Older cubers discussions

newtonbase said:
@pglewis Here's Mark's guide. I can't fault the order in which the tips are given. Just learning the first one will make most of your solves easier. https://www.speedsolving.com/forum/threads/advanced-m2-guide.56076/
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What an awesome guide for advanced M2. Wish I had looked for this before!

It never even occurred to me to swap FU BD in memo! That would save me having to think about the proper target to shoot to during execution. Smart trick.

I did understand that correctly? If you swap targets in memo for FU BD. It saves you keeping track of where to shoot?
@newtonbase @mark49152
 
kbrune said:
What an awesome guide for advanced M2. Wish I had looked for this before!

It never even occurred to me to swap FU BD in memo! That would save me having to think about the proper target to shoot to during execution. Smart trick.

I did understand that correctly? If you swap targets in memo for FU BD. It saves you keeping track of where to shoot?
@newtonbase @mark49152
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I believe so but I don't do it that way. I think @mark49152 does.
 
Shaky Hands said:
Unfortunately my practice has been interrupted by an arm injury on Tuesday night that made me need to take a trip to the emergency department yesterday.
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Yikes, speedy recovery to you!

@newtonbase, @mark49152: Thanks, and I've bookmarked the advanced M2 info. I managed a successful edges solve sighted with the targets written down last night. A long way to go yet but I think I have the M2 mechanics down for the most part.
 
kbrune said:
I did understand that correctly? If you swap targets in memo for FU BD. It saves you keeping track of where to shoot?
@newtonbase @mark49152
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It's personal preference, but if you swap in memo, you have less to think about during execution. Whenever you execute an S, you always shoot to BD, regardless of whether it's an odd or even target. Likewise I, C, W. Assuming you use Speffz.

It also helps when adding tricks or comms to solve pairs of targets. Supposing you know a comm or a trick for SL. If your memo is BQ SL, great. Now supposing you get QS LB, and you don't know how to combine Q and S, you can solve Q on its own then use your usual SL comm even though S appears on an even target.
 
pglewis said:
Yikes, speedy recovery to you!

@newtonbase, @mark49152: Thanks, and I've bookmarked the advanced M2 info. I managed a successful edges solve sighted with the targets written down last night. A long way to go yet but I think I have the M2 mechanics down for the most part.
Click to expand...

M2 is so much fun once you get the hang of it. The M slice targets are confusing a bit since you have to keep track of first or second letter in pair. But it becomes second nature after a while.

In a weird way. I find sighted solves more confusing now then when I have my eyes closed now. For M2 OP anyway.
 
mark49152 said:
It also helps when adding tricks or comms to solve pairs of targets. Supposing you know a comm or a trick for SL. If your memo is BQ SL, great. Now supposing you get QS LB, and you don't know how to combine Q and S, you can solve Q on its own then use your usual SL comm even though S appears on an even target.
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I hadn't really considered that aspect of switching letters. (QS isn't a nice one. I'd do a B setup and solve RT.)
 
Picked up a few new 3x3s because I'm expanding my stickerless selection:

Thunderclap V1: I love my 2 black ones so I wanted a stickerless. Worst of the three out of the box; too loose and very unstable, lots of spring noise. Broke it down before setup and was somewhat disappointed that the construction on the piece internals seems to be lower quality than the black ones, with slight splits in places where the colors come together. Nonetheless, after some Lubicle on the core and around the springs, setup, two drops of Silk, and a little break-in I'm confident I can eventually dial it in on par with my black ones. Not the exact QiYi shades as the Valk: green is a little toward the pea-green side, the blue isn't as dark-- somewhere between Valk blue and the Cubicle's full bright blue-- and the yellow isn't fluro.

X-Man Tornado: Hey, it's workin' for Chris so I had to give it a try. Better setup out of the box than the Thunderclap but plenty of spring noise, as usual. Nothing a very basic break-down and setup couldn't fix. Deja vu, very reminiscent of my AoLong V2 stickerless (Edit: only a lot lighter feeling, after I actually compared). It hasn't corner twisted on me yet but that'd be my only (small) concern, same with the AoLong. I like the feel and it's likely only going to get better with break in. Shades contrast very well and seem really close to the Valk's shades.

MF3RS: I've heard good things but it was still a little surprising to find it was easily the best feeling of the three without tinkering. A little catchy at stock tensions but I find that with most of the modern fully-squared corner designs and I haven't even done so much as put a screwdriver to it yet. Very light and hollow feeling as is the rage. I might really take to this one with a little work TBH, as I'm trending towards a light, low-force turning style. Regardless, it's hard not to like for $5. Shades are slightly lighter all around vs. Valk shades with red deviating the most and non-fluro yellow.
 
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kbrune said:
M2 is so much fun once you get the hang of it. The M slice targets are confusing a bit since you have to keep track of first or second letter in pair. But it becomes second nature after a while.
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I just had this one for edges which has helped the confidence (std Speffz):

MI *AS EX Q+H VP FN H (*: ran into buffer piece, +: generic new cycle)

That one involved two cycle breaks, flopping the I and S targets in execution, and "parity" before moving to corners... and I managed it with eyes open and a cheat sheet for the remaining M-slice targets. Flopping I/C, S/W during memo makes sense but I haven't tried that route yet (nor actual memo, my "memo" has been a text editor). Just those few M slice target algs to absorb and they look intuitive enough with some thought.

