There's a new world record on the block, and we've talked to the person who accomplished it using a SteelSeries keyboard. How does he do it?!
MythicalRocket is a young content creator located in the United States. Though he is still in high school, he is already making a racket with his videos. SteelSeries noticed him when he posted about a new world record, for the fastest "words per minute" in 60 seconds.
congratulations to @MythicalRocket for setting a new world record in WPM (272) with the Apex Pro 👏⌨ pic.twitter.com/El4FpjWEAN
— SteelSeries (@SteelSeries) May 1, 2023
A few days after that, he broke a separate world record, for fastest typing in 15 seconds: at 293 WPM!
We talked to MythicalRocket to find out a little more about the magic he does. Read on below!
1. So, are you a robot? Just checking.
No, I am not a robot. I wish that I had cybernetic implants so that I could type even faster.
2. Do you get that question a lot from other people?
The question that I get a lot is, "are you the guy behind ChatGPT?" You know, like I'm the person who generates the responses.
3. Why did you start typing like this?
I don't know if you've heard of Sean Wrona, but he won a fastest typing competition in 2010. But I saw it and I was like, "damn, how can they type so fast?" A few years later, I decided to give it a go. I joined the MonkeyType community, and it was super interesting to me. I guess I just grinded it out, up to 270 [WPM].
I talked to Sean privately, and he's a really cool guy to talk to. He's one of my biggest inspirations in typing. Very cool experience meeting him.
4. What inspired you to make videos or stream like this?
I came into this not really thinking much of it,, it was really not until I saw TikToks online about typing. I got inspired to make content. It's nothing special, a TikTok here and there. But now I really want to focus on content creation because one of my good friends, Shaz, in the typing community, I just made a video with him. He does a lot of streams and content, so I kind of want to follow in his footsteps and show the world some of my skills.
5. Why did you choose a SteelSeries keyboard?
The first keyboard I had was the Apex 7 with the Brown switches. Well, the keycaps eventually started deteriorating (note that we offer replacement keycaps!. I typed so much on it, you couldn't even see some of the letters, so I asked my dad for new keycaps. But he surprised me with the Apex Pro. Ever since then, it's been my main keyboard. I've been using it for around half a year, or 4 months. Switching to it was easy.
6. What do you like about the Apex Pro?
It just feels really nice on my fingers, even at the fast speeds, where it kind of hurts your fingers. It just feels really nice, I can't lie.
I've been tweaking it. In terms of actuation, right now I have 2.5 on all the letters, 3.2 on the Shifts, and 1.5 for the Space key. It's probably not optimal, I'm still trying to find the perfect actuation.
7. If you could put a keyboard feature on your wishlist, what would it be?
That's a hard question, I don't know... What more could you possibly want from a keyboard? It's really hard to think of something to make it better.
I feel like it's perfect the way it is.
8. Do you really know all the countries?!
I would like to say I do know them, but I had a pre-prepared list. And it's really hard to look at the list and do it, so I had to memorize certain parts. If you make a mistake while typing, it's difficult to correct that while typing.
9. How many attempts were there for the country video, how long did it take you to prepare?
It took me, like... maybe an hour. Most of it was research. I tried looking online for a list of all the countries, but I couldn't find one, so I had to do it manually, by continent. But I already knew most of the countries so it didn't take that long.
10. How did you get so good? What's your training like?
I used to practice a crapton back in my day [back in your day?! You're not that old! - Luke]. Usually 1 hour every day, just typing on my keyboard. But I don't really do that anymore, maybe 15-20 minutes a day, maybe. I used to grind the heck out of typing. On MonkeyType, I think I have around 100 hours, and then general practice I think I have about 200 hours of typing. I started around in September 2020.
Here’s a graph of my WPM improvement milestones (multiples in 10); kinda outdated because it doesn’t have my 270 https://t.co/slizx6Ttz0pic.twitter.com/j8evBkeIUe
— rocket (@MythicalRocket) May 2, 2023
11. What do you want to be when you finish school?
I definitely want to do something with software engineering, I've been looking into it even early, as of right now. I know many people go into college without a plan, but I'm pretty sure that's what I want to do, as an aspiring software engineer. I took some computer science classes, I'm doing some dual enrollment as well. It's just really interesting to me, how you can make something cool on your own.
12. Anything you want to shoutout?
Subscribe to my YouTube, follow me on my Tiktok and Twitter! That's it!
Thanks so much, MythicalRocket, for talking to us! Make sure to give him a follow on his socials! We're pretty sure this won't be the last time you hear of him.