Midwest Cube Competition
January 29th, 2005 

Jake Rueth hosted a fantastic tournament!  It was great to see old friends again, and to make new ones.  Many thanks to Jake for hosting this tournament.  I'm inspired by its success, and I look forward to hosting a tournament myself in the future.  

Everyone seemed to enjoy this story of an encounter I had with my pilot.  While I was waiting to board my plane, I took advantage of spare time.  I sat down, and solved my cube for all to see.  Among those who were watching, was my pilot.  As I was boarding the plane I took a moment to look into the cockpit.  There was literally hundreds of buttons, switches, and gauges.  The sight of it was almost breathtaking!  I figured flying a plane was no easy task, but I had no idea it was that complex.  

My pilot happened to recognize me, turned to his co-pilot, and said, "This kid solve's the Rubik's Cube really fast.  He can match up all four sides or whatever."  I promise you this quote is nearly verbatim.  Presumably, a pilot would have an extensive knowledge of geometry.  However, he managed to use the word 'cube', and 'four sides', in the same sentence without hesitation.  Even if I gave him the benefit of the doubt, pilots are known for their exceptional eyesight.  He still could not see there are more than four sides on a cube.  Needless to say, I lost a lot of confidence in a man that is likely responsible for thousands of lives every year.

At any rate, I made it to my destination unharmed.  A few of us were able to hang out Friday night.  We all cubed a little bit, and I gave a quick introduction to cupstacking. (Everyone should try this!)  Saturday morning came quickly, and we (Jake, Pete, Adam and I) went to the school to start setting up.  Everything went smoothly, and we started our first event on schedule.  My lack of enthusiasm showed in my times for 5x5x5, while I finished with a best of 5:50.xx.  Pete set a personal best while competing with a time of 5:05.xx. (?Way to go Pete!)  Grant is well known for being quick with bigger puzzles, and he dominated in the 5x5x5 event.  

The event itself took a while to finish, but it was great to use this time to visit with other cubers.  The 4x4x4 event was a little more exciting for me, although I had the 'evil' parity all three solves.  I finished with a best solve of 2:22.  Pete set another personal best for 4x4x4.  (Way to go...again! :P)  Grant took this even with ease.  His performance was commendable.  I know he was thirsty for a megaminx event though! 

Finally, the 3x3x3 event had arrived.  I had my best time of the tournament during my second trial of the first round. (20.28 seconds)  A stall on my orientation probably cost me a chance at a sub-20 time!  That was upsetting, but on the bright side, this performance was over 17 seconds faster than my best RWC 03' time!  Joe Allen made himself known in the first round with a time of 19.50.  Twelve people made it into the semi-finals.  All three times that counted for me in this round were 24 second solves.  I actually had the best average of this round, so I felt remotely confident.  

Six people competed in the final round, and to increase the drama, only two people went at a time.  Joe Allen was one of the first two, and his average was under 22 seconds.  This created too much pressure on me, and I wasn't able to grab first place.  My average ended up being around 23 seconds, but I did finish with a great 20 second time.  

A fun tournament had come to an end.  Joe had taken a well deserved 1st place, and I took a modest 2nd place.  There were many people who performed better than average, and set personal bests.  The tournament came to a conclusion, and while many people left, a group of cubers stuck around to organize a post-tournament get together.  We went out to eat, and filled the restaurant with funny cube jokes and noisy cube solving.  After hanging out in the restaurant for what had to be at least two hours, most cubers left into the night.  A smaller group of us had a post-post get together at Jakes apartment.  One of his roommates was celebrating his twenty-first birthday, so there was a lot of drunk people to show our cubing skills to. :P

Pete got me to the airport just in time.  Had I been there five minutes later ?I may had some trouble getting on the plane.  Everything worked out though and I made it home safely.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again!  Happy cubing!

-Richard