Negative Time Solving Contest 2009
Final results for 2009
The scrambles for this year are available below. Results for past years can be found on this page.
It's that time of the year again! This is your only chance of the year to solve a cube in negative time as day light saving (DST) ends and time falls back one hour. DST (Daylight Saving Time) ends at 3am on Sunday, October 25 in many European countries. In most parts of the United States and Canada, DST ends at 2am on Sunday, November 1. See Time and Date.com to check the clock change schedule in your area. Results from Europe will NOT be posted until the results from North America come in a week later.
The Contest
This challenge statement from 2004 by then-Caltech undergrad Tyson Mao pretty much explains it (original forum post).
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There is only one day of the year where one can leave the drudgery of Caltech academic life and sprint off for a chili burger, chili dog, and chili fries in a timely manner. A very timely manner indeed... so timely that one can actually return before he departs. This is the way of the Negative-Time Tommy's run. On one day of the year, a little bit before the first 2 AM, Caltech students hop in their cars and make a dash for the original Tommy's in Beverly Hills for some items with a lot of chili. The goal is to simply return before you left. If you are skilled, you may attempt the trifecta which consists of the burger with extra chili, the hot dog with extra chili, and the fries with extra chili. Last year, I missed achieving negative time because of an accident on Highway 101. Our total time was 4 minutes. Of course, last year, I did achieve negative time cubing at a time of negative 59 minutes and 1 second. (I was not very fast back then.) I challenge all of you to take part in the negative time solving tradition. We will have a website with the one, yes only ONE scramble which you will use for this entire year. The date I believe will be October 31, 2004. |
The Rules
By submitting your time(s), you indicate your compliance to the following rules:
- Use the provided algorithm(s). As usual, take up to 15 seconds of preinspection per solve.
- Begin every solve before daylight saving ends and complete every solve after it ends in your time zone. In the United States, for example, you must begin every solve (start the timer and turn the cube, not just inspection) before the first 2 AM and end every solve after the second 1 AM.
- Don't be an idiot! This is an unofficial contest. Please follow all rules you would when submitting a record to speedcubing.com.
For example, if you start at 1:59:55 and end at 1:00:07, record your time as -59 min 48 sec. Rule 2 means that you can compete in multiple events at the cost of some extra time in each of your solves (except one). A fun category would be "most cubes solved blindfolded in a negative time." The entire solve must be done within an hour, so you first have to decide on the number of cubes to attempt and think about when to start memorizing.
Thanks to Tyson Mao for bringing this great Caltech tradition to cubing. Good luck to everyone!
Useful tools for US cubers: The Official U.S. Time, Atomic Clock Time.
The Scrambles 2009
(Generated by Cube Explorer)
This is the ONLY main Negative Time Solving Scramble for 2009. Do not use this scramble before the real attempt.
The following are additional 3x3 algorithms to be used only for 3x3 multi-blind. Decide on the number of cubes, n, to be attempted beforehand, and take the first n-1 from this list in addition to the main scramble above.
- D2 F2 L2 D2 F2 D' R2 D2 L2 U2 B' U2 F2 L2 U' R B' U2 R' U' F2
- R B2 L B2 R U2 B2 D2 L' D2 U2 R' F' L U2 F D L R2 B L
- D2 B2 D2 F' R2 B' R2 U2 R2 U' L D' F' U2 B U' L2 U' R' D F
- F2 U' L2 B2 D2 L2 F2 U' B2 U' R B F U L' R U' F' R' F' U'
