Zagros' Progression (all WCA events)

[Zagros]

All new 3x3 pbs from ao12 up, including 11.81 ao12, 12.79 ao100, 12.95 ao500. I clearly average sub-13 now, but as it is cutting it close I still have tons of ao5s that are over 13s, so I hope to improve even more to 12.5 or so by the time my comp comes so I can be secure in getting sub-13 even if I am a little unlucky.

I also was really struggling with clock inspection. If I rush my memorization it takes about 14s, which doesn't even give time to start the timer, to be comfortable doing it in comp I would need to be able to sub-10 memorization for sure. So I have developed a new method where I don't have to add any numbers and instead just glance at the clock face and imagine it moves a certain amount, then move the next face based on where it lands. I believe once I get used to it this method will be faster, and it has the added benefit that it's entirely a visual analysis so I don't really have to think anything, which is nice because keeping a running tally of a number in my mind made it harder to remember the previous memorization.

I have elected to not learn some of the square-1 EPs I was planning on learning due to the fact that just solving with two adj/adj is the same amount of slices as the alg. So accounting for that, I only have four left to learn. Which means it's almost time to get on the cubeshape grind. I don't really think that will be very fun for me. I'm also still just really slow at this puzzle. Not sub-30 yet. Cubeshape not taking me a random time between 5-15s will probably help that.

 

[Zagros]

I would like to inform everyone that pyra algs are so useful. Seriously, so many people learn all these algsets for 2x2 while just using the same L4E forever, but there's so many very small algsets to learn that are immediately useful. I've learned some of the sets for last layer if the first layer isn't fully correct, and I use them ALL the time. I can one-look like 2x as many solves now. Like you will see these hard V scrambles that are 2 turns to one of these algs all the time, it's insane. There are more I want to learn that I can't find anywhere so I'm genning them myself, might share later.

anyway I also have gotten 12.64 ao100 on 3x3 and 6.52 ao100 on skewb, so I'm getting faster at both. Feeling pretty good, for a bit it felt like I was at a plateau around 13s, but I can definitely get faster.

 

[Zagros]

I got a PB single of 7.68, with my first last layer skip ever! I am unable to reconstruct it, could potentially have misscrambled but also there isn't an obvious cross and I'm not even sure which color I did. The F2L wasn't very good, I was watching a stream and distracted when it happened. I didn't realize or process that it was an LL skip right away. I kinda predicted the OLL skip during my last pair (and I had gotten a few OLL skips recently, so I took it in stride) so I was immediately ready for PLL, saw the PLL skip, and was like that's cool. It took me a second to be like wait... that was an LL skip! Kinda pleased to have my first big lucky 3x3 single, my PB single has been creeping down on barely lucky solves that just had good execution, very cool to finally get a breakthrough on a lucky solve, and sub-8! I also got three other sub-9s today, one being my best fullstep ever, so even though this was dumb luck, I'm still killing it on the singles in general.

Since I can't reconstruct the 7.68, here is a reconstruction of my best fullstep:
Scramble: F2 D' U2 R2 U2 F2 R2 B2 U F2 R F' U' L' F2 L U B D U'
Inspection: y'
XCross: R2 U L F' R
F2L2: U2 y' L U L'
F2L3: U L' U' L U' L' U L
F2L4: y' R' U' R U' R' U R
OLL: U' r U R' U r' F R F'
PLL: U' R' U' F' R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' U R
Time: 8.51 seconds
52 moves, 6.11 tps
Idek how the solve was this fast, F perm is a pretty long PLL, and since from that angle I can't see the block, it took a little pause to recognize it too. And there were rotations, so not like it was super smooth. The only really good thing about the solve was a nice xcross with the 2nd pair planned, solves like this make me feel like I have potential to be so much faster, cuz how did I do that so fast? Also I don't reconstruct every sub10 so I can't be sure, but this is likely my first solve over 6tps ever.

