Older cubers discussions

Finally! My first sub-6 7x7 solve.

7x7sub6.jpg
 
Finally! My first sub-6 7x7 solve.

Wow! That's something like a 15 second solve in a 3x3 or even better. What do you average at 2x2 to 7x7? Are your official times a good representation? Because we have already talked about that but, man!, you are so fast at big cubes!

Your current official records (single & Avg):
2x2 4.74 5.57
3x3 16.88 22.37
4x4 1:09.14 1:17.77
5x5 2:15.60 2:30.11
6x6 4:17.08 4:21.00
7x7 7:27.60 7:42.56

EDIT: Yesterday in my train commute I had 1h 5x5 practice and I decided to time the solves (I never dare time my 3x3 solves while on the train to avoid disturbing other passengers). Got a new PB of 3:29.xx (it should have been 2sec faster but I had a fight with my phone to stop the timer). It's nice when at the beginning of practicing a new event you can shave off 15 seconds of your PB in just one day but I feel so far from those official times of yours. Even sub-3:00 feels so out of reach right now.
 
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Have to learn PLL before I can join you guys in the PLL attacks. :(

In the meantime, I'll keep improving ZZ. New PB single: 22.45

This time I managed to find the exact reconstruction of my solve:

L2 B U F2 L2 D L2 U2 R2 D' R2 F2 D2 R2 D' R' B2 L' U R' B' D2 B L2 F2

x2 // Inspection

R D' L U F // EOLine (places orange cross edge as well)
U R U' R // F2L 1
U' L U L2 U' L // F2L 2
U' L U' L' // F2L 3
U2 R' U2 R2 U R2 U R // F2L 4
R U2 R2 U' R2 U' R2 U2 R // OLL
U l' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2 // PLL

47 stm. 47/22.45=2.09 tps

Looking at that reconstruction, I can see some clear misses in look ahead. After the EOLine, I could have gotten two F2L pairs inserted with U R L' U' R2 U' R', had I spotted the completed F2L pair at front left. Also, the transition from 2nd to 3rd F2l pair, I did not see the 3rd pair until I finished insertion of 2nd pair. So the end of 2nd and beginning of 3rd now went L U' L U', when it could have been L2 U2 instead. This one is a bit of an eye opener. I'm really not looking ahead as well as I should. That 3rd pair should be impossible to miss if I'm actively looking for it instead of focusing on the pair I am inserting.

But this time it was lucky, my small mistakes got me a PLL I knew. All's well that ends well. :)
Very cool solve. Might I suggest that instead of learning OLL and PLL's you learn COLL. If you do ZZ you always end up with oriented edges. So if you know the 42 COLL (from where you allready know a few from CFOP propably), that leaves you with only 4 PLL's (the fastest ones H, Z Ua and Ub). Cool stuff Jan, keep it up!
 
Challenge accepted but I'm going to need some practice!

I've not attempted a PLL attack so I've been experimenting with the following groups:

Na Nb V Y - diag swaps - best 8.675 / 2.169 per alg
E Aa Ab - comms - best 5.608 / 1.869 per alg
H Z Ua Ub - MU - best 6.473 / 1.618 per alg
Ga Gb Gc Gd - yuck - best 9.561 / 2.413 per alg
T Ra Rb - headlight cases - best 6.046 / 2.015 per alg
Ja Jb F - bar cases - best 5.331 / 1.777 per alg

These times add up to sub-42 and I've managed each half sub-23 but I haven't got through the whole lot at speed without messing up. My wrists are aching after attempting this without warming up. Doh!

I jus tried the T, Ra, Rb group like 20 times and my best was 6.98, with an average of around 7.50. I still feel strange though and have slight pauses between algs. I was playing "find the AUFs that end up with the cube solved after the 3 PLLs" :)
 
Wow! That's something like a 15 second solve in a 3x3 or even better. What do you average at 2x2 to 7x7? Are your official times a good representation? Because we have already talked about that but, man!, you are so fast at big cubes!


Everything there is pretty representative except for 7x7. I'm averaging between 6:30 and 6:45 on 7x7 at the moment. I hadn't done any 7x7 in a few months and I resumed practicing it last week to get ready for the next competition. It only took a day to get back up to speed.

It's nice when at the beginning of practicing a new event you can shave off 15 seconds of your PB in just one day but I feel so far from those official times of yours. Even sub-3:00 feels so out of reach right now.

All big cube practice seems to make you better at other big cubes. I can focus on one of them for a few months and make improvements and I'll be faster at the other ones when I get back to them. I think I got to sub-3 on 5x5 in about 4 or 5 months. I know it was all I did for a few months after I got it and those times dropped pretty fast. Getting sub-2 will be a challenge but I think i can get there. My hands are slowly getting faster.
 
@MarcelP Thanks! Yeah, I know COLL would make sense for ZZ. However, in the long run I think PLL is such a basic algset that I really should learn it. It's useful for so many different techniques, including bld. Learning it with ZZ is also nice, as I have a very easy OLL every time. Perhaps later I will learn some more COLL as well. Currently at 11/21 PLL algs, not much left to go.

It was suggested to switch E-perm for Y-perm in 2-look PLL. I'm definitely going to do that. I looked up the Y-perm yesterday and it was immediately very fast. The second half (sexy+sledge) happens to be one of the CPEOLL algs I've been using for a very long time and I have it pretty well drilled into my fingers.

@h2f nice! Looks scary though.

I placed my order for the GTS, YueXiao and a couple of other cubes with cubezz 2 weeks ago, expecting to get them maybe late June/early July. But now I already got a notice that a package from China is waiting for me at the post office. Can't wait to pick it up!
 
