Older cubers discussions

[mafergut]

Last week, I have received a crazy octahedron (mars), and a bermuda cube (jupiter).

Yesterday I finally did a whole solve of the octahedron without it popping exploding.
On the good side, thanks to the multiple explosions and returns to a solve state, I have been able to find some commutators/cycles more easily. I will attempt a second solve tonight.
That was my first crazy puzzle, and I think I will buy a crazy 3x3 soon. That was very interesting.
Although the turning is awful and the popping is quiiiiiite annoying, I had a lot of fun.

The bermuda is a little bit more impressive… and the last part is hard to figure out for now…

I have the 8 crazy 333 plus planets and I'm enjoying them a lot. I have solved 6 of them already and done tutorials in my youtube channel (in Spanish sadly) for all of them. Just need to find some time to solve the other two. 100% recommended. Jupiter is very easy, though.

 

[mark49152]

I've also decided to try to switch to stickerless.

Well, my stickerless puzzles arrived. Question for all those who made the switch - how did it impact your recognition? I am finding my times are just the same. It doesn't seem to have slowed me down at all. However, I am making silly mistakes, like inserting the wrong pairs, and completely mis-recognising OLLs. How long did it take you to adjust? And did it have any impact on your recognition on stickered cubes?

 

[pglewis]

Well, my stickerless puzzles arrived. Question for all those who made the switch - how did it impact your recognition? I am finding my times are just the same. It doesn't seem to have slowed me down at all. However, I am making silly mistakes, like inserting the wrong pairs, and completely mis-recognising OLLs. How long did it take you to adjust? And did it have any impact on your recognition on stickered cubes?

When I made the switch I was still averaging over :40 and it wasn't much impact, in fact it felt like I recognized better on the stickerless after about a week. It'll be interesting to see how the adjustment goes for someone who has spent a lot more time speedsolving on stickered before switching but I'll randomly guess about a week or two before you no longer notice anything weird.

 

[Old Tom]

Well, my stickerless puzzles arrived. Question for all those who made the switch - how did it impact your recognition? I am finding my times are just the same. It doesn't seem to have slowed me down at all. However, I am making silly mistakes, like inserting the wrong pairs, and completely mis-recognising OLLs. How long did it take you to adjust? And did it have any impact on your recognition on stickered cubes?

For a "Slowsolver" like me (we need a new thread for that), took me only a day or two to adapt. I like the clean look, and, for my cube, the GAN 354, I especially like the speed (I'm still slow but a bit less so) and the smaller size (fits my hands really well).

 

[mark49152]

After a couple of hours, I seem to have pretty much adapted already. My OLL recognition is still a little more hesitant; I think perhaps the high-contrast black outline on a stickered cube helps me to recognise OLL shapes more quickly, especially misoriented pieces. Spotting pieces during F2L or edge pairing seems fine though.

I'm not sure how my 3BLD memo will be affected, as my 3x3 hasn't arrived yet. 4BLD seems OK but my memo is much slower for that anyway.

 

[newtonbase]

I find it quite easy to get used to stickerless cubes for blind and that other type of solving. I only prefer stickers for the grip they give.

I've just had a proper look at the schedule for the UK Championship and realised that I won't be competing at all on the Sunday. I'm not telling the wife.

 

[openseas]

I found it easier with stickerless in terms of recognition since there is one less color (black or white plastic)

 

[h2f]

I did 4bld today with time 7:20 but first solve was 6:17 off by 2 xcenters. Literally I had no time to pracitce in last month: I do only FMC. I did 15 4bld solves since Tuesday with 1/15 accuracy. I also did ao5 in OH 37.3 but I didnt do any practice for a year or more.

So I feel very happy about it. http://cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=3635&compid=61

 

[mark49152]

Nice one Grzegorz, great result, congrats!

 

[openseas]

I did 4bld today with time 7:20 but first solve was 6:17 off by 2 xcenters. Literally I had no time to pracitce in last month: I do only FMC. I did 15 4bld solves since Tuesday with 1/15 accuracy. I also did ao5 in OH 37.3 but I didnt do any practice for a year or more.

So I feel very happy about it. http://cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=3635&compid=61

Wow, great! Congrats!

