Older cubers discussions

Hi @bubbagrub - I had 3 DNF in last november in FMC too. :)

Ah -- then you feel my pain! It was particularly dispiriting for me because I'd done *so* much practice -- I did about 50 FMC solves in the few months before the competition, meaning I ended up feeling like I'd totally wasted those 50 hours of my life. But I'm over it now... :-)

I got first sub20 ao5 with Roux: 19:78 [Time List: (17.20), (26.84), 19.81, 20.57, 18.95]. I'm happy it take me not long to get it. Last 5 days I was doing only slow solves with whole FB planned and carefull transition from FB to SB. It paid off.

Roux still seems like magic to me. I was watching an Alex Lau ao5 this morning and although I roughly understand what the steps are, it just looks like a blur, and the idea of planning both FB and SB during a few seconds of inspection seems super-human. Actually even just planning FB seems almost impossible to me, in just 15 seconds. So getting a sub-20 ao5 in Roux is extremely impressive! It's interesting how consistently "slow solving" seems to be the right thing to do. Learning to walk before we run, I guess.
 
Hello oldies! I've lurked on this thread for a long while, and know a few of you IRL, but haven't really posted much here. I've not been to a competition for a while, and it turns out that no competition means not much motivation to practice. So I had a few months of not really practising cubing at all. I did the FMC Europe competition which was a total, demoralising disaster (3 DNFs) which also set me back a bit. Anyway, there's a competition coming up in few weeks (Macclesfield) which I plan to go to, so now I've got back into practising. I've been focusing on a few things: 4x4, 6x6 (which I've never competed in) and lookahead on 3x3 (lots of slow solving). Seems to be going pretty well, although the lack of practice means by 3x3 times are incredibly inconsistent. Surprisingly, lookahead on 3x3 seems to have helped with lookahead for edge pairing on 4x4, which is handy...

So, anyway, my plan is to be a bit more active here (if I can keep up with the flood of posts!) as a way of helping me to keep motivated.

@moralsh: sub-20 3x3 average and 5BLD success are super-impressive! Nice job!
Hello again. We met at the UKs. Looks like there will be a few oldies at Macclesfield.
Welcome back Ben @bubbagrub !

I see you and Mark @newtonbase are registered for 4BLD. How's it going?
It isn't I'm afraid. I was looking at it but I don't have time to learn that and to improve my 4x4 which is my current target. If that goes well and I do OK at 3BLD/multi I'll make it my next target after Macclesfield.
 
Ha ha. Ok, if I have internet access I'll do it. Otherwise I'm going to become a Hoya master, and maybe finally get my head around comms (interchange or insertion first?).
Easy rule, the insertion always goes into the slot where it is supposed to end up at the end of the 3-cycle. If that slot is not yet in the target you are inserting to, then it's interchange first.

Got my first sub-20 ZZ solve! 19.78. Again 1-look last layer with sune from the back. I think this is already 3rd time I set a new PB with that case. Good thing I learned to recognize it. :)
 
Easy rule, the insertion always goes into the slot where it is supposed to end up at the end of the 3-cycle. If that slot is not yet in the target you are inserting to, then it's interchange first.
It doesn't matter how many videos I watch. It's so much easier for me to learn with simple written rules and I've never found anything good. Thanks @JanW
 
Good luck to you all going to that comp!

Nice 5x5 session today. Another of those little jumps that happen at times. Almost all sub 4min (worst solve 4:05.xx). Got Ao50 down from barely sub-4 to 3:46.00. Also PB Ao5 (3:27.50) and Ao12 (3:30.98). No sub-3 singles, though.

Ao12: 3:31.30, 3:28.79, 3:22.40, 3:14.37, 3:41.71, (3:58.11), 3:29.85, 3:22.05, 3:34.94, 3:54.45, (3:06.02), 3:29.92 = 3:30.98 (first 5 solves make the PB Ao5)
 
I noticed there was a cubing comp in Finland this weekend. 2 competitors in 3BLD, 1:35 and 5:06. I would have had a real chance to make the podium if I had went. :D Maybe I should keep my eyes open for coming competitions.

