• Welcome to the Speedsolving.com, home of the web's largest puzzle community!
    You are currently viewing our forum as a guest which gives you limited access to join discussions and access our other features.

    Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community of 40,000+ people from around the world today!

    If you are already a member, simply login to hide this message and begin participating in the community!

Older cubers discussions

openseas

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Messages
425
WCA
2015PARK24
Thanks, @newtonbase , @mitja , @mark49152 , @h2f !


12/20 today at Guildford in my first official 20 attempt. Memo was too slow, so I had to speed it up, but then couldn't make it stick well so ended up blanking several cubes. Still I'm glad I took a shot at it. More practice needed.

You'll get it next time.

I still have one more attempt tomorrow morning. Yesterday evening attempt was a disaster. 2/6, really went for safe but I screwed up executions - the whole day brain exercise called it a day before the comp, I guess. 3 of them, due to BU sticker alg error. Since I rarely use single BF alg - most of time, comm or floats it but wanted to go safe but got rusty on alg. I missed last M' slice which made all 3 cubes M slice off = DNF.
 

openseas

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Messages
425
WCA
2015PARK24
Well, during the last solve, realized one flip not done for 4th room. That thinking screwed up the sequence of the last solve, + picked up the 3rd cube(perfectly solved) instead of 4th cube, did flip alg, DNF'd those 3. Memo 6 was 15 min but I executed wrong order for the first cube. So I had to go back all the way, very slowly and redo the solve. It took quite a while - looks like more than 10 min just for that cube fixing alone (ended up solving correctly)

Lessons: need to check flips/twists before start each execution, + need to add more cubes.
 

h2f

Premium Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Messages
2,402
Location
Poland
WCA
2014PACE01
YouTube
Visit Channel
@openseas, I have a problem with twists so something similiar. It's due to habbit from 3bld. In 3bld I do twists after corners (I do corners first than edges). In mbld I do first edges, next corners. The problem is that my buffer moves if I have parity: in 3bld it's in UBR with parity; without parity it's in UBL. I mess at least 1 cube on every attempt doing twists with buffer in bad position. I must figure it out.

I've started to add more cubes. Yesterday I did 7/9 in 49 minutes; today 5/11 in 49 minutes. 2 dnfs because of twists, 1 flip; 2 cubes with 3cycles; one partial mess. My biggest attempt so far is 3/13 in 58 but I forgot 5 cubes during attempt.
 

pglewis

Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2016
Messages
1,268
Location
Cincinnati
WCA
2016LEWI07
@mitja: Congrats to both you and your daughter. Comp nerves didn't get you at all.

@openseas: nice 4bld but Jeff likes to steal your thunder. It's gotta be exciting knowing he has a legit shot of really getting hold of one on every attempt.

@mark49152: as you said, fortune favors the bold. Crashing and burning in a fiery ball also favors the bold but I'm glad you took the risk and pushed it. I just saw Andy crushed his OH single too.

@h2f: Ouch on that final disaster 3x3 solve, I had so much empathy watching it unfold. Been there so many times.
 

bubbagrub

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Messages
406
Location
UK
WCA
2013COPP01
I thought I'd send a quick report on this weekend's competition. First, very nice as always to see Mark & Andy and all the others. This was, I think, the first competition I've been to where I competed in every event. It's also the first where my wife and daughter took part. My wife did pyraminx and skewb and my daughter did pyraminx, and beat me, much to her surprise. It was also perhaps the competition in which I got the most DNFs. I reckon it was the jet-lag, as I'd just flown back from California. Anyway, the main event for me was feet, and in round 1 it went pretty well (I came fourth, and got through to the final) but then in the final it all went to pieces (and I got one of those DNFs when an edge cap popped off).

I got surprising PBs in 5x5 and 4x4 and had a total meltdown in MBLD, sadly. Some day I'll get that 5/5... Joseph (my son) also got very surprising PBs in one-handed. He's really not practised it, and wasn't expecting to make the cut-off, but managed to get a very respectable average. It was also nice to be there when Charlie got his WR average in square-one, although I'd have preferred it if I wasn't mid-solve at the time...

