qwr's road to nowhere

[qwr]

btw I got a new pb single of 20.14 on my second solve of the day with this scramble: L2 D F' B2 D2 R' B2 D2 B2 L U2 F2 L' R' F D2 L D R' F' U'
idk what I did but it doesn't even look like that easy of a scramble.

I got a 24 on F2 R F2 D L2 U2 R2 B2 L2 F2 U B2 U2 R B' U' F' U2 F' R' but more importantly I managed to preserve two easy pairs which is way more advanced than anything I've done before. this should've been the PB scramble but oh well.

 

[BenChristman1]

that's like riding a bike over the hill instead of around it lol

What I would do depends on how big the hill is. CN doesn’t seem like a big hill (in my opinion), so for some people, it’s better to just go over it.

 

[PetrusQuber]

idk man those chinese kids (and Philipp Weyer) are getting by quite well with dual CN

Doesn’t mean it’s better - if they’d swapped to CN a while back, they might be even faster now.
Your choice though

 

[qwr]

Doesn’t mean it’s better - if they’d swapped to CN a while back, they might be even faster now.
Your choice though

I mean you can speculate that about any technique
the point brought up in the Jayden McNeill blog post is that restricting cross colors may have benefits in reducing recognition time and improving lookahead. One of the strengths of these Chinese cubers is virtually no pausing.

 

[PetrusQuber]

I mean you can speculate that about any technique
the point brought up in the Jayden McNeill blog post is that restricting cross colors may have benefits in reducing recognition time and improving lookahead. One of the strengths of these Chinese cubers is virtually no pausing.

Well, whatever you think.

 

[qwr]

19.48 PB. not even good cross, just got lucky in f2l. I did white cross, missing an even easier green cross.
B R' D F D2 R2 D L F2 R2 F L2 B D2 L2 B U2 L2 B2 L2

 

[qwr]

19.22 PB with ridiculously easy white cross and easy f2l first pairs
B D2 F2 U2 F' R2 B' D2 B L2 B L2 U R' F2 R B' U F' U2 F'

 

[qwr]

I got a nice 26 AO50 using my GAN M, very nice feeling cube (video soon™)

Also here's a lucky PB 18.36

F2 L F2 L2 D L2 D' R2 U2 R2 B2 U L2 U2 F' R U' L D R2 U2

recon (yes ik the f2l solution with F moves are trash and it's not even that efficient)

y L' B F D F2 // cross
y U2 L U' L'
U R' U R F' U' F
y L U L' U L U' L'
y U L' U' L U' L' U L // F2L
U2 (F U R U' R' F') // OLL
U (R' U R' U' R D' R' D R' U D' R2 U' R2' D R2) // PLL
U2 // AUF

here's another lucky solve (19.30) that should've been my PB with a much better F2L (fewer rotations)

R' B L' D2 R' U' L R2 B2 U2 B' U2 B R2 B' R2 U2 L2 B2 D F'

approximate recon

z2 y' L2 D' R' D' L2 // cross
U' L' U' L U' L' U L
R' U R U2 L U L'
U2 R U' R'
R' U R U y R U R' U2 R U' R' // F2L
U (R U2 R' U' R U R' U' R U' R') // OLL
M2' U M U2 M' U M2' // PLL
U2 // AUF

 

[qwr]

So after getting comfortable with E perm, I think it's finally time to learn another PLL

I looked up F perm and it's just J perm but starting with R' U' instead of R U R' and ending with an extra R U R' U R like in sune T perm but starting with R' U' F' and ending with U R instead of F.
This alg is very long at 18 HTM but appears to be the easiest to execute.

The PLLs I have left are Rs, Ns, and Gs

 

[qwr]

I decided to try some timed solves on my beloved zhanchi and unfortunately it seems like ever since I improved my turning speed on modern cubes I can't control this zhanchi without locking up a lot. In 30 solves I averaged 32 which is 5 seconds off my normal mean, with best ao5 of 27 and best ao12 of 30. So I can't put these times in my epic cubing progression because they really don't represent my best possible times.

 

[qwr]

Since I haven't practiced 2x2 in a while, I did a quick ao50. The average of 5.66 isn't my PB (5.44) but it's close. I used my new plastic dayan (no old plastic dayan... yet) and the lockups and instability mean I have to turn slower (even on normally spam algs like J perm), probably losing me 0.2 seconds or so. At this point I'm only using my old np dayan so I can get it to 1000-2000 solves and see if it changes when broken in. The cube has gotten smoother and has a clacky sound like a zhanchi, though the corner cutting is honestly pretty bad (and I can't loosen the cube any more else it will pop and explode).

Most sessions I like to experiment and this time I tried harder to make full layers or anti-layers (solvable with R2 U2 R2). Sometimes these cost me an extra second or so for 6s and 7s, but sometimes I got the 1/6 PLL skip or easy PBL leading to 3s or 4s. I still use Ortega even when making full layers but I'm too lazy to learn how to predict OLL. Making full or anti layers does let me avoid the nasty bar on bottom cases that are super slow for me (diagonal swap cases aren't fast tho).

Something crazy is I think I saw at least four scrambles with fully made faces in the first 25 scrambles. Here's a preview of the stats generated by cstimer I will be compiling for each session sometime in the future:

 

[qwr]

I did another ao50 with my previous main, the little magic 2x2 non-mag (with lube is a very good beginner 2x2, gliding and clacky) and I only got a crappy 6.02 avg. Part of it was me not being used to the turning after having not used it for so long, but I think my full / anti layer attempts take too many moves, some taking 10+ moves. If I want to work on OLL prediction, I'll have to go for fewer move faces instead of layers first.

 

[Megaminx lover]

You message so much I thought your average is 5 or something... until I read this thread.

 

[hellocubers]

Nice.

 

[qwr]

You message so much I thought your average is 5 or something... until I read this thread.

it's easier to post than to practice

 

[qwr]

While I'm working in 2x2 and 3x3 I'm strongly considering learning kilomimx properly. I like small puzzles for now though I wouldn't exclude learning 4x4 once I get decent at 3x3.

 

[Cubing Forever]

PB (5.44)

wait a bit...didn't I critique a 5.3 average of yours?

 

[qwr]

wait a bit...didn't I critique a 5.3 average of yours?

I consider my PB using ao100 avg

 

[Cubing Forever]

I consider my PB using ao100 avg

oh I thought you meant ao5 lol

 

[qwr]

random 3x3 pb 17.58: very lucky f2l from okayish cross, then meh ll
D2 U2 L R2 B2 U2 R' U2 R' D2 F' U R' D' U B' F2 L2 D F2

approx recon
y2 D' R' D' L D2 L // cross
y' U L' U L
U2 R U' R'
U L U L'
y U' R U R' U R U R' // f2l
U2 (F U R U' R' F') U2 (R U R' U R U2 R') // 2loll
(R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F') U // pll

maybe someone can come up with a much better ll


this was today's ao50 soundtrack

also I got 3 pll skips within 8 solves lol

ending stats for ao50 (all pb):
best ao5: 22.52
best ao12: 23.51
avg: 25.24


I think i was faster just from good turning on my gan 356 m and ever so slightly getting better f2l "intuition"