Older cubers discussions

[sqAree]

Thank you both! But Konstantine, you don't have to feel embarrased. I'm sure your video was nice.

Regarding the Yuexiao, it's too soon to know. I will try to do some solves this weekend with both the Yuexiao and Tornado and see if they are any better than my Chilong and Tanglong.

I don't know if I know how to solve the Gigaminx. I will have to try and see. I hope to be able to finish it intuitively without any help but, let's see. I will also try to do a solve this weekend. But the puzzle feels so good for a monster like that. Almost as good as the SS Mega, just a bit heavier but very smooth.

*Konstantin
The YueXiao was my new main out of the box. I also used a TangLong before that.
For the Giga, it's similar here, I'll let you know about my first solve once I received it.

 

[Selkie]

I've made second ao50 - it's worse 21.40 and ao100 a little below my best 20.91.

Nice to see you back in practice on 3x3 after comp, your first sub 20 ao100 cannot be far away

The YueXiao was my new main out of the box.

Exactly the same for me. Even the Gans 356 v1 took me a while before I switched from my Hualong but the GuoGuan is awesome for my turning style and have used it since arrival yesterday. Wonder how good it will feel after breaking in!? Its lovely to have E perms and A perms and algs with D's that do not lock up :tu

 

[h2f]

Nice to see you back in practice on 3x3 after comp, your first sub 20 ao100 cannot be far away

Thanks. I hope. I tried to track first pair and I could this in around 30% of solves. I think this can help me...

Nice ao5 in 5x5...

 

[Jason Green]

Some more awesome videos Chris! I like the unboxing video too. You guys are making me want a YueXiao.

I got my ShengShou 5x5, I like it fine. It reminds me of my CB 4x4 when I first got it. Of course I think this is the first 5x5 I've ever touched. I was able to "muddle through" like I hoped, although the second time I had to go watch the last 4 edge video again because I was lost. I actually used the same alg for edge parity that I do on 4x4 for OLL parity, but I do not see anyone mention it as an option. I just tried and it worked! That is this one:
Rw U2 Rw F2 r F2 l' U2 l U2 r' U2 r U2 Rw' U2 Rw'

I set a mini goal of getting a sub 18 on cam, and I was able to do it in a couple of nights, so I was excited. Here it is.

 

[h2f]

Nice seventeen. Skips are always welcome.

 

[Selkie]

Thanks. I hope. I tried to track first pair and I could this in around 30% of solves. I think this can help me...

Nice ao5 in 5x5...

Tracking pairs is a great habit and one I do not do anywhere near as often as I should. It is something I am starting to work on. Will really help as you get faster :tu

Thanks on the Ao5, practice on 5x5 really paying off but really feel a switch to Yau for 5x5 after next months comp. Only been messing around with Yau and already have a sub 2:10 single, so much promise. I might try and get a sub 2:30 Yau average today

Some more awesome videos Chris! I like the unboxing video too. You guys are making me want a YueXiao.

I set a mini goal of getting a sub 18 on cam, and I was able to do it in a couple of nights, so I was excited. Here it is.

Thank you Trying to keep the camera on for about a third of my solves to keep content coming for the channel. Great thing with this is that I get more and more used to solving on film and sometimes forget its there

Lovely single Jason and great to set mini goals. People often underestimate having goals albeit bite sized ones. Those with no goals progress slower than those with them

 

[Jason Green]

Nice seventeen. Skips are always welcome.

For sure, my PBs usually are skips.

 

[h2f]

Thanks on the Ao5, practice on 5x5 really paying off but really feel a switch to Yau for 5x5 after next months comp. Only been messing around with Yau and already have a sub 2:10 single, so much promise. I might try and get a sub 2:30 Yau average today

What are the stages? I do yau on 4x4 and I'm comfortable with it but in 5x5 I'm a little confused. Does it go like this:
- first two centers
- 3 or 4 arms of cross on left
- other centers or by half centers method (I use half centers on 4x4)
- tredges
- 3x3
Or something else?

