Fred's Thread

One last megaminx comp to round out my megaminx arc. I got a new PR single of 1:31.29, but the lighting was inconsistent first thing in the morning so my average was not great. After megaminx, there was enough sunlight coming in (and at least six fewer colors on the puzzles) that the lighting was fine at all of the solving stations. I also double PRed in pyraminx, improving from glacially slow to slow as molasses. But the most exciting thing for me was 3x3.

In the first round, I started slowly, but then I got a 13.23 on my fourth solve, and a 14.40 after that. My previous PR single was 14.56, so I was delighted to beat it by so much and to beat it twice! Both of those solves were full step, just with good cases that I recognized quickly. In the second round, I had potential for a PR average (16.45), but I ended up getting PR2 with 16.71. In that round, I started hot and slowed down towards the end. If I could have used the last half of the first round and the first half of the second round as an average of five, I could have had 15.07!

Unfortunately, one of my favorite delegates (I have a lot of favorite delegates) had a disaster round 2 of 3x3 and missed the finals by getting their worst result since 2016, before they were using a magnetic cube. And that was a low 12 average including three +2s. Meanwhile I'm overjoyed to have a 13 single. Clearly I have a long way to go, but I'm going to continue to celebrate every step forward.
 
Fred said:
One last megaminx comp to round out my megaminx arc. I got a new PR single of 1:31.29, but the lighting was inconsistent first thing in the morning so my average was not great. After megaminx, there was enough sunlight coming in (and at least six fewer colors on the puzzles) that the lighting was fine at all of the solving stations. I also double PRed in pyraminx, improving from glacially slow to slow as molasses. But the most exciting thing for me was 3x3.

In the first round, I started slowly, but then I got a 13.23 on my fourth solve, and a 14.40 after that. My previous PR single was 14.56, so I was delighted to beat it by so much and to beat it twice! Both of those solves were full step, just with good cases that I recognized quickly. In the second round, I had potential for a PR average (16.45), but I ended up getting PR2 with 16.71. In that round, I started hot and slowed down towards the end. If I could have used the last half of the first round and the first half of the second round as an average of five, I could have had 15.07!

Unfortunately, one of my favorite delegates (I have a lot of favorite delegates) had a disaster round 2 of 3x3 and missed the finals by getting their worst result since 2016, before they were using a magnetic cube. And that was a low 12 average including three +2s. Meanwhile I'm overjoyed to have a 13 single. Clearly I have a long way to go, but I'm going to continue to celebrate every step forward.
Click to expand...
wait I remember you used to average 20-18 seconds on 3x3 like a few months ago
 
I have a competition this weekend with 3x3, OH, 2x2, clock, and skewb, so I'd like to share the highly relevant 4:16.85 7x7 PB single (by almost 20 seconds!) I got in the weekly comp. Jokes aside, next weekend's competition has 7x7, and the cutoff time is 4:30.
 
Yesterday's competition went great! I finally got a 2x2 average that I'm happy with: 5.37 down from 6.12. I got three 4s, so sub-5 is possible, but it's unlikely for now. I struggle with finding a good first layer on bad scrambles, and I have some CLLs that need more practice.

3x3 was kinda crap, but at least I made the second round, where I was even more crap. My turning was bad and my lookahead was bad too.

OH had no PRs, but I was within a second of both and solved well on four out of five attempts. On my first solve, my judge was a Roux user who was just happy to see someone else using Roux, even if I completely butchered that solve. I messed up CMLL to the point where I had to redo my second block, then did two more CMLLs and also had an inefficient LSE. These were my times: (1:09.77), 37.55, 37.01, (31.48), 34.13.

Clock was terrific. I got not just four, but five successful 7simul (bpaul 7simul flip) solves in the same average! I also got my first two official sub 10 singles. Here are all my clock rounds where I attempted 7simul:
1760961100348.png


Last was skewb, where I +2ed out of a PR single, but managed to get a PR average of 10.36, down from 10.71 which I got at last years edition of the same competition.
 
