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4BLD is cooking my brain (Yann1qua12DagOat's progression thread)

I just got a DNF on a 5:21 3 BLD solve... it was a U perm off meaning I just memorized the top edges in the wrong order (probably because this was a very rushed solve, on which I memoed HIT A DK (Donkey Kong) LO (Lola Bunny) XS and it was such a memorable memorization that I couldn't resist rushing and spoiling my chance at a PB by a minute...). That's okay though because I seem to be getting successes around half the time, and here is my cstimer session.
Screenshot 2025-08-27 183959.png
My competition for 5x5 and 3 BLD is this weekend, so I hope to get one success on blind as well as an average on 5x5 (cutoff is 2:00 which I should easily get under)!
Also, what do you guys think about my new background? 🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨✔
 
I did my practise (it took nearly 1 and a half hours) and did a couple of 5x5 solves as well as the centers and edges practise. These went really well and I was super excited to do blindfolded... but it ended up taking me 7 solves to get a success (one of the fails was a 5:14 where I messed up the parity alg 😭 and I had multiple other sub 6 DNFs) but then ended up with 2 successes in a row, and then after the comp when I practise again I'll see if I can get my first ever mo3! I'm not allowing myself to touch my cubes at all tomorrow, and then I'll be well rested for Saturday and Sunday. I'll update this thread once I've done my competition.
 
My competition on the weekend was very fun. It was really small (I think there were max 50 people in the room at any given time), and 5x5 went super well. I currently average 1:55 or so at home, and I got a 1:36 single, with a 1:48 average (I had a counting 1:40 as well!). Very nice for my first competition with 5x5. BLD didn't go so well though... I started my first solve, memoed the whole thing, jut to realise that I couldn't think at all (super nervous, absolutely incapable of doing anything). I purposely DNFed it (WAY too late, 4:44) to save time for my next attempt. Then, I thought I got the memo down perfectly on the second solve - it turns out that as soon as I put on my blindfold I forgot the first half of edges. I ended up with a 9:20 or something. This means I'd used 14 mins of the 15 minute cumulative time limit - I knew I wouldn't be allowed to do another solve. But, they did give me another solve, in which I memoed in 4 mins and put on my blindfold. Then, as soon as I was about halfway through edges, I was sadly stopped because I had gone way over the time limit :(

To be fair I only got my first success 2 weeks ago though


Next time I will get a success!
 
I did the most stupid thing today... the biggest cube I've ever solved is a 9x9, which my friend just gave me to solve for one day at school at the beginning of this year, just after I'd started cubing. It took pretty much the whole day (I even snuck it into half of the lessons). Today I found an online cube simulator, and saw that there was a 10x10. So, I decided to solve it! It took maybe 2-2.5 hours - I didn't time it but I know for sure that it was faster than my 9x9 solve. This shows just how much my ability has improved with cubing in general since the start of the year.
 
I have now got around 2 weeks left to go before the Australian Nationals competition, and it's going pretty well for 4x4 (I'm averaging easily under the cutoff of 1:00), and for 5x5 I'm averaging just a bit higher than the 1:45 cutoff. I hope to get a full 5 solves on both cubes and break my PR single + avg for 4x4 as well as my avg for 5x5 (I somehow got a 1:36 on my third official solve which was nuts so I don't think I'm beating it). Hopefully I make it!
 
I was just wondering, what should I do after my Nationals competition? Should I focus on getting perhaps sub-10 on 3x3, or should I learn CLL + EG-1 to get sub-3.5 or so (I don't know what's considered good for 2x2)? I really want to improve especially my lookahead and 3x3 which can come in useful for dropping big cube times as well.
Secondly, how would I go about improving a lot at 3x3? I'm averaging around 15.5 right now without any proper practise, and after my comp I'll have plenty of time to learn new algs/stuff that's good for getting faster.
If anybody could help I'd be very happy to accept ideas!
 
I just scrambled and solved all my puzzles (except for the Ghost Cube because that would be stupid) and it took me just over 50 mins to solve them all (I think 33 in total). Very cool just to solve with some puzzles I haven't used in a while, like my old non-magnetic no-brand 3x3s!
Another thing - it may be off-topic but it's an **IMPORTANT NOTICE** - follow @samonty for 69 followers, and get him to 69 RS too!
 
