Older cubers discussions

[JanW]

Thanks for those links and tips! Will check them out.

But first I must celebrate with a beer, because I just did my first successful blind solve!! Only second attempt at solving the full cube blind, was quite surprised to see the cube solved when I opened my eyes. First attempt ended in a complete mess.

I used comms for corners and my own system for edge 3-cycles. I had 4 corner cycles and 6 edge cycles, no parity. Didn't time memo, execution was 6:59. I noticed while solving, that in many cases I saw one possible setup, but then I still spent some time looking for a shorter setup. In this particular solve I probably spent 2-3 minutes on one edge cycle, UF-DL-LF. I saw several possible 2-3 move setups, but all of them seemed a bit complicated, so I kept looking. At one point I got so frustrated by my indecisiveness that I also considered doing D' setup to a standard commutator. Eventually I found y r2 setup and went with that. If I didn't hesitate like this and just went with the first option I see, it should be much faster. But I'm hoping that with practice I can get rid of thinking times like that, as I get more used to the different cases.

 

[muchacho]

Congrats! That deserves a beer... or two.

 

[h2f]

Congrats Jan!

 

[EvilGnome6]

Here's a 3x3 solve in 19.46 seconds. I'm averaging around 25 seconds these days and sub-20 solves are becoming more common. I hope to get a sub-20 average eventually. Cube used was a YuXin 3x3, my current main.

Scramble: U2 R' F2 L2 D2 B2 U2 R' B2 L2 D' L2 R F R' F2 L F' L2

 

[Jason Green]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwPGWLFZzKI

Here's a 3x3 solve in 19.46 seconds. I'm averaging around 25 seconds these days and sub-20 solves are becoming more common. I hope to get a sub-20 average eventually. Cube used was a YuXin 3x3, my current main.

Scramble: R' L2 F2 D B2 U' B2 L2 D U2 R2 D R D' L' R B2 R2 B' F R

Good job, I think you'll get there!

 

[MarcelP]

Here's a 3x3 solve in 19.46 seconds. I'm averaging around 25 seconds these days and sub-20 solves are becoming more common. I hope to get a sub-20 average eventually. Cube used was a YuXin 3x3, my current main.

Scramble: U2 R' F2 L2 D2 B2 U2 R' B2 L2 D' L2 R F R' F2 L F' L2

Nice one. You will get there for sure..

EDIT: Btw, my Yuxin 3x3 sucked so much I gave it away. I can't believe the current WR stands with this cube. Their 2x2 and 5X5 are out of this world though

 

[mafergut]

Here's a 3x3 solve in 19.46 seconds. I'm averaging around 25 seconds these days and sub-20 solves are becoming more common. I hope to get a sub-20 average eventually. Cube used was a YuXin 3x3, my current main.

Scramble: U2 R' F2 L2 D2 B2 U2 R' B2 L2 D' L2 R F R' F2 L F' L2

Nice! You just need to practice a bit more and you'll get there! It doesn't have to make your big cube times suffer but the opposite, maybe you'll shave off some seconds from the 3x3 stage on your big cube solves. From watching your solve there are some lookahead specific issues, with clear pauses between F2L pairs and also you could work on OLL/PLL recognition. It took a while for you to recognize that U-perm Once you get better at this you'll be easy in 16-18 territory.

Nice one. You will get there for sure..

EDIT: Btw, my Yuxin 3x3 sucked so much I gave it away. I can't believe the current WR stands with this cube. Their 2x2 and 5X5 are out of this world though

Mine is fine but too unstable for my taste. I can perform algs pretty fast on it when everything goes well but it's too unpredictable / unstable and I end up locking up or just messing up the alg completely because an unintended turn.

What I cannot believe is what you say about the 2x2 (the 5x5 is clearly fantastic, just ask Feliks ). All the reviews I've watched say it's garbage.

 

[muchacho]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwPGWLFZzKI

Here's a 3x3 solve in 19.46 seconds. I'm averaging around 25 seconds these days and sub-20 solves are becoming more common. I hope to get a sub-20 average eventually. Cube used was a YuXin 3x3, my current main.

