Methods Vs. Solve Times (Project!)

[maxcube]

Name: Maxwell
Nationality: USA
Age: 13
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich: 20>(I average here)<25
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best: 14.88(lucky), 15.97(nonlucky)/ Um, 1 minute with Fridrich.
Time cubing: August 2008, I started with Dan Brown's tutorial.
Progression: 6 months to get where I am now. When I started I was 3 minutes on my own. I switched to Fridrich entirely(everything at once, including OLL & PLL) when I was 1 minute average.
Favorite Speedsolve event: 3x3
Speedcube: DianSheng with A core. I dont like it so I will buy a C4Y cube soon.
Your projected "potential"?: If I practice for 10 years I could be 5 seconds average!
Any other useful information!: I like photography, playing piano, programming C++, and playing GH3

 

[MTGjumper]

Name: Simon Crawford
Nationality: English
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich
Best/Worst Solve Time: Good- 12.xx, bad-17.xx
Time cubing: Able to solve a cube since May '07, but speedcubing since Jan '08, so just over a year really.
Progression: 3x3 average improved almost linearly between 22 and 15 seconds, although my rate of progression is slowing now. Might be sub-13 in another 3-4 months
Favorite Speedsolve event: 3x3 or 4x4
Speedcube: Type A
Your projected "potential"?: I'd like to be sub-13, although sub-12 probably isn't out of reach.

 

[a small kitten]

Name: Phil
Nationality: USA
Age: 19
Speedcubing Method: ZZ
Best/Worst Solve Time: Full steps can range from 14.xx to 24.xx. Average low 20s right now.
Time cubing: Since March 2008
Progression: Used beginner's method for around 7 months. Pushed it to about 22-23 sec average, and then transitioned to Fridrich. It wasn't working so I switched to ZZ. I have been doing ZZ for two months now.
Favorite Speedsolve event: 3x3
Speedcube: Diansheng with type A core
Your projected "potential"?: I want to sub 20 hopefully in March. Then I will probably go and learn COLL or winter. I want to see how fast I can be with ZZ.
Any other useful information: I like small kittens.

 

[cookingfat]

Name: Pete
Nationality: British
Age: 28
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich 22/57 OLLs 21/21 PLLs
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best - 20.11. good times are sub-30 bad times are sup-35.
Best Average of 5: 26.70
Best Official Average: I haven't been to a competition yet
Time cubing: August 2008
Progression: learnt dan brown for a week, then AvG beginner last layer, then Fridrich intuitive F2L along with full PLL and some OLLs. I learnt BLD too, my best BLD time is 4:11
Favorite Speedsolve event: 3x3x3
Speedcube: Type AII
Your projected "potential"?: If I try, I reckon I could get near to sub-20
Any other useful information!: I play keyboard, guitar, accordion, playstation 3, all guitar heros.

 

[BigGreen]

Name: Austin Moore
Nationality: Missourian
Age: 15
Speedcubing Method: Roux ~12-13
Best/Worst Solve Time: best solve 8.58, good solves 13 bad solves 15+
Time cubing: December 07
Progression: learn a better C4 CMLL alg
Favourite Speedsolve event: 3x3
Speedcube: Type D + old type A core + Store cubies
Your projected "potential": best roux solver ever (i think i am but no one has confirmed it yet)

 

[EmersonHerrmann]

Name: Emerson Herrmann
Nationality: American
Age: 14 years, 32 days
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich: ~15, Petrus: ~21, Roux: ~26
Best/Worst Solve Time: 11.22 is best...OH best is 14.65. Bad 2H is ~20, bad OH is ~26
Time cubing: 1 year, 2 months, 27 days.
Progression:
Beginner method (not booklet, the one that Tyson Mao teaches on rubiks.com)
Learned corner OLLs
Learned F2L
Learned PLL
Learned OLL (PLL and OLL were learned in about a week...PLL = one day; practiced; OLL = 3 days)
Learned Some MGLS and ZBF2L

Favourite Speedsolve event: OH
Speedcube: OH: Joy, Speed: Whatever cube I feel like using...I do not have a main yet haha
Your projected "potential"?: Sub-17 one-handed, sub-13 2H...
Any other useful information!: I have only two fingers on my right hand, my pinky and my thumb. (it is sometimes referred to as the claw.)

