Ruihang vs Leo - Monkey League S4 R5

Xu Ruihang and Leo Borromeo are ready to go head-to-head in this best-of-five sets of first-to-three solves. Competitors will alternate starting solves and starting sets. Leo, with the faster median in the previous round, chose to start second. Oh, and Ruihang is smooth to start a very nice 5.36. No pauses, great turn speed, putting it all together for a great start to this match. Establishing a high bar to start for Leo to match or beat. Leo has the yes drink with him today. And it's a good solve by Leo, but a bit locky throughout, so Ruihang takes the first solve. Oh, and Leo's got a very nice F2L into the ZBLL, 5.71. Oh, and some huge pauses for Ruihang, some lockups in the F2L, and it's not gonna be enough. And so we see those struggles return for Ruihang as Leo ties up the first set with a very nice 5.54. Making it look easy, just so effortless with the speed and the fluidity. Oh, Leo messing up the- yeah, Leo messing up every part of that solve, not even solving the cube in the end. Oh, and Leo running into some rough last layer cases after a fantastic F2L. Still throwing down a sub-six, but he's got to be feeling unlucky about those last layer cases. And Ruihang will hope for something better. It'll be interesting to see in this match, you know, Ruihang is white-yellow only and Leo is color neutral. Oh, and Ruihang was not able to solve the cube in time, so Leo tying up the set. Oh, my goodness! A beautiful 4.05 flying through the solve! Leo can't beat a 4.05 on demand, unsurprising, and Ruihang takes the first set 3-2. Oh, and that was a quick start, but a pause in the middle. Some lockups in the end, so 6.49 for Leo, not what he'd hoped for. He got off to a quick start. The question is, will Ruihang be able to carry his quick start all the way through when Ruihang is smooth? Smoothly with a 6-flat, taking the first solve. Oh, and it's a fantastic F2L by Ruihang, a 4.54 full step. And the speed is unbelievable. Rocketing through a 4.54. Oh, and a fumble for Leo, and it's already over before he's even started the solve. My goodness. Oh, and it's a fantastic F2L for Leo, a fluid transition into a 4.78, stepping it up. My goodness. That efficiency in the F2L was incredible, and he did not stop going into the last layer. Putting the pressure on Ruihang here to keep up his ludicrous speed. And he's got the turning. Does he have the efficiency? Not quite a 5.19, and Leo taking the solve. And Ruihang's bad solves in this match have been a lot better than in his previous matches. Oh, and Leo's got a great green F2L. Can he transition quickly enough? And not quite, and Leo is going to lose that solve. Ruihang taking the second set 3-1. Oh, and Ruihang a bit lucky. Few mistakes. But Leo's gonna need to beat a 6.26 here to give himself any chance in this match. Already two sets down. Needs to win as many solves as he can here going forward. Oh, and the ZB is too slow, a 6.56. Ruihang taking the first solve. Wow. The turning is just so fluid today. 5.67. And Ruihang is just not giving Leo any chances here. It's crazy. That solve had so many moves, but Ruihang sped through it in 5.44 seconds. Leo needs a 5.43 or better to stay in this match. Oh! Just missing it. A few too many pauses for Leo, and Ruihang takes the match 3-0, winning the final set 3-0. My goodness, a dominant performance by Xu Ruihang. Looking good going into the playoffs. Well, yeah, this match was really cool. I'm glad to be on here to talk to the competitors one last time after the round robin series of this competition is over. I guess this competition has determined the seeds for the next stage of the competition. But the first thing I want to ask you guys is, it's obviously it's night time in Asia. How do you feel about competing at night time? Oh, okay. I'm asking him in Chinese, so yeah. So yeah, Leo, how do you feel about competing so late at night? I mean, it's not... I mean, I've only been competing past 5 p.m for the past year. So definitely something I had to get used to for these online comps. I remember you won cubing at home at like 4 a.m. your time, right? Like, no, like 8 a.m. 8 a.m. 8 a.m. Okay. Yeah, you've definitely pulled some pretty impressive feats of no sleep. Oh, I can't hear you. I can say it again. I'm just asking it's night time in Asia. How do you feel about competing at 10 p.m? I feel I'm in good shape, but in the morning around 9 a.m. I might be better. So I asked him the same question, like, you know, it's 10 o'clock in Asia. How does he feel competing at night? And he said, you know, 10 p.m. is not too bad. He felt his condition was pretty good, but he was feeling better at 9 a.m. his time. So that's kind of what's going down in Roy Hong's place. So Leo, now that this match is concluded, you are the fourth seed in the semifinals. You will face off against Matty. How do you feel about that match coming up? You know, I know Matty is quite fast. Ken, you know, both of us are basically the same speed and both of us can, you know, get bad times sometimes. And yeah, the match, the semifinals match is something definitely, I mean, something I'll definitely look forward to. Okay, cool. Yeah. And I mean, this was the last round robin competition in this season of Monkey League. After you've competed with everyone, how do you feel? And who do you consider your toughest opponent? I mean, considering their form before this match, definitely Roy Hong. I definitely wasn't expecting him to average mid-five against me. Yeah, that's my answer. Okay, cool. So I asked him, now that you've competed against everyone in a round robin format, who does he consider the most difficult opponent? And he's like, everyone, you know, it just depends on how the the how they execute on any given day. But I guess that's just the reality of Monkey League. Sorry, I don't quite understand the last part of what you just said. Okay, so I told him that in the semis, he's you know, he's against Tian Long, and the semis is a little longer. It's first to four out of seven sets. And there's this long format, like how does that make him feel? And he said, he actually thinks the long format will be advantageous to him. Perhaps it's, you know, he gets more time to acclimate and to adjust. So, uh, you know, that's about it. I think it's getting late in Asia. So definitely don't want to take up too much of your time. Really excited to see what happens next and good luck. You guys are both semi-finalists. 今天看起来这个状态蛮好的,不太紧张。 我们希望你这个半决赛可以发挥得非常好,加油。 好的,谢谢。 Yeah, good luck guys. Thank you.