Scramble: U2 R' F2 L2 D2 B2 U2 R' B2 L2 D' L2 R F R' F2 L F' L2

Seems to me that you were standing, is that right? maybe that's the secret to better times


Yesterday my best Ao100 was so close to 30 seconds (30.285) than today I was determined to lower that mark... omg it was harder than expected, I needed 120 solves, I've never done that many solves in one sitting (nowhere remotely close to that, not even in a day), I'm tired now!

Ao100: 29.997

 

[MarcelP]

What I cannot believe is what you say about the 2x2

I ordered the YuPo and Yuxin 2x2 at the same time. After 4 days of comparison I must say, the Yuxin is pretty much perfect and a complete level above all 2X2's that I have (and I have all of them ). Really fast, really smooth, no lock ups what so ever. The YuPo keeps locking. Minor locking, but locking none the less.

I'm tired now!
Ao100: 29.997

Whoohoo!! I remember my first sub 30 Ao100. I felt like a million bucks.

 

[Jason Green]

Ao100: 29.997[/I]

Nice job! I don't do many ao100 either. Maybe I'll try one again soon.

 

[EvilGnome6]

EDIT: Btw, my Yuxin 3x3 sucked so much I gave it away. I can't believe the current WR stands with this cube. Their 2x2 and 5X5 are out of this world though

The YuXin is one of the few modern cubes that works really well at tighter tensions. It's not perfect but it is slightly better than the SuLong which nothing could replace for the longest time.

From watching your solve there are some lookahead specific issues, with clear pauses between F2L pairs and also you could work on OLL/PLL recognition. It took a while for you to recognize that U-perm

My lookahead is definitely poor and I really get lost when there aren't any corners in the top layer. For the longest time I would get impatient, pop one into the top and then go about pairing it up. I'm trying to correct that now.

I can recognize a U-Perm fairly quickly but it takes me a long time to determine if it's clockwise or counter-clockwise. Are there any tricks for that?

Seems to me that you were standing, is that right? maybe that's the secret to better times

I was standing. Extended sitting is uncomfortable at the the kitchen counter because there's no place to put my knees. I seem to get worse average when standing but I get some really good singles.

 

[mafergut]

The YuXin is one of the few modern cubes that works really well at tighter tensions. It's not perfect but it is slightly better than the SuLong which nothing could replace for the longest time.

My lookahead is definitely poor and I really get lost when there aren't any corners in the top layer. For the longest time I would get impatient, pop one into the top and then go about pairing it up. I'm trying to correct that now.

I can recognize a U-Perm fairly quickly but it takes me a long time to determine if it's clockwise or counter-clockwise. Are there any tricks for that?

Yeah, it looked like it was quite tight. I'm already trying my new Cubicle Premium Meiying. In terms of cube setup it's nothing that I couldn't have done on my own, really, not worth it unless you have little spare time and prefer to pay for it than to do it yourself. I'm still waiting for a Tanglong to arrive in the mail, I have high hopes on that one. The Meying is an improvement over my current main, the Yueying, but I will have to tighten it a bit, Thecubicle set it up way too loose (I even have corner twists on it at this tension).

Recoginizing U-perm direction? I do this: I look at the righthand-side headlights and see if the edge in the middle is opposite colour,then it's clockwise, if it's adjacent, it's counter-clockwise. I also combine two different algs to avoid U2 AUFs, one for bar on front and another one for bar on back so, it's the other way around if your alg is bar on back. I really don't think of the algs as being either clockwise or counter, I just check the headlights and do "the alg that starts with R' or the alg that starts with R2" for the 2gen U-perms / "the alg with Us or the alg with U's" for the M-slice U-perms. Yeah, I'm a bit awkward, I use the 2gen algs for bar in front (which I also need for OH) and when I later learned the algs for bar on back I chose the M-slice algs.

 

[JanW]

I can recognize a U-Perm fairly quickly but it takes me a long time to determine if it's clockwise or counter-clockwise. Are there any tricks for that?

The way you are holding it with full bar on the right, look at front face of upper layer, if they are opposite colors it's counterclockwise, not opposite colors it's clockwise. I usually always solve it with the solved face towards me, so I orient first and choose alg based on right side. Don't even think about clockwise or counterclockwise, but do one alg if I see opposite colors and another if I don't.

