Santo Domingo Summer 2025 (Day 1/2)
If there is one post which I should also upload in my native language, it's this one.
Here is a bit more of a personal post! I don't think I've explicitly mentioned it in this blog yet, but I am a speedcuber! Meaning I solve Rubik's Cubes as fast as possible. And fortunately, this weekend there's a competition in my city! Santo Domingo Summer 2025!
This is my tenth official competition, and the first of this year! And now with this new blog I decided it would be a good place to write about my performance and general experience.
The competition is the first we've had in this country in almost a whole year, and it is always a joy to have one again. Although they are called competitions, more than anything they are social events for speedcubers to just hang out and share things about our hobby! However we still have to do solves that count towards an official record.
My first event of the day was the Square-1, a weird shapeshifting puzzle that I am generally good at, however I ended up with an extremely strange result. I scored a 54, 1:02, 1:13, 32, and 43. Literally each of those solves is in a different range of 10 seconds, and with a standard deviation 16.13, this is probably my most inconsistent average I've ever had in any event.
In the end, my average was a 53.64, which for me isn't very good, but still decent, and my fourth solve with the 32.24 is my second best official solve in the event, even with parity!
My second event was Megaminx, a twisty puzzle in the shape of a dodecahedron. This is an event I really love, however one I was unsure about competing since my personal record (PR) in competition was just 1:48, but the cutoff time was 1:45 (meaning that I had to get a solve below that time in one of my first two tries, or I couldn't continue).
My first solve was a mediocre 2:05, which definitely wouldn't make the cut, but then my next solve was a 1:34! Absolutely smashing my PR and allowing me to continue at the event! After which I got a 1:36, and a still pretty decent 1:54 and 1:53.
Not only did my PR single go down by about 14 seconds, but it also was a 1:48.29 average, which not only smashed my previous PR average of 1:53.44, but was even better than my former PR single! (1:48.72). A seriously amazing result!
(FYI, yeah, my judge's handwriting wasn't the best, and it did cause a few problems when registering the results, but it all went through fine in the end.)
Lastly for today, there was Skewb, which is a very interesting corner-turning puzzle where each turn rotates exactly half of the cube! This is what I always considered my best event, as it's the one I am fastest at, both in general and relative to other cubers, however I am usually more rusty in competitions than at home.
Somehow though… immediately on the first solve I got a 3.49 which is the second best time ever for a Dominican and — of course — absolutely shattered my PR. Immediately after I got a 4.67 and uhh yeah lol just with that the average was great. After a flat 8.00 and a 11.20 where I messed up, I finished the average with a very good 5.91!
Although I didn't notice it at the time, literally three of those solves were all better than my past PR, and in fact, my previous PR didn't even make it past 7 seconds, as it was a 7.19. As I said, I was extremely rusty with Skewb at competitions, but uhh, not this time apparently!
In the end it was an amazing 6.19 average, absolutely smashing my previous PR of 9.38! And with three individual solves that also smashed my PR single, including the second best solve from anyone in my country ever, I am seriously amazed I got this! And I am so so so happy!
(That Skewb average also made me make the podium, the first time I have ever done so! And as a reward for myself I also got a new 2x2 cube, which I will be using tomorrow!)
These results were amazing, with four new PRs and a few decent solves in the Square-1! Ultimately though, more than anything I am just happy to be in a competition again.
As I said, it's really the best place to hang out, spend time with others, and meet new people, all around a hobby that all of us love. It is seriously an amazing community and I am lucky to have been part of it for the past eight years, and I am happy to be back!
I talked to a lot of new people, socialized a lot with people just walking by who expressed interest around the hobby, and I even invited one of my best friends who didn't cube for the first time ever! Which is something I never really did before since I felt kind of awkward about it.
I am super excited for tomorrow! And I am glad that I have the opportunity to be here and to now be able to share it!