Just barely saved my PR streak at yesterday's comp. Someone pointed out that I have a 19 year PR streak (15 competitions). The one PR I got was a clock single of 9.34. Unlike last weekend, I did not safety flip at the end of my solves, so that saved a little bit of time. Also unlike last week, I only got three successful 7 simul solves, for an average of 13.60. My first three solves were an 11 and two 9s. I thought my fourth solve was another 9, but my judge and I both forgot to check both sides, so a delegate had to come to the waiting area to tell me the bad news. And then the fifth solve went wrong enough for me to notice during the solve.

I missed cutoff of 7x7 by quite a lot. My heart was pounding most of the solve, which could not have helped. And in 2x2 I missed the second round by one place.

3x3 was less bad than last week. In the second round, I got a straight with a 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. I'm going to mess around with my setup and maybe switch cubes.

3OH was ok, but my times suggest that I should have warmed up more. My times were 42.74, 39.85, 37.82, 33.75, and 31.76, so clearly I should have done another 15 warmup solves and broken the world record.

No more competitions scheduled for me until early January, and that one will be a PBQ. Time to learn big blind and/or DR/HTR!
 
First 4BLD success!
1766874155370.png


Coming back to blind after a break in favor of megaminx and exploring methods. I was burning out on learning 3-style, and didn't touch Anki for a few months. I still remember over half of 3-style edges, but I'm not going to rush to get the rest back. Luckily, Orozco wings and midges are easy to learn, with most of the cases being familiar from Orozco 3x3 edges. I'm also doing intuitive 3-style centers, which is a lot easier than it sounds. (I did that for QTPI method for speedsolving big cubes, after all.) I have GA quiet champs coming up in a week, and I'm hoping for any kind of blind success.
 
I had a big competition this weekend and competed in all the non-PBQ events. It was my first two-day competition, and I was somewhat worried I'd be tired physically or mentally on the second day, but I survived pretty well. I got 8 PRs in 6 events, and 3 of those PRs were on the second day. With so many events, plus the blind events at the start of the month, I didn't get that much practice in on any one event.

The first day started with 2x2 (6.04 avg), which was decent but no PRs. I had 5 decently good solves. I didn't blank on a CLL, and I managed to plan out a layer in inspection on all my solves. I had learned Ortega last week just in case I couldn't find a layer in inspection, which has happened before in previous competitions, but luckily I didn't need it here.

Next was pyra, which is my worst event other than odd-sized blind events. I had a lucky scramble and got a PR single of 8.14. Pyraminx is on my list of things to get better at, but there are also a lot of other things on that list.

Skewb was next, and I was one place out of advancing to the next round, which was much better than I expected given how little I had practiced.

In 6x6, I missed the cutoff but got a PR single. In 7x7, I missed the cutoff and didn't PR, but in a previous competition, I'd gotten a really good PR single and also missed the cutoff. It's unfortunate that my 6x6 and 7x7 PR singles both missed the chance to give me a good mean.

4x4 went well, with double PRs (avg 1:06.79 -> 1:01.08, single 1:02.35 -> 58.24). I had a chance for a sub-1 average if I could sub-1 the last solve, but I only managed a 1:03.20 on orange cross. The start was too good to pass up, but my last layer recognition was too slow, so I still need more practice on non-w/y.

3x3 first round went well. Thanks to multiblind, I have a few Zcube Tianmas, so I submitted one to compete on and took another to the waiting area. I think that was good for making the official solves feel more normal and relaxed. (Warming up on a different cube than I'm competing with put me off in the past due to how different they felt.) I got a PR average of 16.13, down from 16.45, with counting times of 16.10, 16.22, and 16.07. But the second round was first thing on the next day (today), and I needed more time to warm up---literally! I was bundled up and running in place in the waiting area to try to generate heat. I got a 17.66 average which included a 17.98 on green cross.

I missed the 40 second cutoff in square-1 by a couple seconds, but I wasn't expecting much.

I got some pretty decent times in megaminx (no PRs) but I was slightly put off on my last two solves when my judge was checked out and looking at his phone. Then I realized my judge was Brendyn Dunagan and I got a lot more nervous. I had also dropped one of my earplugs under the table before I started solving, and had to crawl under to look for it, so I definitely felt embarassed. Luckily my "bad solves" were still sub 1:50, which I'm quite happy with. I was about 3s off both my single and average PRs.