I just did my 5x5 and I got both a PR single and average with nearly a top-100 finish. On the single I finished OLL at 1:27 and absolutely failed the V perm in the end (in my opinion the WORST PLL case for 5x5 along with the Ja perm because I suck at lefty moves) and got a 1:31. At least I am super close to catching up on Tingman!!!
There's also a cube vendor (Crafty Cube) coming tomorrow so I might get an FTO or a 7x7 depending on what cubes they have there. I am very excited for my 4x4 tomorrow, in which I would like to get top 120 (around 55.5 sec average). I am also one of the 5 competitors out of the 382 total competitors who isn't doing 3x3...
*Edit: If anybody sees this who is good at 2x2 and 3x3, any advice for me (avging 15 without a lot of practise) to get sub 10 and for me to get sub 3.5/3.00 for 2x2?
hrmhrm @Caleb Valenzuela pls help 🙏🙏🙏
catching up to tingman....png
 
Last edited:
I am going to sign up for Speedy Southport 2025, at which I'll be doing 3x3, 5x5, OH and Skewb. I am really bad at skewb so I learnt the Sarah's Intermediate algs today (well, maybe half of them but I can at least recognise all the cases) and I might learn the proper Z perm alg instead of just doing 2 U perms. My baseline ao25 was 16.46. I really want to be sub-10 by the 22nd of November (my competition). @CubeLite I believe you may be familiar with Skewb? How do I approach this challenge? Any help would be amazing!
 
Yann1qua12DagOat said:
I am going to sign up for Speedy Southport 2025, at which I'll be doing 3x3, 5x5, OH and Skewb. I am really bad at skewb so I learnt the Sarah's Intermediate algs today (well, maybe half of them but I can at least recognise all the cases) and I might learn the proper Z perm alg instead of just doing 2 U perms. My baseline ao25 was 16.46. I really want to be sub-10 by the 22nd of November (my competition). @CubeLite I believe you may be familiar with Skewb? How do I approach this challenge? Any help would be amazing!
Click to expand...
Lol I also have comp on 22nd of November
Well sub 10 is soo free, you can get sub 8 with just learning full Sarah intermediate, learning polish sledge and hedge, and making your latest like sub 10 moves, and trying to solve multiple corners at the same time instead of 1 at a time, if you need more help you can send me an ao5 and I can critique it, but only after you learned intermediate and polish sledge and hedge because those will help the most
 
I just got a 6:42.42 7x7 solve! Very fast, as it beats my old PB by 53 seconds!!! I will be doing 7x7 at my next competition (time limit is 10 mins, cutoff is 5 🤯) and I will hope to get a decent solve and then have fun watching the sweaty people cook unless they've already finished by the time I'm done with my single solve...
 
Yann1qua12DagOat said:
I just got a 6:42.42 7x7 solve! Very fast, as it beats my old PB by 53 seconds!!! I will be doing 7x7 at my next competition (time limit is 10 mins, cutoff is 5 🤯) and I will hope to get a decent solve and then have fun watching the sweaty people cook unless they've already finished by the time I'm done with my single solve...
Click to expand...
my brain isnt used to seeing someone beat a PB by 53 seconds
 
Well... I guess I'm pretty bad at 7x7 but also I hope to improve my skills on 6x6 with this practise (especially because the center pieces look HUGE after staring at the tiny Aofu V5 centerpieces for around 8 minutes (my average) straight). The thing with the centers looking so big helps quite a lot with lookahead so my strategy is to practise big cubes and then gradually decrease the size 🤓🤓🤓
 
YOOOO I JUST GOT MY SECOND SUB 10!!!! 9.189 on this scramble:
Generated By csTimer on 2025-11-14
single: 9.18

Time List:
1. 9.18 D R' B' R2 B' F2 U2 F2 U2 R2 D2 L2 R U' L2 B F' U B
I have no clue what I did but I know that the last layer was an antisune into a U perm. It was so unexpected though ngl
Sub 10 in comp next week?



i dont think so but it would be cool so yeah
 
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