this conclusion, but looking back two years later I am surprisingly satisfied with the result. This conclusion succeeds in tying the aspects of my essay together: the journey from first solving the cube, to setting a specific goal of reaching the finals, to organizing and helping at competitions to benefit the community, and to finally reaching my goal. This second-half of this section focuses on self-reflection, where I tie everything together and highlight how exactly this hobby has changed me. It shows that what really matters to me is the aspect of belonging this hobby has provided me. My ambitions within the hobby transcended from solely completing the puzzle to pushing it to its limits and seeking to establish an impact on others.

All in all, I am satisfied with how this essay turned out, but as expected there are aspects  I would have changed had I been given another opportunity. Looking back, it seems I succeeded in giving the background of the hobby; whether that be the puzzle itself or the structure of competitions. However, I think I failed to elaborate on the exact qualities this hobby has given me; commitment and dedication were certainly conveyed, but expanding on the qualities I acquired through organizing and assisting at competitions would have significantly improved this piece. I feel the introduction and conclusion were the strongest points of my essay, with my success in displaying an abstract hobby to my reader through the sole utility of text, and clearing any feeling of confusion or uncertainty through my conclusion. While I often fail to keep the audience in mind when writing essays, they were of significant importance to this essay, and I believe I succeeded in ensuring the reader is able to perhaps never seeing the cube before to understanding why I would go to the length of focusing such a significant portion of my college application on this specific topic.

In light of this, I felt I should address some concerns others have about structuring such a critical work of writing around the topic of speedcubing. To these, my gut response is “why not?”. Frankly, speedcubing is bound to be one of our most unique attributes, and these are exactly what reviewers are scouting for when they read your essays. The wonderful thing about speedcubing is that the hobby encompasses so much; even if you haven’t organized a competition or been on staff for a large competition, I am a firm believer in the fact that you can focus an entire essay on the friends you have made, the concepts you have learned, or your commitment to improving. As long as you ensure your analysis of the hobby highlights the qualities that you hope to portray to your reviewers, I’d wager that writing about speedcubing is an entirely rational decision.

When I walked into the Grand Ballroom of Ohio State’s student union, I was awestruck. Not only was I able to see all the friends I had spent hours-upon-hours chatting and cubing with online, but I had the opportunity to see my idols solving the cube almost twice as fast as I could.

Watching the final round of the main event (the standard 3×3 Rubik’s Cube) was something else. While my 15-second average in the two rounds where I advanced wasn’t too far from the qualifying time–seeing the finalists achieve times below 10 seconds was baffling. I can’t think of many instances where I’ve envied individuals–but damn, if there was a time, it was now! I distinctly recall feeling as if I could never be as skilled as them, but that didn’t stop me from pushing myself to practice for hours-upon-hours to bring my time down as quickly as possible. From this point on, I had one primary goal: to make it to the finals of a U.S. Nationals.

Several years of Nationals went by, and there weren’t really any competitions where I would have expected to make the final round. 2015 was the first year where I felt I had a reasonable shot at making it; I was averaging a little under 10 seconds, and I knew the cut-off would be somewhere around there. Essentially, I just had to solve with minimal nerves–and that is far more difficult than it sounds. These five solves were some of the most nerve-racking solves I’ve ever done; my cube was locking up, I was not looking ahead far enough into the solve, and my hands would not stop shaking. After each solve, I knew I could look straight ahead to see my dad filming and cheering me on–but I couldn’t look forward. He was very aware of my goal, and I didn’t want to give him any false impressions that I was going to achieve it. Spoiler alert: I didn’t–not this year, at least.

Come 2016, Nationals was in Portland, Oregon, and I was already having such a wonderful time. I arrived on Tuesday with one of my best friends inside and outside of cubing, Nathan Dwyer, and we met up with Kit Clement, a UMich Alumnus who moved to Portland upon completing his masters degree. Kit gave us an incredibly thorough tour of Portland, and having not travelled much prior, I was intrigued by all there was to do in the city! I was already THRIVING before the competition even started, and I could not wait for what was to come!