 

[SpartanSailor]

I did 4bld today with time 7:20 but first solve was 6:17 off by 2 xcenters. Literally I had no time to pracitce in last month: I do only FMC. I did 15 4bld solves since Tuesday with 1/15 accuracy. I also did ao5 in OH 37.3 but I didnt do any practice for a year or more.

So I feel very happy about it. http://cubecomps.com/live.php?cid=3635&compid=61

Well done!

 

[JohnnyReggae]

After a couple of hours, I seem to have pretty much adapted already. My OLL recognition is still a little more hesitant; I think perhaps the high-contrast black outline on a stickered cube helps me to recognise OLL shapes more quickly, especially misoriented pieces. Spotting pieces during F2L or edge pairing seems fine though.

I'm not sure how my 3BLD memo will be affected, as my 3x3 hasn't arrived yet. 4BLD seems OK but my memo is much slower for that anyway.

Initially I had the same problems you describe, but they settled quite quickly and recognition actually became easier with stickerless. I find now when I try my stickered cubes that my recognition is off and it takes a few solves to get back into.

For me another plus of stickerless is the feel of the cube on the fingers and secondly the turning feel is different on stickerless vs their stickered counterparts.

 

[mark49152]

Having spent some more time with them, I've concluded what my problem was with stickerless cubes. Centres, F2L, edge pairing and PLL recognition were all fine. The only thing that gave me persistent trouble was OLL, and that is the only scenario in which we have to recognise more complex patterns/shapes of a single colour, as opposed to recognising pieces or simple patterns of different colours. I think my brain had wired itself to recognise OLLs as spatial arrangements of little squares with black outlines, and was initially thrown on stickerless cubes when the U face pattern looked more like a contiguous block of colour.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I've had a good day. New 5BLD PB in competition, and I even got a mean! Finally!

Edit: I guess I should also mention I came second place to Stanley Chapel, who set a new world record with 3:34!!

 

[Old Tom]

I've had a good day. New 5BLD PB in competition, and I even got a mean! Finally!

Edit: I guess I should also mention I came second place to Stanley Chapel, who set a new world record with 3:34!!

Wow to both you and Chapel!

 

[mark49152]

I've had a good day. New 5BLD PB in competition, and I even got a mean! Finally!

Edit: I guess I should also mention I came second place to Stanley Chapel, who set a new world record with 3:34!!

Wow Mike, that's a big margin of improvement. And, both 4BLD and 5BLD means too! Not to mention a decent MBLD result. A good day indeed.

 

[openseas]

I've had a good day. New 5BLD PB in competition, and I even got a mean! Finally!

Edit: I guess I should also mention I came second place to Stanley Chapel, who set a new world record with 3:34!!

Congrats!

You just swept the all BLD 2nd place! Big congrats!

 

[CLL Smooth]

Having spent some more time with them, I've concluded what my problem was with stickerless cubes. Centres, F2L, edge pairing and PLL recognition were all fine. The only thing that gave me persistent trouble was OLL, and that is the only scenario in which we have to recognise more complex patterns/shapes of a single colour, as opposed to recognising pieces or simple patterns of different colours. I think my brain had wired itself to recognise OLLs as spatial arrangements of little squares with black outlines, and was initially thrown on stickerless cubes when the U face pattern looked more like a contiguous block of colour.

I had the same problem when I switched. I’d constantly be messing up OLL. I use OLLCP on a large percentage of my OLLs, so i has that to contend with but it was obvious when I switched back and didn’t have the problem. I go back and forth pretty frequently now so it’s not much of a bother.