So, a fun weekend all round. Congratulations to Andy for his PBs, and to everyone else who competed this weekend.
 

newtonbase

Premium Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
2,952
Location
MK, UK
WCA
2015ADAM03
YouTube
Visit Channel
Some nice results this weekend. Well done guys.

I spent today at a different kind of competition with a slightly younger age group and a similar gender disparity. My daughter was competing in her first dance comp. It had an aura of chaos with a couple of hundred kids running around in sequins and Day-Glo lycra but it was managed surprisingly well. There were no breaks between rounds and competitors were often dancing within 10s of their group being called. It was pretty impressive. Trophies were big but so were the fees.
 

openseas

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Messages
425
WCA
2015PARK24
nice 4bld but Jeff likes to steal your thunder. It's gotta be exciting knowing he has a legit shot of really getting hold of one on every attempt.

Thanks. It was 10 alg - looks like first official sub-20 with 10 algs.

Trophies were big but so were the fees.

haha, been there. Jeff had a black belt (Taekwondo) just because he wanted to get the big trophy when he was like 8~9-ish. He quit right after getting the belt then revealed why he practiced for years. All those years, I thought he actually liked Taekowndo :)
 

mitja

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
232
Location
Ljubljana, Slovenia
WCA
2016POPO02
Some nice results this weekend. Well done guys.

I spent today at a different kind of competition with a slightly younger age group and a similar gender disparity. My daughter was competing in her first dance comp. It had an aura of chaos with a couple of hundred kids running around in sequins and Day-Glo lycra but it was managed surprisingly well. There were no breaks between rounds and competitors were often dancing within 10s of their group being called. It was pretty impressive. Trophies were big but so were the fees.
Ha ha, I do this every day, teaching and choreographing is my profession. Quite different then cubcomp.
 

kbrune

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
668
Location
Cornwall, On
WCA
2012BRUN02
@openseas
Nice job on that 4bld! Congrats to Jeff!

@mark49152
Was it just a slow day for you? Or did something throw off your memo rhythm? Get em next time Mark!

@bubbagrub
Nice job on your results! Im jealous of those who have family competing with them. My wife and daughter have zero interest in competing. Not for my lack of trying though. (perhaps my trying is pushing them away from it too :p)

@h2f
I like watching your 3x3 solves. In the beginning you sort of look like a boxer. bobbing and weaving a bit :)
nice job on the 3x3

@mitja
Congrats on the PBs. Congrats to your family as well. Im jealous that they compete with you! :)[/USER]
 

phreaker

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
301
Update on BLD:

I've been on a REAL bad run. All my mistakes look like tracing errors on edges, execution feels solid.. memo is mostly holding up, but I'm pushing to go faster and faster... so time to time, it doesn't, but that's rare.

Anyone got tips on edge tracing and how not to $#%@#$ it up constantly.

Starting to look at commutators, just to start loading it into my head... slowly. It'll take time :)
 

kbrune

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
668
Location
Cornwall, On
WCA
2012BRUN02
Update on BLD:

I've been on a REAL bad run. All my mistakes look like tracing errors on edges, execution feels solid.. memo is mostly holding up, but I'm pushing to go faster and faster... so time to time, it doesn't, but that's rare.

Anyone got tips on edge tracing and how not to $#%@#$ it up constantly.

Starting to look at commutators, just to start loading it into my head... slowly. It'll take time :)

I'm having the same problem! So I'm going to piggy back your request for tips.

Tracing seems to be my limiting factor for success. I'm getting very good times relative to my own progress. But when I push memo speed success rate is almost zero. I constantly miss flipped edges. I have a lot of difficulty knowing if I have all the edges covered. When I get a success it's ususally because there aren't any cycle breaks lol
 

phreaker

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
301
I'm having the same problem! So I'm going to piggy back your request for tips.

