[Help Thread] 2x2 Discussion

[ProStar]

I’m having a little bit of trouble getting faster a 2 by 2. I am using Ortega. I have a good speed cube. I have an upper 6 sec average. Would love to get it down to 3 or 4 sec or hopefully faster. Any ideas?

As a couple people have said, it's easier to help if you provide video of your solves. However, there are a few general tips that most people with that average can benefit from:

- Make sure you can do any PBL case from both the top and bottom, that way you never do z2's or x2's. For the best algs, check speedcubedb.com
- If you haven't already, switch to efficient OLL algs. The algs that you use on 3x3 for OLL are much worse than the best 2x2 OLL algs. Again, you can check speedcubedb.com for the best algs
- Practice planning your entire first face in inspection. This isn't too hard with some practice
- On that note, make sure your faces are efficient. J Perm has a couple videos on making efficient Ortega faces.
- Continuing with first face discussion, become Color Neutral.

That should get you on your way!

 

[Blake the Cuber]

cool. Thanks for the advice. I try to send some solves to you guys when I get them to download.

 

[qwr]

There is one first face ortega case I call the cop-out case: it's when there is a bar on the bottom and two diagonal stickers on the side, then you just do R U R' U' or L U L' U' to solve the face, but I can't predict bars or OLL then. Is there a better method?

 

[PapaSmurf]

Get better at prediction. Simply just trace the pieces. An R U R' U' insert is one of the most basic cases, so simply get your head around it.

 

[qwr]

Get better at prediction. Simply just trace the pieces. An R U R' U' insert is one of the most basic cases, so simply get your head around it.

it's not the normal insert. it's done with the bottom face on the left

 

[LBr]

with ortega, there are some advanced optimisations, such as predicting bars in inspection and after oll. Another thing would be do learn to do some cases (Adj/solved) (Diag/adjacent) upside down, hence saving a rotation.

This allows you to be more pauseless and sub-5 @Blake the Cuber

 

[PapaSmurf]

it's not the normal insert. it's done with the bottom face on the left

Do R U R' U' on a 2x2. You will see that you have disturbed the D layer. Now do a z'. You will see that you've also disturbed this layer. Generally, doing Ortega with the face on L instead of D is pointless. It should be pretty easy to see your face plus where the bar will end up in inspection and if that's difficult, just practice that more.

 

[qwr]

How do you practice Ortega OLL prediction? Just do many examples and learn common patterns?

 

[BenChristman1]

How do you practice Ortega OLL prediction? Just do many examples and learn common patterns?

Yeah, that’s basically it. You can also try using unlimited inspection.

 

[Skewbed]

On average, is building an EG-2 layer easier than building a regular layer, or are they the same average move count?

 

[LBr]

on average, Its the same. But an adjacent side is fewer moves as its less restricted compared to a Layer and diagonal swapped side. This is because a single swap can occur in different positions on the face, but a layer and a diagonal are always look exactly the same

 

[Garf]

The 2x2 event is not my favorite. However, after watching cube heads vids on his road to world record on 2x2, that gave me some inspiration to try it myself.
Now, living in the US, the single is 0.51 and the average is 1.05. Any tips on how to beat this average? I am transferring from Ortega to Cll and average 5-6 seconds.

 

[PiKeeper]

The 2x2 event is not my favorite. However, after watching cube heads vids on his road to world record on 2x2, that gave me some inspiration to try it myself.
Now, living in the US, the single is 0.51 and the average is 1.05. Any tips on how to beat this average? I am transferring from Ortega to Cll and average 5-6 seconds.

By the time you've learned full EG and can consistently 1-look, the world record average will almost definitely be sub-1. Even then you'll probably only average about 2 seconds, so you'll also have to learn a bunch of other alg sets and get incredibly fast turning to even have a chance at beating Zayn with some lucky scrambles.

 

[kubesolver]

On a non related topic. I'm from Poland and national record in marathon is 2.07:39. Any tips how to beat that?

 

[Deleted member 36445]

I hate 2x2

hate leads to suffering...

I'm from Poland and national record in marathon is 2.07:39. Any tips how to beat that?

solve faster than that

 

[Garf]

hate leads to suffering...


solve faster than that

You’re right.

 

[cuberswoop]

hate leads to suffering...

But he can't get to the dark side if he's already a duck.

EDIT TO THOSE CONFUSED: suffering leads to evil in star wars ya know?

 

[NateIsMeh]

im looking for an easy to learn method that isnt slow. my fastest solve is ~12.5 seconds. please tell me what method i should try to learn.

 

[CoderGuru]

Ortega. Really easy and can get you sub 5 with practice

See this jperm video:

Video

 

[NateIsMeh]

the video confuses me, there are so many things to remember and im not sure how to really use that method. do i have to memorize everything in the video, or do i have to know every outcome? im really confused.