Top 15 in the World for 3×3!
On Saturday, November 13, 2021, I attended SacCubing X 2021, my first ever competition in California. We had to head straight to the airport right after school on Friday so that we could get to California before the event!
As always, the most enjoyable highlight from this past weekend was being able to see many of my closest friends as well as meet new ones. I’ll always be grateful for simply how inclusive and approachable the cubing community is overall.
I also did especially well results-wise at this competition! During the final round for 3×3, I got a 4.66 official solve. As of November 2021, this result is the first and only sub-5 set by someone in the PNW. I’m also now ranked 6th in North America and 15th in the world! I am immensely glad that I was able to perform so well despite the nervousness I felt.
I also achieved a 6.61 official 3×3 average, which was especially gratifying as I hadn’t broken my PR average since January 2020! This is the new Pacific Northwest Record and dropped my ranking down by 10 spots.
The 6.61 average placed me third at this competition. Doing so landed me a spot on the world record podium! For those who don’t know, a world record podium is defined as the lowest possible sum of the top three results at a competition. The sum of the top 3 results from this competition was 18.29 (5.43, 6.25, 6.61). This podium was a world record because the second fastest podium is 19.01 from an Australian competition in 2019.
Finally, I managed to get a 5.26 Square-1 solve as my last of five attempts. Although this result broke my previous PR by only a slim margin (0.06 less), I’m quite proud of it as I’m now ranked in the top 10!
Here are some photos from the event. Credits to my friend Archit for most of these photos.
SacCubing X 2021 was easily one of my best competitions after the pandemic, performance-wise. Here’s to more success in future competitions!