[English] La La Land 2024 • Yutong's Website

The competition experience of La La Land 2024

The last competition was the Tianjin competition five years ago.

Set out

Heading to the competition venue at 10:30 in the morning to sign in (So Hilton, the registration fee of $70 is too expensive).

Sign-in desk

Then we waited in the rest area for the WCA Delegate to explain the competition matters and how to be a judge.

Get ready to start the competition!

Some people were even selling cookies they baked with Rubik’s Cube patterns. The guy sitting next to me, Preston Hoing (2019HOIN01), bought two and gave me one as a souvenir.

Little Biscuit

Comp process

This is a 24-hour race, which means the race is continuous for 24 hours. If you participate in many events (like me), you will need to stay up all night. In fact, I did stay up all night.

Respect the air conditioning temperature here, I will never wear shorts in a 24h comp again…

Shivering all over in the mid-night, I need to go to the bathroom to wash my hands with hot water to maintain a good condition.

Timetable

A total of nine events participated in this competition, choose two interesting events to talk about.

3x3

Cubing for 7 years, improved by 5 seconds in the first 3 years, improved by 5 seconds in the last 4 years…

This competition broke the single and average personal records, with a single time Sub10. During regular practice, there might be one sub-10 out of 20 attempts, so I’m a bit excited.

SUB 10

Next time, make a resolution to average SUB 10!

Pyraminx

I don’t know why I often achieve higher rankings with the regular 4-sided, this time I felt good in the second round, broke my personal records for single and average, and also made it to the finals.

Pyraminx Final

It might be because I was too tired from staying up all night, I didn’t perform well in the finals, but I’m still very happy to have made it to the finals.

Pyraminx Grades

Interesting Things

Clock WR

Witnessing the birth of a world record for the first time, Brendyn Dunagan (2021DUNA01) set a new single world record for Clock with a time of 1.973 seconds.

Clock WR: 1.973s

Took a photo with him, congratulated him Nice Record!

Differences between China and US competitions

At first, I thought that the process of foreign competitions was the same as that of Chinese competitions, but actually, there are quite a few differences.

In Chinese competitions, the Judge is responsible for taking your cube, having it scrambled by the scrambler in the scrambling area, and then bringing it back to the competition table. Each person will not leave their seat until all five attempts are finished.

In US competitions, you first submit your cube. After scrambling is completed, a Runner will place your cube on an idle competition table and call your name. You go to this competition table to complete the solve. The Judge records your result. After finishing one solve, you need to leave the competition table and return to the waiting area. The Runner will take your cube back to the scrambling area to wait for the next time your name is called at another competition table. So, you need to complete five solves on five different competition tables.

Submit Rubik’s Cube

It seems that the efficiency is higher abroad because there are no idle competition tables, and the tables are not occupied during shuffling.

In addition, judges and scramblers are different. US judges are all players. When each person is assigned to a competition group, they are also assigned to another judge group. During the competition of this group, you need to find a free judge position to act as a judge.

I’m a Judge

Of course, the number of judges is oversaturated, because for one event you only need to judge 5 matches, but you need to judge all the people who come to this competition table, which may require judging about 50 matches, so you can also choose to slack off and not go when it’s your turn to judge.

However, many people are unwilling to be a judge, which often results in a lack of referees. The WCA Delegate has to shout into the microphone to find people to be judges, especially late at night when many kids have gone to bed, and sometimes there’s only one person acting as a judge.

The judge’s stopwatch ⏱️

However, judges in China are recruited through a questionnaire registration system. Before the competition, referees are recruited by sending out questionnaires in various groups. This ensures that there are enough referees, but the downside is that it requires effort to recruit them.

People & Friends

Preston Hoing (2019HOIN01) was the first person I met at the competition venue. He is a bit of a chatterbox and chatted with me very enthusiastically, even mentioning a good scramble he encountered last time with the magic clock.

He is a participant in all events of this competition. The 24-hour all-event challenge was really exhausting for him, but he still persevered until the end, completed his first five-blind, and even made it to the three-blind finals. Impressive. However, I forgot to take a photo with him, which is a bit regrettable.

Then I sat next to a little boy and his father, a very cute little boy from Brazil: Benjamin Dias Reino (2024REIN02)

With Benjamin and His Dad

Then two other kids came, whom Benjamin met in the last competition. The younger brother of the two brothers participated in the competition Ren Davis Semien (2024SEMI01)

Later, a local high school student from Los Angeles Kierran Leavitt (2022LEAV02) joined the table. He mentioned that he is learning to fly planes, including gliders and powered aircraft, which is quite fun.

In the last match of the first round of the third stage, I met a Chinese judge, Tianshuo Shao (2023SHAO01). If it weren’t for him, I might have had to speak English all day, my brain would have burned out.

Later, during the break in the game, he drove me around Los Angeles. In the evening, we went to Santa Monica Beach and Pier, and there was a strong smell of marijuana.