Older cubers discussions

[mark49152]

I've started learning 4BLD, so I thought I'd post on here.

Hi Ben, welcome to the 4BLD beginners' club! I guess we'll both be going for our first comp success at UKC? I tried my first attempt at Cuthbert's and frustratingly was off by just one piece.

I do agree with h2f that U2/r2 is the way to go as there are far fewer moves to screw up. There's a debate about M2 versus OP for 3BLD edges a few pages back in this thread, where a lot has already been said. Personally I didn't find M2 difficult. It just has a couple of tricky bits that must be learned and remembered, but it's not difficult once you get your head round those. Once you know M2 for 3BLD, r2 for 4BLD is almost exactly the same (r2 is nothing like R2). I guess learning r2 before M2 would work too. Then U2 for centres follows a very similar principle, although of course the swap and setups are different.

Whichever way you go, good luck and see you at UKC!

 

[mafergut]

Sunday Single 7x7 in 7:42. Not a great solve for me but such is life sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJi4WlMTafA

Well, maybe it's not a very good solve for you but I found it quite interesting. Except for one or two lockups while starting to do the edges it was a nice solve. I feared the cube was going to pop at one time At least here I can see how the solve is progressing (when I see a vid of Feliks or Kevin solving a 7x7 I just see turn, turn, turn... solved!). Do you use Yau on 7x7? Somebody told me that except for 4x4, reduction was faster on bigger cubes (5, 6 & 7x7). I think it was TDM or one of the other young guys here.

By the way, is that a SS 7x7? I'm not buying a 6x6 and 7x7 yet but it didn't turn bad at all and it didn't look like the new cubic Aofu.

 

[moralsh]

By the way, is that a SS 7x7? I'm not buying a 6x6 and 7x7 yet but it didn't turn bad at all and it didn't look like the new cubic Aofu.

Looks like a shengshou Mini which is an amazing 7x7 once broken in, I had times 1 minute better than with the standard shengshou. I have start practicing again 7x7 to check if the practice on 5x5 is noticeable. (2:35 PB now, getting closer to the cut off)

About 4BLD, please, everybody, learn center comms, they are easy and the sooner you start with them, the sooner you'll get fast executing them, every time yo do a U or a D target with U2, a kitten dies somewhere.

 

[mark49152]

every time yo do a U or a D target with U2, a kitten dies somewhere.

LOL, well yes, U and D targets are annoying, but the algs have easy patterns to remember. I have started learning comms for corners and will get to centres eventually, but it's a different way of thinking to solve two pieces at a time, and I think I'll probably stick with U2 until I've had an official success.

 

[mafergut]

Looks like a shengshou Mini which is an amazing 7x7 once broken in, I had times 1 minute better than with the standard shengshou. I have start practicing again 7x7 to check if the practice on 5x5 is noticeable. (2:35 PB now, getting closer to the cut off)

About 4BLD, please, everybody, learn center comms, they are easy and the sooner you start with them, the sooner you'll get fast executing them, every time yo do a U or a D target with U2, a kitten dies somewhere.

Yeah, I was about to edit my post and add that it looked like a mini. Thanks for pointing that out. Anyway, big cubes are difficult and expensive to get in Spain. Some Amazon.com partners have nice prices but don't send big cubes to Spain. TheCubicle sends to Spain but with the price of the cube ($35) and the shipping you end up paying a lot. The cheap chinese shops like Lightake or Cubezz do not sell big cubes... So, where to buy them? I ask you because you're Spanish as well.

 

[moralsh]

mafergut, you have it white on lightake:

http://lightake.com/p/6-9cm-Shengshou-Linglong-Mini-7x7x7-Magic-Cube-Puzzle-Cube-White_M1664.html

any color on zcube:

http://zcube.hk/Standard/7x7x7/ShengShou_7x7_LingLong.html

 

[mafergut]

mafergut, you have it white on lightake:

http://lightake.com/p/6-9cm-Shengshou-Linglong-Mini-7x7x7-Magic-Cube-Puzzle-Cube-White_M1664.html

any color on zcube:

http://zcube.hk/Standard/7x7x7/ShengShou_7x7_LingLong.html

I would have sworn that Lightake didn't sell big cubes (in fact I can't find any 6x6x6 there, at least "in stock"). Thanks for the zCube option but it's not any cheaper than our local "PuzzlesDeIngenio" store so, I guess if I decide to give me a Christmas present I will buy them there and give some chance to a local business. I bought my very first speed cube there (a stickerless Zhanchi) and their customer service is excellent. I thought SS 6x6 and 7x7 could be found cheaper than that at some chinese store but it looks like I was wrong.

EDIT: The "nice price" I had seen on Amazon.com was for the regular size 7x7, not the mini. So it looks like Puzzles De Ingenio has very good prices on these cubes.

 

[Logiqx]

Somebody told me that except for 4x4, reduction was faster on bigger cubes (5, 6 & 7x7).

I believe free-slice to be the best approach on 6x6 upwards. It's used by the fastest big cube guys such as Kevin and Felix. They also use free-slice for 5x5 and it's what I do on the 5x5 upwards.