The first few days of the competition weren’t too important; I got some personal records, but nothing was too notable. That Sunday was the day for all the final rounds, and as usual I didn’t have many expectations for anything besides 3×3. Alas, I skated my way into the finals for Square-1, which for those unaware looks like this:

This was always one of my favorite events, but I never expected to perform well on a National level. Alas, I approached the stage, sitting down calm as ever–absolutely no expectations. My first solve was a pretty good time for me, perhaps around 12 seconds or so; unfortunately, the cube was misaligned enough when I stopped the timer that a 2-second penalty was added to my solve, making it a 14. I wasn’t too bummed out because it was only the first solve, and as already emphasized: I didn’t have any expectations. Somehow, I didn’t have any issues with my turning, I wasn’t shaking, and I was getting some pretty lucky/easy solutions. I don’t remember the exact times, but the average came to around high-12-seconds, which was still amazing for me–especially given the penalty.

Upon completing my average, I discovered that I obtained 5th place out of the 16 finalists, which I never would have expected. However, I couldn’t help but check what my average would have been without the penalty, and I discovered that I would have placed 2nd–which would still be my only top-3 placement at a U.S. Nationals. I can’t think of another time I was necessarily emotional about cubing, but this was certainly the most distinct instance.

Thing is, the semi-finals for 3×3 were scheduled to begin only 20 minutes after this, and that was the round that would decide whether I could advance to the final round. Surely, this didn’t help to calm me down! I remember not practicing or warming up; I just sat outside and waited to be called up. I knew the cut-off would be around 9.5 seconds, and I was fairly confident I would not be able to achieve that under these conditions.

Eventually, I was called up to compete and my first three solves were 9.36, 7.84, and 9.58. So, I was right on pace to make the finals as long as I could get a pretty good last solve. Somehow, I was able to pull off an 8.17, which can actually be seen here (make sure to switch to the Red/Blue stage camera!):

I was thrilled! I wasn’t completely sure, but with a 9.04 average, I felt very confident that I had finally reached the final enough. Sure enough, I did! My results weren’t anything to write home about, but the fact that I was able to finally compete in front of everyone on the huge stage was incredibly humbling.

It doesn’t end there, though! 

That next nationals, I knew I had a reasonable chance of making the final round yet again, but I wanted to relieve myself of any stress spawned from advancing to this round. It worked pretty well… until I was getting ready to compete in the round. While I didn’t want to place pressure on myself to make it, I knew I was still entirely capable of doing so, and somehow that overshadowed any of my prior efforts.

Even while actively relieving myself of as much pressure as possible, I was still absurdly nervous. Fortunately, I was still able to calm myself down to make use of some lucky solves and get times that I felt fairly comfortable would advance me to the next round. On the fourth solve, though, this happened:

At the time, this was one of the fastest 20 solves… of all time. Sure, the solve was pretty lucky, but I was amazed that it occurred under such stressful conditions. Funny enough, it also secured my placement in the following final round.

This wasn’t even my fastest solve in competition; I had gotten a 4.86-second solve a couple months prior, which ranked me at 4th in the world at the time. Still, I was far more proud of this solve. Seeing how I was able to calm myself down at just the right moments gave me a lot of faith that I was entirely capable of being a top competitor. It’ll still take some work to get there, but I’m willing to try…

Overall, Nationals is truly an incredible experience, and making the final was always the icing on the cake–to some degree. I am now far less passionate about my results, and I am typically confident that I won’t be able to make the final round, but hey, anything’s possible!

 

 

 

I’ve been to a lot of competitions (106 of them, in fact), and to put it bluntly–not a lot of them stand out. U.S. Nationals, though, is the competition that I look forward to year after year. With most of my competitions residing within the midwest (and around half being organized by me), they often end up being pretty similar in that they have mostly the same competitors.

For reference, since this past U.S. Nationals, I have attended eight competitions– with four of those being held by me… in the same exact room. As you’d imagine, that would get a little repetitive. Sure, I love having the opportunity to travel just to hang out with friends and solve some cubes, but seeing as I mostly go to competitions within my region these days, most of the competitions end up being pretty similar.

