Summer 2022: Three Back-to-Back Championships!

Note: this post is pinned to the top of my blog.

From July 5 to August 3, I went on arguably the biggest trip of my life thus far. Over the past 30 days, I’ve visited 7 countries, attended 3 major cubing competitions, and did many activities an average tourist would do!

To start, I’ll give a summary of the three competitions I competed in.

From July 7-10, I was in Toronto, Canada, for the North American Championship. This event was supposed to happen back in 2020 but was postponed for obvious reasons, so the hype was real for this competition. Some highlights from this competition (results-wise):

-3rd place finish in Square-1, with the fastest solve of the competition (4.47 seconds)
-Qualified for the final round of 3×3 (the main event)
–1:28.50 state record 6×6 solve and 1:37.68 mean of 3
-Made the final round (top 20) for 9 out of the 13 events I competed in

The competition took place in the conference center of a massive hotel. This meant that after the event, I was able to hang out in the lobby with several of my closest friends from all around the continent. We played ping pong in the lobby and basketball until 11 pm! The social aspects of competitions are always just as memorable as the competing!

Our next stop was Copenhagen, Denmark from July 14-17 for the European Championship, the second biggest European competition ever. This was the first time competing in Europe! I was able to meet a lot of European cubers who I had only knew online. The atmosphere was great, especially seeing all the cubers and their pride towards other cubers of their country. Here are some highlights from Copenhagen:

-3rd place finish in 3×3 with an average of 6.40 seconds! I consider this my best official 3×3 solving ever because of the circumstances/underlying pressure. I knew that I was solving in the head-to-head final of the second biggest competition in Europe ever, with hundreds of spectators watching. Despite all this, I was somehow able to pull off an incredibly consistent average, securing my spot on the “world record podium,” which is essentially the fastest top-3 in the history of competitions.
-3rd place finish in Square-1
-31.96 Blindfolded solve (new personal record)
-4.74 3×3 solve from round 1

WCA Euro 2022 | Copenhagen, Denmark | July 14-17

For my third and final competition of the trip, I stopped by Lillestrøm, Norway for the Norwegian Championship, the biggest competition in Norway ever. One memorable aspect of the competition was having to take my shoes off in order to compete due to the venue’s strict policy on maintaining their clean floor! Results-wise, here are some highlights:

-1st place in Clock and Square-1
-Top 3 finish in 10 events (2×2, 4×4, 3×3 Blindfolded, Clock, Megaminx, Pyraminx, Skewb, Square-1, 4×4 Blindfolded, 5×5 Blindfolded)
–Broke my personal record in 7×7 average by almost six seconds, lowering it from 2:36.70 to 2:30.90. This also allowed me to become top 100 in the world!
–7×7 PR single (2:24.31), Megaminx PR average (45.00), and 2×2 PR single (0.87)

Norwegian Championship 2022 | Lillestrøm, Norway | July 22-24

Of course, this trip wasn’t only just cubing! I was able to visit not only Denmark and Norway (unfortunately I was not able to take any photos in Norway as I was busy competing), but also Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, and London. I took a total of around 3,000 photos, and I’m really happy with how a lot of them turned out!

1. London, United Kingdom: July 11-13 and July 31-August 1

2. Copenhagen, Denmark: July 14-17

3. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: July 18-21

4. Paris, France July 25-27

5. Barcelona, Spain: July 28-29

I’m so grateful to have had the privilege of travelling all around Europe with my family. Being able to take all these photos, visit tourist locations, and spend time with my family has been a very therapeutic, rejuvenating experience. I now feel much more relaxed and ready to go back to the chaos and hecticness of the real world 🙂