 

[Zagros]

New records in a lot of events:
3x3 11.11 ao5, 12.20 ao25, 12.86 ao500
Pyraminx 1.54 single, scramble: B' R' L U' B R U L l' b u'
Megaminx 1:09.84 single, 1:18.94 ao5

On square-1 I am finished with my EP learning. I also got a 23.85 best ao5.
On clock, I am really just grinding 7-simul memo to be able to do it fast enough. I don't really time many solves, I mostly time my memo, then execute untimed to see if I got it right. My best memo time is 10.46, and I finally got my first non-dnf ao12 with competition legal inspection. At this point I'm sub-15 every time, but I don't think that's enough. They might start the timer as they pull the cover and it takes me a few tenths of a second to pick it up, I will have to check orientation before starting, I need to account for the 8s and 12s announcement distracting me, I need to have time to balance the clock on its side, and I have to prime the timer before starting, not totally sure how long that takes but I think around 1s. I don't know how these clockers finish their memo before 8s, it seems so impossible! Like my eyes can't flit between the faces any faster! It's so ridiculously challenging. As far as my actual clock times, haven't really pushed much since my memo is so precarious. But solving carefully I can easily sub12, and maybe I can sub11 or even sub10 a lot of solves if I go fast.

 

[Zagros]

I'm really breaking through on 3x3 right now, today I got a 12.39 ao100! I don't know how I'm getting so good - I went from averaging 13.10-13.20 and creeping down by a hundredth of a second at a time trying to get sub-13, to somehow skyrocketing down to sub-12.5 in a few days! The progress feels good, to me sub-12 is entering the next tier of speed and I know I will make it there.

Also, I finished all CLL! Such a good feeling to know I'll always know the case now. Hopefully since my learning is complete I will be able to spend the next few days practicing them and learn to recognize every case very quickly. I need quick recognition speed since with only CLL, I am not able to one-look every solve, as sometimes a layer is a little harder to make than just a face. Interestingly I find that I can easily predict OLL by tracking the pieces and I can do it in well under 15s (I have been doing that every solve with ortega since forever) but it's just remembering the colors on the other sides of the piece that I tracked and connecting them to the case that make it so hard. I have the hope that when I get every case more ingrained in me, that will naturally become easier.

 

[SpeakCuba]

I'm really breaking through on 3x3 right now, today I got a 12.39 ao100! I don't know how I'm getting so good - I went from averaging 13.10-13.20 and creeping down by a hundredth of a second at a time trying to get sub-13, to somehow skyrocketing down to sub-12.5 in a few days! The progress feels good, to me sub-12 is entering the next tier of speed and I know I will make it there.

Yep, that happens, at least to me, as well. It does feel really good, so congrats!

Also, I finished all CLL! Such a good feeling to know I'll always know the case now. Hopefully since my learning is complete I will be able to spend the next few days practicing them and learn to recognize every case very quickly. I need quick recognition speed since with only CLL, I am not able to one-look every solve, as sometimes a layer is a little harder to make than just a face. Interestingly I find that I can easily predict OLL by tracking the pieces and I can do it in well under 15s (I have been doing that every solve with ortega since forever) but it's just remembering the colors on the other sides of the piece that I tracked and connecting them to the case that make it so hard. I have the hope that when I get every case more ingrained in me, that will naturally become easier.

I use full CLL, and I recently got a sub-3 Ao100. A BIG tip I have is to make sure to practice your CLL cases with a trainer, as that will be very useful, because in actual solves, you might get say, for example, 30/41 cases, therefore meaning that those extra 11 cases you have not practiced. And don’t get discouraged if you forget a case or 2, it happens. But I strongly encourage to at least practice the cases you hate the most/the ones you’re not so good at.

 

[Zagros]

I'm finished with grinding inspection and have started doing actual clock solves. I actually use the inspection time feature on CSTimer to be sure I am going quick enough (I don't usually have it on for most events because I use extra inspection at home a lot, I think it is better to practice that way), and I only very rarely get the +2 penalty. Today I did five ao5s and my ao5 ao5 was 11.18. 4/25 solves DNF but none of the averages DNFed, and best single 8.62. I've put all my energy to trying to memorize fast enough that I haven't really improved my actual solve speed at all, so I will actually practice that now and hopefully I can achieve sub-10.

Edit: right after posting achieved 10.88 ao25

 

[Zagros]

Today I got an 8.12 3x3 single, my second fastest and my fastest without LL skip.

