Monthly Computer Cube Competition 1: June 2009

I had the idea for a monthly computer cube competition. This is the first one; if I get enough people participating (say, 10+) I intend to keep doing one every month. Hopefully this will give people an excuse to try computer cubes They are quite fun IMO and you have the opportunity to play with and practice puzzles that you wouldn't normally get a chance to see.

Here are the rules:
- Please do all of the scrambles for a given round in a row. You get to decide when the next 5 or 12 solves will count (although it must be before you scramble for the first counting solve), but once you've started doing counting solves, you can't do practice solves on that puzzle until you are done with that round. (This is similar to doing Magic in competition.) Do not rescramble; if you get a difficult scramble or make a mistake right at the beginning, just keep going. However, if the program crashes or some other computer-related problem happens that prevents you from completing the solve, you may discard that solve and do a new one in its place.
- You may use any simulator you want. Some good online ones are hi-games, gelatinbrain, and jfly's SquareOneSim and MegaminxSim, but you can use any others if you can find them. For Clock I strongly suggest Mitchell Stern's NxN clock simulator. You can also switch simulators between solves.
- If the puzzle gives you any amount of inspection please don't use more than 15 seconds, although I won't penalize you if you go over.
- If you submit very fast times that I don't believe you are capable of, please also provide some kind of proof that you can get those times. It doesn't have to be a high-quality video or anything; I just don't want people to win by cheating.

This competition starts now, and ends when June does (11:59pm pacific time on June 30th). I will keep a list of the best times so far in this post, updated whenever I feel like it.


The rounds are listed below. I've made the short puzzles average of 12 because in a monthly competition you should have plenty of time
- 2x2x2: Average of 12.
- 3x3x3: Average of 12.
- 4x4x4: Average of 5.
- 5x5x5: Average of 5.
- 6x6x6: Average of 5.
- 7x7x7: Average of 5.
- 3x3x3 BLD: Best of 5.
- Clock (3x3): Average of 12.
- Clock (5x5): Average of 12. new!
- Dino Cube: Average of 12.
- Gigaminx: Mean of 3.
- Helicopter Cube: Average of 5.
- Megaminx: Average of 5.
- Pyraminx: Average of 12. (It's okay to use a version without trivial tips.)
- Skewb: Average of 12.
- Square-1: Average of 5.
- Super-X: Average of 5.


This competition is finished! The final results, and placings for each event, are listed here.

Yes!!! Finally I won't suck!

2x2x2: 6.67 7.36 7.08 7.97 9.52 8.25 8.03 6.23 5.3 7.78 6.55 5.59
Average: 7.15
A bit better than expected. I forgot Ortega because I haven't done this in a long time. Most of them are LBL, I think 4 are CLL.

3x3x3: 15.83 18.49 18.81 15.97 22.05 19.17 16.73 18.88 16.47 15.58 18.2 17.8
Average: 17.64
Could be better.

5x5x5: expect 2:30

Clock: expect 30s

Results will be posted soon.
I might do megaminx, dino cube, and gigaminx, but I don't feel like using gelatinbrain.

Edit:
Pyraminx:
Singles: 12.11 10.70 9.31 3.56 15.53 14.31 9.98 11.00 12.84 9.00 10.03 8.73
Average: 10.801
Jfly's simulator. No rotation is quite annoying. I also had to solve the tips.

Edit 2:
I could resist the urge to do 4x4 No longer:
58.11 1:10.30 1:08.72 58.41 1:19.42
Average: 1:05.810
This is pretty good for me. 2 sub-60s in one average is very nice. The last one was just bad, I didn't focus.

I'll just be doing 3x3x3, that's all I practice right now.

