The fastest fingers competition

[TDM]

'normal' people

I think that's the first time anyone's said I'm normal. And also, I'm usually quite inefficient in speedsolves. I use 2 look OLL, don't know full PLL and have really bad crosses.

 

[MarcelP]

I am going for a sub 13 solve this time. Even if it takes me a thousand tries...

-initial time 22.87
-moves 59
-fastest, in progress

Spoiler

Scramble U F2 U' L2 F2 U' R2 D F2 U2 F' B2 D R' L2 B' L' F' R2 L' D' U2

x -- Blue cross
L' D' L R' B (6)
y L U' L' U R' U R Y' U R U R' (17)
y' U' R U' R' L U2 L'U L U' L' (29)
R U' R' U' y' R U R' U R U' R' (41)
y' R' U R' U' y x R' U' R2 B' R' B R' U R U x' (59)

Almost there

[video=youtube_share;CL0Z8cdsWAI]http://youtu.be/CL0Z8cdsWAI[/video]

 

[mark49152]

You first couple of pairs look inefficient - did you fix F2L to get the OLL skip?

 

[MarcelP]

You first couple of pairs look inefficient - did you fix F2L to get the OLL skip?

No, it's how I solved it the first time exacty. My initial 22 seconds was too good to ignore. I guess most of my solves are very inefficient. That's why I picked up FMC. FMC is fun and you run into much shorter solutions for pairs sometimes.

 

[mark49152]

You could probably improve your averages by a couple of seconds easily by working on efficiency....

 

[MarcelP]

Yeah, I know. But how do you go about and improve that?

 

[mark49152]

Yeah, I know. But how do you go about and improve that?

Study the cases, look for smarter solutions for each, learn some shortcuts, figure out how to avoid rotations, and do slow solves. It should take no more than 8 moves per pair on average. Most cases can be solved with two triggers (extract, AUF, insert). Some are not so obvious though - try out sledgehammers front and back, they are useful. Only the ones with both pieces stuck in a slot take more than one trigger to set up for insertion.

There are lots of F2L sites and I found it useful to study the algs for different cases, but I don't really remember them that way - it's just a good way to learn more about how F2L works.

I'm still slow though, despite all the effort

 

[MarcelP]

Yeah, I have been studying different F2L sites in the past. In the beginnings of my cube career I watched a video of Badmephisto and he said, shorter F2L pairings are not always the fastest. And there for I build up a total of 47 cases for my personal fastest way of pairing. They are in my ALG trainer.

 

[mark49152]

That's true to a point, but there's always more to learn with F2L. When I spent some time looking for better solutions to F2L cases, I found loads of ways to improve - not just shorter solutions, but ones from different angles, or that exploit empty slots, or avoid cube rotations, etc. IMHO there's more to learn about F2L than about any other step of CFOP.

 

[mark49152]

Let's have a go at reviving this competition, since it was good fun. Full instructions are in the first post of the thread, but to summarize: take the scramble and do a regular timed solve. Then prepare a solution to the scramble, which can be a different solution (faster or more efficient) if you like. Practice that solution as much as you want and see how fast you can get it. Post your results as follows:-

Round:
Initial time:
Prepared solution:
Fastest time:
Move count & TPS:

Here goes, good luck!

Round 7
Scramble: B L' D2 U B2 F2 U L B' L' U' L U R2 L2 F2 D2 F R2 L' U R2 B' U2 B'
Closing time: end of day this Friday 10th Jan 2014

 

[mark49152]

My entry:-

Round 7
Initial time: 27.30
Fastest time: 13.56 (after 30 attempts!)
Move count & TPS: 59, 4.35

Spoiler: Prepared solution

z2 // inspection
R' D B' D B' F' u' // cross, 7/7
R' F R F' R' U' R // pair#1 7/14
U' L U2 L' U L U L' // pair#2 8/22
U L' U2 L U2 L' U L // pair#3 8/30
U2 R U R' U' R U R' // pair#4 8/38
U R U R' U R U' R U R U2 R' // OLL double sune 12/50
l' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2 // PLL A-perm 9/59

My first few times on the prepared solve were 24.83, 21.43, 20.31, 18.79, 17.95, after which the next 25 were mostly in the 16-18 range, with the occasional faster one where I managed to avoid any kind of lock-up or catch. I found the cross a bit tricky to finger and with hindsight should have looked for a better one.