 

[goldencuber]

Name:Kang-Yee Chyou
Nationality: USA (though Chinese)
Age: 15
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich (low 20's) Petrus...hold on a sec...doing it now...(30's)
Best/Worst Solve Time: 19.05 seconds/14 years.
Time cubing: 4 months???
Progression: good, seeing as i rarely get to practice...
Favourite Speedsolve event: 5x5...and when i get higher ones, those
Speedcube: 2x2 up to 5x5
Your projected "potential"?: My crazy idea, with potential sub 6
Any other useful information!: Pres of our school Rubik cube club (www.rca.byethost17.com)

 

[fanwuq]

Can't you just get every thing from the WCA profiles?

Well, here is mine anyway:

Name: Wuqiong
Nationality: Chinese
Age: 16
Speedcubing Method: Extended Cross-Fridrich-VH
Best/Worst Solve Time: Singles: 13 -26
Average of 5: 16-24
Average of 12: 18-22
Time cubing: Since July 2007
Progression:
Learned in a few days from friend who also just learned how to use really noob method. Got to around 2:30 in a week and stayed there for around 2 weeks. Then cut my times in half through the reading of only one paragraph on Petrus' site about fingertricks. Then it decreased to around 60s average and stayed there for 2-3 months with barely any practice until the cube broke. Then it was the age of the Heise Simulator. Within 6 weeks, I achieved a sub-30 average. I hovered there for around 5 months until I suddenly decreased to sub-24ish right after DC open. Less than a month or two after that, I achieved sub-20 averages. Then I really stopped practicing 3x3 until now (8 months). Sub-20 averages are now common and even happen quite easily on bad days.
Favorite Speedsolve event: 4x4, 3x3 BLD, pyraminx, FMC
Speedcube: Type C, hi-games.net simulators
Your projected "potential"?: DNF? Maybe sub-16 average of 12 if I ever practice...
Other: I can get really awesome PLL executions after repeating the same alg ~100 times in a row. I do this a lot. However, my time attacks really suck. My execution during a real solve is actually OK. Sub-1 second U perms, sub-1.2 second R, T, J, A, H, Z perms are possibly when I'm in the zone for just executing these algs.

 

[James Kobel]

Name: James Kobel
Nationality: Earthling
Age: 12
Speedcubing method: Fridrich(~25 seconds), Petrus and Roux(both ~35 seconds)
Best/Worst solve time:Good: 3 Bad: >39
Time cubing: Around 1 year 2 months
Proggression: I started with simple LBL', then Petrus, then Fridrich, and now Roux.
Favorite speedsolve event: Square 1
Your projected potential: Hopefully sub 14

 

[Zarxrax]

Name: Alan Clontz
Nationality: American
Age: 26
Speedcubing Method: (Layer-by-layer: ~1:15, Fridrich: ~1:30)
Best/Worst Solve Time: With layer by layer method, my best time was just under a minute, and my worst is usually around 1:30. With fridrich, my best is around 1:15 and worst around 2:00.
Time cubing: just over 1.5 months, 15-30 minutes per day on average
Progression: I started with layer by layer method, took about 2 weeks to memorize the algorithms to solve without reading them, at which point I was averaging about 3 minutes. I then learned 2look pll and then 2 look oll, and with practice,times went down to around 1:15. I have been practicing fridrich method for about 2 weeks (only difference from the LBL method is I do the F2L). At first my times shot back up around 3 or 4 minutes, but have been steadily decreasing. I expect to be on par with my layer by layer times in about a week.
Favourite Speedsolve event: Never been to a competition, but right now the only puzzles I have are 3x3 and magic.
Speedcube: I think I use a type A third model (not sure, but I know it's type A).
Your projected "potential"?: At the moment, I'm just trying to get sub 1:00 consistently, but my long term goal is sub 0:20.

 

[DavidWoner]

Can't you just get every thing from the WCA profiles?

yes because WCA profiles say what method you use and how long you've been cubing.