Scramble: L2 B' D' R2 U' L F D' B2 D2 F2 L2 D' F2 L2 U2 R2 U R U'
Inspection: x'
Cross: F2 D2 F R
F2L 1+2: U2 R U' R' U y R' U' R2 U' R'
F2L 3+4: L U L' U L U' L2 U2 L U' L' U L
ZBLL: F R U' R' U' R U R' F' R U R' U' R' F R F'
44 moves, 5.42 tps

This was also the first solve of a 10.99 ao5 which is my new best ao5.

I also got a 9.52 clock ao5, I am getting very comfortable solving with 7-simul. It used to be stressful and feel... precarious. Like there's so much stuff I have to get just right for it to work. Doesn't feel that way anymore, I can just chill and do solves.

BTW I totally gave up on the skewb algs I was learning. Those are a problem for future me. I will remain limited to pure intermediate method for the time being. Maybe I'll try to learn later with sledges and hedges instead of the direct algs, which are literal torture to learn. Even though I gave up on that, still have progress: 5.69 ao50, 4.92 ao12, and super duper lucky 3.79 ao5.

 

[Zagros]

It's been a while, I went on a trip and didn't have as much news. I realized that I was learning so much algs and strategies for other puzzles, while having nothing to do for 3x3. It feels like there's always another side event algset, but for 3x3 all I had to do is practice and drill. So I made a game plan and started learning a lot of stuff for 3x3 and I've started to incorporate it into my solves. First off, I learned first a bunch of COLL, all except sune/antisune, and now I also began learning U ZBLL. I also finished off the OLLCP for the two line eo and H ocll OLLs. These are my least favorite OLL, and I highly recommend the OLLCP for these cases. It is easy to recognize and all are about the same speed. I also learned a lot of easy ZBLS, not all since I barely know any ZBLL but at least I usually avoid dot OLL now. I've been intentionally practicing seeing OLL and seeing following pairs. So, I do a slow solve and before each pair, I find another pair and predict where it will end up. Then before last pair, I predict OLL. I'm having a lot of success with OLL prediction before a three moves insert. since there's only 1c and 1e in the first two layers it is possible to predict from only looking at LL, and it's really not too hard to learn which pattern goes to which OLL if you're systematic about it. If I get it down, may move on to the other pair cases. I also have PLL cp prediction down for a few OLLs, I may learn it for the rest of them soon. My ultimate goal of this practice is to only ever have a pause in my solve if it's because I'm recognizing a 1LLL. Anything else I should be able to know before I get to it.

 

[Zagros]

I practiced Clock for the first time after my break and I am better. I can't even believe how much trouble I was having inspecting fast enough, it's so easy now. I got new records 7.19 single, 8.75 mo3, 8.85 ao5, 9.37 ao12, 9.61 ao25, 10.08 ao50, no ao100 but I think that's understandable. And total 500 solves with 7-simul.

I said I would learn eg-1 before my comp but it just isn't happening. It's not that I didn't have the time to learn the algs, it's just that's the easy part, and it takes so long to get good enough. I have finished CLL over a week ago and still am not that good or fast with it. I need to get good at it before I start to learn eg-1.

 

[Zagros]

Today I got new best ao100 12.22 seconds, and a new best full-step single by 0.02.

Scramble: R B2 F2 U' R2 F2 L2 U2 B2 U' F2 U2 L B F2 L' D' L2 F U'
Inspection: x'
Cross (with pair setup): F R U' R UD'
F2L1: R U' R2 U' R
F2L2: U2 L' U L2 U' L'
F2L3: U' L' U L U' L' U L
ZBLS: M U L F' L' U' M'
OCLL: U' F' r U R' U' r' F R
PLL: U l' U R' D2 R U' R' D2 R2
53 moves, 8.49 seconds, 6.24 TPS

Really proud that I used the ZBLS. I was too scared to do the COLL though, and it turns out this case would've been EP skip so I should've. Oh well.

Today I also got progress in Square-1, new record 22.53 ao5 and I was overall averaging about 27s. I got a 16.44 solve in the weekly competition somehow which was my second best ever. I still don't know how to do every cube-shape but I know a lot of them now.

