Fred's Thread

[Fred]

Spoiler: Sub 20 Ao12!

Generated By csTimer on 2024-06-19
avg of 12: 19.95

Time List:
1. 20.62 L2 D2 B2 L2 B' L' F' R2 B2 U' B2 U2 R2 B2 D' B2 U B2 R2 B U2
2. (16.45) L U R2 U2 R2 U B2 L2 U' L2 D B L B L' F' L2 D B2 R'
3. 24.46+ R' F2 L' B2 D2 B2 U2 L F2 D2 L' R2 F' U' B2 L2 D' B2 L2 R B'
4. 18.05 D2 R2 D L2 R2 D2 F2 D' B2 L2 R2 D L D F' L R B' U2 B2 R
5. 20.64 F2 D2 R2 F2 U2 R' F2 D2 R2 U2 R D2 U R' B D2 B' U' B2 U'
6. 18.44 R2 F U2 L2 F' D2 B2 D2 F U L F U' L' R2 F U R2
7. 21.45 F' D2 B U2 F' L2 D2 R2 F' D2 L2 D' L' F2 L2 R2 U L2 F' L
8. (27.84) D' F R2 F' R2 U2 B R2 U2 F D2 U' R' U' B D R F2 L2 F'
9. 18.21 F D2 B' R2 L F R U' B F2 R F2 D2 F2 L' B2 U2 R2 L' D2 R2
10. 21.27 D2 R' B2 D2 F2 L F2 D2 L D2 B' R U F L D2 B' D' R2 U'
11. 19.65 B D2 B2 D' R2 D B2 U L2 B2 U' L2 F' L F R' B U' F2 R' F
12. 16.67 F L' B D F2 R U R U' R2 U2 L2 F' R2 B L2 B2 U2 B' L2

 

[Fred]

I've been practicing Yau this past week. I'm still about a minute slower than QTPI, but that applies to 4x4 through 7x7. I expect Yau to catch up on 6x6 and 7x7 before too long. There's just too many centers to commutate doing QTPI method. Meanwhile on 4x4 I got a 1:11.52 single with QTPI and a 2:09.05 with Yau. I think it's the fact that pairing multiple edges at once is very unfamiliar to me (though very cool!), while the edge pairing phase on other cubes is close enough to QTPI for some intuition to carry over. 5x5 feels good with both methods, and it's closer to a 30s difference.

 

[Fred]

I expect Yau to catch up on 6x6 and 7x7 before too long.

First sub-5 Yau solve on 6x6! 4:35.70. That's also faster than I've ever done with QTPI. Also got site records for 7x7 single and average using Yau. Yau has caught up.

 

[Garf]

QTPI seems cool but it seems a little janky to me, and the main OLL and PLL parity algs can be done in like 3-5 seconds, sub-2 with a lot of practice and grinding.
Never less, I will be watching your progress with interest…
(If you ever decide to switch to redux hook me up and I’ll provide tips.)

 

[Fred]

QTPI seems cool but it seems a little janky to me, and the main OLL and PLL parity algs can be done in like 3-5 seconds, sub-2 with a lot of practice and grinding.
Never less, I will be watching your progress with interest…
(If you ever decide to switch to redux hook me up and I’ll provide tips.)

That's why I'm switching away from it, at least on 6x6 and 7x7. Possibly 5x5 too. I picked Yau because it has a similar start to QTPI. QTPI's other benefit is direct solving, and thereby skipping the 3x3 phase, but that advantage becomes negligible on bigger cubes. On 4x4, skipping both parities and the 3x3 phase is pretty decent.

 

[Fred]

Lots of Yau progress. Sub-5 Ao12 on 6x6 and two sub-7 solves with 7x7, one of which was in my 2-7 relay in the weekly comp for a 16:15.46 total time and my first 30+ Kinch score. The second sub-7 was timed individually at 6:38.70. My previous best was 7:23.62. I've been mostly grinding 6x6 recently, but I'm still surprised by that big jump! Edge pairing is the step where I feel the most improvement.

 

[Fred]

Crazy 6x6 single 3:38.57, almost half a minute pb. Ao5 of 4:21.47 in the weekly comp beats last week by 50 seconds.

