I'd also like to facilitate discussion on whether or not intermediate methods which solve two pieces at a time ( specifically Eka, Aaym, and ZBLD ) could be viable alternatives to BH/3-Style.
To first answer the part which is unarguable, the answer to this is no. People use 3-style in order to become as fast as they possibly can, without being afraid of having to do a lot of work. Eka, Ayam, and ZBLD can't be used for the same goal.
Eka and Ayam work by setups to a limited set of 3-cycles. 3-style in a sense, is the same except you're not limited to what kind of 3-cycles you set up to. Pretty much by the definition of 3-style, you set up to the fastest ones, and thus it must be superior to Eka and Ayam (for the goal specified above).
ZBLD, as described in the Speedsolving
wiki is absolute trash and the only reason I can think of that people would think it's good is because they don't know the steps:
1. Preorient edges
2. Simultaneously permute edges and orient corners by setups to 2GLLs
3. Permute corners
The fact that you have to do preorientation should be enough of a deal breaker (why not just do 3-style which does orientation and permutation at the same time?), but the second step is just hilarious. You've got to do all of the following at the same time:
1. Remember your memo corner orientation memo
2. Remember your edge permutation memo (note that you will have to go back and forth between edge and corner memo)
3. Visualize what a couple of setup moves do to corner orientation
4. Remember the correct 2GLL (remember this is completely non-intuitive).
I often get the feeling that when people talk about ZBLD they are thinking of something else because this method is just not good. If you're thinking of a different ZBLD, let me know.
A thread to debate 3 Blind Methods. To preface, this thread will be mainly to debate intermediate blind methods ( e.g. Orozco, Eka, TuRBo, Ayam, ZBLD, Boomerang, etc. ), since there is an overwhelming general consensus that BH/3-Blind is the best method. Likewise it should be done looking at these methods as independent, stand alone methods not as stepping stone methods ( how they relate to advanced methods ).
I think you really can't discuss intermediate methods without considering the goals of a person who might use them. It doesn't make sense to ask how fast one of these methods would be if someone optimized the method and practiced it to the limits of its potential, because in practice, that someone would probably have switched to 3-style long before reaching that stage. And wanting to switch to 3-style eventually is not something that can be simply ignored imo, it's very common that people will want to leave that option open.
If you're definitely not interested in using a intermediate method as a stepping stone, then I guess the goal has to be to get to a 40-60 average without much effort? I think this goal could be achieved with any of the listed methods, (although I wouldn't recommend any of the ones using preorientation: 3OP, Boomerang, and of course ZBLD). I would say Orozco, Eka and M2/OP probably have the best tradeoffs between speed and ease of learning, and I guess the slightly different levels of trade-off might satisfy different people's work ethic.
That is a hot take. I think learning an intermediate method is pretty important since learning comms right of the bat is pretty difficult/intimidating. Orozco works as a solid introduction to comms and advances quickly to Eka and Eka to 3-style. However it's a pretty long process that way, I suppose, which could be better spent just learning comms (?).
Difficult/intimidating is not a valid criticism and I'm not sure it's a hot take anymore since I've seem a few fast BLDers agree that it's at least a decent option. I can see the use of Eka and Orozco being useful for some people, but what I would say is if I had to train someone to get sub 30 3BLD as quickly as possible, I would absolutely go straight into intuitive 3-style at an appropriate time. My reasoning is based on a point I made above: 3-style is like Eka except you aren't limited to the 3-cycles you can set up to. If someone can learn to set up algs to Eka's set of 3-cycles, why can't they learn to set up to any 3-cycle?
