What is solving the cross on the bottom?

[Zarxrax]

What do people mean when they say to solve the cross on the bottom? How exactly does this differ from solving it on top, and what is the advantage?

 

[Ellis]

well... I think it's pretty self explanatory. You solve the cross on the bottom rather than on the top. The advantage is not having to do a full rotation before you start working on the first 2 layers. Since you can only see part of the cube at any given time, it helps to have more unsolved pieces in your field of view rather than stuff you've already solved because it makes it less difficult to find the next piece you need.

 

[InternetTom]

The advantage is simply that it is better for look ahead for F2L and since it's on the bottom, you can jump right into F2L

 

[EmersonHerrmann]

You can look for your first F2L pair easier. Erik uses cross on top a lot (or all the time, I dunno) but he still owns

 

[byu]

well... I think it's pretty self explanatory. You solve the cross on the bottom rather than on the top. The advantage is not having to do a full rotation before you start working on the first 2 layers. Since you can only see part of the cube at any given time, it helps to have more unsolved pieces in your field of view rather than stuff you've already solved because it makes it less difficult to find the next piece you need.

Very well phrased. I agree completely

 

[AvGalen]

You can look for your first F2L pair easier. Erik uses cross on top a lot (or all the time, I dunno) but he still owns

But if Erik does cross on top he doesn't use a cube-rotation to put it at the bottom. He makes sure he ends the cross with an L2 or R2 move that he performs as r2 or l2. That also means that the pieces on the L or R side can already be used for look-ahead.