 

[mafergut]

The way you are holding it with full bar on the right, look at front face of upper layer, if they are opposite colors it's counterclockwise, not opposite colors it's clockwise. I usually always solve it with the solved face towards me, so I orient first and choose alg based on right side. Don't even think about clockwise or counterclockwise, but do one alg if I see opposite colors and another if I don't.

We just answered at the same time with exactly the same advice / method

 

[JanW]

We just answered at the same time with exactly the same advice / method

Great minds think alike. I also do the 2gen algs with bar in front and have practiced a bit the M-slice U-perms for bar in back.

Working on an Ao100 first time in a while. New PB single 33.61 just in. Very happy with that one, because it had no skips and my least favorite EP case, the Z perm. No idea why it was so fast.

 

[EvilGnome6]

We just answered at the same time with exactly the same advice / method

Yeah, my U perm algs place the bar in front or in back depending on which way to rotate the edges. I think that hurts me. I don't want to adopt algs with M-Slices because those are death on big cubes. Maybe I'll switch to the OH ones I learned. Sometimes simpler is faster even if it isn't more efficient.

 

[EvilGnome6]

Yeah, it looked like it was quite tight. I'm already trying my new Cubicle Premium Meiying. In terms of cube setup it's nothing that I couldn't have done on my own, really, not worth it unless you have little spare time and prefer to pay for it than to do it yourself. I'm still waiting for a Tanglong to arrive in the mail, I have high hopes on that one. The Meying is an improvement over my current main, the Yueying, but I will have to tighten it a bit, Thecubicle set it up way too loose (I even have corner twists on it at this tension).

I picked up a Cubicle Premium YuXin and had to increase the tension by 1 1/2 turns. Other than that, it was darn near perfect but like you said, nothing you can't do yourself.

 

[mafergut]

Yeah, my U perm algs place the bar in front or in back depending on which way to rotate the edges. I think that hurts me. I don't want to adopt algs with M-Slices because those are death on big cubes. Maybe I'll switch to the OH ones I learned. Sometimes simpler is faster even if it isn't more efficient.

U-perms and maybe A-perms as well are probably the only ones I'd recommend learning to algs for two different orientations a U2 away from each other. There are very nice 2gen algs for either bar in front or in the back if you don't like M-slice algs. I just learned the M-slice ones without even thinking, just watching a video so I just used those but in OH I miss having a second alg to avoid extra rotations / AUFing.

The only other PLLs I've learned a 2nd one is the ones I'm learning for OH, that now I sometimes use for 2H when I get the PLL in the correct orientation like the F-perm that starts with R' U' F' and continues mostly like a T-perm. Others, like the 2gen H-perm, of course are not of much use for 2H but come in handy for big cubes as well. My Z-perm has always been the <R,U> one so I have not had to learn another for OH. I also try to learn the lefty mirrors os some of them, more to exercise my left hand than to really use them in solves as my T-perm is much slower with left hand than right. The only ones I really use lefty are the A-perms, which I use as "secondary" alg.

 

[Jason Green]

I need to work on my U Perm recognition too, I'm going to try that approach!

 

[Logiqx]

Here's a 3x3 solve in 19.46 seconds. I'm averaging around 25 seconds these days and sub-20 solves are becoming more common. I hope to get a sub-20 average eventually.

Nice... thanks for sharing.

That seemed like a fairly typical solve (nothing unusually easy) so you can definitely get down to a sub-20 average and beyond.

Execution was good through the solve (cross, F2L pairs, LL algs) but you can shave a lot of time off by improving recognition and eliminating pauses. Your cross + 1 included a really big pause (~2 sec) so try to spot your first pair whilst executing the cross. Don't look at your cross pieces during execution (or check them afterwards) and this usually allows a pair to be spotted, near-eliminating the pause.

The first three F2L pairs flowed really nicely then you paused to recognise the last F2L case. This was just a glitch in your look ahead and can be improved by through slow turning practice. Case recognition for OLL + PLL will naturally improve with practice.