Cube rotation vs. F/B moves during F2L

[Tanmay Sachan]

While in f2l is it better to do a cube rotation than F or B moves. I also heard other cubers saying to make f2l a big single fingertrick with almost no cube rotation. But that's gonna take a while as it needs too much lookahead and heck practice. So 'whaddya suggest?? F/B or y/y' ??

 

[nikhil647]

I would go with y or y1 case doing f or b moves takes regrippng and they are slow..

 

[AndersB]

I use d or d' when I can, otherwise y or y'.

 

[TDM]

Rotation, or Dw sometimes. I never do B moves, except in one OLL (Lw' U R D' R' U' Lw B).

 

[Ultimate Cuber]

I find that y/y' is faster than f/b but this might not apply to everyone.

Rotation, or Dw sometimes. I never do B moves, except in one OLL (Lw' U R D' R' U' Lw B).

Yeah same here. Sometimes y/y' sometimes Dw but never B.

 

[stoic]

Rotation, or Dw sometimes. I never do B moves, except in one OLL (Lw' U R D' R' U' Lw B).

I do likewise. There are a couple of LL algs e.g. R' U' R U' R' U R U R B' R' B where I would perform the B moves as U/U' following an x' (or half-x') rotation.

 

[kcl]

I use B moves occasionally if my hand is already in position. I rotate pretty fast, so it's better to just do that in my case.

 

[Sajwo]

Cube rotations are fast enough

 

[Jaysammey777]

Special algs work too.

Rw' U' R U M'

Or U2 R2 F R F' R if the fr is not solved

Things like that

 

[antoineccantin]

Depends. If I know I have to do a rotation, 3 moves, then another rotation, I'll do two F moves instead of rotating.

 

[Lazy Einstein]

Rotation, or Dw sometimes. I never do B moves, except in one OLL (Lw' U R D' R' U' Lw B).

Neat way of looking at that alg.

I use B and F for these OLLs however my grip makes them more like U and Ds

R B R' F R B' R' F'
R' F R B' R' F' R B

If you are doing less than 4 rotations during F2L I'd say rotations are good. Try to use d and d' instead of rotations as well; it is great for changing an empty slot position for inserting your next pair.

 

[kcl]

I suppose if I see I would have to do y insert y' or vice versa I can do an F insert, although sometimes I use the rotation less m slice algs.

 

[ChickenWrap]

I almost always rotate, but I obviously am not the best example since I only average 20 seconds...

 

[ottozing]

Like Antoine said, I'll use F move inserts when I know it'll turn a 2 rotation case into a no rotation one. Similarly, I might do a more inefficient 2 gen alg to solve a pair to avoid one or 2 rotations (For example, doing R U R' U2 R U' R' U R U' R' rather than my normal 2 rotation solution, y' R' U R y U2 R U R')

 

[stoic]

I might do a more inefficient 2 gen alg to solve a pair to avoid one or 2 rotations (For example, doing R U R' U2 R U' R' U R U' R' rather than my normal 2 rotation solution, y' R' U R y U2 R U R')

M U L F' L' U' M' is neat for that case

 

[TDM]

R B R' F R B' R' F'
R' F R B' R' F' R B

If you are doing less than 4 rotations during F2L I'd say rotations are good. Try to use d and d' instead of rotations as well; it is great for changing an empty slot position for inserting your next pair.

Second alg is same as mine executed differently.
4 rotations is not good for F2L. You should only ever need to use LUR, rotate once, LUR. Obviously if one hand is significantly weaker than the other, or you're multislotting with sledgehammers, more rotations will be needed, but 4 is way too many. I only have 2-3 algs for F2L, R U R' U' R U' R' U2 y' R' U' R and edge flipped corner in U misoriented, that have rotations in them, and they're very uncommon case that can frequently be avoided by either using that slot to set up another pair or by affecting corner orientation with R U' R' or R U2 R' inserts.

 

[Lazy Einstein]

Second alg is same as mine executed differently.
4 rotations is not good for F2L. You should only ever need to use LUR, rotate once, LUR. Obviously if one hand is significantly weaker than the other, or you're multislotting with sledgehammers, more rotations will be needed, but 4 is way too many. I only have 2-3 algs for F2L, R U R' U' R U' R' U2 y' R' U' R and edge flipped corner in U misoriented, that have rotations in them, and they're very uncommon case that can frequently be avoided by either using that slot to set up another pair or by affecting corner orientation with R U' R' or R U2 R' inserts.

The second alg is indeed yours executed differently. I noted that in my previous post that I thought your take on that alg was interesting.
Also I said < 4 rotations and I meant across all 4 F2L pairs. I feel like you thought I meant for just one pair.

 

[TDM]

Also I said < 4 rotations and I meant across all 4 F2L pairs. I feel like you thought I meant for just one pair.

No, for the entire F2L, one rotation is all you need if only using LUR, although it is sometimes faster to rotate more. I do sometimes do rotationless inserts to preserve EO, but they're often much longer than the normal alg. If I didn't care about the LL I wouldn't do them.