SSC

Shadowslice Snow Columns method Information about the method Proposer(s): Joseph Briggs, Crafto22 Proposed: 2015 Alt Names: ECE, Briggs-Adam Variants: Original variant, L6E variant, Broken variant, Permute-last variant, EZD variant, NoEO variant No. Steps: 4 major though lots of flexibility. Depends on variant No. Algs: around 50 depending on variant, 10 min. Avg Moves: ~40-50 depending on variant STM Purpose(s): Speedsolving, FMC

SSC, short for Shadowslice Snow Columns, commonly alternatively called ECE, is a method that has variously been described as a variation on Orient First, an improved version of the Human Thistlethwaite Algorithm, an advanced Belt Method and a Columns first method. It is a method that requires few (28) algorithms but requires proficiency in various relatively advanced techniques such as the EOLine (which is rotated 90 degrees to create an EOEdge) as well as being able to efficiently orient corners while placing an edge. It is an efficient method which averages below 50 STM in the hands of an expert.

Intially, it was proposed simply with the SSC-WV variant though this quickly became the set of methods which is known today. After the SSC-M variant was introduced, the idea was quickly expanded on by crafto22 who created what is collectively known as the ECE variants which, while following the same basic steps as vanilla SSC-M have various advantages depending on the method. Notable variants include SSC-O and EZD for speedsolving and SSC-Domino as an FMC alternative.

Method Overview

This method has been independently proposed by at least 3 people though it was perhaps developed most by Joseph Briggs and crafto22. It is one of the most move efficient methods that has been developed; potentially on par with Heise, Human Thistlethwaite Algorithm and ZB depending on the variant. Also similar to Heise, it is quite intuitive and has a low algorithm count though in terms of procedure it is more similar to HTA or PCMS.

Basic Method

1. Solve 3/4 of the the E-slice, usually leaving the FR slot.
2. Orient the corners.
   1. Orient three corners on the D-face
   2. Orient the remaining corners by either using SLS (Shadowslice Last Slot), creating a pseudopair and doing Winter Variation or inserting the pseudopair and doing OCLL
3. Permute the corners
   1. Corners to layers
   2. Permute the corners (perhaps using Squre-1 algorithms)
4. LEE (Last eight edges)
   1. Orient the edges
   2. Solve the RD and LD edges
   3. LSE (Last Six Edges)
      1. Solve the UR and UL edges
      2. M-perms

Pros

• Low movecount
• Ergonomic- mostly {R,U,D,M}
• Low algorithm count compared to more popular speedsolving methods

Cons

• Can be difficult to transition from other popular methods as it does not directly solve many pieces until the final few steps.
• Pseudopairs can be difficult to get used to.
• Lookahead can be made difficult due to the lack of direct solving

Variants

There are quite a few variants to ABC, mostly to do with differences in the solving of the LEE

• EZD
  • For LEE, the edges are separated before being permuted with a set of algorithms.
  • This is the variant used by crafto22 to obtain his sub-13 averages.
• Broken
  • Similar to the Belt method, the F2L is solved after step 2 using {R2,L2,M2,U,D}
  • PLL
• Permute last
  • This is even more similar to the Belt method where edges are separated then PLL is applied to both sides.

See Also

• Kociemba
• ECE method
• Human Thistlethwaite Algorithm
• Orient First
• PCMS
• Belt
• ZZ

External links

• Original proposal(includes SSC-M and SLS)
• Crafto22's ECE proposal
• SqAree's OL5C algorithms
• Shadowslice's walkthrough