 

[Zagros]

I finally got a new stackmat timer, and am now using it full time in solves. It seems to affect pyraminx most, because it's harder to get to a starting grip on that puzzle. I am struggling to sub5 on pyra with stackmat, about 0.3 slower than before. It seems to not affect skewb or clock at all, I'm too slow at square-1 and mega for it to matter, and I've grinded 2x2 on stackmat before so I'm already used to that. Only between 0.1-0.2 slower at 3x3. Let me show off my 2nd best 3x3 single, and by far best on stackmat:

Scramble: F' L2 D2 L2 U F2 D U' B2 L2 U' F2 B L R' B L' B L
Inspection: x y
Cross and three pairs: F' U' R3 U R' U2 R U R2' U2 R U2 L U L2' U L
Last pair: U' R' U R d' R U' R'
LL: J perm
8.07 seconds, 40 moves, 4.96 tps

I totally blew this solve and still got that fast of a time, unironically I think I could've sub-7ed this scramble, the F2L is just crazy and you get an OLL skip.

Finally, since I have a good setup now, I am doing daily competition simulation for my events until my comp. There are 12 days to do this, including today. Here is the first one:
Event: average/single
2x2: 3.72/2.30
3x3: 12.36/11.79
Pyra: 4.49/2.85
Skewb: 6.14/3.88
Mega: 1:24.16/1:17.45
Clock: 9.94/9.56
Square-1: 28.66/24.76

Everything was rlly good, 2x2 average is mid and square-1 kinda bad. Clock first solve was DNF but I pulled thru and clutched the sub-10. There was a common theme of feeling like I'm doing bad but it turning out alright. For example, in pyra I counted a 5.8 but I also counted a sub-3 so it turned out alright. Same in megaminx, counted a 1:28 and 1:26 but then got two 1:17s. I guess I just need to remind myself that only half of my times need to be below my average, lol. A few fast people have dropped out of my comp so Skewb finals is looking likely, 3x3 finals still a long shot. But who knows how fast the first time competitors are.

 

[Zagros]

The time is almost here! I will be leaving bright and early in the morning for my comp. Tonight I'm gonna do a big post, because I'm resetting my sessions! I've used the same sessions since I registered and done tons of practice, and I have tons of PBs. Here goes:

2x2: 0.97 single, 2.30 ao5, 2.75 ao12, 3.05 ao25, 3.17 ao50, 3.40 ao100, 3.68 ao200, 3.82 ao500, 3.91 ao1000, 4.26 ao2000
3x3: 7.68 single, 10.99 ao5, 12.01 ao25, 12.13 ao50, 12.22 ao100, 12.42 ao200, 12.62 ao500, 12.67 ao1000, 12.75 ao2000
4x4: 46.58 ao5, 48.03 ao12, 49.46 ao25, 49.68 ao50
OH: 22.04 mo3, 22.86 ao5, 24.47 ao12, 25.38 ao25, 25.64 ao50, 25.81 ao100, 26.60 ao200
4BLD: 9:48.81 single, 13:11.67 mo3, 13:56.33 ao5
MBLD: 7 single (9/11 in 53:40), 3.33 mo3, 2.67 ao5
Mega: 1:08.88 single, 1:15.80 mo3, 1:14.58 ao5, 1:19.96 ao12, 1:21.29 ao25, 1:22.41 ao50, 1:23.48 ao100, 1:24.59 ao200
Pyra: 1.13 single, 2.86 ao5, 3.89 ao12, 4.07 ao25, 4.26 ao50, 4.51 ao100, 4.60 ao200, 4.72 ao500, 4.83 ao1000, 5.00 ao2000
Skewb: 1.94 single, 3.69 mo3, 3.79 ao5, 4.92 ao12, 5.36 ao25, 5.69 ao50, 6.12 ao100, 6.27 ao200, 6.48 ao500, 6.58 ao1000
Square-1: 14.46 single, 20.83 mo3, 22.16 ao5, 24.00 ao12, 24.58 ao25, 26.27 ao50, 26.90 ao100, 27.06 ao200, 29.35 ao500
Clock: 7.19 single, 8.44 mo3, 8.45 ao5, 9.33 ao12, 9.47 ao25, 9.68 ao50, 10.32 ao100, 10.60 ao200, DNF ao500

There you have it, my up-to-date personal bests. Next up, for the past twelve days I did a competition simulation for all my comp events each day. Here are my final medians:
2x2: 3.72/2.37
3x3: 12.45/11.00
Pyra: 4.97/3.51
Skewb: 6.24/4.52
Mega: 1:23.12/1:16.40
Clock: 10.28/8.89
Sq1: 26.32/22.44

Before I go, my final goals for tomorrow:
PR in single and average in every event (14 total)
Surpass the above median single and average in every event (14 total)
Qualify for all finals (4 total)
We will see how many /32 I accomplish.

