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Method Development Competition January 2021 - The winner receives a $10 gift card! - Sponsored by SpeedCubeShop.com

Athefre

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Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
1,248
As part of the Method Development Competition January 2021, four teams have come together and created competing methods. After a month of development, the following methods were produced:

Squall - Mehta Knights (Winner of the competition)
Atropos - The ZZouxFOPers
Utah - Random Team Name
ECP - Kübirz



View the final poll results here

Welcome everyone to the first method development competition of 2021! In this semi-annual competition teams will compete to create the best 3x3 speedsolving method. At the end of the competition, the community will vote on which method they think is the best. To sign up, post here to let us know that you are interested and join the Method Debate and Development Discord server linked at the bottom of this post. The Discord server is where most of the discussion will occur.

Everyone has three weeks to form a team. Form your teams early so that you can start working as soon as possible. Those that have a complete team from the beginning have more time to work together to think of and develop ideas. You can add your teams using this Google Sheets document. If you are searching for a team, use that same document to add yourself to the list.

Each member of the winning team will receive a $10 gift card from SpeedCubeShop.com!

Competition Start: Sunday, January 31 at 10 P.M. GMT

Competition End: Sunday, February 21 at 10 P.M. GMT


Rules:

  1. The method must be intended for speedsolving. The goal should be to create a method that is equal to or faster than the most popular methods right now. Don’t focus too much on creating a method that averages 30 moves per solve. But also avoid having your team's method average 70 moves. Find a method that has the perfect balance of move-count, ergonomics, number of algorithms, and the ability for humans to actually use it in a speedsolve.
  2. Try to be original. Avoid making something that many would view as a variation of another method. That could be disrespectful to the work of the original creator and your method would be less likely to be unique and receive votes. Don't use a method that you've already posted in the "New Method" thread or anywhere else. Also, the purpose is to create a complete method, not a new step. For example, another LSLL method doesn’t fit the criteria.
  3. Teams must contain at least three members and no more than five. Give your team a name. Once your team is created, let me know who all is on your team and your team name. Try to work together throughout the competition. Don’t leave one member of the team to develop something on their own.
  4. Send everything in a document to me at the end of the competition. In the past, teams have typically used Google Docs and that has worked well. You can send the document to me in a private message on Discord, SS, or Reddit. About this document:
    • It must contain accurate numbers. If your method has a step that requires an algorithm, your team must provide the number of cases for that step. Generating the algorithms for these steps would also go a long way toward showing the move count and ergonomics. It would also be appreciated by the community that is voting for one of the teams.
    • Your team must provide at least three example solves. These example solves must be clearly separated with the scramble and each step defined. You can provide this through text or by using alg.cubing.net.
    • Provide a list of advantages and disadvantages.
    • Create a name for the method.
    • Don’t list the members of the team in the document that is sent. However, send the list of the team members’ speedsolving.com usernames in a private message.
    • Try to make your document easy to understand. If readers don’t know what is happening in the method, they aren’t likely to vote for it.
    • Provide a summary of the steps to help with making it clear what the steps are.
  5. Your team will not be allowed to see what the other teams are developing. This will be accomplished through channels on the Discord server. Your team will be placed into its own channel and won't have the permissions to view the messages in the channels of the other teams. All team discussion will occur in the team channel. Only share ideas with your team and avoid sharing your ideas in this thread.
  6. If your team plans to provide move-counts, be careful about the use of programs such as HARCS. The numbers that these programs provide aren't possible for humans in a speedsolve. If your team includes these move-counts in the submitted document, then the team must also provide human move-counts. One way to determine this is to simply do a lot of solves and count yourself. You are also allowed to ask others in the community to help with this. In the past, teams have asked someone more experienced in a certain area to do a move-count average for a certain step. That is ok and it is actually encouraged to ensure that your team will provide accurate numbers. It is tempting to provide really low numbers from a program or easy scrambles, but it's not realistic. You are also allowed to ask someone outside of your team to help determine the number of cases for a step. Be sure in your move-counts to include the human possible numbers for the intuitive steps, all AUFs or other pre/post-algorithm adjustments, and the speed-optimal algorithm numbers.
At the end of the competition, submit all documents or messages directly to me. Please don't post your finished products to this thread. Also avoid including team or member names in any products. In the voting poll, the teams that created the method will be anonymous. The link to the poll will be shared here, Reddit, Discord, and other places. Last year the voting was based on the method that receives the most votes. Starting this year we will be using a different voting system. A list of useful resources has been provided at the bottom of this post. Below is the link to the Discord server. Good luck!


Useful Resources:

SpeedSolving Wiki (to research what already exists)
Method and States Map (same purpose as above)
Google Sheets
Google Docs
CubeExplorer (For generating algorithms. PlayOnMac will enable you to use CubeExplorer)
KSolve (Algorithm generator. Online version of KSolve. Can also use this.)
VisualCube
Algorithm Translator
alg.cubing.net
AlgDb.net
Previous Competition Methods
 
Last edited:

Athefre

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Jul 25, 2006
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I have added a Google Sheets document in the second paragraph of the main post. Using this, people can add their team name and team members to the list. If you are searching for a team, there is a section for that.
 

PapaSmurf

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I have two questions:

1. How are our team members going to communicate?
2. It says that the competition starts on January 31, but can we start drafting a method before that?

Thanks.

1. On the discord server, you get your own channel to discuss things.

2. If you want to. No one can control what you do. It's just no new teams after the 31st.
 

Athefre

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Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
1,248
We have six teams so far. To join the competition you can add yourself to the list in the main post or ask one of the existing teams if you can work with them. Or let me know and I'll help you find a team.
 

Athefre

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Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
1,248
One week left until the start of the competition! Create your teams now! We have seven teams so far and some of those teams still have a couple of spaces left if you want to join one of those instead of creating one of your own.
 
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