 

[muchacho]

I set a mini goal of getting a sub 18 on cam, and I was able to do it in a couple of nights, so I was excited. Here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zqDU46eRTU

Good job!

I should try to film some solves at least to see where I can improve, since once I solve a cube I can barely remember what I did, sometimes not even which alg I used or how I started the first block.

 

[mark49152]

A bit of self-analysis after my first 300 timed 5x5 solves.

Hey that is awesome! That's a lot of serious work, congrats, and it's nice to see this kind of analysis.

For parity, cases 1&2 are the only ones for which it's important to learn an alg (at our level). Most everything else can be either solved or reduced to one of these, intuitively and efficiently. I did a move count analysis of all the cases a year or so ago - it's somewhere way back in this thread .

For LL, I admit to using mostly 2-look on big cubes, except for a few cases I know I can do easily. It's on my to-do list to practise LL algs on 5x5.

What are you doing for F4E? Yau, Hoya, reduction?

 

[Selkie]

What are the stages? I do yau on 4x4 and I'm comfortable with it but in 5x5 I'm a little confused. Does it go like this:
- first two centers
- 3 or 4 arms of cross on left
- other centers or by half centers method (I use half centers on 4x4)
- tredges
- 3x3
Or something else?

Very close Grzegorz, yes. There are some great sample solves by Rob Yau himself in this video:-

In reality I solve by:-

First two centers
First Three Cross Edges
Last Four Centers
I then solve last cross edge using AVG (Or the same method you use for fast four edges in 5x5 reduction
Free slice next four edges (The more F2L edges you do at this stage the better lookahead in 3x3 stage)
Correct centres and use same method for last four edges again

Sounds complicated but actually isn't. I like the way Rob Yau solves last cross edges before last four centres and saves it but this is going to take some practice

 

[h2f]

Strange - I can see Chris post on the main page but not in here.

@Jason - not only yours pb's are skips. What's your best full step single? Main is 13.86 or something.

 

[mafergut]

@all: Thanks for your encouragement but I prevent you. This might make me actually upload more videos in the future

@earth2dan: I only use the 1st "parity" alg in 5x5, just as you. I just reduce the others to this case by slicing and "sledgeing" Still too slow to feel learning more algs is worth it. Well, the other day I also learned inadvertently a variant of the 4x4 PLL parity (maybe from Jason?) than in 5x5 is also useful for one of the cases with just 2 tredges left (it exchanges the two wings but not the middle piece).

@sqAree: Sorry for making a mistake with your name, Konstantin. Looking forward to hearing from your experience with the Giga. Yesterday I practiced a bit with the Yuexiao (and Tornado) but nothing conclusive yet. Yesterday my times were horrible with both of them but also with my main so it was just me, not the cubes. Liking more the Yuexiao than the Tornado for now but I'll have to wait until I break both in. Anyway, for now my mains are still the Tanglong and Chilong.

@Chris & Jason: Nice videos. I can't stop watching your solves. Nice reaction to the sub-18, Jason! I'll have to try and capture at least a decent single on video one of these days.

I also did some solves with the Guansu but I find it a bit stiff and corner cutting is noticeably worse than in my Aosu. Maybe it still needs more breaking in or it is just a bit too tight but I don't want to mess up with the tensions yet. I'm getting worse times, that's for sure, even though the outer layers are becoming faster with just a few solves.

 

[Selkie]

Strange - I can see Chris post on the main page but not in here..

Same for me but it is here now. I am going to stand corrected on Rob steps,, I guess I was using some pseudo Yau5. That will teach me to not read the instructions Just tried a couple of solves with Robs method as described in his video which is:-

First 2 Centers
First Three Cross edges in place
Last cross edge stored on RHS
Last 4 Centers
Freeslice next four edges (At least 2 F2L edges)
Solve 2 F2L slots
Last 2 four edges using 3 cycles or AVG style (Used to love Arnaud van Galens 5x5 method, which I had persevered)
Rest of reduction

Good job!