Will post again tomorrow evening. Goodnight!

 

[Zagros]

Comp day is over! Fun day, it's interesting to return after a while and be one of the oldest there (80% of attendees started after my last comp before this one, i think there was only one ID earlier than 2014 there). A few main takeaways: #1 it is so hard to practice and stay warmed up. Ideally I would focus hard on an event for like 1 hour before competing, but it was so hard to make it happen. And they had me scheduled to assist with stuff for every round so it was like compete->judge-> 10mins to practice next event. Even worse when it got to finals and they went straight from one to the next with no groups or anything. I was VERY nervous at first, a lot more than I thought I would be. But it went away by the end of the day, and I think it's because I've never prepared so much for a comp and had such high hopes before, I'm sure it won't be bad at all next time.

I got PR single and average in every event, which was expected since it's been so long. I got my first podium, third place in skewb! Very surprising to me because skewb is literally my least favorite and least practiced of all the events here. I practice it literally 10min a day, just been doing 25 solves a day for a while and gave up on learning any algs for it. I also got second place in the first round of Pyra but flopped in finals.

Now to go over every event:

3x3: first round messed up average bad, got 11.61 pr single. Second round I got 11.5+2=13.5 on the first solve and ended up getting a 13.11 average. This is +2ing out of a 12.54 average, and it was literally so close it was 1mm away. And 13.02 average made finals. I definitely had trouble with 3x3, it feels more "precarious" than my other events. Like I'm not sure of my performance. Sometimes I just don't see a pair in f2l then I pause for 2s and the solve is over. I am capable of pulling of those low 12s ao100s, but it's very tricky, I have to be perfectly warmed up and all the conditions just right and those conditions are not right in comp. I don't have the same problem at all with other events. Pretty sad about no sub13, especially because of the +2. It's just so frustrating to think about. Would've been literally a perfect comp if I hadn't ever +2ed. 12.54 average, I would be so pleased with that! And this isn't the only +2 haunting me...

2x2: I got a 2.72 single on the first solve, and ended up with a 3.53 average. That is as good as I could've hoped for. 5th place in first round, did terrible in finals but whatever, the scrambles sucked so even if I had done well I couldn't have beaten my R1 times.

Pyra: The frustrating +2s are back here. R1 I got a 5.11 average which included a counting 4.00+2=6.00. Without the +2 it would've been 4.45! I would've been so pleased with that! But instead I'm leaving with no sub-5 average. The 5.11 was still 2nd place in R1, in finals I got ANOTHER counting +2, the solve was already 5 seconds so I counted a 7. It still wouldn't have been sub5 without the +2, but it would've been 2nd place and instead I didn't podium. I did get a 3.48 single in round one.

Skewb: Round one was the first round of the comp, and one the first solve I somehow got a 2.98! My luckiest official solve ever fot sure, I don't even know how that happened, I was hoping for maybe a sub5. It was my fastest official solve until 2x2 later in the day and still is my 2nd fastest. Also the 2nd fastest of the round, one other person barely beat me on that scramble. I got a 6.33 average which is about what I expected, and made finals. In finals I somehow got a 5.76 average to podium. And I needed it too, fourth place was 5.99 so I had to get sub6. It also started with a high 7 and mid 6 then totally clutched out. I credit my success to getting lucky last layers other people don't get because I'm too stupid to make my first layer efficiently.

Clock: Should be disappointed but I just don't really care that much, I didn't have my hopes set on this event. My first solve I didn't finish memorization in time and so I flipped at the end but I stupidly did 7simul until the point I didn't memo, which includes some corners. So then after flipping I had to fix the corners again. I got 19 seconds
But second solve I got a 9.88 single, then two 11s, all successfully noflip. Then on the last solve I sadly counted a 14. I finished memo, but I just had a feeling I messed something up so I flipped to check at the end and I was right, one face was 4 off so I had to fix it. Kinda not great average, but I did successfully use 7-simul officially at least for three solves, and got a sub-10.

