Weekly competition 2008-17

Been meaning to submit my results, had them for like 4 days.
Great averages this week

2x2:
11.76,9.37,(8.35),(12.97),10.85= 10.66 Average

3x3:
(27.15),(23.04),23.39,26.74,23.52=24.55 Average

:)
 
Mike Hughey:
2x2x2: 10.00, 10.25, 13.75, 10.43, 8.47 = 10.23
3x3x3: 34.30, 41.78, 25.66, 33.61, 40.11 = 36.01
Comment: Awful!
4x4x4: 1:49.01 (O), 1:50.40 (O), 2:08.48 (OP), 2:06.78 (OP), 2:14.81 (O) = 2:01.89
Comment: Not bad with all that parity.
5x5x5: 2:59.04, 3:15.93, 3:14.51, 3:04.78, 3:28.04 = 3:11.74
2x2x2 BLD: 52.05, 39.72 (+2), 51.91 = 39.72
3x3x3 BLD: DNF (3:17.72), 3:38.08, 2:29.91 = 2:29.91
Comment: My fastest ever M2 solve.
4x4x4 BLD: 12:22.62 (7:30 mem), 11:57.10 (6:00 mem), DNF (10:04.64, 5:35 mem) = 11:57.10
Comment: Third one was off by just 2 centers, because I did one commutator in the wrong direction. Ugh - that would have been a nice time, too!
5x5x5 BLD: DNF (27:40.09, 15:33 mem), 22:52.87 (12:15 mem), 32:33.13 (17:58 mem) = 22:52.87
Comment: My second fastest time ever. That was also my first attempt at M2 for the centrals, which works really nice and speeds up execution. The first one was off by 2 X centers and 2 + centers. The third one was a memorization disaster – I mismemorized both the centrals and the wings, and was off by one, so I had all new letter pair images that I had to replace the old ones with. Sometimes I’ll just stick a single piece in to prevent having all new images, but this time I went with rememorizing. I was amazed that I got it right after all that!
3x3x3 multiBLD: 6/8 1:12:33.65 (46.52) = 4 points
Comment: Fifth cube was off by an edge 3 cycle, sixth was 2 flipped edges (I just missed that it was there when memorizing). On the fifth cube and the second cube, I memorized J as K in my edges, but I caught the problem on the second cube by remembering visually where it was supposed to go. Obviously I need to pay more attention to J and K so I won’t make that mistake again. I really messed up memorization on the first and second cubes, but caught the mistakes on the second run through. I was really happy with the time considering all the problems I had; I think 8 cubes in an hour is really possible for me. This was a nice attempt because I learned a lot from it.
3x3x3 OH: 50.69, 45.96 (PLL skip), 51.34, 1:06.16, 1:18.21 = 56.06
3x3x3 WF: 2:18.53 (PLL skip), DNF, 5:23.04, 3:24.80, 2:59.05 = 3:55.63
Comment: The second one was a POP. Well, several POPs. I decided to try my OH cube (which is really easy to turn, and really easy to POP) to see how it would go, and the first solve was great! But unfortunately, it popped on the second one. I actually fixed it with my feet (this cube is REALLY loose, or I never could have done it!), got to the OLL, discovered I needed to rotate a corner, took it apart with my feet, and fixed it again, and was doing the final PLL at about 8:30 when it popped again! I tried to fix it again, but my leg muscles were just too shot by that time to be able to do it again quickly. I probably could have had it in 11-12 minutes. I stopped using that cube after that. :)
3x3x3 Match the scramble: 5:14.71, 3:12.31, 3:35.02, 3:12.84, 2:34.86 = 3:20.06
Comment: I think this is a good exercise for fewest moves. I also think that my times here show part of why I’m not very good at fewest moves.
2-4 Relay: 3:07.55 (O)
Comment: I cheated – I actually looked at the cubes while I solved them this time. :)
2-5 Relay: 6:00.88 (OP)
Comment: I’m really happy with this time considering the 4x4x4 was over 2 minutes. The other 3 cubes went REALLY fast.
Magic: 3.18, 3.81, 3.63, 2.77, 2.56 = 3.19
Master Magic: 5.55, 5.31, 4.86, 4.93, 4.31 = 5.03
Clock: Still don’t have one.
MegaMinx: 3:06.41, 3:05.41, 3:22.72, 3:01.16, 2:59.65 = 3:04.33
Comment: Nice! I think this is my first sub-3.
Pyraminx: 26.84, 24.41, 32.80, 29.16, 13.80 = 26.80
Square-1: 1:24.03, 1:33.36 (+2), 2:09.93 (P), 1:34.61, 1:57.30 (P) = 1:41.76
3x3x3 Fewest Moves: 33 moves
2x2x2: B’ D’ F R2 L’ U B’
2x cross: R U R U’ R U R’
F2L minus 1 corner: L’ U L
pseudo OLL: F R B’ R B R2 F’
F2L algorithm happens to solve cube!: U B2 U B2 U B2 U2 B2 U’
So lucky! I was trying out the OLL above, thought I messed up executing it, and started to just do a Fridrich solve on what was left so I could rescramble and try again, and putting in the last pair of the F2L solved it! Fortunately, I was able to go back and do it again. I quit looking at 52 minutes after finding this – I figured I couldn’t do better. (Prior to finding this lucky solve, the best I had was 2 different 44 move solutions.) I’ll take credit for the lucky solve – after all these attempts, I’m due for a lucky one!
 