Tracing seems to be my limiting factor for success. I'm getting very good times relative to my own progress. But when I push memo speed success rate is almost zero. I constantly miss flipped edges. I have a lot of difficulty knowing if I have all the edges covered. When I get a success it's ususally because there aren't any cycle breaks lol

Solo flipped edges: I try to keep count on how long my memo should be. If it isn't right, I go figure it out. It'll come back as "one off". So I'm expecting 11 targets, I missed the flipped edge, so I get 10 targets... nope... wrong. Gotta be a flipped edge, somewhere, or it is solved. Figure out which.

My issue is literally tracing, I'm just not doing it right. I need to figure out what in my head is doing it. I may just take a break, and look at commutators for a bit and come back and work with it more carefully, instead of drilling broken habits.
 

kbrune

Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2012
Messages
668
Location
Cornwall, On
WCA
2012BRUN02
Solo flipped edges: I try to keep count on how long my memo should be. If it isn't right, I go figure it out. It'll come back as "one off". So I'm expecting 11 targets, I missed the flipped edge, so I get 10 targets... nope... wrong. Gotta be a flipped edge, somewhere, or it is solved. Figure out which.

My issue is literally tracing, I'm just not doing it right. I need to figure out what in my head is doing it. I may just take a break, and look at commutators for a bit and come back and work with it more carefully, instead of drilling broken habits.

The whole math of it is really hard to keep track for me. When I have to take time to measure targets vs memo targets and add cycle breaks. It automatically adds a ton of time to my solve. I'm not sure how to get to a place where it becomes quicker. It's most likely practice practice practice as usual. It's just frustrating!

By tracing do you mean that your memoing wrong targets the faster you go? I take tracing to mean, following the sequence of edge targets. Am I wrong?
 

phreaker

Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
301
The whole math of it is really hard to keep track for me. When I have to take time to measure targets vs memo targets and add cycle breaks. It automatically adds a ton of time to my solve. I'm not sure how to get to a place where it becomes quicker. It's most likely practice practice practice as usual. It's just frustrating!

By tracing do you mean that your memoing wrong targets the faster you go? I take tracing to mean, following the sequence of edge targets. Am I wrong?

Right now I'm very focused on accuracy... without it, speeding up isn't quite as useful.

I'm just memoing the wrong targets. Recall is fine. But I'll flip the F/L (in speffz) edge, or something.

Really irritating. I've had up to 3 flips in a solve. One of those might have been a missed flipped edge... unlikely all 3 were.

Funny thing is: I'm not twisting corners. It is all edges. Now, I do use audio edges, and that means I am under time pressure. But still.
 

pglewis

Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2016
Messages
1,268
Location
Cincinnati
WCA
2016LEWI07
I've been establishing a baseline for my 3x3 solves at the coffee shop this past week (normally I'm just doing untimed practice) and it's in the neighborhood of 5+ seconds slower than "normal". It shouldn't come as a big surprise, I'm always in there within an hour or three of waking and that's a bad time for things that rely on reflexes... I wouldn't expect to play my best ping-pong at that hour either, assuming I actually played ping-pong. A lot of solves that feel average to me turn out to be 34-35; at 9 PM many that feel like I was hunting for pairs clock-in at 25-26. Using timer.cubing.net on my phone the running ao12 has generally been 30+ though it did briefly dip down to 27s a few times the past couple days, which is more typical for me atm. I'd like to compare against 4-5+ hours after waking and see how much might be slow brain vs. just the environment.

In other news, I spontaneously forgot how to do a PLL out of the blue. I'm not even 100% sure which one. I've temporarily had issues and blanked here and there but only for a few minutes, never chronically like this. It messes up F2L the same way every time so I'm consistently making the same mistake... more than a half dozen times the past 3 days. I'm fairly certain it's Ga, need to look it up and drill. I never drill algs and my PLL is completely triggered by recognition now so most are difficult/impossible for me to do unless it's in the heat of a solve.
 
Top