U.S. Nationals, though, is something entirely different. It provides the opportunity to meet fellow cubers who I often only see at the yearly iteration of this competition. Most distinctly, U.S. Nationals 2015 allowed me to become incredibly close with the Maryland cubing scene as a whole, and although I talked to them online through Skype nearly every night, seeing them in person was an entirely different experience. I so desperately wanted to see them at another competition, as I would likely have to wait an entire year to see them otherwise.

Before this time, I had really only been close with cubers in the Midwest, and I would see most all of them at virtually every competition I attended.

Specifically, this past U.S. Nationals I became very close friends with Daniel Karnaukh (who many will recognize from his well-received YouTube Channel, DerpyCuber). I hadn’t really ever seen him at a competition that wasn’t a Nationals, but I was fortunate enough to stick around him for most of the competition, and I realized that he truly is a great guy. For reasons beyond me, I strived to be in his iconic Nationals vlog as much as possible, and I’m STILL recognized at competitions for being a doofus in his vlog. 

The reason I had never interacted much with Daniel was that I was a staff member at U.S. Nationals for three consecutive years (2015, 2016, 2017). While it felt incredibly rewarding to serve such a crucial role for one of the WCA’s largest competitions, I decided to take at least a year to be solely a competitor, with the hope of focusing on just seeing my friends and getting some good solves. I certainly didn’t succeed at the latter, but I did get to interact and hang out with a number of wonderful individuals who I cannot wait to see at this year’s competition.

My intention with this statement is not to dismount the act of being a staff member, though. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to have served the role for several years, and there are some pretty sick perks. I do think they are distinct experiences, and I can totally understand why many would prefer not to be a staff member. Given the opportunity again, I would likely take it.

Each year, I schedule a block of time in my summer schedule where I will travel to U.S. Nationals; everything else is a second priority (to an extent). The ability to see so many close friends that I can only interact with through my phone or laptop never ceases to provide a thrill that encourages me to book my plane tickets the second the competition’s details are announced. All in all, the competition has always been one of the highlights of my summer–and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

 

Having first solved the cube nearly ten years ago, one might expect that my interest would have vanished by now. This isn’t entirely true, though. Sure, it may have subsided a bit relative to my first two or three years of solving the cube. Regardless, to this date I’ve attended 105 competitions at a pretty consistent pace, so something must still be pushing me to pursue this hobby, right?

At this point, the fact of the matter is that I really don’t practice anymore–and I haven’t done so for perhaps the past 4-5 years. To put it bluntly: I don’t really know why.

My main rationale is that it’s within my character–mostly in terms of how I pursue hobbies. Going back on the activities that used to fascinate me (i.e. Bowling, Basketball, collecting Pokemon cards, video games), I realize that I have never thought about returning to these. Alas, these were activities that I poured HOURS upon HOURS into–only to abandon them without ever looking back. Perhaps cubing would have followed the same fate had it not been for its portability and competitions.

In regards to portability, the cube is just so convenient that I can’t fathom ridding myself of the temptation to pick it up for a solve or two. It’s so little effort in comparison to a video game or a sport, where you are forced to invest a considerable amount of time in order to see any margin of satisfaction. With the cube, you can do a couple solves here and there–perhaps while watching some YouTube videos, reading @claudialarochelle’s posts, or doing some homework. Regardless, the low mental strain needed to solve the cube will lead it to serve as some form of a “fidget spinner”, no matter how long it takes you to solve.

Additionally, my role in competitions plays a significant role in encapsulating me within this activity–with no plan to escape. There are a plethora of reasons as to why this is the case; these mostly trickle down to travelling, seeing friends, organizing, and performance.

Travelling is a tricky case; there are times where I have a burning passion to just go somewhere, and then there are other times where I whine to myself, “I have to go to the airport AGAIN?!” All in all, I love using cubing as an excuse to venture to other parts of the country–no matter how uninteresting they might be. For instance, this past weekend there was a competition at my roommate’s high school (keep in mind: I am from Michigan while my roommate is from New Jersey)! Can you imagine that? I would have had a perfectly valid reason to go to my roommate’s high school?!