pete :

3x3x3 Fewest Moves : 32 moves

really straight forward, nothing special, very simple :

2x2x2 : F R' D2 R D2 B' L' (7)
3x2x2 : D' R' D U2 R' B' (13)
3rd C/E pair + solve all edges : U R' U2. R2 U2 (18)
Commutator to solve 2 corners : D' L D R2 D' L' D R2 (26)
Niklas to finish the rest : L U' R' U L' U' R U (34)

I then went back (where the dot is) to see if making the commutator earlier
would save some moves and I got lucky with 1 move saved and also 1 cancellation.

.B' D B U2 B' D' B (commutator)
U2 R2 (finish F2L)
R U' L' U R' U' L U' (Niklas)

R2 + R cancels to R'

final solution is :
F R' D2 R D2 B' L' D' R' D U2 R' B' U R' U2 B' D B U2 B' D' B U2 R' U' L' U R' U' L U'
 
Relay 2-5 BLD: 29:05 (14:20 memo)

Sub-30. I did it! And who said that making up words on the spot was a bad memorization system?

Mike, it's your turn to do sub-60 :)
 
Dene said:
Wow, Mike, popping with feet, now that's impressive!! :p
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried fixing a pop with your feet? Now that's a challenge - trying to get the last edge piece between your two big toes at just the right angle so you can shove it in. My third solve was so bad because my muscles were completely shot after the attempts to fix the pop.
 
3x3x3 - 22.73, 31.32, 22.45, 26.68, 31.82 => 26.91
Messed up the OLL on an otherwise good second solve (could've been sub-25 Grr...). At least I know my F2L lookahead (except for the last solve :mad:) has improved.

3x3x3 BLD - DNF, DNF, DNF => DNF
I thought the last one was going to be a winner (at least for me :p). Ah well, it's not a good BLD day for me.
 
rafal said:
Relay 2-5 BLD: 29:05 (14:20 memo)

Sub-30. I did it! And who said that making up words on the spot was a bad memorization system?

Mike, it's your turn to do sub-60 :)
Click to expand...

One more comment - so have you never tried a prememorized word list? And you're that fast!?!?!? I'm amazed - I bet Chris would be REALLY amazed. As much as it sped both me and Chris up, I can't help wondering if it wouldn't be worth it for you to try. You might blow Chris out of the water with big cubes BLD with a prememorized word list.

I'm gonna try really hard for sub-60 this week. A really fast (for me) 5x5x5 should do it.
 
Thanks Mike! That’s right, I never tried to make such list. I was to lazy, I guess. But now, when I think about it, I’m not sure if it would speed up my memorization. Thing is, my memo is a little bit freestyle – I don’t necessarily make up words using only 2 letters. It can be 3, 4 or even 5 letters. Besides, if some pieces are nicely arranged, I usually memorize them visually. And, as for that list, it seems to be easier to create a story when you can “choose” a word, rather than incorporate a prepared one, even if it takes a while longer. But, like I said, I never tried to make this list, so I can be wrong.

I think I should work on my execution, though. I still use only two algorithms for both centers and wings. This means, sometimes I have to perform even five setup moves! :)
 
rafal said:
Thanks Mike! That’s right, I never tried to make such list. I was to lazy, I guess. But now, when I think about it, I’m not sure if it would speed up my memorization. Thing is, my memo is a little bit freestyle – I don’t necessarily make up words using only 2 letters. It can be 3, 4 or even 5 letters. Besides, if some pieces are nicely arranged, I usually memorize them visually. And, as for that list, it seems to be easier to create a story when you can “choose” a word, rather than incorporate a prepared one, even if it takes a while longer. But, like I said, I never tried to make this list, so I can be wrong.

I think I should work on my execution, though. I still use only two algorithms for both centers and wings. This means, sometimes I have to perform even five setup moves! :)
Click to expand...

Unbelievable! I started with a freestyle method like yours, but gave it up fairly early. (Although I never included visual as part of the memory - that's a really interesting idea!) I understand what you're saying about the story being easier to fit if you choose the words on the fly - that's why it took a while for me to get around to making a list. But I found that the prepared image pair list really was much faster, for me, despite the disadvantages. I started with just a linear story, but when I went to Roman Rooms, the advantage of being able to fit the words to the story definitely decreased, so that's part of what made me switch.

It's fascinating that you have such a very different style (both memorization and execution) and yet have almost exactly the same typical times as Chris Hardwick.
 
5x5x5 bld...DNF :D

my first try at this...31:03 was the time, first scramble

and...just 10 pieces wrong!! :) whoa! I'm kinda happy!