I somehow double PRed in OH (avg 35.54 -> 34.10, single 30.61 -> 28.02). My PR single in the last solve was my first official sub-30, but I also screwed up the end of my solve (step 4c in Roux), so I know I still have plenty of room to improve.

5x5 was forgettable. I missed the 1:40 cutoff, but that was a long shot anyway.

My last event was clock. As is my usual, I messed up two of the solves, but I didn't DNF due to safety flips. On the last solve, I went for it and got a PR single (9.34 -> 9.25).

It was also awesome to meet @Isaiah Scott and volunstaff with him, and @OtaMota, though I only had the chance to say hi. Sorry we didn't get to talk more.
 
Fred said:
I had a big competition this weekend and competed in all the non-PBQ events. It was my first two-day competition, and I was somewhat worried I'd be tired physically or mentally on the second day, but I survived pretty well. I got 8 PRs in 6 events, and 3 of those PRs were on the second day. With so many events, plus the blind events at the start of the month, I didn't get that much practice in on any one event.

The first day started with 2x2 (6.04 avg), which was decent but no PRs. I had 5 decently good solves. I didn't blank on a CLL, and I managed to plan out a layer in inspection on all my solves. I had learned Ortega last week just in case I couldn't find a layer in inspection, which has happened before in previous competitions, but luckily I didn't need it here.

Next was pyra, which is my worst event other than odd-sized blind events. I had a lucky scramble and got a PR single of 8.14. Pyraminx is on my list of things to get better at, but there are also a lot of other things on that list.

Skewb was next, and I was one place out of advancing to the next round, which was much better than I expected given how little I had practiced.

In 6x6, I missed the cutoff but got a PR single. In 7x7, I missed the cutoff and didn't PR, but in a previous competition, I'd gotten a really good PR single and also missed the cutoff. It's unfortunate that my 6x6 and 7x7 PR singles both missed the chance to give me a good mean.

4x4 went well, with double PRs (avg 1:06.79 -> 1:01.08, single 1:02.35 -> 58.24). I had a chance for a sub-1 average if I could sub-1 the last solve, but I only managed a 1:03.20 on orange cross. The start was too good to pass up, but my last layer recognition was too slow, so I still need more practice on non-w/y.

3x3 first round went well. Thanks to multiblind, I have a few Zcube Tianmas, so I submitted one to compete on and took another to the waiting area. I think that was good for making the official solves feel more normal and relaxed. (Warming up on a different cube than I'm competing with put me off in the past due to how different they felt.) I got a PR average of 16.13, down from 16.45, with counting times of 16.10, 16.22, and 16.07. But the second round was first thing on the next day (today), and I needed more time to warm up---literally! I was bundled up and running in place in the waiting area to try to generate heat. I got a 17.66 average which included a 17.98 on green cross.

I missed the 40 second cutoff in square-1 by a couple seconds, but I wasn't expecting much.

I got some pretty decent times in megaminx (no PRs) but I was slightly put off on my last two solves when my judge was checked out and looking at his phone. Then I realized my judge was Brendyn Dunagan and I got a lot more nervous. I had also dropped one of my earplugs under the table before I started solving, and had to crawl under to look for it, so I definitely felt embarassed. Luckily my "bad solves" were still sub 1:50, which I'm quite happy with. I was about 3s off both my single and average PRs.

I somehow double PRed in OH (avg 35.54 -> 34.10, single 30.61 -> 28.02). My PR single in the last solve was my first official sub-30, but I also screwed up the end of my solve (step 4c in Roux), so I know I still have plenty of room to improve.

5x5 was forgettable. I missed the 1:40 cutoff, but that was a long shot anyway.

My last event was clock. As is my usual, I messed up two of the solves, but I didn't DNF due to safety flips. On the last solve, I went for it and got a PR single (9.34 -> 9.25).

It was also awesome to meet @Isaiah Scott and volunstaff with him, and @OtaMota, though I only had the chance to say hi. Sorry we didn't get to talk more.
Click to expand...
i think i would be a lot more embarrassed if i accidentally gave a solved cube to a WR holder💀 (i did this to Leo in my last comp lol)
 
Another competition coming up this weekend, but there's also a snowstorm nearby. Current forecast has me getting just a bit of snow, so I'm still planning to go, but we'll see.

