Older cubers discussions

[40yearstosolve]

Sorry what I meant was any of the 3 basic cases. Same color on top, opposite colors on top, or white on top. It can be hard spotting the edge, I can relate when I try to be color neutral! This is probably what you do already, but I suggest finding a white corner, seeing what two other colors are on that corner (say red and blue), and then looking for the red and blue edge.

Yep I always start with the white corner then hunt the edge. But when I see someone do F2L in ‘seconds’ I can’t see how I can find an edge quick enough.

I am starting to lose the faith aren’t I.

It’s moments like these when your metal is tested.

Must. Try. Harder.

 

[40yearstosolve]

Actually, if I understand you, no. You can always create a desired "opposite colors" case (I and I think others call that the Separated Pairs case) by dropping down an edge, then bringing it up. And you can always "drop and then bring back" without permanently messing up a completed slot, by inserting appropriate U moves before the drop and before the bring. Make the first U so that the drop is into an available slot and so that the completed block on the same face slides along the bottom (will slide back later). This is one of the points in my earlier post.

Sorry that I can't make videos to explain. I could write down the alg (I never do, but could), but would also have to show you the starting state.

I guess I need to learn to make videos and/or graphics that I can post.

Thanks Tom - I think I should be the one to make the video and you can critique it.

I will persevere and arise again with hopefully less doldrums

 

[40yearstosolve]

FWIW, my current frustrations are pretty much the same as yours. My pauses to find the pieces I need are much shorter, but I'm still working to find things faster myself. Patience. Or failing that, stubbornness is a fair substitute.

And anger.

Seeing my frustration, my eldest (9) suggested I buy a spare cube we can throw at the wall and smash during times of F2L badness

 

[mark49152]

Yes, good luck everyone.
I've pretty much given up on getting a chance to compete which means my next MBLD will be WSM. It's a shame as I've been practicing for over 10 weeks to qualify for the UKs.
Was there a pre comp email?

Not that I noticed. Might have gone into junk mail though. Are you coming anyway? It's worth asking them anyway but don't get your hopes up because they've been pretty strict on registrations recently.

 

[CLL Smooth]

Decided after seven and a half years of cubing to go for CN. Got my first sub-20 Ao12 on a non-white/yellow cross. Only doing blue/green exclusively right now. Feels weird to regress 6 years.

 

[JanW]

Am I correct in thinking that with the ‘opposite colours’ scenario where ideally you would align the white block with its matching side that sometimes you cannot do this because of preserving the completed slots?

You can always preserve completed slots, because there is always at least one slot that is not commpleted - the one you are about to insert to.

That's one part where I don't agree with the F2L video I posted. He says always bring the corner piece on top of the corner you are about to insert to. That is bad, because with corner piece there, you cannot hide it without disturbing another slot. There's no need to move the U layer anywhere until you have located the corner and the edge. Once this is done, figure out how they need to be placed in relation to each other based on the case. Then turn U layer as necessary, so that you can hide the piece that needs to be hidden. If you want to insert to FR, the you will often want corner piece in FB so that you can hide it with an R move. And remember that both corner or edge can be hidden, depending on the case.

Like Old Tom said, it's all about doing one move that disturbs the cross, then one or more U moves, then restore the cross. You can scramble F2L by doing only moves like R - any U move - R', or R' - any U move - R, or same on left, with extra U moves in between and maybe a 90 degree cube rotation on Y axis every now and then. No matter how much you do this, the cross should still be preserved. I'd suggest you do scrambles like this while practicing F2L. That way you get used to the kind of moves you are supposed to do while solving F2L.

 

[pglewis]

And anger.

Seeing my frustration, my eldest (9) suggested I buy a spare cube we can throw at the wall and smash during times of F2L badness

"There will come a point, when polishing the mountain, that you will think, "Well, this is pointless. This is never going to be done." This is the mountain testing your resolve. It is of vital importance when this moment arrives, to stop, take a breath, and recommit to the joy of the moment and the simple act of polishing. Soon thereafter, the mountain will surrender."

 

[newtonbase]

Not that I noticed. Might have gone into junk mail though. Are you coming anyway? It's worth asking them anyway but don't get your hopes up because they've been pretty strict on registrations recently.

The pre comp email usually reminds people to notify them if they are not coming so I was hoping there would be one. I know there was a competitor on the waiting list for HWO who found out on the Saturday that he was allowed to come to day 2 so you never know.
i plan to get there by the lunch break and leave after MBLD. I'll judge if I can't compete.