- D' B2 F2 R2 D' B2 D R2 U2 F2 D' L2 B R F2 L U' F' R2 D2 U'
- B2 F2 U F2 U' L2 D' B2 F2 D' R B F U2 L R' U' B2 R D2 R2
- R2 D' B2 U' R2 F2 D' B2 R2 F L' B2 L' R2 B' R2 U' B' D R D'
- B2 D' R2 U L2 F2 U' L2 D R2 U2 F' R D' L2 U' F' L D F' D2
- F2 L2 D2 U B2 L2 B2 L2 D2 U' R2 B U' F2 L F' L' U2 B2 L' U'
- D2 F R2 D2 F R2 B' L2 B2 R2 D2 F2 U R2 F U R2 F2 U B' L
- D2 R F2 U2 L2 D2 R D2 B2 D L' B' F L2 U B L B' D' L2 F
- B2 U2 B2 D L2 D B2 F2 D R2 U' B' U2 L' U' L2 U' B' L2 F' U
- B2 R F2 L U2 R F2 D2 R2 U B' R U B' D R' B R2 F
- L2 U' F2 L2 R2 U' B2 U' L2 D F2 R' B' R2 F L2 B' F2 L' F2 D'
- R' D2 L' U2 L2 B2 D2 F2 L U2 L2 D' B' F' U B U R' B' R' D
(Generated by CCT)
- D' f' L r R2 f2 r' u L' B D u' r2 F2 L r2 R' F2 U' B2 L' U2 L r' R2 D L F' R F u B' u U R2 u' L' r R D
- F' u' R2 D u2 U' f D B' D B2 R' F' L F u F2 u2 F U' L2 f2 F U2 B' F D' L u' U2 B f2 F' r2 B' f2 F2 L' U R'
- B D2 R2 U R' B' f F L' B f2 r' u' B f F U f' r B R D L' R2 F R' D u' U' L' r2 R D u2 U' f' R D2 u' F'
(Generated by CCT)
- U B2 D2 d B' b2 f D' B' u2 U2 L2 l' r U2 B' D' d' u' U' l' b' l D' d u' U' l B' U' B l b2 U L b L R' U f2 L' f' u2 B2 b f' L' F2 L' r2 R' F2 r2 R2 D2 L' d2 f R' D2
You can scramble other puzzles on your own.
Submit your results
The Results 2009
There were 44 participants representing 5 countries (plus Smerbia). Of these, 3 participated in Europe and the rest were from North America.
3x3 Speedsolve
| Name | Country | Negative Time | Comment |
| Harris Chan | Canada | -59 minutes, 50.62 seconds | Scrambled with cross on U (F = green) and using my mini type C cube >. |
| Patrick Jameson | USA | -59 minutes, 48.37 seconds | Not bad. Pretty easy scramble. |
| Waris Ali | USA | -59 minutes, 48.14 seconds | |
| Stefan Huber | Austria | -59 minutes, 47.23 seconds | extremely shaky solve, but in the third attempt my best negative time so far :D would've had sub10 potential, but nevermind... |
| Michael Young | Smerbia | -59 minutes, 46.27 seconds | That was a pretty good solve. |
| Dan Cohen | USA | -59 minutes, 46.19 seconds | :( |
| Andy Tsao | USA | -59 minutes, 46.05 seconds | |
| Shotaro Makisumi | Japan | -59 minutes, 45.35 seconds | |
| Vincent Sheu | USA | -59 minutes, 44.26 seconds | I totally froze on the final t-perm for about a second =.= |
| Daniel Chan | USA | -59 minutes, 43.49 seconds | Great fun. I and Tyler did this simultaneously. Too bad it was only a mediocre solve, but at least it is better than last year! Looking forward to doing this again. |
| Jim Mertens | USA | -59 minutes, 43.37 seconds | |
| Raku Watari | USA | -59 minutes, 43.20 seconds | Bleh... but a nice way to end Halloween. |
| Jeff Chiu | USA | -59 minutes, 43 seconds | |
| Devin Corr-Robinett | USA | -59 minutes, 42.97 seconds | meh |
| Michael Gottlieb | USA | -59 minutes, 42 seconds | I remember it was a 17.xx, but I lost the time, so I am rounding up to 18 flat. |
| Jeremy Fleischman | USA | -59 minutes, 41.81 seconds | Fucking Irish carbombs... |
| Florian Herzog | Austria | -59 minutes, 41.21 seconds | hehe Doublesune OLL and PLL skipped... well, I had absolutely NO lookahead on F2L :/ But good time for me anyway ^^ |
| Lucas Garron | Germany | -59 minutes, 41.05 seconds | |
| Nick Young | USA | -59 minutes, 40.50 seconds | |
| Kai Jiptner | Germany | -59 minutes, 40 seconds | did it in the middle of the 4x4 memo and wasn't quite prepared for it...fail! |
| Stephanie Chow | USA | -59 minutes, 39.40 seconds | I Thai-jizzed in my cube. |
| Jackson Warley | USA | -59 minutes, 38 seconds | |
| Kevin Kapinos | USA | -59 minutes, 37.84 seconds | Actual time: 22.16 seconds. 11 seconds better than last year; 7 seconds worse than my average. |
| Chonnie Cen | USA | -59 minutes, 33.06 seconds | Blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol. |
| Shari Kuroyama | USA | -59 minutes, 31.44 seconds | |
