The FMC thread

[blah]

28-move FMC solution in 15 minutes!

It's a PB. And it's only my 5th FMC attempt Sad thing is, I couldn't find anything better in the next 45 minutes Oh, and I won't deny it, I got pretty lucky But I don't really know how lucky is defined in FMC...

Scramble: R2 D2 F2 D' B2 R2 U2 R2 U B U R D' B2 L D' B' D2 F U2 (20f)

(Scramble)': U2 F' D2 B D L' B2 D R' U' B' U' R2 U2 R2 B2 D F2 D2 R2
2x2x2: B2 L' F (3/3)
2x2x3: D' B' D' R2 (4/7)
Fix bad edges: D' L B' L' (4/11)
Rest of F2L: B2 D B D2 (4/15)
OLL: D B2 D' B' D B' D' (3/18)
PLL: D B D' R2 F' U B' U' B U' F R2 (9/27)
AUF: B (1/28)

15-move F2L + 3-move OLL + 10-move PLL =

Thought I'd share this beautiful solution Anyone else got elegant solutions to share?

[fanwuq]

1. It is bad, and I don't know how to fix it. Sometimes I random fix it or if I run out of time, just do a 1LLL with classic pochmann and get a solution around 36 moves.
2. If you are just solving by yourself and could use something like alg.garron.us, use as many premoves as you wish, but I never used more than 3. Usually I can have a solution around 32 with at most 1 premove. At competitions, I don't recommend them at all, but if you must, do only 1.
4. ??? You mean R (commutator) R? I do not use either and don't see the point and I think R (commutator) R would be equivalent to R2 (commutator) or
(commutator) R2 depending on where is the cancellation..
5. No, you are crazy. You might as well as finish the whole solve using only premoves. Wait... you might as well as use the inverse scramble.
6. Your 2x2x3 blocks are very good, but that's probably because this is a fairly easy scramble. I general get around 10 moves each time, but there are plenty of hard scrambles that I can't get sub-12 even after 20 minutes.

[JLarsen]

Is there some kind of resource that explains some FMC concepts? I've searched for stuff like premoves and insertions, and I've come up with nothing. Any recomendations?

[blah]

Is there some kind of resource that explains some FMC concepts? I've searched for stuff like premoves and insertions, and I've come up with nothing. Any recomendations?

As far as I know, there aren't any guides/explanations/tutorials for premoves, at least I've never seen one. I read about it about a year ago (I think) in Arnaud's FMC thread. I can't locate the thread now (found it), but all he provided was an example solve without explaining how or why it worked, so I didn't understand it at all back then.

But I finally understood premoves about a week ago after messing with my cube for hours and hours, but I'm sure you'd take a much shorter time to grasp the concept IMHO, it's not hard at all to know how and when to use it; but to know why it works the way it does, all it takes is a little extra thinking, it's completely intuitive

Every who got into FMC seriously seems to know what premoves are, and I can only assume they all figured it out on their own, so I believe anyone else can too if they're serious about FMC. Wouldn't a tutorial just spoil all the fun? FMC is probably the only thing left in speedcubing that's unharmed by guides for "Dummies who just want to know how but not why".

As for insertions, it's just jargon. You don't have to "learn" anything to be able to do it (well, maybe commutators if you don't already know). You just need experience to be good at it. Here's what an insertion is: Say you get an A-perm for PLL, that's gonna cost you 9 moves. But there's bound to be some point within your solution in which those 3 corners are solvable using only an 8-move commutator. So you cycle those corners in the middle of your solution to save a move, get it? If you get a cancellation or two, you'd effectively be doing 6 or 7 moves to cycle 3 corners instead of 9 moves.

[blah]

What's a good number of moves for the first two 1x2x3 blocks for Roux? I did two solves and got 18 (7+11) and 17 (4+13), and I don't think it's good at all.

I'd attempt Roux if I get a nice 1x2x3 (<7 moves) but couldn't get a short sliced 1x1x3 (doesn't matter if the colors are matched or mismatched), is this a good approach? What would you guys do in this case?

