Weekly competition 2007-39 (2,3,3OH,4,5,BF,SQ1,MG,MMG,FMC,MM,PM,Relay)

[masterofthebass]

Dan Cohen

no warm-ups...

2x2x2
7.33, 6.36, (6.00), 6.63, (8.03) => 6.77
I guess my averages are consistent.

3x3x3
(18.31), 18.27, (16.69), 18.09, 17.55 => 17.97
Too many lockups. See Jack, we're still going at the same rate.

3x3x3 OH
33.25, (39.40), (28.38), 34.03, 35.03 => 34.10
I'm happy with this. I guess my 3x3 events are not good at competitions comparatively.

4x4x4
(1:06.86), 1:19.55 (P), 1:14.03 (OP), 1:21.86 (P), (1:23.77) (O) => 1:18.48
Started off pretty good, but then got bad.

5x5x5
(2:24.96), (2:05.44), 2:23.44, 2:23.33, 2:17.78 => 2:21.52
I haven't done a solve since Sat. I suck.

 

[rafal]

Rafal Guzewicz

3x3x3 BLD
Best: 1:09.71
Times: 1:09.71, 1:26.02

On the first solve I had a POP - one edge fell off and I was lucky to insert it correctly.

4x4x4 BLD
Best: 6:19.39
Times: 6:19.39, 9:43.66

On the second solve I forgot one word and spent time recalling it.

5x5x5 BLD
Best: DNF
Times: DNF(16:30), DNF(19:33)

First was off by 2 centers and on the second I made mistake at the end while going back with setup moves.

 

[deathbypapercutz]

Patricia Li

3x3
16.62, (17.38), 15.74, 16.92, (15.39) => 16.43

3x3 OH
34.40, (23.33), (35.40), 34.21, 35.31 => 34.64
YEAH!! 23.33 was an EASY F2L and a PLL skip. Too bad it couldn't count in the average...

 

[hdskull]

Sikan Li

3x3x3: (16.69), 18.50, 20.34, (21.76), 19.46 => 19.43
3x3x3 OH: 33.99, 26.15, (34.76), 30.02, (25.12) => 30.05
Good! 26 was PLL skip, 25 was an easy solve
3x3x3 BLD: 3:39.42, 4:21.20 => 3:39.42

 

[Erik]

Fewest moves: 36 moves

You are starting to get it Mike! After your 40 last week this is another nice improvement. Ís this adding some pressure for next week?

actually I used the same too I think, only from a different angle, after it WAS a bit obvious and easy to make that one... I'm bad at block building

 

[AvGalen]

Just to be clear about this:

You are not allowed to use (parts of) a solution that someone else found
You are allowed to find the same (part of) a solution that someone found
In case of doubt, the judge decides (that would be me) and I am a very tolerant judge so I don't think anyone has a problem so far.

 

[Erik]

Just to be clear about this:

You are not allowed to use (parts of) a solution that someone else found
You are allowed to find the same (part of) a solution that someone found
In case of doubt, the judge decides (that would be me) and I am a very tolerant judge so I don't think anyone has a problem so far.

I did #2

 

[masterofthebass]

The rest of my times

Square-1
46.83, (33.05), (56.84), 53.97, 38.96 => 48.57

Magic
(1.30), (1.33), 1.30, 1.33, 1.31 => 1.31
now that's consistency.

Master Magic
3.93, 4.78, (5.36), 5.05, (3.71) => 4.59
I need a new magic.

Megaminx
2:59.81, 2:54.71, (3.24.38), (2:48.09), 2:56.2 => 2:56.92

Pyraminx
12.83, (33.09), (8.97), 14.97, 14.11 => 13.97

Relay
4:06. 2:10 5x5, got to O parity at 3:15 and the rest was horrible.

---BLD---
2x2x2 => 43.25
47.63
43.25

3x3x3 => 2:36.46
2:36.46
DNF

 

[AvGalen]

I need to try harder with the "keyhole thing". It's a really big help sometimes, but I just generally have trouble seeing it - I probably don't look hard enough for it.

Try this (Polish Open 2007):
Scramble: D2 U' R D' U2 L' D' R2 B F2 R2 B' F L' D' B2 F2 D' U B2 F' D2 B2 D2 L2
2x2x3: x' F2 R U R B2 L D2
Cross + Disconnected pair (FL + DFR): F2
Disconnected pair (DFL + FR) using "Keyhole-thing": (D R U2 R' D') or (D U' R U' R' D') or (D U2 R' F R F' D')

Complete F2L in 13 moves!

 

[Mike Hughey]

Complete F2L in 13 moves!

That's just so pretty! Especially with the 3 different possibilities for continuation.

 

[AvGalen]

How would you have continued after the 2x2x3 block (7 moves)?