 

[Fred]

Smashed my PB single on 3x3 with a 13.10. Previous best was 14.94. Reconstruction:

 Twizzle link 

 Setup 

F' R2 D2 R U2 F U' R D2 F2 R' B2 R' U2 R' U2 F2 D2 B

 Moves 

y2 //inspection

R' F2 L F' L' F' y' U' L //xxcross

y U' L' U L //3rd pair

y2 U L' U' L2 F' L' F //4th pair

R U2 R' U' R U R' U2 R' F R F' //CLL

M2 U M' U2 M U M2 //ELL

Xcross was intended. XXcross was lucky, as was the next free pair. The y2 was unnecessary. LL had two fast algs that I recognized quickly with no AUFs.

 

[bldcuber314]

Smashed my PB single on 3x3 with a 13.10. Previous best was 14.94. Reconstruction:

 Twizzle link 

 Setup 

F' R2 D2 R U2 F U' R D2 F2 R' B2 R' U2 R' U2 F2 D2 B

 Moves 

y2 //inspection

R' F2 L F' L' F' y' U' L //xxcross

y U' L' U L //3rd pair

y2 U L' U' L2 F' L' F //4th pair

R U2 R' U' R U R' U2 R' F R F' //CLL

M2 U M' U2 M U M2 //ELL

Xcross was intended. XXcross was lucky, as was the next free pair. The y2 was unnecessary. LL had two fast algs that I recognized quickly with no AUFs.

Do you use CFCE on every solve?

 

[Fred]

Do you use CFCE on every solve?

Almost every solve. I did Roux for a while and learned CMLL, so CFCE was the faster route to 2 look last layer. Most CMLLs don't actually affect the D layer, and some of the ones that do can be modified into CLLs by switching around a couple wide moves. I do know full PLL, so I have the option to do CFOP on certain cases, which I sometimes do when the OLL case is orienting two edges and all the corners are already oriented.

 

[Fred]

Finally figured out what I was doing wrong with Yau for 4x4 thanks to watching a few walkthrough solves. I was instinctively moving all of my paired edges out of the E slice for fear of messing them up, but it turns out I can just leave paired edges in the back of the E slice since they get restored every time they get messed up. This is also really good for lookahead, since it fills in blind spots (which is a weakness of QTPI). Now my 4x4 Yau is as fast as my 4x4 QTPI, and still improving.

Edit:

 

[Fred]

Sub-2:30 ao100 on 5x5 with Yau, and a 1:59.94 single! Practicing 4x4 helped me speed up on the bigger cubes. 4x4 is fast paced, so I try to keep some of that faster pace on my bigger cubes.

 

[Fred]

Did a bit of color neutrality training recently. Just got an 18:30 on red cross (3x3). Also got a 2:26.15 on 5x5 with some non white/yellow cross.

 

[Fred]

I'm still working on color neutrality. Here's my PBs on white/yellow and anything but white/yellow:

Spoiler: PBs

3x3: WY - BORG
single: 13.10 - 17.45
ao5: 18.11 - 23.59
ao12: 19.90 - 25.69
ao100: 21.19 - 28.78
CFCE solves: 1285 - 225
4x4: WY - BORG
single: 1:04.65 - 1:15.00
ao5: 1:09.96 - 1:26.31
ao12: 1:16.05 - 1:29.33
ao100: 1:19.87 - 1:34.58
Yau solves: 362 - 110
5x5: WY - BORG
single: 1:59.94 - 2:11.64
ao5: 2:15.70 - 2:30.02
ao12: 2:21.36 - 2:33.49
ao100: 2:28.94 - 2:46.94
Yau solves: 256 - 108
6x6: WY - BORG
single: 3:38.57 - 4:11.14
ao5: 4:23.59 - 4:33.10
ao12: 4:35.41 - 4:39.08
ao100: 4:48.45 - not yet
Yau solves: 178 - 19
7x7: WY - BORG
single: 6:09.16 - 6:09.50
ao5: 6:32.89 - 6:46.74
ao12: 6:39.90 - 6:50.53
ao100: not yet
Yau solves: 86 - 14

In general, the top speed feels like I'm getting close, but my consistency needs work. Sometimes I have long pauses for recognition, rarely even doing the wrong alg. My motivation is primarily that I think color neutrality is fun and cool, and I don't have a comp coming up so I don't mind being slower in the short term. I'm also hoping for better transitions from cross into F2L due to easier crosses, and the ability to take advantage of lucky starts on any color.