Name: David Woner
Nationality : American
Age: almost 19
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich(cross on left) ~17.5, Fridrich(cross on D) ~23 Roux ~45
Best/Worst Solve Time: Sub-14 is good Sup-19 is bad
Time cubing : Started September 7th 2007
Progression: got to about 40 seconds with LBL in about 6 months of light practice. After that I learned intuitive F2L after checking a few things out on Fridrich's website. I originally solved with cross on U with funny Z rotations, so switching to left was natural. got down to about 22 seconds by the start of summer 2008, when I stopped practicing 3x3 in favor of other events. Picked it up again in the fall and have been steadily improving since.
Favourite Speedsolve event: Rubik's Clock
Speedcube: Speed: Black C4Y cube, OH: my good old black type A
Your projected "potential"?: sub-13 average would be neat.
Any other useful information!: BigGreen up there (austin moore) forgot to mention but I think he globally averages about 14 with Roux, and is the fastest Roux-user.

 

[JustinJ]

Name: Justin Jaffray
Nationality: Canadian
Age: 15
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich with 3LLL with a couple of OLLs here and there.
Best/Worst Solve Time: Bests are 17-19, worsts are 30-32 (Yep, very inconsistent) Average is around 23.
Best Average (of 5): 21.54
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5): I'll answer this after TOW my current official average sucks.
Method used in official: Will be Fridrich, but then I used Fridrich with 4LLL.
Time cubing: I started mid summer last year, so... 6-7 monthsish? Wow... That's a long time...
Progression: The past few weeks when I've been practicing a lot so I've gone down from the 35-40 area, but I still remember when sub-2 was a struggle.
Favourite Speedsolve event: Tie between 2x2 and Pyraminx
Speedcube: Green Cube4You brand
Your projected "potential"?: I want to eventually be sub 15 and stuff, but for now, I'm aiming for sub 23 averages

Revised on April 4:

Name: Justin Jaffray
Nationality: Canadian
Age: 15
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich with 3LLL with a couple of OLLs here and there.
Best/Worst Solve Time: Bests are 15-19, worsts are 30-32 (Yep, very inconsistent) Average is around 25.
Best Average (of 5): 21.54
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5): 23.00
Method used in official: Fridrich.
Time cubing: 8 or 9 months
Progression: The past few weeks when I've been practicing a lot so I've gone down from the 35-40 area, but I still remember when sub-2 was a struggle. Just recently I got down to pretty much consistent sub 23, so I'm happy.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 2x2
Speedcube: White Type C
Your projected "potential"?: I want to eventually be sub 15 and stuff, but for now, I'm aiming for sub 23 averages

 

[slncuber21]

Name: Sarah Nelson
Nationality: American
Age: 15
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich, learning all PLL's
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best- a good solve is anywhere from 20-31 sec. and a bad solve is above 34
Time cubing: Since November 07' but then took 2 breaks that totaled about 6 months?
Progression: Slowly but surely, im going to be sub 30 soon
Favourite Speedsolve event: 3x3, 3x3 OH and 5x5
Speedcube: Dian Sheng
Your projected "potential"?: I want to end up being sub 15, but right now thats far away. im sure ill get there tho!

 

[ThePizzaGuy92]

umm... Kay.

Name: Alex Seidler
Nationality: USA
Age: 16
Speedcubing Method: full Fridrich~13-14ish, Petrus~25ish
Best/Worst Solve Time: 10.03 for nonlucky single, worst is a silly question
Time cubing: since December 2006
Progression: Not aure how to answer this one. I worked my way down from 3ish minutes to 13 seconds in 3 years, that's all.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 4x4x4 speedsolve
Speedcube: black "Edison" cube or Rubiks.com assembly cube.
Your projected "potential"?: sub-10 averages of 10/12 lol
Any other useful information!: cubing is entertaining.

 

[Jhong253]

Name: Joseph Hong
Nationality: Korea
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method: Fridrich F2L + 3LLL - my weirdo combination of algs - good solves from 17 to 24, bad solves 27 and above. Roux: A long time so don't bother
Best/Worst Solves: Anything below 20/Anything above 30
Time cubing: in mid '07 introduced to cubes; didn't get into speedcubing until early '08.
Progression: Don't have time to cube right now (hardest year in high school!), going to try to get below sub 20 this summer.
Favorite Event: 3x3 speedsolve
Speedcube: Rubik's DIY, storebought, and Type D + Old A core
Potential?: If I ever get enough time to learn the OLLs and the last PLL alg I didn't bother to learn yet... hopefully sub 13 to 15 ish
Any other useful info: serious cubing takes up a lot of dedication...