Square-1: Had a debacle at the start because at home I just scramble then start solving so it didn't occur to me that the equator could be the wrong way and I ended up having to z2 in the solve. I also struggled with the solve starts. Like picking up the cube and the first few turns. But it probably hardly affected anything cuz I'm not that fast. I got a mid average (26.89) but I did get a 19.61 single.

Megaminx: I totally popped off. Best results in comparison to my at-home times by FAR. I kinda expected this cuz long events are easy in comp. Every single solve was sub-1:20. I ended up with a 1:16.22 average and 1:14.65 single. My 2nd best ao5 ever. I got 5th place. I did realize I totally overinspect at home cuz I couldn't plan ANYTHING, it was all I could do to just find the five star pieces before having to start the solve. But it must have not mattered cuz results don't lie.

Excited for next comp, overall results are very good, some unexpected good times counteracts the disappointing times. But I really can't stop thinking about the +2s.

 

[Zagros]

Results on WCA site. I'm top 2k skewb single, top 3k mega and pyra average. My 2x2 avg ranks 4888 and single ranks 12,557, I'm surprised that's even possible. I had no competition nemesis, everyone at the comp I beat in at least one event. Fifty-five solves at this comp, total 8 comps and 296 solves. PR streak 8 comps, 3465 days. I got 3 BPAs and 0 WPAs. Overall I have gotten 13 BPAs and 7 WPAs. New stats are sq1 average and mega average. I have gotten 80 total PRs, so average 3.7 solves per PR. I competed in 11 rounds at this comp, and have competed in 68 total rounds. I average 4.35 solves per round and 1.18 PRs per round. I got PR single in all 7 events, but if you were to count multiple PR singles in the same round, I got 12 PR singles.

 

[Zagros]

HUGE DEVELOPMENT. There is a comp I didn't know about. Just registered for Kansas Holiday Cube-Off PM 2023. I will be doing 7x7 and all four BLD events! This is super exciting for me, I didn't think I'd be able to find these events near where I live. I guess it's right back on the comp grind again! Very excited, hopefully I'm coming for the bigbld state records. Also it's afternoon so I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to drive here. I have less than three weeks to prepare, I've thought it through and decided to not think about three-style. I was planning on learning three-style next time I grinded 3bld, but I just don't think there is enough time to do it without making myself worse for the comp. For 4bld and 5bld there is a 1.5hr cumulative time limit, so ~10m for 4bld and ~20m for 5bld needs to be my bare minimum goal.

 

[Zagros]

Time for a progress update on the events I have been practicing.

7x7: Before practicing for this comp, I had maybe fifty 7x7 solves ever, and only a few sub-5. Now I have over 50 in my practice session, and my average is well under five minutes. My best so far is 4:21, I have several sub-4:30 means, and my ao25 is 4:38. I should aim to get sub-4:30 officially. I also did a few 6x6 solves for fun and got my PBs there as well from all the 7x7 practice.

3BLD: I started by grinding corners only and edges only for a few days. I started with averaging 32s for corners and 44s for edges, and I improved a lot really quick. Some from better tricks and canceling, but mostly from tracing faster, now I average 24s for corners and 37s for edges. I really want a sub-1:00 solve but it hasn't happened yet. I got a 1:03 which was a new best. I also got a 1:10 mo3, a 1:23 ao12, and I even got a successful ao25, which is 1:31. I think I will play it relatively safe in comp, since my PR is so old I basically just need a success to beat it, but I don't have an official mean yet. I'm not really holding my breath on a mean especially since I only have one round, but I figure I have to at least give it a shot.

4BLD: Kinda killing it recently, I got an 8:37 single and also my first sub-10:00 mo3. I'm still seeing improvement mainly from getting more proficient at tracing wings. I also dropped a lot of my review and it hasn't caused me any problems at all, I found I don't really need much review for 4BLD. I think I ought to be able to get 8 minute solves with 5min memo and 3min exec before long, but I'm also focusing heavily on accuracy since I need actual successes officially.