 

[Mike Hughey]

Assuming I would have been incapable of seeing your nice keyhole solution (which is probably a safe assumption, unfortunately), I probably would have come up with something like this, I'm ashamed to say:

2x2x3: x' F2 R U R B2 L D2
cross and setup: L F2 L'
3rd pair: R U R' L' U' L
4th pair: F' U2 F R U2 R'
OLL: y' R U2 R' U' R U' R'
PLL: U y F2 U' R' L F2 R L' U' F2

39 moves. And I probably would have been pretty happy with that. I guess it's just a matter of perspective.

I will definitely try harder with checking for keyhole solutions next week.

(By the way, I have tried teaching my daughters the keyhole method as a quick way to get faster at F2L. They seem to understand the concept, but they usually get lost when they actually try to do it themselves. Maybe with a few weeks practice...)

 

[Lucas Garron]

My 5 BLD attempts this week:
11:xx (off by 2 centers)
13:35 (success)
Untimed (success)
11:28 (off by 2 centers)
11:15 (off by 2 centers)

Those are pretty fantastic results. It's frustrating that I've been doing big cubes BLD for a couple of months longer than you and you're already twice as fast as me! Then again, you're twice as fast as me at 3x3x3 BLD too, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I first tried 4x4x4 BLD October '06...
But I got serious after Caltech Summer, where Chris Krueger tried it and I got a horrible DNF. And r2 came out.

It's interesting that you're off by 2 centers 3 times.

I got the next attempt
It's partly because I do the last 2 switch in the wron order or on the wrong pieces (or did everything else right but forgot to do oonly that, like today). But it's not always my mistake, I'm sure. I hope being aware of it will eliminate some DNF.
Without trying harder, my success rate has gone up phenominally, and I'm closer on DNF's. Visual memo has some advantages...

I just tried doing a sighted 4x4x4 "BLD" solve last night, going as fast as I could, without memorizing at all, and it took me 11:38 to do it...
Interestingly, the breakdowns on my "sighted BLD" 4x4x4 solve were:
orient the cube - 20 seconds
solve the corners - 2 minutes
solve the centers - a little over 3 minutes
solve the edges - 6 minutes!

• orient the cube+solve the centers - 2:04
• solve the edges - 2:22
• solve the corners - 0:41

Makes 5:07, about right. Centers are easier if you're allowed to move the cube around to figure out which commutator to use, although it's harder to pick an order (I used my old memo scheme).

Maybe I need to try M2 for the 4x4x4 instead of commutators.

Try r2. Unless you plan to beat Kuti, r2's pretty fast (little thinking, reasonable speed on most pieces).

 

[Erik]

Try r2. Unless you plan to beat Kuti, r2's pretty fast (little thinking, reasonable speed on most pieces).

Huh why is that? Matyi uses r2 too... after all: 'r2 is the way to do'

 

[tim]

Visual memo has some advantages...

name one!
with my memo system i have almost 100% accuracy, but i still make mistakes while memorizing/executing and my memo times are slow, but recalling is pefect

 

[Worms]

My times

2x2
1. 7,41
2. (5,32) PLL SKIP
3. (9,29)
4. 5,93 CLL
5. 6,61 PLL SKIP

Average-5: 6.65''

 

[Lucas Garron]

Visual memo has some advantages...

name one!
with my memo system i have almost 100% accuracy, but i still make mistakes while memorizing/executing and my memo times are slow, but recalling is pefect

I associate patterns very strongly, and most of the times I'm about to make a mistake (e.g. shoot the wrong piece), I feel queasy about. I avoid quite a few errors this way. Also, on 3x3x3, I almost completely visualize what cycle alg I will use (maybe this is why my memo is so slow?).
And anyhow, recall is, like, 99.8% for me. I can only remember one recall mistake in my attempts this week (>10 of them), and had to guess between two pieces.
I plan to learn a 2-letters scheme, though, like Hardwick's & Beyer's; it will really help for centers by the time I try 6x6x6 BLD.

Try r2. Unless you plan to beat Kuti, r2's pretty fast (little thinking, reasonable speed on most pieces).

Huh why is that? Matyi uses r2 too... after all: 'r2 is the way to do'

He does? I couldn't decide... It looks like he uses some other stuff (with D turns?). Maybe he uses r2 as a basic commutator system from different angles?
And yes, 'r2 is the way to do.' Beyer liikens it to a 3-look LL, but I don't think I'll ever switch, except on l- and r-slice pieces.
Anyhow, Erik: Have you gotten a successful solve yet? I have 5 and about three times as many solves off by 2 or 3 centers ...

 

[Erik]

No I haven't which would be logical cause since WC I haven't tried. It's so time consuming and brain-torturing that it's not really fun to try...

 

[Callum]

3x3x3
Average: 41.15
Times: (45.27), (33.34), 41.31, 41.55, 40.56

 

[philkt731]

Patricia Li

3x3
16.62, (17.38), 15.74, 16.92, (15.39) => 16.43

3x3 OH
34.40, (23.33), (35.40), 34.21, 35.31 => 34.64
YEAH!! 23.33 was an EASY F2L and a PLL skip. Too bad it couldn't count in the average...

Do you happen to be the Patricia Li from Cal that participated in Mathcounts in middle shcool?