[Help Thread] F2L Discussion and Help

[Gold Cuber]

Advanced f2l, you don't have to learn them all but a few is good. But a lot of practice is needed

 

[Rcuber123]

I have been averaging around 20-25 seconds for my f2l for the past 3 weeks. I can't improve, even though I use lookahead enough that I probably have 1 half second pause once every 3 solves. My tps is about 4. Thanks.

Lol no one has that good look ahead at that speed... I average sub 11 and probably pause more. If your TPS is 4 and F2L is 20-25 seconds than your F2L is 80-100 moves? In that case efficiency is a huge problem. It should take less moves for the whole solve...

 

[Kered]

Any tips on how to track first F2L pairs? BTW, I average around sub 12 or sub 11.
Thanks

 

[EmperorZant]

I average a little slower than you (low-13), and would recommend a combination of the following (it's what I did):

1. Watch Example Solves videos of really good cubers that plan ahead of the cross (like Mats Valk, Jayden McNeill, Chris Olson, and especially Feliks Zemdegs, as he plans ahead of the cross on almost every solve). Simply watch what they're noticing/looking for, and how they keep track of corners and their respective edges. Walk through the solves in the videos, and you should get a good idea of how tracking works.

2. Try this tracking yourself - when you get an easy cross, keep track of your cross solution, and look for pieces that aren't affected much (or at all) by the moves needed to solve the cross. For example:

F D2 U2 F U2 R2 B L2 F2 U2 B' D F L' B U B R' D2 L F'

This is a fairly easy white cross. By holding Yellow on top and green in front, we can very efficiently do R' D R (F B') to solve it. Now, notice that the FLU corner (Green Orange and White) is only affected by the F in our cross solution? That means we can easily track where the corner will be after the cross, because it will just switch from being on the left side of the F face (FLU) to the right side (as FRU), still in the U layer!

And where is its corresponding (Green-Orange) edge? It's in the back left F2L slot (between the Red and Blue centers), and similar to the corner we're tracking, will only be affected by the B' in our cross solution. So we know that after the cross, the edge will switch from being the LB edge to being the UB edge.

So in the U-layer, our first F2L pair will have its corner in the bottom-right of the U-layer, and its edge in the top-middle of the U-layer. It should be pretty easy to deduce the orientation of the pair and how to solve it after the cross.

3. Try this tracking but with any cross you get; not every cross has an F2L pair that is easy to trace, even for top solvers like Feliks and Mats. That being said, if you find a piece(s) that you think is worth tracking... try tracking them! And don't feel like you have to plan out a full pair during your inspection; sometimes, just a corner is enough (as finding edges is fairly easy).

Hopefully that all makes sense, and helps a little bit!

 

[Kered]

Thank you soooooo much.... Helped me so much. Thx. Also, do you have tips for one looking 2x2, I average sub 3.5 or 3.4 officially. I can one look easy cases such as R U R'. PLZ reply..

Thanks again

 

[EmperorZant]

Thank you soooooo much.... Helped me so much. Thx. Also, do you have tips for one looking 2x2, I average sub 3.5 or 3.4 officially. I can one look easy cases such as R U R'. PLZ reply..

Thanks again

Once again, Chris Olson is your friend here. That's not to say that someone else couldn't help you on the forum... it just wouldn't be me, because I don't use any good method(s) for 2x2.

 

[Hogr]

Most optimal way to find and handle Fridrich F2L pairs?
I would look at the top layer. Unless you get a case where the entire top layer has no F2L edges, you would have already noticed it when you were doing the cross. As for corners, also the same thing.
The tricky part about my solution is that what if neither of the edges nor corners match?
Could someone help me?

 

[WACWCA]

Thank you soooooo much.... Helped me so much. Thx. Also, do you have tips for one looking 2x2, I average sub 3.5 or 3.4 officially. I can one look easy cases such as R U R'. PLZ reply..

