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No idea where I left off in this thread and haven't kept track of any data. Will probably do a hard reset. I did recently break the sub-24 ao100 for Square-1 which I think was the only yearly goal that I met, very happy tho. Also got a sub-19 ao5 with SSC which is nice..but also it did take a year, yikes. Streaming has been going super well recently and I got a ton in the works - Co-hosting a podcast, new Youtube channel, 24 hour stream next week.. crazy stuff. There will be more details in the relevant thread.
Finished doing the hard reset/updated my PBs. Check OP for all that stuff. Really just posting to remind myself to keep up with this. I'll add all of my youtube/podcast/streaming stuff l8tr. I'm glad to be back and am looking forward to more personal/cubing growth. I appreciate ya'll so much <3
Well a month has come and gone. I've recently taken a break from cubing due to school so there isn't really any updates on that front. I've been messing around with my constrained cube (90 degrees) and have gotten it down to a J-perm twice now. This last alg is definitely my big roadblock. I have to come up with my own J-perm alg using Sexy, Sledge, and R' D R D'. I have access to three gen so I know it's possible. I also know if I do a rotation I have access to a bruno commutator, so maybe that would be more useful? Also thinking that PLL may not be the way to go but trying to set up for a ZBLL..? Idk, it's just a fun side project so I thought I'd share.
The major announcement/reason for this post is that there has recently been some developments in the SSRC method (other name suggestions welcome because I am tired of all the letter based names). @Athefre (thank you for all the wonderful support btw. SSRC definitely wouldn't have made it as far as it has without your help) has come up with iterative EO which should be applicable to SSRC and hopefully make L7E much better. I still haven't genned any algs for SSRC (outside of like 3) so that's the biggest part of development left for the method (or maybe smart people can come up with even better ideas?). Sometime in the next few months I'll work on making a document for the method/ genning algs. Probably going to be doing this as a big summer project after I graduate from uni. Oh yeah, I'm going to graduate from uni this semester! Very excited about that.
Really the only other things to mention are that I learned HSC for method march. Although I have no intention of speedsolving with it, it's still a fantastic method! I recommend checking it out on the wiki. If I get all of my school work done over spring break I might finish learning PLL and do some Mehta solves (or a least my version of Mehta). Oh and hopefully I can get a little bit of streaming in here and there over the next few weeks. Most likely I'd just do cooking/studying streams but I'm always excited to talk cubing stuff if anyone wants to stop by and do that.
Hello Forum, Silky here. This is going to be another big update. I this is going to be pretty long so TLDR below.
I'm back and in action. Main highlights are the Quantitative Method Analysis ( more info here ), development of SSC, Snyder, and SSRC, working on becoming sub-15, and MOST IMPORTANTLY returning to streaming. Here are my Discord and Twitch. Any support is appreciated <3 Cheers!
25 Months of Cubing + Progress:
A few days ago I hit 25 months of being on this forum! Hurray! As always I just want to say how much I love and appreciate this community; ya'll are amazing and I wish you all speedy times. 2 years is a long time and I've been doing some reflection on my time spent in this community. For starters here's a few stats on my progress over the last few years. My 3x3 Avg of 100 has gone down from 31.07 => 21.61. A ten second improvement doesn't feel huge but heck I'm still proud of it. The best part is that I've done this after switching from Roux to SSC!! Officially being faster with a method I've know for less than 2 years versus a method I've know for 10.. I think I deserve a pat on the back ( good job me ). During this time I've also learned how to solve Square-1 and have gotten a sub-24 Avg of 100. I've also learned FTO and have a sub-1:00 solve ( FTO for WCA ). I've gotten better at other puzzle however I've lost most of the records I kept. 3x3, Square-1, and FTO are definitely my most significant, though. What I will say is that, however, is that I am not completely satiated. Although I am proud of what I've done, I think that I still have a lot I want to improve and more goals which I'd like to accomplish. The cubing dreams I've had since I began cubing back in 2008 were to (1) average sub-15 (2) develop my own method and (3) get a 24 move FMC solve. I'm proud to say that I've completed one of these goals!! So that only leaves two only two left! I don't know for how long I will continue to cube but until the day I stop I will continue forward. Hope ya'll will join me as I do.