3x3x3: 16.47
18.27, (12.89), 20.17, 17.03, 15.89, 18.10, 16.52, 13.71, (25.73), 14.29, 13.59, 16.17

I need to work on my consistency @_@

3x3x3
25.17, 29.18, 26.12, 30.12, (36.19), 29.11, (24.36), 26.12, 27.19, 25.43, 26.19, 27.85 = 27.25

Michael, can I help you tally scores at the end of each month? I have an idea that I'm working on for points (similar to 4c in weekly comp)

2x2x2
10.35, 9.38, 12.34, (15.36), 10.19, (8.53), 10.35, 11.16, 11.19, 10.35, 11.12, 11.36 = 10.78

3x3x3 BLD
DNF, 4:15.36, DNF, DNF, 5:36.12 = 4:15.36

It's a bit late to think right now, but I'll do clock, super-x, heli cube, dino cube, pyra, and maybe a couple of others.

byu said:

Michael, can I help you tally scores at the end of each month? I have an idea that I'm working on for points (similar to 4c in weekly comp)

Click to expand...

You can help me out if I need help, but I probably won't since I can't imagine more than (say) 50 people doing this. I won't be doing points in the sense of the weekly competition, though - you will only get points for coming in the top 3 (or so... depends on the weighting) in an event, not just for participating. It shouldn't be convoluted, like the weekly competition one is.

I'm putting my competition results here. I'll do more events later

2x2x2 - 6.73 5.22 4.61 4.61 4.03 4.75 5.54 4.01 5.51 (3.57) 5.74 (12.96) = 5.08
Pretty good. Messed up an alg on the last one.
3x3x3 - (18.65) 13.37 12.13 10.90 (9.26) 13.10 13.02 11.16 14.28 12.82 14.54 15.16 = 13.05
9.26 was OLLskip.
4x4x4 - (1:02.45) 43.35 43.72 44.41 (35.71) = 43.83
35.71 woot
5x5x5 - (1:30.84) 1:07.74 (1:02.43) 1:13.61 1:10.16 = 1:10.50
Normal average, on the 1:30 I messed up on a G-perm
6x6x6 - 2:15.17 2:15.25 (2:19.37) 2:13.84 (2:05.96) = 2:14.75
Meh.
7x7x7 - 3:12.31 (2:48.71) 3:12.46 (3:20.97) 3:17.93 = 3:14.23
2:48! Awesooooome!
Clock (3x3) - 9.734 10.365 12.258 8.272 14.661 15.202 (8.172) 9.654 10.585 10.065 8.993 (20.980) = 10.979
Totally failed a couple of solves :|
Clock (5x5) - 33.388 30.314 31.215 32.988 33.047 30.744 (34.059) 30.393 28.311 (28.290) 29.933 29.923 = 31.026
I was worried about not getting any sub30s and then I got 4 in a row
Dino Cube - 10 9 11 11 13 11 10 12 13 (6) (13) 9 = 10.9
Not bad.
Gigaminx - 11:11 9:36 11:56 = 10:54.3
Whoa, I got a sub-10 Didn't expect that!
Helicopter Cube - (1:06) 51 (37) 42 43 = 45.3
Really bad beginning.
Megaminx - 1:17 1:20 (1:28) (1:14) 1:17 = 1:18.0
Good.
Pyraminx: 9 12 10 11 12 13 11 11 (8) (16) 10 11 = 11.0
Should be easy to beat ;-) Used the gelatinbrain version, which doesn't have tips.
Skewb: 17 26 15 19 (12) 16 16 22 30 (35) 18 20 = 19.9
I should probably learn Tryczak. Still sub20 though
Square-1: 38.50 46.22 40.29 (53.23) (27.25) = 41.67
Not that bad The 27 had just opp-opp on both sides for EP.
Super-X - (2:04) 1:30 (1:27) 1:40 2:00 = 1:43.3
2:04 and 2:00 had parity.