 

[abr71310]

I'd like to point out that you will need data on how long each cuber have practiced with each method. Presumably, most people will have an artificially low Fridrich average compared to other methods, not because it is better (which it might be, of course) but because they spent more time working on it. To me it sounds like a very difficult statistical exercise, if you want to get precise results.

I assumed that from the start, so the qualitative vs. quantitative results will have to reflect the length of time using a method and stuff... >< (I have to find a way to integrate that into the overall perspective of the question)

So many people use Fridrich compared to other methods (and a lot of people who use multiple methods practice Fridrich the most) that it would be very difficult to derive any significant conclusions about the different methods and their relation to speedsolve times.

Has any 3x3 WR been achieved with a method other than Fridrich?

I knew that, I just wanted to see if the number of Petrus / Roux solvers was significant enough to mention in their own little categories; that way I can show demos like Roux's and (insert awesome Petrus solver here?)'s as part of my presentation!!

Has any 3x3 WR been achieved with a method other than Fridrich?

I'm pretty sure Minh Thai used corners-first.

That's one good "anomaly" so far in the sea of Fridrich WRs... ><

Can't you just get every thing from the WCA profiles?

I wish I could; only names and times were listed...
I consider what I'm doing here primary data: the WCA website was a suggestion for my "secondary" data, so I will likely draw off of that.

The data I collect here is always useful, so thanks everyone for your input!!

 

[Jhong253]

Which class is this project for? If it's something to do with math, you could always do some sort of statistical analysis with the data, or do something on the theoretical aspect of the cube. Maybe try to do a significance test on which out of the three is most strongly shown as the best method? Or if this is for some science class, you could always do something on the physics behind the cube (maybe even chemistry involved with the lube and all).

 

[abr71310]

Which class is this project for? If it's something to do with math, you could always do some sort of statistical analysis with the data, or do something on the theoretical aspect of the cube. Maybe try to do a significance test on which out of the three is most strongly shown as the best method? Or if this is for some science class, you could always do something on the physics behind the cube (maybe even chemistry involved with the lube and all).

It's for a Mathematics of Data Management course.
My final project is due in like May or something (the presentation) but we've been getting classes to compile and manage our data and stuff.

I'm going to probably take most of next class to compile this all into a Fathom worksheet (once we learn how to USE the bugger) and make it into nice neat little chart things that I can read from!!

 

[Rawn]

Name: Nicholas Chen
Nationality: Chinese
Age: 14
Speedcubing Method: Roux - Average from 18 - 21 secs
Best/Worst Solve Time: Best - 12.84 secs (No skips, easy CMLL and blockbuilding) Anything over 23 secs is bad for me right now.
Time cubing: Around a year.
Progression: LBL (Got down to around 1 min) --> Fridrich --> Switched to roux the next day.
Favourite Speedsolve event: 3x3 speedsolve.
Speedcube: White Old Type A.
Your projected "potential"?: At least Sub - 15 with roux (Hopefully faster).
Any other useful information!: I only know around half of CMLL.

EDIT:

Best average (of 5): 16.90 seconds.
Best OFFICIAL average (of 5): Never been to an official comp.
Method used in official: I only use roux.

 

[suhas2112]

Name: Suhas Mohan
Nationality : Indian
Age: 17
Speedcubing Method:With Beginner's method, i averaged ~70 sec
Fridrich method with 3LLL : 21.98 sec
Best/Worst Solve Time: 15.46/33.4
Time cubing : I started cubing 5 years ago, but started speedcubing only since October '08.
Progression: 5 Years ago, my friend taught me the beginners method and i got to a 70 second average in 5 days!!! I've been using that method for 5 yeras... o.O
In October '08, i learnt the fridrich method and i've been practicing almost every day since... I currently average around 22sec...
Favourite Speedsolve event :3x3x3 (Because this is the only cube i know ow to speedsolve)
Speedcube: I use a YUGA with very well sanded Storebought Rubik's Brand cubies.
Your projected "potential"?: Sub-15
Any other useful information!: I only know how to speed solve a 3x3 and that is the only cube i own... I ordered a 2x2 and it's on its way now...