I think I've nearly got it, let the real frustration begin lol.
 
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pglewis said:
I just had this one for edges which has helped the confidence (std Speffz):

MI *AS EX Q+H VP FN H (*: ran into buffer piece, +: generic new cycle)

That one involved two cycle breaks, flopping the I and S targets in execution, and "parity" before moving to corners... and I managed it with eyes open and a cheat sheet for the remaining M-slice targets. Flopping I/C, S/W during memo makes sense but I haven't tried that route yet (nor actual memo, my "memo" has been a text editor). Just those few M slice target algs to absorb and they look intuitive enough with some thought.

I think I've nearly got it, let the real frustration begin lol.
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You have pretty much every complication bar flipped edges in that solve. Well done.
With advanced M2 and letters exchanged iin memo there are quite a few moves to be saved iin the execution but that's for another day
 
Hey guys, what evidence is there that cubing has grown rapidly recently and will get huge soon? Maybe statistics from YouCubers subscribers or increased sales from online cube stores? Ernö Rubik's plan to get into speed cubing?

Here's why I need to know:

I'm trying to convince my local video game/comic book/anime store to start selling twisty puzzles.

I told them that cubing is growing very fast and I predict it's about to explode to the mainstream very soon. They want proof.
Currently, the only twisty puzzles you can buy in my state are Rubik's brand. I want to give my local store some info to buy puzzles wholesale from zcube.hk or somewhere so that they can be the first ones to carry them and will be the only ones until other places get onboard.
Then I want to propose that they sponsor cube comps in the future. It would make it cheap to get a comp organized and it would benefit them with advertisement.

Ideas? Or does this need its own thread?
 
Number of competitors by year from the WCA site:
year competitors (world) competitors (us)
1982 19 1
2003 8 4
2004 123 42
2005 305 138
2006 589 230
2007 1217 429
2008 2376 712
2009 4524 651
2010 5825 1002
2011 6731 1067
2012 7183 1210
2013 9619 1528
2014 13544 2154
2015 18060 3630
2016 25789 5201

I started out with the world, and realized the US is what matters in this case anyway, and it was taking a while to scroll through.

Edit: they probably wouldn't want to share all their data, but I'm sure TheCubicle has sales data for the last few years. Now that cubes4speed is out of business they might be willing to share their data.

Edit 2: finished the chart.
 
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Interesting explosion in number of competitors. At that rate cubing might end up being mainstream in maybe 10-20 years but, for now, it is just "growing steadily" if you compare it with, let's say, the number of basketball players or something really mainstream like that or, if we want to compare it with something a bit closer, ... maybe chess? I would like it to become that popular, though.

By the way, I still find the WuShuang a bit too tiny for my hands. I have problems turning the inner layers because they are so narrow. It is a very nice cube, stable and feels so great to turn but this size problem is making me return to my Yuxin 5x5.

Regarding the WuQue I've had like 3-4 pops, all of them during the U2 of OLL parity alg. Might need to tighten it a bit but it takes already a bit of effort to turn so I would not want that to get worse. I got several nice sub 1:05.xx times with it but no sub 1:00 and not PB single yet.
 
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mafergut said:
Interesting explosion in number of competitors. At that rate cubing might end up being mainstream in maybe 10-20 years but, for now, it is just "growing steadily" if you compare it with, let's say, the number of basketball players or something really mainstream like that or, if we want to compare it with something a bit closer, ... maybe chess? I would like it to become that popular, though.
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I don't know. Aside from a decline in growth rate from 2007-2010 it looks to me like a basically logarithmic curve. Of course part of the appeal is rarity, so if cubing ever does "become mainstream" it will doubtless decline in popularity. The current growth does seem more stable than the fad in the early 80s, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a roughly cyclical thing.
 
Dom said:
@muchacho @One Wheel
That's exactly what I'm looking for. Both comps AND competitors i think will show that it has been growing.
@mafergut
I think with the above steady growth data combined with Ernö Rubik's plan to get involved in speed cubing, I can make a pretty good assumption that cubing will grow very quickly very soon.
Thanks to all.
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The proliferation of cube models is another data point. As far as stores carrying cubes, you could suggest that they get a selection of budget cubes, and only put a few out with a sign telling people that they can ask about other models in back to save shelf space. If they sell a lot and/or get a lot of inquiries they'll likely be interested in carrying s larger selection.
 
pglewis said:
Just took at peek at Mark's 4-bld time... just fantastic, wow.
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LOL, thanks! :p

Nice haul of PBs for the oldies. Great to see @Shaky Hands get that 4x4 average, and I had to scroll down quite a long way to find something he didn't get a PB in :). Here's to more on day two.

I was delighted to get a sub-6 official 4BLD result. That's one of my 2017 goals met before we're even half way through January :)
 
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