I went to my first competition, Mathsoc Open 2017 before I knew brands other than Rubik’s even existed, and I made the classic newbie mistake, buying a Rubik’s Speedcube.

The normal Rubik’s Cube costs around ?400 whereas the speedcube costed ?1000 and included just an improved normal one with a set of screws, washers, a screwdriver and some lubricant to make the cube faster.

I thought it was godly until I tried some other cubes which were much better at half the price of mine.

My averages at the competition were around 50 seconds for 3×3 and 14 seconds for Skewb, remember these numbers for afterwards.

I didn’t really talk to anyone else there as I left after doing my solves on both days.

I ordered a new 3×3, 2×2 and 4×4 while returning to my home.

The 3×3 was one which was out of production, performed great and was very rare, or so it said, So I didn’t hesitate before spending ?700 on it, used it as my main for my next two competitions, and found out after my 3rd competition that it was another one advertised as the one I thought it was, that was sold for ?180 on Amazon itself too.

I felt cheated, that was the last time I ordered any puzzle from Amazon.

At my 2nd and 3rd competitions, my results were a lot better, with averages of 38 seconds and 25 seconds in 3×3 respectively.

My communication skills were a lot better in these and I made a lot of new friends at especially the 3rd one, which was held at Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida.

Between SNU and NCRO, I bought a new 3×3 and magnetized it for improved performance, but I accidently left a piece on the table where some superglue had been spilled, a piece of plywood got attached to the piece and thus I couldn’t use it in competition.

Then came my 4th competition, NCRO 2017, in which I participated in a lot of events. Including 3×3 with Feet, which was definitely a questionable choice, but I wanted to try it out anyway, one thing I can almost be certain of is, that was my first and only solve I’ll ever attempt.

I got okayish results in everything and almost got to Skewb finals but missed it as in the second round, my first solve, which could have been a 4 second solve, turned out to be a 30 second solve as my skewb went flying in the air after slipping out from my hands and all the pieces flew everywhere, top 12 people in the second round went to finals, I was 13th and missed it by just 0.05 milliseconds.

My next competition was one where I talked to anyone that would talk to me, I also applied to be on staff.

A few days later, I got a message from a member of Capital Cubing, the organization which has been organizing basically every Delhi NCR competition since 2015.

I was excited and immediately filled out the form and was accepted.

It was a whole new group of friends, some of whom I hadn’t even met before.

I was really excited for my next competition, Speedcubing ESYA, but couldn’t go due to riots breaking out in parts of Delhi.

My next competition wasn’t really that special.

Then came my latest competition, Shri Ram Cubing Challenge 2017, it was held in SRCC in Delhi University.

It had all 18 events in 2 days, which was something that hadn’t ever been accomplished before.

I was excited mostly for Skewb, I had been getting times that would have been enough for me to win Skewb, but I plus 2’d out of 2nd place and instead got 6th place, for a +2 in Skewb, it needs to be atleast 60° off and mine was approximately 62° off.

If I hadn’t gotten that +2, I would’ve gotten a 4.69 average, which would’ve put me at 2nd place, I instead got a 5.36 average.

In 3×3, I got a 14.27 average in the first round and a 13.64 average in Finals.

I performed well in other events, even better in some events than what I usually averaged at home.

That was my last big competition of the year, there was another competition, FMC Asia 2017, which was held at multiple locations in Asia with only one event, Fewest Moves Challenge. In it, you get to do 3 solves, of an hour each, in which you try to find the smallest solution to a given scramble and write it down on a piece of paper.

The first solve was my first FMC solve in over a month so I messed up and got a 51, the second one went much better and I got a 38 with a skip of the last step.

In the third one, I wrote it correctly on my rough sheet but forgot a move on the actual solution sheet, I could have gotten a 36 move solution and a 41.66 mean of 3 and would have been 3rd in Delhi, had that not been a DNF.

Now onto my goals for 2018, first of all, I’m hoping to get Skewb National Record average.

I’m also trying to get top 10 in India for Megaminx and go to Asian Championships 2018 and hopefully even get Top 3 in Skewb.

My Puzzle Collection

The post Cubing and Me – End of 2017 appeared first on Hargun Singh Tikku.

It was a Rubik’s Brand one.

I had gotten countless bad quality cubes that broke apart after 2 months or so, before.

That day, we went to a small trip to a resort and I brought my cube with me, downloaded the guide on how to solve it from the internet and tried learning it.

I could only do till the middle layer, and I was slow at that too at first, taking about 3 minutes for the first two layers

On the return trip, I learnt to solve the yellow cross too.

The next day, I downloaded the file which had the tutorial and learnt to solve the yellow corners too, It was permuting those around that confused me, after a week, I took a look at the tutorial again, tried to solve it while reading the algorithms and I finally did it!

