The blindfold race!

Javirk, I say go ahead and post what you were going to post. Clearly there is demand to go ahead and start, we're all anxious to :) Go ahead and post your first week scrambles, we can consider this first set that's already posted as a warm-up if you want.

I think that would be great if you'd just count this as a warmup; I just really felt like doing some BLD, and there were some scrambles! I would actually prefer there be more than 5 scrambles, just to make it that much more different from the weekly competition. I really liked Chris's original suggestion:
Best of n (where \( n \leq 12 \)) and you must successfully complete at least \( \lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil \) of your solves.
(I like that it allows those who only want to do a few solves to compete with those of us who want to do lots of solves.) But I will go along with whatever you guys decide if you want to do something different.
 
No, the first week scrambles are those because they are already posted, but on the next weeks, I will post them.
But, UberCuber, edit your message and wirte a big 1 on the top ;)

EDIT: this message was a reply to cmhardw, but Mike has pressed the "post" button first.
 
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No, the first week scrambles are those because they are already posted, but on the next weeks, I will post them.
But, UberCuber, edit your message and wirte a big 1 on the top ;)

EDIT: this message was a reply to cmhardw, but Mike has pressed the "post" button first.

k, put Round 1 at the top of my message.
I just posted them real quick when I saw Chris's request for scrambles because I wasn't sure exactly how long it would be before you came back online and posted in the thread. ;)
I also like Chris's idea of having 12 scrambles and making it the person's individual choice of how many to do. I think it would be a nice thing to try next round.
 
Best single: 46.19
Average of 5: 52.18

55.36
50.58
DNF 42.58
50.61
46.19

I shouldn't do BLD when I just wake up, I can't turn fast enough.
 
Everyone's accuracy is pretty nice - only one person so far has failed to get an average 3/5!

It's also interesting that so far, it doesn't matter whether you take averages or best singles - the ranking is exactly the same either way.

This bodes well for my prediction that, several years from now, it might really make sense to do averages 3/5 for competitions. I know everyone thinks I'm crazy now, but mark my words, someday you'll agree with me. :p
 
Wish I could participate immediately. The sad fact is that I have only recently started to learn BLD solving (with Old Pochman for Corners and M2 for edges) and have not yet attempted a full solve as I am not yet comfortable with the setup moves.

Can anyone share a bit of advice on setup moves? It seems that I cannot undo the move after performing the algorithm (Y-Perm or M2) even while looking at the cube.
 
Everyone's accuracy is pretty nice - only one person so far has failed to get an average 3/5!

It's also interesting that so far, it doesn't matter whether you take averages or best singles - the ranking is exactly the same either way.

This bodes well for my prediction that, several years from now, it might really make sense to do averages 3/5 for competitions. I know everyone thinks I'm crazy now, but mark my words, someday you'll agree with me. :p
I see why 3/5 has it's advantages, but although most people here are hitting successful averages, competition is another thing. Most people's accuracy decreases because of the added pressure (I for one know all about this!). I really think most people would have to slow down fairly significantly to get an average in competition, and therefore that would be a major disadvantage with it.
 
Wish I could participate immediately. The sad fact is that I have only recently started to learn BLD solving (with Old Pochman for Corners and M2 for edges) and have not yet attempted a full solve as I am not yet comfortable with the setup moves.

Can anyone share a bit of advice on setup moves? It seems that I cannot undo the move after performing the algorithm (Y-Perm or M2) even while looking at the cube.

Try doing a solve without thinking about what setup moves you are doing, do the moves to setup the case, and do the first ones that come to mind to reverse it. It just comes naturally to me as far as undoing 3-4 move setups goes.
 
Hmm..I have an idea. The problem with race threads is they kinda die over time as the thread starter or forum members get lazy to participate. There also seems to be different ideas on how the format of this BLD race should be. So to (hopefully) overcome these problems, I suggest a 'BLD Surprise Challenge' thread. Or '3x3 BLD Surprise Challenge', if you want it to be mainly on 3x3 (which I would prefer, since relatively few people can do bigger cubes BLD). The way this goes is:

1. Thread starter starts with his own format of challenge (avg12, mean of 2/5, etc) and provides scrambles
2. One week for members to post their times
3. Thread starter posts results
4. After results have been announced, ANY random member can be the next person who posts scrambles and decide on the next format of challenge (first come, first serve basis)
5. Repeat steps 2-5

I think it will be more interesting to have different formats each week and would encourage more people to participate. We can even come up with stupid rules like 'solve from a y2 away from your normal orientation' =p

How does it sound?

edit: another advantage might be that slower members can make a rule that is to their advantage so the same people don't win everytime, eg. 'Using Old Pochmann only'
 
Wish I could participate immediately. The sad fact is that I have only recently started to learn BLD solving (with Old Pochman for Corners and M2 for edges) and have not yet attempted a full solve as I am not yet comfortable with the setup moves.

Can anyone share a bit of advice on setup moves? It seems that I cannot undo the move after performing the algorithm (Y-Perm or M2) even while looking at the cube.

As you do hte setup moves, say in your head what you did. Such as (with Old pochmann)
D' L2 (then do T perm)

Now it's just a matter of inverting the D' L2. Which is L2 D. I don't think I have heard of people having problems undoing setup moves. Once you find the setup move it's quite easy to invert.
 
I see why 3/5 has it's advantages, but although most people here are hitting successful averages, competition is another thing. Most people's accuracy decreases because of the added pressure (I for one know all about this!). I really think most people would have to slow down fairly significantly to get an average in competition, and therefore that would be a major disadvantage with it.

I completely agree with you right now. But my theory (and the reason why I think it will change in several years) is that as people gain more experience, the experienced people will get where they almost never miss, even in competition. And the good people will really try not to ever miss in competition, even with the current format, because each solve is a chance for a good time. So, my theory is that several years from now, streaks like Clement's and Tim's will become commonplace, and it won't seem like such a crazy idea. It may still not happen, but I really think that people will think differently about this several years from now than they do right now.

And I like Amos's idea too.
 
Old PB was 3:09.80, so this was really good for me. Since I started keeping track, I've had a 45/90 success rate in 3x3 BLD. I only have 4 rooms so on the 5th solve I got images confused and did something wrong on the edges but wasn't sure how to fix it so I gave up. Would have been sub3 for sure if I'd recalled correctly.

4:05.03, DNF(3:14.67) - two flipped edges, 3:10.02, 3:01.55, DNF(gave up at 2:36) = DNF average :(

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edit: another advantage might be that slower members can make a rule that is to their advantage so the same people don't win everytime, eg. 'Using Old Pochmann only'

Personally I'd rather be able to practice normally instead of having a restriction given by somebody else. I'm trying to get faster at M2, so if I had to use old pochmann, it wouldn't really help me get faster as much. Just my opinion.
 
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2:47.09, 2:49.73[parity], 3:43.67

Have 3 rooms, only felt like doing 3. Thus only did 3 solves. 3rd had major memory recall issues.

Edit-Going along with trying new stuff out-could try switching up memo methods, aka if you do pure visual, try journey.
 
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