Kevin did a seminar at the US Nationals and I seem to remember him saying you should use free-slice for 6x6 upwards.

I think Hoya is good for 4x4+5x5 and Yau5 also works well for some guys on 5x5. My own preference is to use Yau on 4x4 and free-slice on 5x5 upwards.

 

[moralsh]

I might give it a go to Hoya or Yau5, but at least with me I'm pretty sure than it takes me less time to do the cross at the end thansearching for cross pairs + center restrictions, you also lose color neutrality, at least when reducting it to 3x3x3.

 

[bubbagrub]

Whichever way you go, good luck and see you at UKC!

Thanks Mark. Yes, hopefully we'll both get 4BLD successes at UKC, although in my case I suspect that's a tad optimistic... But anyway, see you there!

 

[cubesp]

Hi all,
Can you point me to a good site/tutorial with 222 tricks?
I'm learning Ortega (I still have some problems with one or two alg), I'm sup10.
But I'm just learning alg, without any strategy (first layer down or up? Finger tricks..).

Thanks
Ps :how it is possible to do it under one second? Unbelievable

Inviato dal mio D6503 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[h2f]

About 4BLD, please, everybody, learn center comms, they are easy and the sooner you start with them, the sooner you'll get fast executing them, every time yo do a U or a D target with U2, a kitten dies somewhere.

Comms are not hard but I think they are too hard for beginner.

I think Hoya is good for 4x4+5x5 and Yau5 also works well for some guys on 5x5. My own preference is to use Yau on 4x4 and free-slice on 5x5 upwards.

I was trying Hoya and Yau in 5x5 and 6x6 and I found free slice easier. In the last comp I saw Wojtek Knot solving my 5x5 with free slice on M and he did in around 1 minute. I've switched to it - I was using free slice on E earlier. Halczuk says it's better and gives better look ahead.

 

[muchacho]

For 2x2:

- Build the face/layer on the bottom.

- Face building trainer:
http://cubegrass.appspot.com/2x2face/

- Find good algs and in the future maybe learn another algs for different angles:
http://www.cyotheking.com/ortega/
and watch those videos for tips and fingertricks.

 

[cubesp]

Gracias!
I'll check tonight

Inviato dal mio D6503 utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[mark49152]

I was trying Hoya and Yau in 5x5 and 6x6 and I found free slice easier.

I think it's best to try different methods and choose one that works for your style and level. I found freeslice difficult because of having to scan lots of pieces all over the cube. I now use Hoya with AvG edge pairing because for me the lookahead is much, much easier and I pause way less. As I get faster I will evolve my method and that might include adding bits of freeslice, or switching to it completely.

 

[EvilGnome6]

I believe free-slice to be the best approach on 6x6 upwards. It's used by the fastest big cube guys such as Kevin and Felix. They also use free-slice for 5x5 and it's what I do on the 5x5 upwards.

The Czech 7x7 Mo3 NR was recently broken by someone using Yau5 so I don't think it should be so readily dismissed as a viable method on big cubes.

https://youtu.be/srMbo3MjBHM

I find that Yau works extremely well on 5x5 and I mostly use it on bigger cubes out of convenience. I really hate hunting all over the cube for a piece and keeping everything in view makes for a more pleasant solve.

While free slice may be more efficient, the number of times I see Kevin Hays flip a cube over to search for a piece makes me wonder if it's really that much better.

 

[h2f]

I think it's best to try different methods and choose one that works for your style and level.

Yes, that's true.

 

[chtiger]

There's a comp as nearby as I will probably get (~1 hr 20 min), so I signed up to try to improve on my failure of a 3x3 avg. But that's still a long drive to do five 3x3 solves, so I started doing 2x2 a few days ago. Anyway, would Ortega be worth learning now for a beginner with a comp in less than 3 weeks? I've been doing [hmm, don't know what it's called, beginners method(?)], and bests so far for 1/5/12/100 are 2.00/5.74/7.01/8.49. What kind of improvements would Ortega give, if I could learn it good enough in 2-3 weeks. I started to practice Ortega, and got a PBL case that I could not match to anything in the tutorial, so I gave up for now.

Also, does anybody else use J-perm instead of T-perm? All the tutorials I've seen use T, but J seems slightly better to me.

 

[mark49152]

Anyway, would Ortega be worth learning now for a beginner with a comp in less than 3 weeks? .

Yes Ortega is easy. There's only a handful of algs and you can learn it easily in a few hours. Make sure to search out good algs though. Chris Olsen's site is a good source, as is algdb.net. I don't use J or T perm, I use a 2x2 specific alg: R' U R' F2 R F' R' F2 R2. You can modify it to swap corners on the bottom, by doing the R2 first: R2 U' R' U R' F2 R F' R' F2. It can also be modified to swap diagonally: R' U R' F2 R F' U R' F2 R F' R.

 

[Schmidt]

The one You couldn't find is probably diag/diag, but off by some kind of U turn. Just do R2 B2 R2 and align. It doesn't matter if you align before or after.