I should try to film some solves at least to see where I can improve, since once I solve a cube I can barely remember what I did, sometimes not even which alg I used or how I started the first block.

Taking videos for this reason is why I started filing solves! watching your own solves back is invaluable and really helps with self constructive criticism

 

[h2f]

Same for me but it is here now. I am going to stand corrected on Rob steps,, I guess I was using some pseudo Yau5. That will teach me to not read the instructions Just tried a couple of solves with Robs method as described in his video which is:-

First 2 Centers
First Three Cross edges in place
Last cross edge stored on RHS
Last 4 Centers
Freeslice next four edges (At least 2 F2L edges)
Solve 2 F2L slots
Last 2 four edges using 3 cycles or AVG style (Used to love Arnaud van Galens 5x5 method, which I had persevered)
Rest of reduction

Thanks. I must correct centers step and last four edges than. I was watching Rob's example solves yesterday but few weeks ago I've watched tutorial of a one guy who did it like I wrote. I found doing centers with non-half centers step a little better for me. Others step are clear for me. I do a practice session with it...

I red your earlier post and I think I was trying something very similiar.

 

[Shaky Hands]

Some great analysis there and soem really good improvement

@Shaky Hands. Nice stats! That's a steady rate of improvement.

Thanks!

Hey that is awesome! That's a lot of serious work, congrats, and it's nice to see this kind of analysis.

For parity, cases 1&2 are the only ones for which it's important to learn an alg (at our level). Most everything else can be either solved or reduced to one of these, intuitively and efficiently. I did a move count analysis of all the cases a year or so ago - it's somewhere way back in this thread .

For LL, I admit to using mostly 2-look on big cubes, except for a few cases I know I can do easily. It's on my to-do list to practise LL algs on 5x5.

What are you doing for F4E? Yau, Hoya, reduction?

Yes, this certainly took a while!

Re: parities, I found case 3 really easy to learn from its similarity to 4x4 so added it to my "arsenal". Case 5 is very similar to Case 3 so was easy to pick up. I knew Case 6 for about an hour and then it vanished from memory.

Just using reduction for F4E right now (presuming that means Final 4 Edges; my 5x5 acronyms might not be up-to-speed!)

 

[mark49152]

Re: parities, I found case 3 really easy to learn from its similarity to 4x4 so added it to my "arsenal". Case 5 is very similar to Case 3 so was easy to pick up. I knew Case 6 for about an hour and then it vanished from memory.

Just using reduction for F4E right now (presuming that means Final 4 Edges; my 5x5 acronyms might not be up-to-speed!)

Yeah I would put 3-5 in the "intuitive" category since they are just slice-flip-slice. Actually since I use chain pairing I very rarely end up with anything other than 1-4 anyway, but still I do recall that they were easily reduced.

F4E mean first 4 edges, L4E last 4. Generally that's the difference between the methods. After F4E and finishing centres, all three methods are pretty similar and you have the same choice of how to do the rest of the edges.

I use Hoya and chain (AvG) pairing for the simple reason that lookahead is much easier, and I wanted a method that would minimise pauses and give me rapid improvements. Once competent with that I can incrementally extend it with more advanced techniques like freeslice.

 

[EvilGnome6]

AZCubing Winter 2016 is tomorrow.

>insert emoticon of me flailing in panic mode here<

https://www.cubingusa.com/AZCubingWinter2016/index.php

 

[mafergut]

AZCubing Winter 2016 is tomorrow.

>insert emoticon of me flailing in panic mode here<

https://www.cubingusa.com/AZCubingWinter2016/index.php

C'mon! You can do it! You're our big cube hero!

Also, I had to loosen up a quarter of a screw turn all the sides in my Guansu. It improved a bit but, it is either not half as good as I had been told or it still needs a lot of breaking in. I still feel it's much more rigid than my AoSu, even though turning is a bit lighter, which I like.

 

[muchacho]

I guess the panic is because you are organizing it, right Mike? Good luck!