Older cubers discussions

Some new puzzle impressions:

Cubicle Premium Valk 3: As usual it was a little gummy right out of the cellophane but the lube broke in quickly. After only a few dozen solves it got really fast, enough to consider tightening the tensions just a touch. Gonna leave it alone and see if I should adjust me rather than the cube. Don't know if it'll dethrone the Thunderclap but it suits me well enough that it might.

QiYi WuShuang 5x5: After my first 4x4 I realized I'll likely go stickerless on all my bigger cubes from here on out, so that's the one I got. Feels fantastic to me and makes me wonder why there doesn't seem to be a 4x4 this good right out of the box.

ShengShou Skewb: I can barely turn a skewb, much less solve, much less speedsolve. Seems to turn really nicely for me, for what that's worth. Attractive price-point.
 
Putting aside all of my solves today, I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting up with everyone (young and old).

I've just looked at my 3x3 videos and they've made me feel a little better. Cross + F2L were all typical of circa-17 second solves but there were some absolute horrors during my LL.

The first 2 solves were ruined by using the CFOPOP method. OPOP means orient, permute, orient, permute where you randomly destroy your F2L then fix it again, taking you back to the previous step. The third solve was CFOO where the first orientation step was catastrophic and I gave up after a second failed OLL.

I'll put it down to extreme tiredness. I could barely keep my eyes open as I started to drive home and I had to dose up on caffeine to make it back safely. I guess I'll be awake for hours now...

I'll upload my disaster video tomorrow. Mark's recent upload has nothing on my painful footage!
 
Putting aside all of my solves today, I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting up with everyone (young and old).

I've just looked at my 3x3 videos and they've made me feel a little better. Cross + F2L were all typical of circa-17 second solves but there were some absolute horrors during my LL.

The first 2 solves were CFOPOP solves. OPOP means orient, permute, orient, permute where you randomly destroy your F2L then fix it again, taking you back to the previous step. The third solve was CFOO where the first orientation step was catastrophic and I gave up after a second failed OLL.

I'll put it down to extreme tiredness. I could barely keep my eyes open as I started to drive home and I had to dose up on caffeine to make it back safely. I guess I'll be awake for hours now...

I'll upload my disaster video tomorrow. Mark's recent upload has nothing on my painful footage!

In the interest of balance, the Universe had to sap some of others' mojo for Mats to get that single. ;)
 
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Congratz on all of your comp results boys...

Here it's snowing o_O

Square-1 PB!
Average of 12: 17.136
1. 13.795 (0, 5) / (-3, 3) / (-5, -2) / (3, 0) / (3, 0) / (0, -3) / (-4, 0) / (-3, 0) / (0, -3) / (0, -3) / (-2, 0) / (-2, 0) / (2, -5) / (-4, 0)
2. 19.834[p] (0, -4) / (-5, -2) / (-4, -4) / (-3, 0) / (3, 0) / (-2, 0) / (6, -3) / (1, 0) / (-4, 0) / (-2, 0) / (-3, -4)
3. 14.716 (3, -1) / (-2, -2) / (6, 0) / (0, -3) / (-3, 0) / (3, 0) / (-1, -3) / (0, -3) / (3, -1) / (0, -2) / (0, -2) / (-1, 0) / (2, 0)
4. (22.507[p]) (-2, 0) / (-3, 0) / (0, -3) / (-1, -1) / (-2, -5) / (3, 0) / (0, -1) / (3, 0) / (6, -3) / (6, -4) / (6, -4) / (-4, -3) /
5. 17.825 (1, 0) / (3, 0) / (0, -3) / (0, -3) / (3, 0) / (-4, -1) / (-2, -3) / (3, 0) / (0, -3) / (4, 0) / (3, 0) / (6, -4) / (-4, 0) /
6. 14.950 (4, 0) / (0, 3) / (6, -3) / (-4, -4) / (3, 0) / (6, -2) / (0, -3) / (-2, 0) / (-4, 0) / (4, -3) / (-2, -3) / (4, 0) / (-1, 0)
7. 19.903 (0, 2) / (-2, 4) / (-1, -1) / (6, -3) / (3, -2) / (-3, 0) / (0, -1) / (-4, 0) / (0, -2) / (0, -5) / (2, -3) / (5, 0) / (0, -5)
8. 15.509 (4, 3) / (5, -4) / (6, 0) / (0, -3) / (-2, -2) / (-4, -3) / (0, -3) / (4, 0) / (5, 0) / (0, -5) / (4, -1) /
9. 18.132 (-3, -4) / (0, -3) / (0, -3) / (-2, -5) / (0, -3) / (3, -1) / (0, -3) / (5, 0) / (0, -3) / (0, -3) / (2, -2) / (-4, -4) / (-5, 0)
10. 18.971 (-5, 3) / (-1, -4) / (1, -2) / (2, -1) / (4, 0) / (3, 0) / (-3, 0) / (5, 0) / (1, 0) / (-5, -2) / (0, -1) / (-3, 0)
11. (12.556) (0, 5) / (-3, 0) / (3, 0) / (4, -5) / (0, -3) / (-4, -3) / (-3, 0) / (-2, 0) / (-1, -3) / (0, -4) / (-3, 0) / (-3, -2)
12. 17.720[p] (0, 5) / (-2, -5) / (0, -3) / (2, -1) / (4, 0) / (0, -3) / (-1, 0) / (-2, 0) / (2, 0) / (-3, 0) / (-2, 0) / (5, 0) / (2, 0) /
 
Almost three months of work, albeit not the most diligent work, and I just got my second successful blind solve! Thanks for all the help! I'll get one or two more, and start timing them and learn M2. This one was a scramble from csTimer, but I'm just laying in bed and held the cube under the blankets to solve. No time, but I think it was roughly 15 minutes.
 
