Funny story about this one: during this average I was sitting in the waiting area between solves and it crossed my mind that I hadn't beaten my 3x3 PR single in a LONG time (over 5 years, in which time I'd done 372 official 3x3 solves between my last PR and this one). I had this unshakeable feeling that it was gonna happen right there, in that average. Before this solve started, I set up my camera and took a couple deep breaths like I normally do, when I realized that the way the camera was set up here (phone leaning on another cube leaning on the display), the judge might put the cube cover in front of it and block the view. I sat there longer than usual before the solve while I considered the possibility of this being a PR that ended up not being on camera because of that, and debated whether I should ask the judge to make sure they put the cover off to the side after lifting it. In the end I decided it'd be too awkward to ask since it seems pretty obvious to not block the camera, but I have had judges do that before so I knew it could happen. When I finally said I was ready, I saw the judge move the cover out of frame in my peripheral vision which was a relief, so then I could actually focus on the solve. The funniest thing about all this is that I was thinking so hard about breaking my PR that I couldn't even remember what my actual PR was when I did break it :P
Ended up getting a counting 7.88 on the next solve, which gave me an 8.88 average and got me into my first EVER head-to-head finals! I proceeded to get dead last in finals and even got a 17 on one solve after messing up an x-cross, but I had the time of my life doing it :)
Competition: New Jersey Championship 2024
Cube: Stickerless MoYu Super RS3 M 2022 Ball-Core (for some reason whenever anyone asks my main nowadays I can never remember the name, fortunately I still keep all my mains in a spreadsheet so I can look it up lol)
My WCA profile: www.worldcubeassociation.org/persons/2013GOOD01
Scramble: F' R2 B D2 F' D2 B U2 F2 R' U B' R F2 R' B U' B' F
x' y' // inspection
R2 D R L F L' R D // x-cross
y U' L' U' L R' U' R // F2L 2
y' R' U2 R U R' U2 R // F2L 3
U U U' R' F R F' // F2L 4
U' L' U' L U' L' U2 L // OLL
U R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' // PLL
52 turns / 6.74 seconds = 7.72 TPS
Or if you'd rather ignore the U U' in F2L 4: 50 turns / 6.74 seconds = 7.42 TPS
Now that you've read all that... come to my concert in Minneapolis the night before North American Championships!! Tickets are on sale now, it's gonna be so so so so much fun: bit.ly/TheCedarDG GET YOUR TICKETS NOW BEFORE YOU FORGET
And check out my music: ua-cam.com/play/PLY-3D8KG8v8RG5DPnL5Ji8xHh6Z16MQgF.html