The next couple of days were no fun. Sinus headache, coughing, sneezing, fever, etc. Finally went to the doctor on Friday with Emilee and luckily it was just a virus and they gave us some super powerful anti-histimines and cough syrup. It definitely helped with the next few nights of sleep.
The kids went ice skating for mutual. I was bummed that I had to miss that one.
The big event this week was the Eat, Sleep, Cube, Repeat cubing championship in Veldhoven, Netherlands. Emilee and Spencer stayed home to tend Ashton as we knew he would get really, really bored. We drove 3 hours north on Friday night as the first event started at 8:00 pm. The event is held at a hostel, so we spent the next 2.5 days in a cubing room and sleeping in bunk beds. It was clean and we slept well, so we can't complain!
The event has over 50 participants from all over Europe. Jacob has been looking forward to it all year. The room started filling with mostly young boys from 13 to 60 years old. I'd say the average is 25. The each have a briefcase with all types of cubes and cubing paraphernalia inside. 7x7, 5x5, 4x4, 3x3, 2x2, Skube, Pyraminx, Clock, screw drivers, blindfolds, noise blocking headphones and a bunch of cube types that I couldn't even attempt to name.
Yes, this is a Darth Maul cube!
One of the funniest things to Kim at the event was an announcement by the organizer. He gave an announcement and all we heard was deodorant. We were both curious about what he said. Kim thought for sure he was telling everyone that they needed to wear deodorant due the amount of stinky boys in the room, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. You can't use spray deodorant because it will set off the fire alarms and cost you 400 euro!
The first night they held the 7x7 rounds, fewest moves and foot solves, yes, they solve it with their feet! Jacob met a really nice boy named Antonie from Greece, but he lives in the Netherlands. It turns out that he is 13.5 and one of the fastest cubers in Europe! He won the 5x5 and 2x2 rounds the second day. He can solve a 2x2 in about 2 seconds and a 3x3 in about 9 seconds. He should be one of the favorites for the 4x4 and 3x3 as well. Although we've seen one guy that will give him a run for his money.
The second day began at 9:00 am. They stop for an hour at lunch and dinner, but cube the rest of the time up until 11:00 pm. It is a whirl of getting up and down, taking pictures, eating and being amazed at the talents of the participants. In each of the events there is usually a specialist that wins. However, Antonie is amazing that he's so good at most of the events. He's attended about 20 competitions in the last couple years.
One guy here from France, named Francois, has competed in over 154 competitions. That is a world record! I don't know his age, but he looks like the Einstein of cubing. Probably around 60 years old, he's pretty good at most of the competitions. However, his speciality was the one cube blindfold solve. He had about a 58 second average. The time starts when you start looking at the cube and ends when you finish it blindfolded. Unbelievable.
If you want to have your mind blown watch this video of the world record holder. 41 out of 41 in an hour. He's done 95 out of 100 in over an hour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Jacob has done an AMAZING job for his first event. He's made all of the first cuts and has been doing his average or better. He smokes a lot of the adults and most of the younger kids. It is super fun to watch and video him. Both Kim and I are super proud of him and all of the work he's put in to get to this point. He's got a lot of work to do to become a world class cuber, but he's now made some great friends and knows what he needs to do if he wants to solve cubes even faster.
Final results came out and Jacob got 8 Luxembourgish records for averages and single solves.
The main events are the 4x4 and 3x3 the afternoon of the last day. It feels like everything has been building for those culminating events. But we've enjoyed the team solves (one person is blindfolded and another person tells them what to do), barefoot, one-handed, etc. Most of the participants participate in all of the events.
The event is very well organized and the cubers all have to act as judges and participants. Hwee Chong Fong lives close to hear and organizes it. I'd say he's about 25 and did all of the hostel arrangements, food and competition. He competes, but spends most of his time typing in the scores into the official record. Once Jacob's scores are public, we'll add the link to the blog. He's pretty excited because he's already got several Luxembourgish records!
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/c.php?i=EatSleepCubeRepeat2014
Last night we found a Dominos pizza in Veldhoven. Turns out that food in the Netherlands is super cheap. I don't know why... So we got a large pizza and drinks for 12 euros. We could hardly believe it!
We're here at the competition until 6:00 pm tonight and then we have a 3 hour drive home. It was definitely worth the trip as it will probably be the highlight of Europe for Jacob or "Yacob" as they called him in the tournament!
Jake made the final, which was HUGE for his first competition. He made it through 3 rounds which was awesome. He started off sort of slow, but had three great solves to get 17.7 s average. We haven't seen the final results as we headed for home before the final ceremony.
But his friend, Antonie, won the 3x3 and set a new Grecian record with a 9.5 average! Amazing this 13.5 year old kid smoked everyone!
We got home and the kids did a great job taking care of Ash. Here's what they built at the park today. I guess they had over 30 kids and tons of parents taking pictures of the Kehlen Fort!
Pictures from this week
Until next week!
3 weeks until we're home!!!! We're not excited! ;)
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