Personal + Future
So, for those who don't follow me, I haven't cubed since the begging of the year. I can say with certainty that I've done less than 5 timed solves in the the last 4 months ( 2 of the solves were sub-20 so I still got it ). I've really been swept up in my personal and academic life and haven't had the time or motivation to cube/interact with the community. It's nothing to beat myself up over but it is something that I've really missed. Long story short, I want to make cubing part of my life again. It's going to be a slow process since I still need to find a balance in my life.. but if the thought ever crosses you mind, 'Hey, where's Silky?", DM me and help keep me motivated.
Projects + Plans
For those who are familiar with me, you know that my interests in the community span farther than just being fast. For those who don't.. well here's that part where I talk about it. Interestingly enough, despite this being a progression thread which normally focus on getting faster, going forward 'speedcubing' won't be the only thing in the limelight ( in fact it may even take a backseat -- a comfy backseat tho ). Prior to this post I've had a few projects in the works, the mains ones being, in no particular order (1) Quantitative Method Analysis ( check out the thread here and PLEASE fill out the survey ), (2) Method Development, and (3) Twitch Streaming and Youtube content ( more on this later ). The Quantitative Analysis is probably my current largest project. Given that I'll be needing some help with organizing and running things. I already have a few people helping but feel free to DM me, the biggest thing you can do right now would to be filling out the survey. Method development: over the last month or two I've been developing a few methods. Notably I've regenned the SSC algs and right now am working on Snyder algs. I'll make some full documents soon so that everyone has helpful resources in learning these methods. The other method development I plan to work on is SSRC. This is a method I purposed back in 2020, (2) on cubing dreams list. I've haven't made much progress on this for logistical reasons but now that I can use Batch Solver there's really no reason I cannot develop it now. I'm also going to rename the method because I'm really tired of acronyms. Lastly, I am planning to return to streaming/cubing content. During 2021, Twitch was my major engagement with the cubing world and the main thing that kept me active in the community. Although not my greatest contribution to the community, it is probably the thing I miss the most.. more about that below.
Twitch + Cubing Content
Here's the "More about this below" part. As said above, streaming is really the thing I miss the most and the main thing I'd like to come back to. I used to stream around 25-30 hours a month which, now that I think about it, is bonkers. Due to the whole life balance thing I won't be streaming 30 hours a month ( spoiler alert ). That being said, I do plan to stream a few hours on weekends ( Friday, Saturday, Sunday ). I can't make any commitments but I'd like to do 3-4 hours per day. Twitch/Streaming is going to be the best place to keep up with me on basically everything I've been talking about in this post. I mainly do speedcubing ( duh? ), cubing discussion, and some video games/ speedrunning. For those who are interested here is my Discord and Twitch. The best way to support me is to join, drop a follow, and come hang out. I really enjoy the community and hanging out with ya'll As far as other cubing content goes.. I may or may not be making some youtube videos. I'm not familiar with video editing so that's something I have to learn. It isn't #1 on my to do list but several people have asked me to make videos. anyway, I think that's about it!!
Square-1 sub-25 ao5 and sub-20 single. Not bad. Will start streaming next week, look forward to that.
anyway, new SSC variants. Really nothing crazy but 3 ideas
(1) Broken variant with TTLL. Only saves around 2 moves over Broken so around 48ish moves. Not great, not terrible.
(2) 6CP. Borrowed from Mehta. Average should be around 46 moves. Much easier to build a 1x2x3 instead of a 3x3x1. The last 1x1x3 in the Broken variant is often cumbersome so I like the 1x2x3 approach more.
(3) TSLE in addition to SLS. Don't have to make a WV pair so bit easier in some cases. Efficiency is unclear until I gen algs.
Hi guys!! So I've decided that I will being doing a 100 day challenge where I will be doing a Square-1 average of 50 every day for 100 days. Going to be a fun ride, hope ya'll will join me. I'll be streaming all of this on Twitch which can be found here =>
If I have the time I will also make some youtube highlight videos, so make sure to clip my fast solves/PBs!!
Huge PBs overall especially in only 1 week!! Very comfortably sub-23. Based on this improvement sub-20 seems inevitable. Going to temper my expectation of myself for now but feeling very confident!! Probably going to start learning a bit of CMDLL (adj cases) soon. Don't think its entirely necessary since I feel like I still have a lot of room for improvement with base Lin. Not really a high priority but no reason not to. 91 Days to go!!