New PLL attack PB: 46.92. The cube makes a huge difference. For regular solving, I prefer cubes that are a bit more stable and support me turning steadily. For attacks, it has to be fast and loose with effortless corner cutting, even if 80% of attempts fall apart. My favourite by a mile is Gans 356 :D.

Here are the groups I use, and PB (ao12) for each. Each ends solved, although depending on the algs you use, you may need to change the AUFs. For attacks, I do these groups in the order given.

Ga (U') Gc Aa = 6.72
Gd (U) Gb Ab = 7.12
Y Na Ua = 7.20
Nb V (U) Ub = 6.86
T F H = 7.03
Jb (U2) Ra E = 7.17
Ja (U) Rb Z = 7.27
 
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Finally! My first sub-6 7x7 solve.
Impressive! I still get excited for sub-10 7x7 sovles :/ My PB is 9:01, but the stars aligned for that one :P

I just got my stickerless AoFu GT 7x7 yesterday. I was going to do an unboxing, but it arrived in the morning and I only have time to record a video at night... it was just far too long to wait ;)

I also have the stickered AoFu GT, and the original pillowed AoFu. My stickered GT feels amazing and I was hoping the stickerless would be the same, but it's not. It was covered in lube when I opened it, and it feels terrible. It's also got a loud spring noise when turning the white face. I think I might have to tear it down, clean it up, and then lube it properly. I did that with my original AoFu and it worked wonders for it. Though, the colours are very nice on the stickerless AoFu GT. It's basically the same shades as the stickerless BoChuang. I would like a darker blue, but this blue still looks good, and I have no problems with recognition.
 
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@MarcelP Thanks! Yeah, I know COLL would make sense for ZZ. However, in the long run I think PLL is such a basic algset that I really should learn it. It's useful for so many different techniques, including bld. Learning it with ZZ is also nice, as I have a very easy OLL every time. Perhaps later I will learn some more COLL as well. Currently at 11/21 PLL algs, not much left to go.

It was suggested to switch E-perm for Y-perm in 2-look PLL. I'm definitely going to do that. I looked up the Y-perm yesterday and it was immediately very fast. The second half (sexy+sledge) happens to be one of the CPEOLL algs I've been using for a very long time and I have it pretty well drilled into my fingers.

@h2f nice! Looks scary though.

I placed my order for the GTS, YueXiao and a couple of other cubes with cubezz 2 weeks ago, expecting to get them maybe late June/early July. But now I already got a notice that a package from China is waiting for me at the post office. Can't wait to pick it up!

OLL/PLL isn't much worse than COLL/EPLL for ZZ. The real win is getting into ZZLL cases. 2GLL/ZBLL stuff :).

I'm hoping my GTS comes in soon so I can see if it is worth the hype.
 
OLL/PLL isn't much worse than COLL/EPLL for ZZ. The real win is getting into ZZLL cases. 2GLL/ZBLL stuff :).

I'm hoping my GTS comes in soon so I can see if it is worth the hype.
I was going to say more or less the same. In particular, sune and antisune are pretty wonderfull algs that can be even easily learned and executed sub-1 in at least two orientations, so: fast OLL + no need of COLL recog time = more than enough compensation for leaving the PLL up to chance. Unless you can clearly sub-1.5 all your EPLLs (which I can't with Z-perm) or you have several terrible PLLs (and then you should find different algs for those) there's maybe not much difference, even for other 2nd look OLLs. The only 2nd Look OLL I really hate and would be the 1st COLL set I'd learn is the U case, for which I use this alg: y2 R2 D R' U2 R D' R' U2 R' (y2 meaning headlights at front). Well, I had another two I hated because I used a combo of F f sexy but I already learned RU algs for both of them. They were H (F 3x sexy F') case and Pi case (f sexy f' F sexy F').
 
Have you tried doing this on a big cube following on from what Joey said at the last comp re: your 3x3 stage on 4x4?
No, I'm still doing 2-look on 4x4 and can't even execute half the PLLs let alone do them fast :). I did look at the splits of several solves and concluded that my 3x3 stage is not that bad. The solve with Joey must have been an outlier.

I would still like to optimise my 3x3 stage but I haven't decided yet how to do it. I really should learn full big-cube PLL anyway for 5x5. On 4x4, OLL and COLL would be more useful. With OLL it's always possible to recognise the case quickly. With PLL, case recognition is harder and/or slower, which means I could waste time doing an F perm instead of a fast A perm (as I would for 2-look) only to find I still have parity to fix. Perhaps I will learn just the diagonal swap PLLs since they are all equally slow.
 
OLL/PLL isn't much worse than COLL/EPLL for ZZ. The real win is getting into ZZLL cases. 2GLL/ZBLL stuff :).

I'm hoping my GTS comes in soon so I can see if it is worth the hype.
I know a bit of 2GLL. All T cases, some pi cases (knew them all but have forgotten) and a few random other cases. The T cases are nice, because it's very easy to see when the corners are already aligned in a ZZ solve.

For Sune and Anti-sune, my tip is that whenever you are about to perform one and you have a pair both on front and on the left (looking from the direction you'd normally do the Sune/AS algs), you should instead do a U', then sune/anti-sune from the back. This is not guaranteed to solve the cube, but at least you will get the 1lll solves whenever it's possible with back sune/anti-sune.

Just unboxed my GTS. Wow, it's fast! However, on the way to the post office I stopped by to meet a friend for a couple of beer, so I might not be in the sharpest condition to try it out right now.
 
when you say sune from the back what do you mean exactly?
When you have an Anti-Sune, you can also solve the corners with U', then R' U' R U' R' U2 R = sune from the back. Similarly, the regular sune case, if you do U', you can solve it with R' U2 R U R' U R.
 
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