2x2: 8.61, 8.20, 5.61, 7.41, 8.69, 6.44, (4.91), 5.70, 6.02, (10.74), 5.49, 7.19 = 6.94

Decent

3x3: 25.63, 23.91, (38.81), 21.08, (19.44), 31.08, 29.66, 20.81, 24.77, 26.81, 20.95, 21.67 = 24.64

ifailatcopmutercubeslolz

I just learned clock.. Don't laugh if I get bad times ><

Clock = 29.156, 27.391, 34.156, 32.984, 28.375, 28.125, 26.766, 27.547, 29.313, 28.078, 29.718, 28.766
Average = 28.531

2x2x2: 4.14, 5.15, 6.61, 5.31, 4.37, 5.94, 6.89, 5.16, 4.74, 2.59, 7.98, 3.07 => 5.14

3x3x3: Good first half, but gave up near the end because it was getting bad (Mainly because of 5 secs inspection, so sometimes did not see cross. Best time was 8.98 not lucky) Next time, I'll use the original cube simulator.

4x4x4:

1. 41.28 (P)
2. 43.51 (O)
3. 41.50 (O&P)
4. 37.41
5. 39.92 (O)

=> 40.90

Surprisingly bad for me...

5x5x5:

1. 1:07.79
2. 1:19.84
3. 1:10.30 (PLL skip)
4. 1:12.53
5. 1:10.71

=> 1:11.18

Dammit, you win this time Michael...

EDIT: Oh fudge. I didn't read the rules. I thought you weren't allowed to warm up. Oh well, I'll just wait for the next competition.

2x2: 7.26
6.63, 8.14, (11.31), 6.67, 4.47, 3.99, 6.97, 8.67, 6.47, 7.52, 6.89, 10.19

3x3: 29.53
27.22, 26.97, (38.39), 26.77, 35.78, (24.22), 27.55, 28.72, 34.56, 25.11

clock: 18.91
18.21, (21.92), 17.51, 20.03, 19.39, 20.23, 18.93, 17.60, 17.62, (15.98), 19.57, 20.03

bah! I suck!

Ok so i did the 2x2x2 twice because it was my first time so its only for laughs, i couldn't be bothered with the averages so ill just post my times.

Round1
4:57.69, 2:21.80, 1:03.29, 1:16.34, 41.72, 30.86, 38.23, 35.37, 32.87, 44.14, 45.59, 30.63

Round2
28.21, 21.68, 18.37, 31.86, 26.08, 27.39, 41.76, 24.82, 14.85, 16.11, 21.06, 19.40

All done in the space of 24 hours

super-x: 1:20 (67 moves) (1:09) (60 moves) 1:45 (82 moves, parity) (2:30) (89 moves, bad parity 1:32 (62 moves)

These were all pretty bad

Average: 1:32.33
Meh

Dino Cube:
:13 :12 :11 :14 :09 :13 :14 :14 18) :15 :13 6)

Average: 12.8

5x5 clock plz

Haha, okay, I'll add it

2x2: 8.31, (21.60), 4.03, 7.54, (2.69), 8.42, 6.06, 9.53, 10.04, 5.72, 5.98, 7.56 = 7.31

3x3: 17.71, 20.42, (9.49), 14.33, 17.78, 14.70, 16.69, (24.74), 16.17, 15.07, 14.79, 12.36 = 16.00
w00t! finally sub10. (PLLskip)

4x4: 56.86, (52.21), (59.35), 54.16, 56.71 = 55.91

5x5: (1:32.49), (1:18.28), 1:22.00, 1:22.26, 1:28.26 = 1:24.17

I updated the first post - it should contain all times posted so far, ranked appropriately.

Simon Westlund, you only did ten 3x3 solves... do you want to give it another try? I'd be OK with it.

You have to use virtual cubes? If so, can you use gabbasoft? And I'll probably be in, but will only do 2x2-7x7 for now.

Uh, yes, you DO have to use virtual cubes... since it's a computer cube competition. Gabbasoft is a virtual cube and therefore completely fine.

I'll be doing definitely 2x2 and 3x3, maybe bigger if I get around to it.