What has happened in the last 3 years?

[ThomasJE]

So, I've been away from speedcubing for about 2½ years now, for many reasons (the main ones being college, and me deciding to get more into chess). A few friends at college started speedcubing, and so I've returned to cubing a bit because of that.

But I have no idea what has happened over the last few years. So, I am asking the question here: what have I missed in the past few years? Or, what has remained the same over these years?

To give you an idea of where I was when I was last here, Feliks had set the first sub-7 3x3 average in competition, MoYu cubes were all the rage (I think the AoLong had just come out), and Worlds had just happened in Vegas. Skewb had also just become official, and Rubiks/Seven Towns decided to wage war on everyone (Dayan and someone else mainly iirc).

What are the new cubes? Has a new company taken over as the top producer? What about cubers; is it still Feliks at the top or has someone else risen up? And anything else that I missed that was a major event?

 

[rumarfer28]

For the WR and official results, better look at this:
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/events.php
Feliks is still the best, that will never change XD
The main events are still the same.

And now we have a lot of hardware to choose... there are so many 3x3 that at least 5-10 cubes could be anyone's main. The aolong v2 is still one of them though, so the improvement are very slightly.
Qiyi has taken over Moyu on side events like mega or sq1 (for sq1 it's almost the only one), and their pyra and skewb are slightly better too.
For big cubes like 4x4-6x6, the best ones are (in no particular order): cyclone boys 4x4 (even the 5x5), yuxin 4x4-5x5-6x6, and Moyu's from 4x4 to 7x7.
For 2x2 Dayan is still the best

 

[Daniel Lin]

Maskow still has MBLD WR.

But Feliks broke his own 3x3 average

 

[ThomasJE]

For the WR and official results, better look at this:
https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/events.php
Feliks is still the best, that will never change XD
The main events are still the same.

And now we have a lot of hardware to choose... there are so many 3x3 that at least 5-10 cubes could be anyone's main. The aolong v2 is still one of them though, so the improvement are very slightly.
Qiyi has taken over Moyu on side events like mega or sq1 (for sq1 it's almost the only one), and their pyra and skewb are slightly better too.
For big cubes like 4x4-6x6, the best ones are (in no particular order): cyclone boys 4x4 (even the 5x5), yuxin 4x4-5x5-6x6, and Moyu's from 4x4 to 7x7.
For 2x2 Dayan is still the best

Cyclone Boys; I remember those sort of, I don't think that they were that big though a few years ago. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine has their 2x2 (the stickerless one, I guess still banned in competition?)

I vaguely remember Dayan's 2x2 coming out and it being good, my Lubix WitTwo is still my only 2x2 I have. Maybe I should upgrade that if I get serious again...

Maskow still has MBLD WR.

But Feliks broke his own 3x3 average

And I see the average was broken recently. Who would have thought after being stuck on 7.08 single for 2 years, we would have an average well below that? (And an OH single)

And also another 2x2 single record, still 4 moves or did we get a 3 mover that will remain for a few years?

What about any new shops out there?

 

[One Wheel]

Cyclone Boys; I remember those sort of, I don't think that they were that big though a few years ago. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine has their 2x2 (the stickerless one, I guess still banned in competition?)

Stickerless cubes are competition legal, as of about a year ago. Very few new cubes are coming out in only stickered versions anymore, and a few models I believe are only available in stickerless.

 

[DGCubes]

And also another 2x2 single record, still 4 moves or did we get a 3 mover that will remain for a few years?

What about any new shops out there?

3-movers aren't comp-legal, but it was a 4-mover.
As far as new shops, Cubes4Speed has gotten pretty big recently. Can't think of any others off the top of my head, mainly because I can't remember when all of the different shops started.

 

[1973486]

And also another 2x2 single record, still 4 moves or did we get a 3 mover that will remain for a few years?

3 moves is illegal. 4 move QTM 2 gen

 

[shadowslice e]

We got the first sub-5 official single recently which was by Lucas Etter who did a 4.90 single. It was actually quite an eventful comp as if you can find the thread you'll know what I'm talking about.

Feliks is still the only one who has sub-7 averages on 3x3 and he is pretty dominant though it seems he is even more dominant at other events now: especially 5x5.

Most of the events seem to have pretty goid hardware now possible thanks to the emergence of Yuxin and Qiyi who have released their own cubes which are generally better than the Moyu cubes for the side events though Moyu seems set on changing that in the near future and it seems hopeful that we may end up with situations like we have in 3x3 where many cubes are all equal and the "best" is simply down to personal preference.