Instead I've been practicing at home. Great session today. Ao100 29.475. Improved by 1.5 seconds from previous best. The main change was that I switched back to the GTS from the Aolong V2, which I used for the last couple of hundred solves. I think I have a main.
 
Thank you guys, really :) I'll try to sumarize the weekend a bit:

This was my 15th Competition, my 5th this year and only my second one outside the Madrid area, as always lots of fun, lots of work and little sleep, let's go with the results :)

Megaminx: first thing in the morning, cut off was 3:30 which is like once every five solves or so to me, I managed 2 solves under that (first, 3:18, and last one, 3:26) and a 3:35 average which I was very happy with

Pyraminx: Bad, as always, I guess I won't improve magically unless I pracitce :P

6x6: Improved 9 seconds my single (5:22) and 20 seconds my average (5:31), still a lot left to improve here, but very good results

7x7: only 1 solve below cutoff and a pop on the worst solve, no PBs here

4x4: 1:21 average, I couldn't get PBs here but I'm happy with the first and last solves (1:23 and 1:21) both with double parity. I almost made it to the final

2x2: Meh,

4BLD: first one was a 10:30 DNF, second one was a 10:50 DNF in which I managed to recover from a center pop and last one was a 12 something DNF in which I tried for over a minute to remember some of the corners and couldn't. All 3 where around 10 pieces off IIRC. Ok times, bad results

Skewb: got close to both PBs but didn't manage any of them

3x3: at last a sub 20 average, all solves were done turning slow focusing on lookahead and it worked. still getting used to my new GTS which I bought at the comp.

3BLD: first one was off by a twisted corner and the buffer which I have memorized but forgot to execute, second one was off by a flipped edge and the buffer, which I didn't notice and 3rd one I slipped while performing a Y perm in the last corners and messed it, was ok until then. Bad luck, I guess

(Sunday)

5BLD: Managed to lower 2 and a half minutes my official PB becoming the second spaniard to do more than one 5BLD, I'm now top 3 in my country, very happy with all of this. Second attempt I tried to rush it but stopped when I noticed I had been doing the X centers memo on the + centers.

3x3OH: beat my PB by 1 second, but I should have done it by a few more, Happy with the 31, though.

3x3MBLD: 2/7 DNF one was of by a R U' R' insertion and the rest weren't very bad, a 0 got silver and nobody got bronze, So I could have got a medal with a smaller attempt, but felt it was like cheating and didn't do it.

3x3 Semi: I was en route for a better average but last cube ended with a left handed N perm and spoiled it

2x2 Final: another meh.

Now I need to rest a bit and will continue with blind training in a couple of weeks.
 
Good job! Nothing else matters.. LOL.. And what was the average?
19.94 just 0.22 improvement from my previous one. I forgot to tell you that the first solve ended with a U perm (which I do with Ms) and I dropped the cube with an M misalignment which would have been a DNF if I hadn't noticed and fixed it, it could have been an 18

(or a DNF :p)

@mafergut, thanks!
 
First solve of the day, first ever last layer skip!

00:18.859 - B2 L2 F2 R' B2 R' F2 U2 B2 U F2 L' D L B' D2 F D' L2 U2 F2 L2 D' B' D2

x2 // inspection
R' D R' U D' F' R' D // EOLine
U' R' U R' U L' U2 L U2 R U R' // First pair
R' U R U' R' U R // Second pair
L U L' U2 L U' L // Third pair
U2 L2 U2 L U L' U L2 // Fourth pair
U2 // Auf

43 moves, 2.28 tps

That first F2L pair was horrible. If I don't see anything immediate, I usually put some cross edge in place while looking. Here I did just that, and pushed the red/blue corner out of the way to not have it on the bottom. Then I noticed it ended up next to the red blue edge and for some reason moved them to the back to separate them instead of the corner where it was supposed to be. But hey, new all time PB single, not only ZZ PB, so I shouldn't complain. :)
 
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