I've been doing a bunch of 4x4 and 7x7 lately because those are my new Picube puzzles and they're amazing. I didn't fully appreciate them when I first got them because they were so much faster than I was expecting, so I put some slow lubes in. Later on, I realized, "Why can't big cubes be that fast?" and cleaned out the slow lube. On the 7x7 especially, I do need to turn more accurately in order to take advantage of the faster speed, so there's definitely some adjustment for getting used to these puzzles. In the weekly comp, I broke my site PRs in both 4x4 average (57.69 -> 56.30) and 7x7 average (4:49.46 -> 4:44.24). In 4x4, I also set my first sub-minute ao12 (59.74) and got my ao100 down to 1:02.88.

Edit: competition is cancelled
 
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Pi-Ao 5 and 6 arrived. The 5x5 is also very good, and also needs some adjusting to. The size is rather comfortable, and I think it could even go smaller. The weaker magnet strength on the inner layers is much easier on my fingers, but also makes it possible to fat-finger the second layer along, which is the same "problem" I had on the 7x7. I got a ridiculous PB single of 1:23.55, which was my first sub 1:30 and nearly nine seconds faster than my old PB, but my average times are still about the same. I think the main benefit of this puzzle over the Gan 562 is that I can practice more before my fingers get tired. If only I could keep my brain from getting tired too.

I was less impressed with the 6x6, at least out of the box. I dorito modded it immediately because the inners felt bad, and it helped a lot. But then I kept looking for good tension settings and not finding one, and I realized the core magnets were too weak for my liking. I tried a few different options for stacking an extra magnet on the corner feet, and finally settled on 3x1 N35s, which add just enough stability without making the turning tiring for my fingers. Whereas the 5x5 is a small upgrade, this one is a huge upgrade over my old Meilong v2. I've gotten a lot of low 3s, which is very good for me. I even managed a 3:09.63 ao12! I normally average(d) about 3:30.

I've also been working on parity ELL, which combines the last step of CFCE with PLL parity on even big cubes. I generated some nice algs and I'm working on learning them. Here's my algsheet.
 
I was ready for my PR streak to end, since my competition yesterday had only one official event, 3x3. But I double PRed! My single went down from 13.23 to 12.79, and my average went down from 16.13 to 15.54. My first round started with four 17s, then the pressure was off because I was going to get nearly the same average no matter what I did on the final solve, which is when I got the 12. The second round had two 16s, two 15s, and a 14.

The unofficial event was the cube mile, which is solving a cube then running a lap x4. I was hoping but not expecting sub-10 minutes, and I ended up getting a 9:03. I normally run a lot slower because as an asthmatic, I'm scared of being out of breath, but this race showed me that I can run at a faster pace. My breathing was bearably uncomfortable until the last straight, when I pushed it some more and got into definitely uncomfortable territory, but I recovered quickly after the finish. I think my preference will still be for slower running over a longer distance, but I'd definitely sign up for another cube mile.
 
This is a busy time for me with lots of competitions. I got (over-?) excited trying to make Southeast Championship (SEC) qualifying times, so I signed up for a bunch, and I'm behind on updating this thread. The big news is 3BLD success finally! And also first podium with a multiblind win!

I had my first evening comp a couple weeks ago. I was a little concerned because I'm much more of a morning person, but luckily I was in group 1 in the last event so I didn't have to solve too late at night. 5x5 was the main reason I signed up, and my goal was to beat the SEC qualifying time of 1:45. Just before the competition, it was announced that the qualifying times went up (got easier) across the board, and I was suddenly already qualified for 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7, but I still wanted that sub 1:45 and I got it! I made a double PR of 1:41.25 single (from 1:43.09) and 1:44.68 average (from 1:50.69). I also double PRed in 6x6, bringing my single down to 3:03.38 from 3:15.18, and getting a 3:26.57 mean down from 3:31.96, but the mean could have been much faster because I messed up an alg on one of my solves and spent maybe 20-30 extra seconds fixing it. I'm very happy with the single.