[blah]

Scramble: D2 L D2 L D2 U2 R B2 R U R D R F' R2 B L' D' L2 B U2 (21f)

2x2x2: L' U' L' D' B (5/5)
Siamese 2x2x2s: F2 R2 F . R F R2 F' (5/10)
3rd F2L slot: D2 U L' U2 L D2 (6/16)
4th F2L slot: F R U2 R' F' (3/19)
Pseudo-OLL: F R U' R' U' R U R' F' (6/25)
AUF: U2 (1/26)
Insert at .: F' R2 F L F' R2 F L' (5/31)

Solution: L' U' L' D' B F' L F' R2 F L' R F R2 F' D2 U L' U2 L D2 F R U R' U' R U R' F' U2 (31)

This is only my tenth or so FMC attempt, so 10 cancellations is just ridiculous to me Or am I just overreacting? How many cancellations do you guys usually get per solve?

[Mike Hughey]

I've only had that many moves cancel a couple of times. But then, you're clearly already a lot better than me. Frustrating.

I guess it makes sense that you're good at this, considering all the cube theory you've been interested in all along. Congratulations on some good solves.

[JLarsen]

Oh man blah, this is your new thing. I see it. You did BLD before if I'm not mistaken, and BLD wasn't really my thing, and neither is cube theory. My grasp on commutators is minimal. I think I'll just leave this event alone.

[fanwuq]

Oh man blah, this is your new thing. I see it. You did BLD before if I'm not mistaken, and BLD wasn't really my thing, and neither is cube theory. My grasp on commutators is minimal. I think I'll just leave this event alone.

But real men do Petrus FMC!
You only need minimal 8 mover commutators for FMC. BH is not necessary at all, so you don't need to learn anything. Just your nice block building alone will get you plenty of sub-40 solutions.

[JLarsen]

Oh man blah, this is your new thing. I see it. You did BLD before if I'm not mistaken, and BLD wasn't really my thing, and neither is cube theory. My grasp on commutators is minimal. I think I'll just leave this event alone.

But real men do Petrus FMC!
You only need minimal 8 mover commutators for FMC. BH is not necessary at all, so you don't need to learn anything. Just your nice block building alone will get you plenty of sub-40 solutions.

Erik has tried to get me into fmc, and I think I'm pretty bad at it. I most certainly don't think I could sub 40 with standard oll pll right now, but I haven't really tried. I'll give it a go I guess...

Edit I tried making 2x2x3 blocks and my first two tries were 11 and 10. Is that good?

Scramble: F2 D' B' R' D U' R F D2 B F R2 B2 F' D' R D U' B2 D' U R B2 R' U2

2x2: y' by mistake.....U' B2 D' L D2

EJ 2X2X3 expansion(not sure if i should use that in fmc)

B' U R U R2

10 moves

EO: y2 R' F R

13 moves

ha i think i messed up writing my annotation i suck....there i think i got it right now...

I really am not sure what to do now, but i'll keep going....

Step 4a: y' U' R U2 R2 gives you another EJ pair....lol I have no idea....

oh man this is were it gets bad....yeah I'm just going to stop there I'm not going about this right. I'll do 4a without another ej pair i don't know enough to do that.

New Step 4a....wow...and actually step 4b too:

R U' R' U R U R2

Alright that puts me at 20 moves for a....f2l of sorts....but now I have no idea what to do besides fix an ej pair, or change my 4a solution to break it before hand so i can do cls and pll.

Another step 4a with what I said before....

R U' R' U R U R' U' R' gives me 21

Step 4b: U' R U2 R' U R U' R' leaves me with the wost cls case in existence....

Okay I'm just going to break apart the steb 4b pair differently and go with the ll that I get here's my final crap solution:

Scramble: Scramble: F2 D' B' R' D U' R F D2 B F R2 B2 F' D' R D U' B2 D' U R B2 R' U2

2x2: y' U' B2 D' L D2 (5)
2x2x3: B' U R U R2 (10)
EO: y2 R' F R (13)
Step 4a: y' R U' R' U R U R' U2 R' (22)-Ruined it, crap from here on.
Step 4b: U R U' R' U R U R' (30)
Cls: y' R U2 R' U R U' R' U R U R' (41) -God dammit
R perm: y' R U2 R' U2 R B' R' U' R U R B R2 (54)

My blockbuilding is fine....but I just have no clue after that. At least I wrote down the solution correctly. (I think)

Anyway that was kind of fun. I think I have potential, although I'd love some advice.