Toronto Open, Fall 2010

Yet again another speed cubing competition held on November 27, 2010 at Seneca's Residence & Conference Centre.   This is the fourth and last competition of 2010 in Toronto.  It was a larger turn out, but the previous winners, Harris Chan and Eric Limeback did not enter the competition.  Eric did come by later in the day to help out the event as a judge.

Dillon and Ryan did very well for the Rubik's cube 2x2.  Both of them advanced to the second round, but unfortunately, only Ryan made it to the final and finished 8th with an average of 5.19 second.  Neither of them could advance to second round of the 3x3 event, as the there are so many great faster cubers.

Once again, Ryan won first place in Rubik's Magic with a best score of 1.11 seconds, and an average of 1.25 second, slightly better than the last competition.

The first place of 3x3 event was once again won by an American, Rowe Hessler, from New York.  Rowe had a fastest 3x3 solve in the event -- 7.06 seconds.  This would have been a world record few months ago, but now the world record holder is Feliks Zemdegs of Australia with 6.77 seconds.  This time bettered Harris Chan's 7.33 seconds.

It was a long day, but the kids (Dillon & Ryan anyway) enjoyed themselves.

Rowe Hessler at 7.06s. Click to enlarge.

Dillon Solving a 2x2. Click to enlarge.

Ryan with First Place for Magic.

Eric Limeback 3x3 Cube Solve at 8.34 seconds

Once again, Eric Limeback stole the show at the Canadian Cubing CUBEcentric 2010 with the fastest 3x3 solve at the competition. He also won first place for the average of 5 solves at the speed of 10.53 seconds. Congratulations Eric!

The video was recorded with the Canon Digital Rebel 550D and EF 50mm f1.2L at 1080p.

Cubing Competition - Toronto Open Spring 2010

The Toronto Open Spring 2010 Cubing Competition took place on Saturday March 27, at the same place as last time - Seneca College's Conference Room. About the same number of people turned out as last time. I saw a lot of familiar faces: Harris Chan, Eric Limeback, Jai Gambher, Justin Jaffray, Sara Strong, Emily Wang, to name a few. First place for a best of 5 average was awarded to Eric Limeback, and Harris Chan was second, Emily Wang was third, as the last time.

At least 3 TV station crews were on the scene this time, probably due to the cubing article on the Toronto Star the day before the competition. CBCNews, and a Chinese TV channel was there. You can check out the CBC New Report here. You can even see Yours Truly taking videos of the CBC news crew in the background with my T2i at about 1:25:00 in the news segment.

All of my four kids entered this time. Dillon did the 2x2, 3x3, Square One; Ryan for Rubik's Magic, and 2x2; Megan for 2x2, and 3x3; William for Rubik's Magic. They all did great, but the biggest improvement was from Dillon and Ryan. Dillon was 17th out of 51 competitors on the first round with an average of 5 solves at 19.93 seconds, and fastest 17.31 seconds. Dillon advanced to the second round, but didn't make it to the final. Ryan placed 23rd the first time he entered for Magic, and this time, he finished 5th, out of 36 competitors.

Didn't take too many pictures this time, but instead, too a lot of video. I will upload them when I have the time. Here is one I uploaded of Eric Limeback solving a 3x3x3 in 9.50 seconds. Just be warned that the last time I viewed, it was not processed so it may look crappy.


Dillon solving a Square-One. Larger Picture.


Harris Chan solving a 3x3x3 one-handed. Larger Picture.


Eric Limeback doing a one-handed solve. Large Picture.


Jai and Harris trading tips. Larger Picture.