5BLD: I haven't got a success, literally every single attempt it is two or three plus centers. It's tiring because I can do plus center only solves successfully, and several solves I even checked my memo afterwards and it was all correct. At least I am close. Every attempt has been 21-23min. My best time is 27min from a few months ago, so I'm faster than before. I also think I can easily go faster than I am now, I just don't see any point pushing it until I'm actually successfully solving the puzzle.

MBLD: Haven't done any big attempts. I just don't feel like I have the stamina right now, and I don't want to do an attempt if I'm dreading it. I've done 5 cube attempts, nothing more than that. I have sub-5 2/2, sub-9 3/3, my fastest five cubes was 20:48. My goal officially is to attempt 13 cubes. This is three packs of four, plus a 3bld. A five cube attempt is one pack, and I am aiming to get it in 18 minutes, four minutes per cube and two minutes for the last one. Whatever speed I go for five cubes is usually sustainable for an hour, I just need to actually practice some bigger attempts soon. I think I am going to try 9 tomorrow.

 

[Zagros]

I actually got 9/9 on the attempt I mentioned in the last post. Time was 45:12 (33:25/11:47). It wasn't quite as fast as I would like, although I think part of that was not being warmed up as I hadn't done any smaller attempts earlier that day. My evidence for this is that my memo time for the second set of four cubes was actually like five minutes faster than the time for the first set, lol. There was a pretty bad mistake which I luckily caught in time. I had to redo my memo for every single corner twist. But that mistake won't happen again. Basically, for edge flips I realized you can do the letter pair in either order (for me C and I are on the same piece, so that edge flip can be either CI or IC) and I chose depending on which fits in better with the memo. Without thinking I did the same thing with corners. Which could've resulted in twisting some corners the wrong way, but I caught it before starting exec and went through and made sure I knew which direction all my corner twists were. This seems like a noob mistake, it's because I'm not used to actually using letter pairs for flips and twists. Usually I just take note of which pieces to flip, but now I'm attempting enough cubes that I really have to use letter pairs.

I also got a 5BLD success of 24:55. This is a new best by over 2 minutes, very pleased. There's also so much easy room for improvement, all my 5BLD solves are hyper-safetied because it's so rare to get a success even then. I'm sure I can drop a lot fast, I'll probably be focusing on 5BLD over 4BLD for a bit. This should also help with 4BLD since 4BLD is a subset of 5BLD, but I will make sure to not totally neglect actually practicing 4BLD, since the memo strategy is different. I am also shifting my focus away from 3BLD to spend more time on the other BLD events, I'll probably just practice a little every day to maintain my current speed of around 1:20 without trying super hard to improve. This speed is already PR by so much, the other BLD events are much higher stakes for me, and also I really just want to learn 3-style rather than min-maxing op/m2, and pushing it anymore kinda feels like a waste right now. Still gonna try for that sub-1 single tho.

Got some crazy 7x7 pbs, a 4:06 single and 4:16 mean. The 4:06 was actually a really good and lucky solve, my second best solve is 4:19. Still, I do think I have a shot to sub-4:20 officially.

Finally, an event I'm not competing in: for some reason I did about 350 OH solves in the past few days. I've kinda been itching to practice OH for a while, since it is one of my least-practiced events. I got some pretty good progress. 24.78 ao100, a 21.85 ao5, and quite a few sub-20 singles. Before this session my PB was 17.19, but I beat it and got two sub-17 singles. One was a 16.58 fullstep, and the other, my new PB, was a very lucky 16.02. I have a reconstruction:

Scramble: R2 L' B' D F R2 L F2 B' U2 R2 B2 D2 R2 F U2 B' D2 R D2
Inspection: z'
Cross: U2 l U D2 x' D2
Pair 1: z' U' L U
Pair 2: L2 D L' D'
Pair 3: L' D' L D r' D L D'
Pair 4: L2 x U L' U'
LL: L2 d' L z l U l' U' l F U' F'
16.02 seconds, 35 moves, 2.18 tps

 

[Zagros]

This is probably my final pre-comp post. It's been a minute, and it's been really hectic.