Last weekend the highlight was breaking smashing sub-1 for 4x4 average with a 54.76 (down from 1:01.08). All five solves were sub-1, and the fastest was 50.39, almost 8 seconds faster than my old PR single of 58.24. That was my last solve, when the pressure was off (just like my 3x3 PR single). I also double PRed in 7x7, but I'll talk more about this later. 3x3 went well with two solid averages within a second of PR, and mega and clock were pretty good for how little I practiced.

Yesterday was a PBQ with blind events (except 5bld), clock, and 7x7. 3bld was first, and I finally got a success with 3:52.48! That also qualifies me for SEC. I might have the longest gap between first 3bld attempt (at Caltech Fall 2006) and first 3bld success. 3bld was my main goal for this competition, as well as more practice in mbld and 4bld, so I was already very happy. 7x7 was next, and I smashed my PRs. I broke my PR single twice in one mean, and my new mean was sub my old single! My mean went from 5:12.35 set last year to 4:45.50 last weekend to 4:27.43 yesterday, and my single went from 4:47.09 from January to 4:28.53 last weekend to 4:24.86 then 4:19.35 yesterday.

After lunch came multiblind, which I somehow won with a 6/6! It was a very small competition, and the favorite got 8/11 for 5 points, just behind my 6 points. Earlier in the week, I had tried a 7 cube attempt and got 4/7 and going over time on the last cube, so I went back down to 6. Memo in comp went a lot better and faster than I expected, so I reviewed a couple more times to be safe and then started working on my 3bld cube. That is, I memorized 5 cubes in long term memory, then memorized and executed a single cube 3bld-style (but slower and safer) before going back to my 5 long term cubes. I ended up finishing in 50:21, which suggests I probably should have gone for 7 (or more?) cubes, and that was with a scary moment on my 2nd long term cube where I thought I was mistakenly doing edges instead of corners, undid a couple of commutators, realized no wait I am still on edges after all and redid those commutators. Another adjustment I made thanks to the practice attempt was to do more Orozco during edges instead of 3-style, since it's simpler and easier on my tired brain, and I haven't drilled my 3style comms enough for all of them to come to my fingers automatically.

Next was 4bld which I DNFed by a handful of centers. There were only three competitors and we all DNFed, which is like a meta triple DNF. We finished off with clock, where I had a good start including a PR single (9.25->8.80) but messed up the last two solves, including getting a +2 for overinspection.

Coming up in a little over a week is another evening competition with 7x7 (so much 7x7 wow!) and 3bld, which was going to be another chance for me to qualify for SEC in 3bld. Soon after that is a normal weekend comp that's after the deadline for SEC qualifications, so thankfully qualification madness is now over for me. I qualified for all the big cubes, megaminx, and all the blind events but 5bld, and I'm very happy with that. It's my intention to keep working on blind events, but I usually get distracted by learning something cool in a sighted event so we'll see. Or not! (blind joke)
 
I've been doing a bunch of edges-only 3bld practice, and it's working well for me. Blindsolving can be hard/intimidating/exhausting to practice, so doing a smaller piece of blindsolving at a time makes it more approachable for me. (Meanwhile, I'm happy to do multiblind and big blind in competition... go figure!) Anyway, this is also a good way for me to review my 3-style edge solutions and try out audio edge memo. I got an edges-only PB of 58.88, so I'm hoping I'll improve my times for full 3bld too.
 
Just got back from an evening comp where I got a 3bld PR single of 3:26.72 on my third attempt, sneaking in just a few seconds under the ten minute cumulative time limit. I also improved my 3bld PB from 2:52.14 to 2:47.34, and there were a couple DNFs in the 2:30 range.
 
Competition tomorrow with 2x2, 3x3, 6x6, squan, clock, and skewb. I've been trying to de-rust this week on the small puzzles. I'm hoping to remember my algs and make cutoff on squan (45s). My 6x6 mean has plenty of room to improve, so I'm hoping to knock off 10s or so from it. I also have a bunch of people to say hi to, which is very atypical extrovert behavior from me. (Some of them I mostly know from talking online, so I didn't have to do much *shudder* talking in person.)
 
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