Some updates on method dev:
SSC => @chronondecay recently came out with some improvement/analysis for SSC which is really exciting. Have a plan to work on a megadocx and going to be genning Edge Orientation + Separation (EOS) for EZD. Also interested in genning EZD + 1 as I feel this would fix some issues with SSC-O. My main issue with the variant is that the separation algs aren't great/efficient relative to the step. EZD + 1 helps to avoid the bad separation cases like adj/adj. Also have high hopes for EOS since overall I think it should be more efficient than SSC-O. I'm also a bit interested in adapting PBL from Square-1 but I'm not sure it be significantly better than the current variants. If someone wants to help work on PBL that would be best since I don't think I'll be really focused it for a while. Also going to start learning SLS and will get back into 3x3 after I hit sub-20 on Square-1
Snyder => Haven't been working on this as of late. Kind of just tedious to make all of the visual cubes but with a bit of focus it shouldn't take too long. Just have to sit down one day and grind it out.
SSRC => Haven't focus on this for a long time. SSC improvement is going to transfer over to this method so I'm not too worried about it for now. Main focus would be on 6CP since this could make a 4 look SSC possible. OL5C => 6CP => EOS => EZD. Wouldn't really be a consistent 4 look method but still lots of potential. Will probably end up learning these algs given the usefulness across methods. Will eventually focus on learning full SSRC but that will be down the line (I'd like to be able to option select between this and SSC).
Streaming =>
Been streaming consistently which is really great. Been feeling super good about it and for those who are interested in following along with my improvement make sure to stop by Want to make some highlight videos from the streams tracking my progress but it seems there's enough on my plate. Let me know if you guys want me to do this. If enough of you are interested I'll bump it up on my priority list.
I recently got a PB single on stream for my 100 day challenge. Beats my previous PB by 1 second which I got over a year ago. Check out the video here.
I'm also glad to announce that I will being doing a GIVEAWAY for the month of August. I'm giving away a Cubing Classroom Non-NxN Set (Not including Square-1), a Cubing Classroom NxN Set, and a WuQue Mini M (with your choice of new stickers). More details can be found here. I will be releasing a new stream schedule soon so look out for that.
Continuing with steady gains. My pace has certainly slowed from last update but that was to be expected. The overall good news is that my consistency has improved. Improved my Ao100 by ~1 second and finally hit sub-22 Ao250. I know there isn't really an official 'you are now sub-x seconds' standard but I think it is safe to say that I'm currently sub-22. That's actually an interesting question.. what do yall think? At what average would you consider yourself to be sub-x?
I normally go off my ao1000 (or whatever average below that is the highest) but sometimes despite a sub-x ao1000 I still don't feel sub-x.
I think a better way to do it might be off a percentage. If you looked at your ao1000, and maybe 75+% of your solves were sub-x, you would be sub-x. I don't know what a good percentage for this would be, but I like it because rather than a result of times above and below, which could be quite a close split, it tells you how often you can expect to get sub-x times, which is what I think about when being sub-x.
Hey Guys, Silky here! It's a new year, which means new goals. So I just wanted to give a general update on what my plans are for 2023!!
The first big change that's coming in 2023 is that I will be returning to streaming on Twitch! I will be streaming regularly, so I hope to see ya'll there. If you could take this quick Survey I'd really appreciate that as it will help me create the best stream schedule. In addition to streaming I will be uploading to my youtube channel all of my progress/stream highlights, as well as some other misc stuff (cubing/method theory perhaps?).
All of the Sub-X goals are relative barriers to 3x3, hence some weird numbers. I plan to finish learning all of the SLS algs for SSC, the rest of the Guimond algs for 2x2 ( and possibly NLL ), and L3T for FTO. I also have plans to get into 3BLD, Megaminx, and FMC. I don't have any hard goals for these yet since I have so little experience in them. With 3BLD specifically I've already learned Eka for edges and am still experimenting with corners ( stuck between Ayam, Eka, and Intermediate BH ). For now I'm just going to focus on getting successes.
That's going to be it for now, but I'll keep yall updated as I go.
