[Help Thread] F2L Discussion and Help

[Hazel]

There is a little bit of misconception about back slots of f2l. What you should be capable of doing is executing all your f2l algs from both front and back left and right sides(as in the alg and its mirror) . What you should do for your first pair if you can execute and pair it in the front or back without cube rotating then do so, however if you have to rotate to perform your alg then rotate to have it in the back therefore your front slots will be empty. Your goal is to simply keep as many front slots empty as possible while not ever having to do a y2 in your f2l the only allowed cube rotations for f2l are y and y' as long as you can't do your pair from your current spot(if you can do it from your position front or back then don't rotate). In doing say the 3rd pair and you find yourself in need of a rotation, turn the cube so that the forth pair's location is on the front even if that means making the 3rd pair on the front too.

I hope this helped you better understand how to do f2l pairs in the back.

This is good. Also, don't use algs for everything - only the especially difficult cases that can't really be efficient without algs.

 

[Kaden da cuber]

Hi my name is kaden I'm new to the cubing cumunintity and "please don't say practice" but how do I get fast at f2l I'm sub 40

 

[Daxton Brumfield]

PRACTICE. while practice really is the most important thing, it is also very useful to find efficient ways to pair things up, and implement them into your solves. Lazermonkey has a pretty good video on all of the f2l cases. One thing that can really help, is doing slow solves and trying to pair things up in a different way.At first I would avoid learning algs, but once you get to about sub 20, I would start finding f2l algs to prevent rotations. Hopefully that helps, and tell me if you need help with anything else.

 

[Zeke Mackay]

Hi my name is kaden I'm new to the cubing cumunintity and "please don't say practice" but how do I get fast at f2l I'm sub 40

Have you tried practicing? If so, how much?

 

[beartima]

How should I approach each f2l pair?
Im trying to figure out how to speed up my time, which is currently in around 1 minute .
I spend a lot of time on f2l and I want to find how the next step for getting a better time.

1. How should I choose which pair to insert each step? Should I be looking for a random corner piece and then trying to find its match? Looking for an edge piece and trying to match it's corner? Looking for anything white? Looking for the pair matching my current position? Etc.

2. When I find a pair, what is the first thing I should be doing/thinking of?

Obviously I can't do anything too advanced yet, looking for anything that would make me pause less

 

[Wish Lin]

1. How should I choose which pair to insert each step?

anything that would make me pause less

Since you are a 1 minute solver, let's be honest....... Don't choose!!!!. Do the first exact pair that you see! When you pause for choosing, time is lost via that.

(Following content may seems ridiculous to sub-30 people but I think is useful to you.)

Which pair you may ask? Well, after you finished the cross, look for any corner/edge piece that come into your eyes first and than find another piece that pairs up with it by holding your finger on the first piece to keep track of it than rotate the entire cube to find another. Than, do the solution you like. Even a bad, intuitive solution can get you in the 40s.

2. When I find a pair, what is the first thing I should be doing/thinking of?

The first thing you should think of now is which case that actually is. Do something like U or U' moves to find out if you can't see it right away.

Feel free to ask any questions if I am not clear.

 

[Solvador Cubi]

Here's a tip if any corner has White facing up (since it will stand out pretty well)

Find it's corresponding edge:
if it's already in the E-layer, do some U turns to put it on top of the edge
if the edge is oriented correctly, it's a pair! pull out the pair and insert it wherever
if they don't pair up, do 2.5 sexy moves in a row to pair them on U. Then insert it.

If the edge is on U and not next to the corner do a quarter turn on it so U turns can place the corner on top of it correctly.
then reverse the quarter turn... voila, a pair on U!

whew, that's wordy Cube videos are better at providing instruction than I can describe.
See if anything in this F2L tutorial helps you:

-= Solvador Cubi

 

[Iwannaganx]

F2L - Intuitive or alg based?
So I'm sorta kinda not really learning F2L at the moment but I do it intuitively. By this I mean I use sexy and unsexy to orient a corner to pair it with an edge and insert the pair. That's my F2L.
I want to get faster and my friend says it's meant to be intuitive. But I have seen algs for F2L? I am wondering if I should try and learn a billion algs or see if I can somehow figure out how to do it intuitively without just sexy for every case.

Algs or intuition?

 

[Electrical]

If you havent's watched J Perm's tutorial on intuitive F2L, watch it:

 

[alexiscubing]

I am the opposite of a good cuber as I use beginners F2L and still haven't transitioned. I average 16-17 with beginner F2L lol. I think that intuitive with lots of practice can be very good though. My current PB without good F2L is 8.47 and with good F2L is 9.7x

 

[Iwannaganx]

8.47 seconds?!!
I average 45 sec lol

Ty for the the vid, I will get around to watching it soon enough. I guess. I hate learning stuff but I do really want to improve.

 

[GAN 356 X]

I recommend intuitive as you are learning, but once you get advanced learn the harder inserts. as j perm has once said, there are much more inserts than the basic 41

Ty for the the vid, I will get around to watching it soon enough. I guess. I hate learning stuff but I do really want to improve.[/QUOTE

 

[Cubingcubecuber]

I use algs for f2l; I average 14 seconds. I think you should at least use most of the algs, if not all of them. My cross+f2l is around 8.8 seconds

 

[Krerey]

When you’re starting out, do everything intuitive. As you start getting faster, look up algs for cases that you feel are slow intuitively. Then try to understand the alg intuitively. You can also watch example solves to find better ways to do certain F2L cases.

 

[pjk]

Ty for the the vid, I will get around to watching it soon enough. I guess. I hate learning stuff but I do really want to improve.

I think you'd like learning - many get caught up in getting better and learning as it is fulfilling and fun. Don't think you hate learning - be optimistic. Learn, improve, and enjoy the ride!

 

[Astral cubing]

I do intuitive f2l but use like 2- 4 algs from algorithmic f2l for tricky cases

 

[Christopher Mowla]

Both. When you first start out, it will appear to be alg-based. When you do it for a while, then it becomes "intuitive" because the algs start to make sense.

 

[freshcuber.de]

Here you can learn intutive F2L very easily:

 

[Underwatercuber]

Both. When you first start out, it will appear to be alg-based. When you do it for a while, then it becomes "intuitive" because the algs start to make sense.

Pretty much did this

 

[Iwannaganx]

yeah ok thanks for that everyone!! i will try and watch that vid and improve my f2l over the coming weeks/ months