Method Development Competition

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Revision as of 02:23, 29 March 2021 by Athefre (talk | contribs)

Method Development Competition is an online community event where members compete to develop methods. It was originally established by James Straughan in August 2020.

Description

The competition is a semi-annual event lasting around two months. For each competition the community is given two to three weeks to form a team. After the teams are formed, they have one month to work together to develop methods that they feel will win the competition. The winning method is chosen by a community vote.

Each competition has a development theme. In some competitions the teams have the goal to develop the fastest 3x3 speedsolving method. In other versions of the competition the goal may be to develop the method that requires the fewest moves to solve, is under a certain threshold for the number of algorithms required to memorize, methods for puzzles other than 3x3, and other themes.

As of now, the competition is a team only event. However, it may eventually expand to include individual events.

Purpose

The goal of the Method Development Competition is to develop methods beyond those that are currently most commonly used. The competition encourages thinking about existing methods and how better methods can be developed. This increases the likelihood of new steps and concepts being developed. It also increases the number of users of methods other than those that are the most popular.

Developed Methods

August 2020

January 2021

  • Squall: Overall winner and winner of Best for FMC
  • ECP: Winner of Most Original Method and Most Potential for Variants and Extensions
  • Atropos
  • Utah