 

[Mike Hughey]

I'm finally back so I can say more about the day. It started well with 3 4BLD attempts that got better each time - not a PB single or mean, but still quite a respectable result, and a good start to the day.
Then I did feet, and got my first average under the new rules, so now I have an average of 5 instead of just a mean of 3. It still feels weird to me to use hands to inspect.
Then i did 5x5x5; my first solve was 3 seconds from the cutoff; my second solve was going really fast, but then I somehow forgot one of the last edges algorithms and had to start over. :-( So no average for me there.
Then 3BLD, where I did nothing spectacular, but still a couple of decent solves. The one DNF was a completely scrambled cube that was in the wrong orientation when I finished - I must have misoriented it in the middle.
After lunch came 5BLD, which was fantastic - obviously the highlight of my day! Everything was just clicking for me, and I knew it was going well. My new PB was the second solve - the same one Stanley set the WR on. It was a little easier than normal, with somewhat better centers than average without reorienting, but it wasn't spectacularly easier than normal. Anyway, it's so good to finally get a 5BLD mean; I've wanted one for over a decade!
Next came megaminx, which was comically heartbreaking - I got a 2:15.21, followed by a 2:15.19. The cutoff was 2:15. !&@*#($*%^
Then came multiBLD - I got 12 of 14. On one of the cubes, I actually fully recalled the corners, then remembered I was supposed to do edges first, so I did those first, then forgot to go back and do the corners. Once I saw it afterwards, I picked it up and closed my eyes and flew through the corners without a pause - I knew it - if only I had remembered to do it! The other one seems to have been a mismemorization - it was off by 3 edges.
Next came Clock. On the second solve, I solved everything pretty fast - would have been fast enough to give me a 16 second average - but then the judge noticed I had solved everything to 3 o'clock. :-( So I had to do a safe solve on the third one when it went badly, so I had a counting 24.
Finally 3BLD round 2. I was honestly fried by this time; I'm happy I got the 1:33. On the last solve I took too long to memorize the edges and so I forgot the corners and gave up. On the first solve, I was rushing and apparently introduced an extra turn somewhere - it was off by 4 edges and 4 corners.

So overall in BLD today I solved 21 out of 26 cubes; not bad! If only I weren't so inaccurate at 3BLD!

 

[openseas]

I'm finally back so I can say more about the day. It started well with 3 4BLD attempts that got better each time - not a PB single or mean, but still quite a respectable result, and a good start to the day.
Then I did feet, and got my first average under the new rules, so now I have an average of 5 instead of just a mean of 3. It still feels weird to me to use hands to inspect.
Then i did 5x5x5; my first solve was 3 seconds from the cutoff; my second solve was going really fast, but then I somehow forgot one of the last edges algorithms and had to start over. :-( So no average for me there.
Then 3BLD, where I did nothing spectacular, but still a couple of decent solves. The one DNF was a completely scrambled cube that was in the wrong orientation when I finished - I must have misoriented it in the middle.
After lunch came 5BLD, which was fantastic - obviously the highlight of my day! Everything was just clicking for me, and I knew it was going well. My new PB was the second solve - the same one Stanley set the WR on. It was a little easier than normal, with somewhat better centers than average without reorienting, but it wasn't spectacularly easier than normal. Anyway, it's so good to finally get a 5BLD mean; I've wanted one for over a decade!
Next came megaminx, which was comically heartbreaking - I got a 2:15.21, followed by a 2:15.19. The cutoff was 2:15. !&@*#($*%^
Then came multiBLD - I got 12 of 14. On one of the cubes, I actually fully recalled the corners, then remembered I was supposed to do edges first, so I did those first, then forgot to go back and do the corners. Once I saw it afterwards, I picked it up and closed my eyes and flew through the corners without a pause - I knew it - if only I had remembered to do it! The other one seems to have been a mismemorization - it was off by 3 edges.
Next came Clock. On the second solve, I solved everything pretty fast - would have been fast enough to give me a 16 second average - but then the judge noticed I had solved everything to 3 o'clock. :-( So I had to do a safe solve on the third one when it went badly, so I had a counting 24.
Finally 3BLD round 2. I was honestly fried by this time; I'm happy I got the 1:33. On the last solve I took too long to memorize the edges and so I forgot the corners and gave up. On the first solve, I was rushing and apparently introduced an extra turn somewhere - it was off by 4 edges and 4 corners.

So overall in BLD today I solved 21 out of 26 cubes; not bad! If only I weren't so inaccurate at 3BLD!

@Mike Hughey / This is amazing! Do you know how rare to have both 4BLD and 5BLD mean in the same competition?
It happened only 46 times (3657 people & rounds) --> 1.2%. I don't know whether I'll ever have a success in 5BLD but definitely it is one of my dream