| Kevin Jorgensen | USA | -59 minutes, 30.52 seconds | |
| Patrick Tran | USA | -59 minutes, 38.77 seconds | That's what she said. |
| John To | USA | -59 minutes, 26.28 seconds | Totally fucked up. No I'm just kidding. Totally messed up. Okay sure. |
| V-te | USA | -59 minutes, 25 seconds | Sigh, I got nervous. Why do I always get nervous? =((( |
| James Yang | USA | -59 minutes, 13 seconds | Yay, first time -- goal was -59min 20sec |
| Dahlia An | USA | -58 minutes, 57 seconds | My last name is not Tran. |
| Dashel Scarborough | USA | -58 minutes, 56.87 seconds | NOO!! I FAILED!! terrible PLL and 1 F2L case took like 4 seconds to locate the other piece! :( |
| Meng-Hsuan Wu | USA | -58 minutes, 36.59 seconds | |
| Batmant Von Batmanerson | Batmanburghvillenstein | -59 minutes, 43.17 seconds | 8=========D |
3x3 Blindfolded
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Comment |
| 1 | Leyan Lo | USA | -58 minutes, 5.14 seconds | |
| 2 | Shelley Chang | USA | -57 minutes, 47.78 seconds | The cake is a lie |
| 3 | Peter Battaglino | USA | -57 minutes, 17 seconds | |
| 4 | Anthony Hsu | USA | -55 minutes, 3 seconds | I rushed back to my room from a Halloween orchestra show and by the time I started up my computer, it was already 1:59:xx, so I didn't have time to go online and apply the official scramble. Thus, I mixed up my cube randomly by hand (so technically this is an invalid solve) and started at 1:59:55. I realized I didn't have a blindfold when I started, but I wanted to do it properly, so after memorization, I actually dug through my backpack to find my blindfold. Ended: 1:04:52 AM. First blindfolded negative solve for me. Whoohoo! |
| 5 | Lucas Garron | Germany | DNF (-57 minutes, 48.49 seconds) | 3 corners off. |
| 6 | Devin Corr-Robinett | USA | DNF (-53 minutes, 12.16 seconds) | hmm I forgot I started this for a minute after finishing 3x3 |
4x4 BLD
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Result | Comment |
| 1 | Kai Jiptner | Germany | -48 minutes, 35 seconds | don't know if it's slow because it's that late or because I did a safety solve :D |
Most cubes solved blindfolded in a negative time
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Result | Comment |
| - | Mike Hughey | USA | -0 minutes, 38.43 seconds | 9 / 10 | Ugh - almost a pure success. Missed the eighth cube because I didn't memorize a piece twice when breaking a cycle, so I did parity when I didn't need to. Memorization time: -21:27 Execution time: 20:44 |
4x4 MultiBLD
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Result | Comment |
| 1 | Chris Hardwick | USA | -8 minutes, 35.95 seconds | 2 out of 3 solved | My first ever attempt at three 4x4s. I know exactly the error I made on the first cube, and I knew when I made it. I wasn't sure if I did a single or a double turn on a face, and I guesses and guessed incorrectly :-( |
5x5 Speedsolve
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Comment |
| 1 | Kristopher De Asis | Canada | -58 minutes, 38.32 seconds |
Most Puzzles Relay
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Result | Comment |
| 1 | Michael Gottlieb | USA | -0 minutes, 2 seconds | 53 | I did a total of 53 puzzles (18 physical puzzles, 35 computer ones). I stopped the timer halfway through the 54th at about -2 seconds. |
Square-1
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Comment |
| 1 | Forte Shinko | Canada | -59 minutes, 33 seconds | Odd parity and doing some wrong moves :( |
Square-1 "Real Man's Average of 50"
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Comment |
| 1 | Andrew Nelson | Smerbia | -15 minutes, 47.53 seconds | Didn't time individual solves, just did 50 squares-1 in quick succession. Total scrambling + solving time was 44:12.47 |
Square-2
| Place | Name | Country | Negative Time | Comment |
| 1 | David Woner | USA | -58 minutes, 53.55 seconds | Square-2 is fun! |