 

[Fred]

I had some Aliexpress shopping credits, so I ordered a few more puzzles. Gan 562 arrived yesterday, and it's definitely better than my MGC. It turns faster more easily, and in the 3x3 stage the slices stay together better. My 3x3 algs feel a lot better. For the rest of the solve, the gap between how fast I turn versus how fast my 5x5 could turn just got larger. On the one hand it shows there's lots of potential for improvement, but on the other hand I feel slow right now. I had a similar feeling when I got my Guhong Pro and had to remind myself to turn slower and look ahead even though the puzzle wants to turn fast. Next up is FTO, then clock and another mega.

 

[Fred]

Solved FTO after working on it last night, struggling with the centers, sleeping on it, and taking a different approach. I figured out an edge commutator pretty quickly, but separating the corners and centers to cycle just one kind of piece was giving me trouble. I eventually discovered a way to cycle just corners, so I first solved the centers while dragging corners along, then solved the corners. Now I can go watch some videos on better ways to solve FTO!

I was also worried at first that there might be some parity problems due to lack of fixed centers. But while a slice on 4x4 causes a 4-cycle of edges, which is odd parity, on FTO a slice causes two 3-cycles of edges, which is even parity, so I stopped worrying about it.

Edit: Finally figured out that center commutator. Now I have to tools to blindsolve FTO. (not happening anytime soon)

 

[Fred]

Big 5x5 PB single of 1:48.49. My previous best was 1:59.94. Last four edges were very lucky and fast.

My MGC 4x4 was feeling rather slow after getting used to my new Gan 562, but then I remembered that it came with spare springs. I was slow enough that I didn't feel a need to swap when I got the MGC, but now it's made a big difference. Since swapping to the weaker "-" springs, the puzzle feels a lot better.

New Dayan (not Guhong) Pro megaminx feels really nice. I'm still horribly slow, but it feels a lot nicer than the Yuhu V2 to solve due to being smaller and much lighter. Got a nice 2:16.92 PB single just now, but I also regularly get 3min+ solves too. I also like that it came with black piece parts. I replaced grey with black to have white and black opposite, and cream with grey because it's too close to white. No more putting the wrong piece in during star/f2l. It didn't take long to adapt to this new color scheme.

 

[Garf]

Big 5x5 PB single of 1:48.49. My previous best was 1:59.94. Last four edges were very lucky and fast.

My MGC 4x4 was feeling rather slow after getting used to my new Gan 562, but then I remembered that it came with spare springs. I was slow enough that I didn't feel a need to swap when I got the MGC, but now it's made a big difference. Since swapping to the weaker "-" springs, the puzzle feels a lot better.

New Dayan (not Guhong) Pro megaminx feels really nice. I'm still horribly slow, but it feels a lot nicer than the Yuhu V2 to solve due to being smaller and much lighter. Got a nice 2:16.92 PB single just now, but I also regularly get 3min+ solves too. I also like that it came with black piece parts. I replaced grey with black to have white and black opposite, and cream with grey because it's too close to white. No more putting the wrong piece in during star/f2l. It didn't take long to adapt to this new color scheme.

Yasss join the mega color scheme changing gang!

 

[Fred]

I learned Skewb and got not last in the weekly comp! It's pretty simple and fun. I've finally done a handful of beginner Bencisco FTO solves thanks to Chris Choi's excellent tutorial. Last three triples was giving me fits, but being able to make pseudo-triples helps a bit. It still makes my head spin, and it will take several more solves to convince myself I know what I'm doing and not just getting lucky. Still need to learn clock. The next comp that's close to me has Skewb and Clock, so that's a good excuse to learn them.
Edit: Just solved clock intuitively.

 

[Fred]

I signed up for that next comp. It's in October and has 3x3, 2x2, megaminx, skewb, and clock. I'm enjoying learning skewb. I'm working my way through this sheet of Sarah's intermediate method algs I found in the skewb discord. I'll try to learn 7 simul, but my main priority will be to try to get sub 2 minutes on megaminx to beat the cutoff time. My current best time is 2:09.80.

I had some nice results in the weekly comp. I got my site record single (15.44) and average (18.42) in 3x3, and I'm really pleased that all five solves were sub-20. I also finally beat my 3BLD single from 2007 (7:11.61 -> 5:22.87). Kind of an easy scramble, but I'll take it!