Thanks again

Well you can try to improve your one looking depth,anything 3-4 moves should be your goal at least, if you get one of those, take as much time as you need to track, and if you solve it wrong, then you can go back and check. Auf is also useful, and pretty intuitive for Cll

 

[EmperorZant]

Most optimal way to find and handle Fridrich F2L pairs?
I would look at the top layer. Unless you get a case where the entire top layer has no F2L edges, you would have already noticed it when you were doing the cross. As for corners, also the same thing.
The tricky part about my solution is that what if neither of the edges nor corners match?
Could someone help me?

That's a pretty good, straightforward approach. If there's no pieces immediately visible in the top layer, then you'll most likely have a corner/edge in either your front-right or front-left F2L slot; so find a piece and work from there!

F2L cases can be bad, but that's why inspection and cross-to-F2L transition is so important, so if you're worried about getting bad F2L cases, remember to track pieces! It saves solves!

 

[Hogr]

I need some opinions. Should I focus on look ahead or F2L algs?

 

[JustAnotherGenericCuber]

I need some opinions. Should I focus on look ahead or F2L algs?

Look ahead definitely, it will help you the most. You can also learn some algs for bad cases.

 

[EmperorZant]

Look ahead definitely, it will help you the most. You can also learn some algs for bad cases.

I would argue that he should focus on algs, then look ahead. First, learn how to solve all of your F2L cases efficiently; then, as you practice look ahead, you can work those algorithms into muscle memory.
Don't get me wrong; look ahead is more important, but algs build the foundation for said importance!

 

[JustAnotherGenericCuber]

I would argue that he should focus on algs, then look ahead. First, learn how to solve all of your F2L cases efficiently; then, as you practice look ahead, you can work those algorithms into muscle memory.
Don't get me wrong; look ahead is more important, but algs build the foundation for said importance!

Yeah, that's a good point. Efficiency, then practice, practice, practice

 

[Chrislojet]

I usually get times between 30-40 and if I'm lucky 25-30. But I want to average in the 20's a lot of times f2l takes me about 20 seconds with the cross while I can do 2look OLL and full PLL within 10 seconds. I tried looking ahead and I'm still practicing but I still get confused and its hard to look ahead because I'm not very good at multitasking. I can do intuitive F2L but I dont any alg's for the harder cases which takes me like 3 seconds or 5 to solve a hard case. I tried learning algs but they just wont go into my head because it just feels confusing please help. I've been doing this ever since summer 2016

 

[TheBlazingAce]

two things: One is try to solve a pair while closing your eyes. Then open them and see if you solved sucessfully. This teaches you to not look at the pairs you are solving. Next, maybe decrease your turning speed a little bit during f2l. LL is good to spam tps. I may not be the best to answer though im not sub 15 CFOP as I main Roux

 

[Chrislojet]

also is it necessary to solve f2l intuitively without alg with sub 15?

 

[TheBlazingAce]

Do it intuitively, and learn algs or make them up for bad cases. I'm also assuming you're not doing beginner's f2l?

 

[Chrislojet]

Do it intuitively, and learn algs or make them up for bad cases. I'm also assuming you're not doing beginner's f2l?

yes I'm not doing beginner method but I made up some hard ones but I don't think its very efficent though

 

[FJT97]

Looking ahead isn't the most important thing for your time range. Most important is, that you have efficient ways to do your f2l pairs and that you can do every case without thinking.
looking at your times, im sure that most of your cases aren't very efficient.
Try to experiment with the cases and find better ways to solve them. Then look up algs for cases that are still bad. Then learn to solve each case with closed eyes. Then and only then try to lookahead.

 

[Hogr]

I'm feel that there are some stages when doing F2L.
1st. It takes you quite long to get the edges and corners to match; inserting the pair is separate from matching them in almost all cases.
2nd. You can match them fairly well, and is starting to get the concept of looking ahead; but still does 4tps hoping it helps...
3rd. You starting to be able to understand why some algorithms work, and apply them to your solves.
Still doing 4tps hoping it helps...
4th. Your pairing has reached the 5(not counting AUF) level but your lookahead is sort of crappy
5th. You actually heed the advice of cubers and start doing slow solving.
6th. You lower your tps during your solve to about 2-3tps, then build from there.
7th. CONGRATS! You have reached the point where you can solve F2L in 10 seconds!
Now you learn algorithms and just practice.