Almost three months of work, albeit not the most diligent work, and I just got my second successful blind solve! Thanks for all the help! I'll get one or two more, and start timing them and learn M2. This one was a scramble from csTimer, but I'm just laying in bed and held the cube under the blankets to solve. No time, but I think it was roughly 15 minutes.
Congratulations . My first success was in bed too.
 
@Jason Green Nice average! more will come :)

I have another 2 sub 20 averages to edit I hope to get to it this week.

@One Wheel you'll get better fast, my first success was in a train in something like 20 minutes

@Logiqx I just can't hit the like button watching your average, Curious choice of methods you did there :P
 
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Well overall I would have to say a very disappointing competition for me as far as solves go. Looking through my results very little was on a par with home times currently. Nice singles for 3x3, Clock and Pyraminx but far too many nerves and far too many failed averages. Megaminx was really the only event where overall I matched my home averages and got a nice single too.

That aside, in all honesty the comp was so good and the company was so awesome this matters less to me that at any other comp. Was awesome to spend some time with you guys. Can't wait for the next one.

As you might have gathered we did get a photo of the 6 thread regulars there. The photo was taken by another cuber so will be sent over in due course to @Logiqx

@Logiqx - CFOPOP and CFOO :D Get them on the Wiki mate :) - And thanks for updating the ranking so quickly!

@pglewis - Think you might be on to something with the sapping of mojo!

@Lid - Fantastic Sq-1 average. Decided to start learning optimal Cubeshape myself, will go on the list for the next couple of month "To Do"

@Jason Green - Huge congratulations on the sub 20, well, well deserved :D
 
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@Logiqx, that was painful to watch - and judge! Such a departure from your awesome form at Guildford...

My mini comp report:-

I practised nothing but BLD in the weeks leading up to this, and I had goals in all four BLD events.

MBLD: my goal was 9/10 for a PB and a move up the rankings, but I got only 8/10. Post mortem earlier in the thread. It was nice to get a silver trophy for it though, and that makes a better memory than some transient ranking.

4BLD: practised this more than anything, and am averaging ~6:40 with maybe 50% success rate. On my first attempt, my memo deserted me half way through, and after sitting for over 3 minutes trying to recall it, I bailed out. Second attempt, I went carefully to try to ensure a success, and got 9:22. Third attempt, sped up and got a 7:29. Slower than at home, but official PB by almost 2 minutes, and another silver.

5BLD: am down to about 20 minutes at home, but DNF in both attempts here. My brain was getting tired.

3BLD: also done lots of practice and am around 1:20 at home, but with better times when I really focus, so my goal was sub-1:20. First solve was awful but I had been given Mark A's cube so got an extra attempt. I didn't notice until I was turning and the different feel really threw me. Second and third were OK, just not fast enough (1:28, 1:25). Watching the video, I really need to work on execution speed as well as memo. On one of them, U2 would have solved the top four corners, and if I had been able to think quicker I'd have done that and swapped the edges in memo. On the fourth (extra), I stumbled on edge memo, and since it was not going to be fast, I played it safe and went for the mean. 1:47 solve, 1:33 mean. Fully with corner comms so I think I can say I've completed that transition.

Speed events: Similar performance to usual, nothing remarkable. Finally got sub-7 average in 2x2 :)

Here's the 4BLD:-
 
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Quick rundown of the comp for me:

Friday
FMC. Just found a CFOP solution that would be a PB and concentrated on writing it down correctly. Triple-checked my notation and got my PB. About 35 minutes or so. Ended up finishing 6th after over half the competitors got a DNF.

Satuday
2x2. No practice since previous comp. Did bad. Wasn't fussed.
Pyraminx. Didn't get around to learning this. Would have done so on the Friday night if I hadn't already got a PB at FMC. This is more of a backup event that I register for to try to get a PB at each comp. (Streak is still alive at 9 competitions.)
4x4. Pop in the first solve as soon as I started on Hoya-Cross. There's no way I can rebuild a 4x4 in quick time, so I DNF'ed the attempt. Second attempt was about 1.5 seconds over my competition PB. Hoping to crack that at the next comp.
Clock. Literally messed up every attempt and got a DNF average. Best single was over 5 seconds longer than my competition PB. Missed opportunity.

Sunday
3x3. Started off OK but ended up with a counting 28s solve after my 5th solve was so screwy I inserted 6 F2L pairs, which messed up my aim of a PB average.
3x3 OH. Token effort giving an average first solve and a second solve that I gave up on.
3x3 BLD. Probably did memo in record time here, but no success. Off by a long margin.
5x5. My 5x5 cube went missing before the event, which is annoying but my own fault for not keeping it more secure. Borrowed a 5x5 from @Selkie (cheers guv) which worked smoothly. Second solve was within 3 seconds of my competition PB single. Still my favourite event.

Overall, I think I underperformed but I still managed to get a PB in something. Plus when I consider that at last year's UK Championships my 3x3 average was 53.81, I'm happy with the overall improvements I've made in the past 12 months.

Once again, great to see the Older Cubing gang. Think it will now be 2017 when I see most of you again, so enjoy the festive season, folks! :D
 
@mark49152 - Lovely 4BLD there Mark, gives me great motivation for my Christmas BLD project (although that is just to face my nemesis of 3BLD) and once again congratulations on 2 podiums. Uk Champ in an event next year? ;-)

@Logiqx - Was looking forward to seeing your 2x2 R1 video. Great solves and grats on reaching r2 :)

@Shaky Hands - You are more than welcome my friend. Did you Yuxin not turn up in the end? Disappointing when that happens! :(
 
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