Hey all, I've been away from cubing a long while. Life got busy and I dropped a lot of my hobbies and habits. I'm looking to get back into speedcubing. I'm wondering what developments have there been in the last 4 years or so? Obviously the WRs are wicked fast now, are people still doing OLL+PLL? Did ZB/ZBF2L go anywhere? What's new?
The state of speedcubing
- Thread starter hawkmp4
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TomTom
Regular
main 4 methods are CFOP, ZZ, Roux, and Petrus, mainly the first 3. the fastest of the fastest will get a oll skip from a last slot alg, http://www.cyotheking.com/vls/ but other than that, not sure what has changed, other than so many people are sub 20 AVG
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The really big things: way better hardware (and TONS of mass-produced puzzles), Skewb is a thing, cubing is way bigger than before (in every direction - # of people at random comps, # of comps, international reach, etc.), Reduction isn't the best 4x4x4 method anymore, every position can be solved in at most 20 moves, and of course Feliks.
The Fridrich ones are. There are more tricks known, and more people are color neutral, but CFOP is still huge. There are a bunch of people with sub-10 averages on Roux, and the best of them, Alex Lau, has gotten WR-quality times.
Nope. A few people have learned it but nobody is fast.
IRNjuggle28
Veteran
A few people are working with ZB. The user bindedsa has just about learned full ZBLL (he has 12 algs left), and he averages around 11 seconds. He doesn't plan to learn ZBF2L, though. For the most part, it hasn't become a main method, but a lot of top solvers have learned some ZBLL subsets, particularly 2GLL.
One method that was developed after you left is OLS, which is where you orient the entire last layer along with insertion of the last pair. It's the same idea as ZBLS, but it's OLL instead of EO. Mats Valk (3x3 single world record holder) and Rowe Hessler both know a lot of it.
Welcome back!
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obelisk477
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The title of this thread made me think that someone needs to start a quarterly publication titled "Speedcubing Today"
D
Deleted member 19792
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That my friend, is known as The Carrot.
obelisk477
Veteran
Nah but like a serious one
maps600
Regular
Methods: Roux has been accepted as an equal to CFOP, as many people now have sub 10 averages using it (Alex Lau aka 5BLD is sub 7.5). ZZ is also becoming a main OH method (At least in SoCal)
Hardware: It's just a lot better now. Go to thecubicle.us to look at some of these newfangled cube-type things
Hardware: It's just a lot better now. Go to thecubicle.us to look at some of these newfangled cube-type things
IRNjuggle28
Veteran
No it hasn't. Not even close. I agree with you that it should be, though. I think it's as fast or faster than CFOP. But most people still recommend CFOP, and until there are a bunch of really fast Roux solvers instead of just Alex, I don't think it will be accepted as an equal.
At one point, I almost did decide to use Roux as my main method. I would've joined you in your quest to make Roux CFOP's equal, but I found that I like big cubes better than 3x3. No point in using Roux as a main method, considering that.
I think my signature really shows my thoughts on CFOP vs Roux best. Haha.
Dene
Premium Member
I'm still here.
Please Dont Ask
Veteran
Never knew
No it hasn't. Not even close. I agree with you that it should be, though. I think it's as fast or faster than CFOP. But most people still recommend CFOP, and until there are a bunch of really fast Roux solvers instead of just Alex, I don't think it will be accepted as an equal.
At one point, I almost did decide to use Roux as my main method. I would've joined you in your quest to make Roux CFOP's equal, but I found that I like big cubes better than 3x3. No point in using Roux as a main method, considering that.
Agreed. Roux is okay, but it will never match the power and flexibility of CFOP. Roux is impractical on larger cubes, and that is why CFOP is still the way to go. And also the fact that all the world records use it CFOP
IRNjuggle28
Veteran
I agree about CFOP being more versatile and better for big cubes, but if you look only at 3x3 speedsolves and nothing else, I think Roux matches it. I think someday the official 3x3 records will both be done with Roux.Agreed. Roux is okay, but it will never match the power and flexibility of CFOP. Roux is impractical on larger cubes, and that is why CFOP is still the way to go. And also the fact that all the world records use it CFOP
Dene
Premium Member
Yarrrrr the difference is, I was around way back in the day when Mr. hawkmp4 was.
AlexTheEmperor
Regular
The thing that in my opinion restricts Roux from getting WR solves in the future is the fact that in CFOP, you can get skips, and when you do, they will cut out more time than say, a CMLL skip in Roux would and hence the current WR single has an OLL skip and this trend is likely to continue I think.
kcl
Legend
lol nope. Both of Feliks' fastest solves in comp have been fullstep.
Roux has ways to skip, either in blocks or CMLL, EO skips, etc.
Randomno
Banned
Mats' WR solve used OLS or something to get an OLL skip.
Renslay
Legend
It is true that the chance for an OLL/PLL skip is lower in CFOP than an LSE skip, they are not comperable in the term of skip. But as for LSE, there is still a relatively high chance for not a skip, but for a very short and combined solution.
For example, once I got a 5 move LSE in a solve, because all the sub-steps of Step 4a), 4b) and 4c) were merged. It's like you got a 5 move PLL - but hey, you can't get a 5 move PLL in CFOP, now can you? For both OLL and PLL, you either have to do a bunch of moves (I guess the shortest OLL is 6 moves long, the shortest PLL is 9 moves long), or nothing. But as for LSE, the length can vary in a much flexible way, depends on luck and skills: the substeps can be 1, 2, 3, etc. moves long.
So, it can be highly misleading if you look only the chances of skips.
cmhardw
Premium Member
Is Yau the best method now? Or is there no "best" method for 4x4, but rather multiple very fast methods?
TDM
Legend
Except for Hoya, I haven't seen anyone saying that there are other methods as fast as Yau for 4x4...
(but I don't really think Hoya is that good on 4x4 tbh)
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