 

[Bindedsa]

Round 7
Initial time: 17.20
Fastest time: 9.89
Move count & TPS: 55 & 5.56

Spoiler: Solution

z2 y //Inspection
F' D R' U R' L' D' L R2 U' R' //Cross + First pair
D U L' U' L D' //second Pair
U2 L' U L U2 l' U L U' L' U' l //Third pair + edge orientation
U2 R' U2 R U R' //Fourth Pair + Oll skip + Cancellation of some of PLL
U' R U2 R' F R U R' U' R' F' R2 U' //Canceled R Perm

55 Moves

Goal was sub-10 so stopped after first one I got. Was fun, I'll probably do more.Cancelling the R-perm wasn't easy, Took a while to get used to it.

 

[Antikrister]

Round 7
Initial time: forgot...
Fastest time: 11.07s @ 11:th solve
Move count and turns per second: 64 turns 5.78 turns/s

I should work on doing more effecient solves... <.<

 

[Mike Hughey]

Round 7
Initial time: 23.15
Fastest time: 10.34 (56th attempt)
Prepared solution:

Spoiler

x2 y' F' R' U D R' D' R U' R' y2 R d R2 d' R2 U' L' U L R U R' U2 y' R U R' U2 R U R' U' L U L' R U R' U' R' F R F' L U2 L' U2 L F' L' U' L U L F L2 U2

Move count: 55 moves
TPS: 5.32

 

[Sajwo]

61 / 6.99 = 8.73 tps

 

[Bindedsa]

That round was supposed to end on the 10th of January.

Here is another:

Round 8
Scramble: L2 D' U2 F2 D L2 D' R2 F2 L2 B D L U2 F D' F U' R D2 U'
Closing time: end of day this Friday 28th March 2014

 

[Bindedsa]

Round: 8
Initial time: 14.183
Prepared solution:

Spoiler: Prepared Solution

Scramble L2 D' U2 F2 D L2 D' R2 F2 L2 B D L U2 F D' F U' R D2 U'

x2 y' // Inspection (0/0)
B' F' R2 U' R L U2 L' D' L2 U' L' D' // XXCross (13/13)
L U' L2 U2 L y' // Edge Orientation (5/18)
U R U' R' U L' U' L // Third Pair (8/26)
R U R' U2 R U' R // Fourth Pair (7/33)
U R2 D R' U2 R D' R' U2 R' // ZBLL (10/43)
U2 // AUF (1/45)

Fastest time: 7.675 (28TH Attempt)
Move count & TPS: 45 ETM & 5.90 ETPS

Not only is that Alg my standard COLL, but it wass also my standard OLL before I started using COLL, So I'm not sure if saying ZBLL is right. It was more of a predicted PLL skip. Also, I found shorter solutions, but This one flowed the best for me.

 

[mark49152]

That round was supposed to end on the 10th of January.

Yeah sorry, you were the only entrant, so I gave up! Nice to see a revival now. I'll give round 8 a go when I have time. Thanks!

 

[MarcelP]

Initial 18.19

Spoiler

Scramble: L2 D' U2 F2 D L2 D' R2 F2 L2 B D L U2 F D' F U' R D2 U'

x2 // hey there is a pair I can preserve
y2 // ok, let start here white on D and blue on F
R' U' L' F' L D2 // Yeah cross solved and pair preserved (5)
y U F' U F // 1FL or X-cross (11)
U' L U L' U L U' L' //2FL (19)
y U' R U R' U R U' R'// 3FL (28)
L U2 L' U2 L U' L' //4FL (35)
U F R U R' U' F' // OLL (42)
U2 Align
R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F' //PLL (57)

Somehow prepared solves make me slower.. I don't know is causing that..

Solve no 13 14.61 (3.9 TPS)
[video=youtube_share;eW6TEy8f5d0]http://youtu.be/eW6TEy8f5d0?t=37s[/video]

The bad news is that I can do my solves not much faster. I appearantly have no fast fingers. The good news is that my normal solves are almost as fast as my prepared solves.

 

[sneaklyfox]

Round 8
Initial time: 12.84
Fastest time: 9.37 (7th attempt, 59 moves, 6.3 TPS)

Didn't bother writing down my solution. I forget if that's mandatory for this race. I just did it the same way I did it the first time.