Seeing friends is BY FAR the biggest reason I go to competitions, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon! If you told me to name my results from a particular competition, I would certainly struggle; in contrast, if you told me to name the competitors I interacted with at the competition, I could give you a pretty elaborate list. I never have any particular “goals” in mind leading up to the competition because I care far more about seeing the friends that I only see once every couple months or so. Seeing friends is a goal that I can always achieve, and I am fully content with that.

Organizing competitions, in particular, is something I’ve become far more involved in within the past couple years or so. I’ve been helping out at the Michigan Cubing Club competitions for as long as I can remember, but upon attending the University of Michigan, I have taken a significant role in coordinating them. This encouraged me to branch out, along with Ryan Jew and Eric Zhao, to holding competitions outside of my region (notably: St. Louis, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; and Chicago, Illinois). These all take a significant amount of work to coordinate, especially on the day of, but I experience great relief in knowing that I provided hundreds of people a competition that they hopefully enjoyed just as much as I did!

Notice how I mentioned performance last. Seemingly since I began competing, I haven’t been too concerned with my official results. Sure, I loved to see myself beating my official times, but I really haven’t actively strived to outrank a particular competitor. Sure, it’s nice from time-to-time to beat someone who is often a lot faster than me, but I like to think I care very little about my official times. Perhaps they just don’t interest me anymore, or I’ve simply accepted that many world records are incredibly out-of-reach for me. The exact reason isn’t exactly relevant; the point is that I rarely go to competitions with the hope of achieving specific results. Sure, it’s nice when I get an official record or two, but I hate the notion of being disappointed in myself for not achieving a particular benchmark–so I try to avoid it as best as I can.

Ultimately, I feel the biggest factor as to why I have not quit this activity is that I really don’t have a solid reason why I should. Sure, I won’t be within reach of records or obtaining the status of a high-profile cuber, but I can’t see myself ever losing the temptation to solve the cube–no matter how often I decide to do so. Funnily enough, I often like to think that I trapped myself within this hobby; with my role within the WCA’s Ethics Committee, the number of competitions I’ve organized, and kids I’ve somehow inspired to pursue the activity further, I honestly don’t ever see myself entirely abandoning this hobby. Fortunately, the cube will always serve as some form of a beautiful plague that never seems to escape the host–and a pretty sweet party trick!

Of all the times someone has witnessed me solving the cube, I cannot begin to quantify how many of them immediately mention something along the lines of “I could never do that” or “That thing must be impossible!” The fact of the matter is that both of these statements are false; you are entirely capable of solving the cube as long as you are willing to put forth a few hours of frustration and confusion. Nevertheless, I always wonder where this notion stems from, and I have narrowed down some potential beliefs:

1. Solving the Rubik’s Cube is attributed to sheer talent, implying that I magically figured out how to solve the cube.
2. Tutorials are “cheating” and the true way to solve the cube is to figure it out on your own.
3. Seeing the cube solved so quickly forms an illusion that one should somehow be just as fast with significantly less preparation.
4. We are inclined to undermine our abilities and assume that we are unable to acquire skills and talents that seem out of reach.  In a sense, we view something as impossible–and fear the monumental task of approaching it. Oftentimes, this is characterized by exclaiming “You must be a genius!” or “I could never do that.”

First of all, #1 can immediately be refuted; sure, some may be able to learn how to solve the cube easier than others. This does not mean that anyone is physically or mentally barred from being able to solve the cube. In fact, I distinctly remember it taking six months from when I first considered learning how to solve the cube to actually comprehending how it worked (The first five months or so consisted of immediate frustration after watching a YouTube tutorial). In a sense, knowing how to solve a Rubik’s Cube is not dependent on any form of natural talent, and it is achievable by virtually anybody. However, nobody will “stumble” upon a proper solution; they might be able to figure out the cube once or twice by luck (this is so absurdly unlikely without a considerable amount of effort), but finding a concrete solution/approach does not come natural to anyone. 