I memorised and solved in this order: x-centers, wings, +-centers, midges, corners

got all edges and corners correct. 4 + centers were off, 6 x-centers

I used M2 for the midges...and...got parity :O and I didn't know how to solve it! lol
how do you guys do it? I had corner parity too (of course), so I just made UL and UR wrong (the midges), set the corners up for a T perm, did the T and had the UL and UR wings swapped...

thanks God I did the 4x4 PLL parity alg on the 5x5 earlier today, so I knew how it works (or maybe not :D)

I used it to fix the wings and (hopefully) the centers...but I'm not sure if it worked correctly

anyway, I'm pleased with this attempt, as was my first attempt and I got that close :)

need to work more on +centers commutators and learn how to fix parity properly :D

memo was about 14:20, so my execution was slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

EDIT
oh, btw, I have the video and pics of the cube at the end, if anyone wants to see
 
Nice first try, Pedro! About half the time of my first 5x5x5 BLD attempt!

That's exactly how I handle parity - just like you did it. I do the T-perm, then do the 4x4x4 PLL parity algorithm. That winds up with the two central edges (midges) swapped and the corners swapped as needed. I actually just do that first, then do 2 2-cycles with the central edges when I'm done, unless it was easier to set up one or both of the bad central edges in the T-perm. If you can set up just one there, that works well, because that leaves you with a 3-cycle at the end. One note, though - this does move around the centers on a given face, so it only works if you've already solved all the centers. That's why I do all the central edges and parity fix at the end. If all the centers are already solved, they'll still be solved, but it's not supercube-friendly.

I still suspect there's a better algorithm out there that would do all this at once, but I don't know of anyone who's found one.
 
There's an algorithm that I use in 5x5 speed that's equivalent to the PLL parity on 4x4. It doesn't mess up any centers, other than rotating the top face 180 degrees. You have to put the 2 edges in the FL and FR spots and do:

(Uu)2 (Rr)2 F2 u2 F2 (Rr)2 (Uu)2

It works perfectly for this situation and now I know what I'm going to do!
 
Mike Hughey said:
Nice first try, Pedro! About half the time of my first 5x5x5 BLD attempt!

That's exactly how I handle parity - just like you did it. I do the T-perm, then do the 4x4x4 PLL parity algorithm. That winds up with the two central edges (midges) swapped and the corners swapped as needed. I actually just do that first, then do 2 2-cycles with the central edges when I'm done, unless it was easier to set up one or both of the bad central edges in the T-perm. If you can set up just one there, that works well, because that leaves you with a 3-cycle at the end. One note, though - this does move around the centers on a given face, so it only works if you've already solved all the centers. That's why I do all the central edges and parity fix at the end. If all the centers are already solved, they'll still be solved, but it's not supercube-friendly.

I still suspect there's a better algorithm out there that would do all this at once, but I don't know of anyone who's found one.
Click to expand...

masterofthebass said:
There's an algorithm that I use in 5x5 speed that's equivalent to the PLL parity on 4x4. It doesn't mess up any centers, other than rotating the top face 180 degrees. You have to put the 2 edges in the FL and FR spots and do:

(Uu)2 (Rr)2 F2 u2 F2 (Rr)2 (Uu)2

It works perfectly for this situation and now I know what I'm going to do!
Click to expand...

the 4x4 one also swaps 2 +centers...I thought it swaped x-centers, so I fixed the wrong ones after :D but that wasn't my only mistake, so...:rolleyes:

oh, and Dan, I use that alg for 5x5 "speed" too...but didn't think about using it, as I didn't know it swaps only the wings
thanks :)

and with mirroring, it becomes (Rr)2 (Ff)2 U2 r2 U2 (Ff)2 (Rr)2 :)
 
Last edited:
4x4 BLD: #1 DNF (15:13 memo (8 min (I think)))
I did the very last corner wrong so two twisted, else everything was correct I had just memorized that single corner wrong. I had to rememo half the edges when I came back to one I knew I had been at. So memo could have been so much faster, and the time too.

3x3BLD: 1:58.37 (memo:58 sec)
#1 slow solving or it could have been faster ;)
I use a new order on how to memo, now i memo the corners first with letters (name, action, name, thing) and then visual edges. Before I did the edges first then corners and then had to check the edges again, this new way saves me some seconds.
 
Last edited:
2x2x2:

1. (8.69)
2. 8.20
3. (7.77)
4. 8.06
5. 8.62

Average = 8.29

Normal but very consistent :)


3x3x3:

1. 16.05
2. (14.78)
3. 16.22
4. (18.48)
5. 15.92

Average = 16.06

Normal.


3x3x3_OH:

1. (29.00)
2. (36.95)
3. 35.41
4. 31.25
5. 30.06

Average = 32.24

Slow crosses on 2nd and 3rd solves.


3x3x3_BLD:

1. DNF
2. DNF
3. DNS

First one was totally off, forgot the whole of EP and gave up for the second. Didn't bother trying the third.
 
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