I ran to my parents and showed them that I had solved it (Technically not a solve as I was looking at the tutorial too). I did that 10 more times, and then All of it was basically Muscle memory, took me 5 minutes per solve in the first week, that went down to 3 minutes in a Month, I kept practicing  but it didn’t go down too much, only dropped to two minutes.

I stopped doing it because of my Exams and only did an occasional solve here and there.

I then quit cubing completely and forgot the algorithms for the last layer in a week.

After an year, I started doing it occasionally again with a speed of 2 minutes.

Then, for my 11^th Birthday, I asked my massi to buy me a Rubik’s Pro Pack, which had a Rubik’s “Speedcube”, a stand, Lubricant, springs, a screwdriver and some washers.

I still being a beginner at cubing thought that this was really good, what I didn’t know was that I just wasted a 1000 Rupees on a bad cube.

It still, however was a significant upgrade from my old one.

Right after it got delivered, I opened it up, took all the center pieces out and tried to open the core, which was in the shape of a ball, because the tensions were too loose and all the springs were housed within that core, It’s been over 3 months since I got it and I still haven’t been able to open it up.

I then lubed the whole cube and put the center pieces back and assembled it.

I could solve in under a minute on it right after assembling it.

I didn’t even know of any other cube companies or any methods other than the beginner’s one.

One day, I was searching on how to improve my speed and I came upon the World Cubing Association, I hadn’t even known there was an association for it.

I looked for a competition near me and was sad to know that a Big competition a.k.a Cubing Complexity 2016 was about to happen the next day and registrations had been closed.

I saw that another competition was going to Happen in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi in Mid-January.

I told my parents about it and thought I would register around the end, in case I bought any other type of cube.

I used to bring my cube to school in late December because there were sports day practices all day and since I wasn’t a part of that, I needed something to keep me busy.

I was just sitting outside, just like every non-participant was and solving my cube with an average of a minute.

A person from 8^th grade was sitting behind me and he asked for my cube for a minute. I gave it to him to see how fast he solved it.

I shuffled it for him and gave it to him and he solved it in under 20 seconds, I asked him the method he uses.

He said he uses Fridrich method/CFOP.

I asked him about the cubes he has and he named them, Gans, Valk 3, Thunderclap, Weilong GTS etc.

He told me about a website that has everything cubing related about an Indian Cubing webstore too.

I wanted the Skewb because I was just curious as to how it even turned.

So I bought the ShengShou Skewb and it was great out of the box.

I tensioned it a bit according to my liking and then it was super smooth and turned well.

I learnt to solve it the next day by the easiest method, which involved only one algorithm. It was supposed to be the easiest method and it was to solve the cube in the 25-50 second range, but I was already averaging 15 seconds, from that day.

I then registered in the competition for 3×3 and the Skewb.

Just before competition day, I lubed both of my cubes again.

I had a PTM in school on that day too and there was an intro session, compulsory for all to be held at 1:30 p.m. and the 3×3 was to be started at 2 p.m.

We reached there at 2:05 and somehow made it.

My Heat started 2 minutes after we reached there, had I been 5 minutes late, I wouldn’t have been able to compete in it.

My times were okay-ish, I got a DNF(Did not Finish) because I took 3 seconds extra for inspecting the puzzle.

Here are my times –

I didn’t do that good in 3×3.

Skewb competition was the next day, so me and mummy just ate a Samosa and Muffin each at the canteen and went back home.
Day 2

The events started at 10 a.m. but Mine was at noon so me and papa left home at 11:00 a.m.

We reached there when the megaminx round was getting over (it was just before the skewb).

I did some solves in the waiting room and calmed myself as I really had to do well in it because I was hoping Skewb would be my main event in the future.

I was in the first heat, so I submitted my puzzle and waited for my name to be called.

Here are my times –

I was sad to know that I hadn’t been placed in the final round though, there were some really great cubers including one who solved the skewb in 2.xx seconds.

It was a great Experience for me.

That is how my Hobby turned into a passion.

I now have 4×4, a good 3×3, 2×2 and an awesome skewb.

Here are my PBs(Personal Best) as of now on each –

4×4 – Average – 2:30

Single – 1:34

3×3 – Average – 36 seconds

Single – 25 seconds.

2×2 – Average – 7 seconds

Single – 4 seconds

Skewb – Average – 8 seconds

Single – 5 seconds

My times have dropped drastically in a month, by learning new methods and new techniques.

I earlier didn’t even know there were competitions and now, I just register myself for every WCA recognised competition I see.

I have 2 of them upcoming in the next month.

Here is my WCA ID.

I will probably be starting a Youtube channel about cubing too soon!

The post Me and Cubing appeared first on Hargun Singh Tikku.