PB Sheet update as of April 1st 2023. As always, I'm an absolute monster at Sq-1. Sub-20 average of 100 is HUGE, biggest barrier I've ever broken by far. Still not super consistent, with a global hovering around 21, but still super happy I've technically improved quite a bit at 2x2 although I doesn't really feel like it. Still haven't learned the rest of Guimond algs because I'm lazy nor have I really worked on one looking. Probably the event I have the most potential at improving but also lack the most focus with. Kinda feel like a comfort event more than anything, something to do when I don't feel like practicing more serious events. I've also been working on CN for 3x3 and 4x4. Averaging around 26 for 3x3, which is fine, but am more interested in implementing it in 4x4. CN is overall frustrating.. feels like a significant step back and I'm not even sure it will be worth it ( for 4x4 at least ). I will say I've only been practicing CN with Roux and not with SSC. I have a feeling SSC will both be more worthwhile and easier to learn. I think that's it for now. Also, 24 Hour Charity Stream May 5th-6th for Autism. 500$ donation goal and I plan to match subs with donations ( basically free emotes while also helping charity ). Take the survey here. Will have guest stars, viewer races, challenges, donation rewards, + more. May 5th May 5th May 5th, 3PM EDT.
(1) Got a new 4x4 PB - 57.21 - First sub-1 ever!!! Very proud Ready to grind out some 4x4. I've had several sub-1 paced solves so its really nice to finally clutch one out. Working on averaging sub-1:15. I have a 1:19 Ao100 so I'm not too far off.
(2) FMC: Been really into FMC for years and finally started doing attempts. Mo3 is 40.67 ( only have done 4 solves so I'm very pleased ). Sub-40 is inevitable and will probably be sub-40 within the next few solves. PB sinlge is 35 - first ever solve actually Attempting to get a sub-30 Mo3 by next year.
(a) Making a practice schedule - will do at least 2 attempts a week and will work towards 4-5 attempts per week.
(b) Currently just using blockbuilding + EO + Comms. Plan to finish learning Heise ( Step 3 specifically ) and insertions. Great tool for anyone interested. Once I get corner insertions down I'll start moving to edge insertions which should be enough for sub-30.
(c) FMC is probably my best event and I think it's entirely possible for me to break into the top-100 - given enough time and practice. Obviously a lofty goal but I believe I can do it !!
(d) Just wanted to add my last 35 with proper insertions to show potential progress:
Scramble: R' U' F D R2 U2 B2 U F2 L2 D' U' B2 F2 R B' U2 B2 U F D2 B R2U R' U' F
Skeleton (L4C)
L' D' R' L B2 (1) R' U F' (2) U B2 U F2 // EO + 2x2x3 (12)
D' B D' B' D2 B2 D B2 // Heise Step 3 (8/20)
Inserts
(1) D R' U R D' R' U' R (8)
(2) F' U B2 U' F U B2 U' (8)
Final solution ( w/ cancellations ): L' D' R' L B2 D R' U R D' R' F2 U B2 U' F U2 F2 D' B D' B' D2 B2 D B2 (26)
(3) Signed up for the Method Switch-Up Comp on the forums. Lovely to see the spiritual successor to my Uncommon Method Comp. Excited to participate - looking to get sub-22 with all 5 methods. Going to finally finish learning PLL and Guimond/HD-G. A excellent time to start getting into 2x2 ( Corners First is one of the methods being featured ).
Thoughts: This thread is now over 3 years old !! Feels nice to still be cubing after all this time and to STILL be breaking PBs ( My progress is slow but I'm still able to make gains which fills me with joy). I'm ready to start pushing myself and delve back into learning new stuff. Stay tuned for more stuff.
(1) Going to be spending October grinding out FMC and Blind. Looking to average sub-35 for FMC. Need to focus on insertions, learning 6-9 optimal LL algs, and edge insertion algs.
(2) Rebranding my Twitch/Youtube. Want to work on making some youtube vids following my FMC progression. Once I start averaging sub-30 may make some tutorials. Also want to start making breadtube video game reviews.
(3) Going to work on CN for 3x3-4x4.
(4) May make some cube reviews if people are interested
Fun update, I will be doing a 30 day challenge this month!! The goal is to get a Sub-30 FMC single in the next 30 Days!! I'll be streaming every day on Twitch 6:00pm Eastern.
Current FMC PBs:
Single: 35
Mo3: 36.67
Ao5: 39.2
To send off the 30 Day challenge I'll be doing to my first official comp December 31st! Not sure if I can stream during the competition, need to talk with the comp organizers. I will at least be streaming before the comp/afterwards for the New Year!!