In terms of methods, EG, CFOP and Yau are still the most commonly used methods though as always there are some using other methods such as Roux and ZZ though petrus seems to have mostly fallen out of favour with there now being more a "Big 3" as opposed to 4. On 4x4 Meyer and Hoya seem to be gaining a little ground. There haven't really been any breakthroughs in terms of method creation (not since feliks revealed his Zeroing techniques a couple of years ago anyway).

The community still seems to be growing and there are quite a few newer cubers who seem poised to challenge for a few records sooner or later.

The events have remained the same (I think) though feet seems to be losing fans (I don't even think it is being held at US nats) while others such as megaminx seem to be gaining them.

 

[ThomasJE]

Stickerless cubes are competition legal, as of about a year ago. Very few new cubes are coming out in only stickered versions anymore, and a few models I believe are only available in stickerless.

Ooh, I guess the WCA has changed their mind (I remember them being allowed for BLD, then being disallowed completely, now they're allowed). Are we doing times to 3 d.p. now, or still truncating them to 2 with the Pro stackmat timer?

3-movers aren't comp-legal, but it was a 4-mover.
As far as new shops, Cubes4Speed has gotten pretty big recently. Can't think of any others off the top of my head, mainly because I can't remember when all of the different shops started.

3 moves is illegal. 4 move QTM 2 gen

Cubes4Speed are not shipping in Europe Prices still seem pretty cheap though, is this because of the larger competition in the market?

And 3 movers are illegal (possibly that hasn't changed), any reason why 4 was chosen?

We got the first sub-5 official single recently which was by Lucas Etter who did a 4.90 single. It was actually quite an eventful comp as if you can find the thread you'll know what I'm talking about.

Feliks is still the only one who has sub-7 averages on 3x3 and he is pretty dominant though it seems he is even more dominant at other events now: especially 5x5.

Most of the events seem to have pretty goid hardware now possible thanks to the emergence of Yuxin and Qiyi who have released their own cubes which are generally better than the Moyu cubes for the side events though Moyu seems set on changing that in the near future and it seems hopeful that we may end up with situations like we have in 3x3 where many cubes are all equal and the "best" is simply down to personal preference.

In terms of methods, EG, CFOP and Yau are still the most commonly used methods though as always there are some using other methods such as Roux and ZZ though petrus seems to have mostly fallen out of favour with there now being more a "Big 3" as opposed to 4. On 4x4 Meyer and Hoya seem to be gaining a little ground. There haven't really been any breakthroughs in terms of method creation (not since feliks revealed his Zeroing techniques a couple of years ago anyway).

The community still seems to be growing and there are quite a few newer cubers who seem poised to challenge for a few records sooner or later.

The events have remained the same (I think) though feet seems to be losing fans (I don't even think it is being held at US nats) while others such as megaminx seem to be gaining them.

I heard about the 4.90 single, new world records are usually reported through more mainstream media. I remember Roux making a big popularity boost after Alex Lau went 3rd fastest in the world with it (go Brits!). Nice to see ZZ becoming more popular (my method), is asmallkitten still the fastest ZZ user or has someone else come up who is faster?

Hoya I remember looking at a tutorial, but I've stuck with my 32223 build rings (keeps me around 1:30 average). I'm still using the MoYu WeiSu for 4x4. I remember feet dwindling in popularity before I went, nice to see Megaminx rise up in terms of popularity.

 

[AlphaSheep]

Nice to see ZZ becoming more popular (my method), is asmallkitten still the fastest ZZ user or has someone else come up who is faster?

Simon Kalhofer was the first to take ZZ officially sub-10 last year, but Andy Huang now has the fastest official ZZ average - 9.14 seconds.

 

[gateway cuber]

A new method called ZZ-CT was created recently and it is a variant of ZZ that forces an LL-skip every time but only has 36 cases (not including mirrors) and they are all around 7-9 moves. the statistics are insane, you can get legit LL skips 1 out of 300 and something solves and 33% of the time the entire solve is 2-gen after EO-Line.

As for the best cubes:

3x3: Yuexiao, GTS, Thunderclap, Gans 356s V2, and Aolong V2

2x2: WeiPo, Dayan

4x4: Guansu and Aosu

5x5: Yuxin, Bochuang GT

6x6: Yuxin

7x7: Aofu GT

skewb: Moyu

Pyra: Moyu

Square-1: qiyi, Moyu

Clock: LingAo, Rubiks

OH: Mini-Zanchi, Mini-Aolong

Megaminx: Aurora, Galaxy, Yuhu R

Important WRs

3x3 Single 4.90 Lucas Etter

3x3 Avg 6.45 Feliks

4x4 Single 21.?? Feliks

4x4 Avg 26.?? Sebastian Weyer

2x2 single 0.49 by I cant spell his name

2x2 Avg 1.51 Lucas Etter

5x5 Single And Avg 44 and 49 by Feliks

6x6 single 1:33 something Kevin Hays

6x6 Avg 1:41 something Feliks

7x7 2:20 single feliks

7x7 2:20 something avg feliks

skewb 1.10 Jonathan Klosko

skewb Avg 2.76 I cant spell his name

Pyra Single 1.32 Drew Brads

Pyra Avg 2.14 Drew Brads

OH single 6.88 Feliks

OH avg 10.87 Feliks

Bld single 21.?? Kaijun Lin

Bld mean 24.?? Kaijun Lin

Multi 41/41 in 50: something

mega single 35.something

mega Avg 40.something

clock single 3.something

clock avg I don't know

4BLD 2:02.?? Oliver Frost

5BLD 5:3Something.?? Roman Strakhov

Lucas etter was the national champion this year

the cubicle still dominates the market tho cubes4speed is pretty good too

Feliks is still the best all around cuber

Kevin Hays is back

and that's basicly what's happened since you left...

 

[Matt11111]

Feliks defended his world championship and won again in 2015.

 

[1973486]

A new method called ZZ-CT was created recently and it is a variant of ZZ that forces an LL-skip every time but only has 36 cases (not including mirrors) and they are all around 7-9 moves. the statistics are insane, you can get legit LL skips 1 out of 300 and something solves and 33% of the time the entire solve is 2-gen after EO-Line.

Who even uses this?

Important WRs

3x3 Single 4.90 Lucas Etter

3x3 Avg 6.45 Feliks

4x4 Single 21.?? Feliks

4x4 Avg 26.?? Sebastian Weyer

2x2 single 0.49 by I cant spell his name

2x2 Avg 1.51 Lucas Etter

5x5 Single And Avg 44 and 49 by Feliks

6x6 single 1:33 something Kevin Hays

6x6 Avg 1:41 something Feliks

7x7 2:20 single feliks

7x7 2:20 something avg feliks

skewb 1.10 Jonathan Klosko

skewb Avg 2.76 I cant spell his name

Pyra Single 1.32 Drew Brads

Pyra Avg 2.14 Drew Brads

OH single 6.88 Feliks

OH avg 10.87 Feliks

Bld single 21.?? Kaijun Lin

Bld mean 24.?? Kaijun Lin

Multi 41/41 in 50: something

mega single 35.something

mega Avg 40.something

clock single 3.something

clock avg I don't know

4BLD 2:02.?? Oliver Frost

5BLD 5:3Something.?? Roman Strakhov

How about you save yourself some time and just link the world records list?

 

[Berd]

Where abouts in the UK are you located?

 

[guysensei1]

and 33% of the time the entire solve is 2-gen after EO-Line.

Unless ZZ-CT forces an EOXXcross or something I don't think the solve has that probability of being 2gen after EOline. Heck, even if it did force an EOXXcross I don't think it will be 33%

 

[JanW]

Unless ZZ-CT forces an EOXXcross or something I don't think the solve has that probability of being 2gen after EOline. Heck, even if it did force an EOXXcross I don't think it will be 33%

I read somewhere 1/6 algs are 2-gen and 1/6 are 2-gen with a cube rotation. This is where the 33% claim comes from. Only applies to the last slot algs though, not entire F2L.

 

[gateway cuber]

Unless ZZ-CT forces an EOXXcross or something I don't think the solve has that probability of being 2gen after EOline. Heck, even if it did force an EOXXcross I don't think it will be 33%

I read somewhere 1/6 algs are 2-gen and 1/6 are 2-gen with a cube rotation. This is where the 33% claim comes from. Only applies to the last slot algs though, not entire F2L.

I don't understand the ins and outs of the method but there's a thread on it and there's a recorded seminar on the cubicles youtube that goes into some detail.

 

[Tao Yu]

Nice to see ZZ becoming more popular (my method), is asmallkitten still the fastest ZZ user or has someone else come up who is faster?

Hyeon Kyo Kyoung is pretty fast at ZZ now, and has the YTUWRs, but some people say that he doesn't really use ZZ because he does EOcross and doesn't really blockbuild. He might or might not be the fastest ZZ solver right now, I'm not sure what he averages globally.

I am now the fastest Petrus solver

ZZ-CT is certainly an interesting development in the ZZ method. If ZZ is your main method, you should definitely check it out. It's true that not many people use it at the moment, but from what I've seen, it's attracted a lot more attention than any other new method that has come out recently. Usually, when a new method is released, people say it's cool and nobody learns it. I have seen a lot of people saying that they want to learn ZZ-CT however (In fact, I'm learning it myself).

It's not quite true that there are only 36 cases to learn, and that they are all 7-9 moves though. I would recommend looking at the official release thread and the seminar for all of the correct information