#2 builds on my previous point regarding stumbling upon a solution to the cube. The Rubik’s Cube is not like a sudoku–in that it helps to know the method but technically you are able to stumble upon the solution through trial-and-error. This simply does not apply to the cube; with 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible configurations of the cube, it’s fair to assume that a trial-and-error is extremely limiting (and this assumption is entirely valid). Sure, some might be able to craft a method that is pretty reliable, but this is so so so infrequent, and you might as well resort to some form of a tutorial unless you are incredibly set on figuring out a solution on your own. If it helps, I’d wager that only a few hundred of the 120,000 individuals who have competed in an official World Cube Association (WCA) tournament first learned how to solve the cube on their own–and I feel that even this figure is high-balling it.

I believe #3 is considerably likely. Seeing the cube solved in 4 seconds, one is inclined to wildly undermine the talent behind their some-minute solves, and this will likely discourage them from pursuing anything further. To some degree, this presents a distinction between those who take a task and run with it, and those who reach an obstacle and are inclined to quit. Some might see the world record 3.47-second solve and immediately fear the amount of time and effort that went into preparing for such a time, while others might take this fear and craft it into motivation for them to practice continuously and experience the incremental improvement.

Fortunately, I was one of the former in this case, but I wouldn’t necessarily define myself this way (there are countless activities that I pursue and promptly ditch at the first obstacle). As such, this mental state is likely dependent on several conditions, just as one often experiences motivation in waves. The best option is to persist; at some point you will inevitably have an urge to learn how to solve the cube, so make the most of it and learn!

#4 makes a great deal of sense to me, as I am guilty of it myself. We stumble upon a skill or talent commonly deemed as impossible, and we are inclined to believe that is in fact impossible–and that no amount of work on our part will allow us to reach that level of expertise. From my perspective, this largely stems from most being unable to fathom how to even approach solving the cube, so the task itself seems entirely out-of-reach. Of course, I was initially baffled by the idea of the cube even being possible to solve, but I had to follow a progression from first discovering the cube to knowing how to solve it. This involved watching countless videos coupled with hours of practice and memorizing algorithms–just as any other solver had to undergo.

When learning how to solve the cube, I had to struggle with watching tutorials over-and-over until it finally clicked. And the years of practice from then on allowed me to reach the speed I’m at now. Furthermore, I am not a “genius,” and while a “genius” may have an easier time learning how to solve the cube, it does not mean this is a prerequisite to solving the cube. Sure, the endgame of solving the cube might seem out of reach initially, but there is a quite structured progression that is entirely achievable–as long as you can rid yourself of the mindset that it is impossible! 🙂

In summary, the fact of the matter is that no matter how modest you might be about your intelligence, you are more than capable of solving the cube (in fact, I’d argue that anyone who can even follow this blog post could solve one!).

Now that I have provided some theories as to why these notions arise, I hope you are at least more inclined to believe that you can, in fact, solve the cube. So, having rambled about the “why,” I will now describe the “how.” I often explain that the amount of information you need to memorize to solve the cube is equivalent to perhaps a few phone numbers. Coupled with that, you will likely be able to utilize your muscle memory and visual recognition to drill the information into your mind–to the point of where the information is second-hand knowledge to you.

R U R’ U’

U R U R’ U’ F’ U’ F

U’ L’ U’ L U F U F’

F R U R’ U’ F’

R U’ L’ U R’ U’ L U’

R’ D’ R D

This is all the information, or algorithms as I will now refer to them as, that must be memorized for the beginner’s method I first learned. Sure, it might seem daunting at first, but consider this: these six lines are all you must memorize in order to solve the cube. Surely you’ve memorized some form of a passage, a song, or a poem at some point, whether intentional or not. While these algorithms are far more abstract, there is no reason to believe you cannot drill these into your mind with enough practice and commitment.

Furthermore, hopefully you noticed that some parts are bold. That is because the R U R’ U’ sequence shows up in multiple algorithms; thus, if you can solidify those four moves within your memory, you have already made considerable progress in learning everything you need to know.

Hopefully I didn’t lose you, and you have some amount of faith in your potential to solve the cube! If this is the case, I would HIGHLY recommend checking out this tutorial (it will show you these algorithms visually along with how to apply them!):

Rubik’s Cube Tutorial — TheCubicle

Anyways, that’s about it! If this motivated you to learn how to solve the cube, please let me know! I’d love to hear of more people diving into my beloved hobby! ❤