I'm doing great on 3BLD, I finally got a sub-1! My new PB is 57.00. I also have tonnnnns of 1:0X solves and have a good shot to get one officially I think. My 4BLD best is 8:02, and I have a sub-9 mean. I also got a successful ao12. Doing great on 5BLD, I actually got a sub-20 mo3! Unfortunately I haven't practiced multi much. Got some super quick 5/5s and I have done some more 9 cube attempts, the fastest being 7/9 in 36:58. I am planning on at least one 13 cube attempt before the comp day.

I also got another OH single, 15.86, and it was actually an LL skip! My second ever! The F2L wasn't great so it was actually more moves than my old PB, with 37 moves.

Not very much practice recently as I've been traveling and also preparing to start a job soon. Luckily I will have money to travel to comps and actually get some decent cubes, but sadly no more time to practice all day.

One more piece of exciting news: I am planning on registering for NAC! I have qualified for everything except 5-7, SQ1, FMC, and all bld events. I will easily qualify for 3bld this weekend, I have a shot at 4BLD, and I don't even know what it will take to qualify for multi. I can also easily get 5-6 and sq1 if I get to compete in them again. 7x7, 5BLD, and FMC may be challenging to qualify. But I have lots of time. See some of y'all there I guess

 

[Zagros]

Another successful comp! So much to share about this. First each event results then overall.

7x7: 4:18.90 mean / 4:01.71 single
Overall pb single. Not surprised, big event. I knew this would happen. It's still cool tho. The mean is sadly not quite overall pb because my first solve was super duper mid, but it's still very good. I got 2nd place in this event.

3BLD: 1:07.17 single / 1:27.07 mean
I am super happy that I got such a good single. I actually got faster on each solve. The first was 1:50, it was a bad scramble and I was super nervous and I was also kinda safetying because I got it in my head that it would ruin my day if I DNFed the first solve of the comp. But the second solve was pretty good and the third was great! And mostly I'm super happy that I got a mean! It's still an okay time despite the first solve being so slow, but I don't care that much about the time, mostly just the fact that I got a mean lol. The mean is the Missouri state record, and the single won me the competition, as 3BLD was the main event!

MBLD: 11/13, 55:50
One cube was two edges off due to mistracing, and one was very messed up due to messing up an alg and trying to undo it and not undoing it properly. My memorization was as fast as ever, my execution was a lot slower than at home due to not wanting to make mistakes and also at home I lowkey peak under the blindfold to grab cubes so I was kinda feeling around for stuff and really nervous about grabbing the wrong cube lol. But this is also the Missouri state record, and another first place.

4BLD: 9:29.61 single
Honestly my most mid result. I got a 7:07 at the venue practicing, and I know it's sub-8 to qualify for NAC. I really gunned for it the last attempt and got an 8:06 DNF. At least success and sub-10, and also state record and first place lol

5BLD: 19:35 single
Pleased to get a success at my first 5BLD comp! The success was actually the fastest of my three attempts, which is awesome. One DNF was very close and the other was totally jumbled. Again I tried to rush the last attempt, but when I got to x centers it wasn't adding up right and I ended up retracing like four times before I got it right and then I had wasted so much time I think I had exec errors trying to rush to avoid using up the cumulative time limit. First place, and state record by default of being the first 5BLD success from my state.

Overall: This was the PM portion of a two-part competition. There were very few competitors! Three competitors for 7x7, 3BLD, and Multi, and two for 4BLD and 5BLD. So I got free podiums lmao. But the state records are a cool thing to have. I am very relieved to get successes in both 4bld and 5bld, and even happier that they are sub-10/20. I did fit all six attempts in the 90 minute limit, which is awesome. Overall several events outstanding and nothing was lackluster, very happy with the results. Sadly no qualification for NAC with bigbld, but that was a bit of a long shot. I hope to have another chance before then, and also for 7x7 as I need more time to practice 7x7 before I have a chance of sub-4. I protected my peace very well this comp and was not nervous at all except a bit on the first 3BLD solve. I arrived very early to have time to warm up, since I didn't want to try blindsolves between events. I also saved rooms for my memorization by not using the ones I planned to use officially for a week in advance, to make sure they weren't cluttered at all. Mostly I'm glad that my focus on consistency paid off. Got the 3bld mean, only two dnfs in multi, specifically focused on consistency in 4 and 5bld to maximize odds of a success, and got the success in both. I practice a specific way knowing I'd only have one round for each of these events for a long time, and it paid off.