 

[40yearstosolve]

"There will come a point, when polishing the mountain, that you will think, "Well, this is pointless. This is never going to be done." This is the mountain testing your resolve. It is of vital importance when this moment arrives, to stop, take a breath, and recommit to the joy of the moment and the simple act of polishing. Soon thereafter, the mountain will surrender."

I will print that out, superbly wise words and very much needed at this moment in time. Thank you my friend.

 

[Old Tom]

"There will come a point, when polishing the mountain, that you will think, "Well, this is pointless. This is never going to be done." This is the mountain testing your resolve. It is of vital importance when this moment arrives, to stop, take a breath, and recommit to the joy of the moment and the simple act of polishing. Soon thereafter, the mountain will surrender."

Exactly. Who wants it to be easy? Easy is boring. Polish away.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Question:

What is multi blind “old style”?

I noticed that on someone’s WCA history but can’t fogure out what it is, or rather, how it’s didferent from MBLD today.

 

[newtonbase]

Question:

What is multi blind “old style”?

I noticed that on someone’s WCA history but can’t fogure out what it is, or rather, how it’s didferent from MBLD today.

Originally you had to solve all of your cubes and there was no time limit.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Ahhh. Easily enough understood. I can see why they changed it to have a time limit. What was the record before they did the points system? I can’t imagine spending over an hour doing memo on 30+ cubes just to get a DNF for 1 twisted corner on a single cube...like 29 for 30 solved.

 

[Mike Hughey]

Not quite. (I had a 15/15 in multiBLD old style - a NAR.) There was a time limit of 10 minutes per cube, and for a while that was with the point system.

Also, even before my time, a full solve required 100% accuracy. But that had changed by the time I did my 15/15.

We changed to "new style" shortly after the great Ryosuke Mondo attempted 50 cubes in 6 hours.

I'm not sure what the record was before the point system appeared. I think it was obscured because of Matyas Kuti's record which was later invalidated. So you'd have to check all the data to find it.

 

[xyzzy]

Here's a list of all old-style MBLD results.

Not sure what the greyed out results (the bottom half of the list) mean. Are those supposed to be DNFs?

 

[Mike Hughey]

Ah! thanks for that!!

Yes, the grayed out ones at the bottom are DNFs. They were before the point system, when you needed 100% accuracy.

So then when I did my 15/15, if the old rule had still been in effect, I would have been world #2 at the time - only Tim Habermaas was above me!

You can see Matyas' 0/15 at the bottom. That was 15/15 and the world record before it got invalidated.

 

[40yearstosolve]

Exactly. Who wants it to be easy? Easy is boring. Polish away.

Yep, it was a great reminder to enjoy the learning.

And it also serves as a point of satisfaction when you show someone you can solve it.

And polishing together helps —my son just completed his first solve on his own - from memory, cribsheets slowly disappeared one by one over the weeks. We had a celebration Even though he’s nine it’s great to be able to bounce off each other.

Because because I am learning F2L his 2:38 is faster than me - and in fact on par with my previous fastest time! I sense trouble ahead :-D

 

[Mike Hughey]

At age 9, he's at an ideal age to become awesome at cubing. Prepare for him to sail past you.

But the good news is, you might be able to keep up with him a bit longer if you take up blindfolded solving - us oldies do better against the kids in blindfolded solving than we tend to do with speedsolving.

Unless your son turns out to be like @openseas 's son, that is.

 

[40yearstosolve]

At age 9, he's at an ideal age to become awesome at cubing. Prepare for him to sail past you.

But the good news is, you might be able to keep up with him a bit longer if you take up blindfolded solving - us oldies do better against the kids in blindfolded solving than we tend to do with speedsolving.

Unless your son turns out to be like @openseas 's son, that is.

He and I were discussing blindfold cubing after we both registered on WCAs website and you can select the categories. We couldn’t even imagine how it was possible, but agreed that after our experience of learning to cube that it would entirely be possible - it was just that we didn’t know how yet. Shows what confidence cubing can give. Amazing really when you think.

Ye @openseas kids, and wife, are amazing. What a great thing. I look forward to us both going to a comp. what made my son relax is that the time limit is 10 mins - that indicates how relaxed it is.

 

[SpartanSailor]

Still have 4x4 and 5x5 to go.... but....

3x3 was an absolute disaster. But 3BLD went well... 4:11 official solve.

Pushed my memo a little for the second attempt and ended with a DNF. HOWEVER, I had just enuff time to make a legit (pushed memo) 3rd attempt. Had some execution mistakes and tried to fix them during the solve. Would have been a DNF anyway, but I also hit my max cumulative time and so ran out of time.

Doesn’t matter what happens with 4x4 and 5x5 at this point. I came here to get a sub-5 BLD and that was my primary focus. I’m thrilled with my 4:11.