QiYi/New Island Hateview

                Yes, I use the word hate. And no, I don’t use it lightly. I have two issues about these companies and the product they both are producing. One is a known issue, one is a personal preference. So let’s begin.

                The New Island Phoenix came out a while before the QiYi Bullfight. Yet, they are exactly the same cube. According to JRcuber, the Phoenix, which came first, is re branded off the QiYi. The New Island Company has confirmed it has re branded the Bullfight, put a higher price tag on it, and sold it as their own. And my only question is, why? Why would you even think that’s a remotely good idea? It might be bad in patent terms, but geez above that it’s just dumb business. New Island confirms they rebranded the puzzle for themselves, and then they sell it at a higher price! How does that make money? Where in the world is that a good idea? I’m honestly not sure why New Island did this, when they could change the design slightly and make it their own, but I won’t say much more about it. I just think it’s stupid.

                As for my personal opinion, I found the Bullfight to be a mix between the Fangshi, which is kind of obvious, and the Zanchi, which is something I hadn’t heard before, if I had heard it was similar to the Zanchi, I would have never bought it, as I have a strong hatred for the way the Zanchi feels. And cube is the mix of that awful thing, and the Fanshi. Now I have no huge gripe with the any Fangshi puzzle except the overall sandy feeling. I dislike that feeling very much. Now add to that the clicky, awkward turning Zanchi and you have one of my least favorite puzzles ever. Now I will admit two things. First, I feel potential. For everyone who liked sandy feel of clickyness, go buy this cube. It is as solid as an Aolong. The second thing I will admit, I have only had this one day. As to whether I will actually spend time to try and make it better, I’m not sure. It’s very hard to want to work with a cube like that. Maybe I am wrong about it entirely, I know I have been before, but for now, I think I will just leave it alone.

WR Hualong

I haven’t seen a whole ton of hype surrounding the new Moyu speed cube, the Hualong, but I can definitely admit it has me and others a bit excited. It’s the next thing out of Moyu’s toy box and after its recent success across many platforms; I think Moyu deserves a little appreciation and attention to its newest cube. However, this hype will beg the question, is this the next big thing? Will Feliks finally restore order by claiming a sub 5.55 with this cube? Will Matts prove himself the best and beat Felik’s world record average on it? Honestly, I don’t feel like it.

                Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad cube, besides the speed the Hualong will match basically any modern 3x3. It’s no fault of the cube’s or anything Moyu could change; it’s just the simple fact that they aren’t the only company now with a viable speed cube. Yuxin has released its 3x3, which I think is incredible, new main material for sure, and QiYi and New Island both released the bullfight (I don’t know which company did it first, don’t ask), which, while not on my favorite list, is definitely a decent option. Moyu will just have to accept that they can’t control the whole market anymore. Even Feliks has switched his main to the Gans 357, which while not being a cube I have ever dealt with; I hear it is another solid competitor.

                So what cube will break both the 3x3 world records? Honestly, that’s as easy to say as who will break it. Yeah, everyone knows Feliks deserves it, but think of all the other cubers who are sub 10, and all they need is one lucky scramble to put them on top. Cornelius, Matts, even Kevin Hays could put out some kind of miracle. I guess the point here is not the type of cube or the cuber themselves; it’s just to remember this simple idea. As the cubing world grows, competitions, hardware, they both grow. We have to accept that soon one person may not hold all the records. Soon many cubes will hold many records across many places of the world. We can’t ask a simple question like will the Hualong beat 5.55 or when Feliks will finally break that darned single record, we just have to be prepared for the inevitable, that someday it will be broken, we just have to be ready for it.

New "Batch" of Speedcubers?

This is a post I have been wondering about doing for a few months now. It’s kind of hard to imagine, but I think this is kind of the year to start asking about it. Who are the next “batch” of top speedcubers, so to speak? Who will start taking the podium when people like Feliks have all moved on in life? Will it mark a decline in the sport entirely?

I only ask questions like this because of the surprising news I heard a few weeks back straight off of Kevin Hays’s YouTube page. He made the announcement when he was talking about his Cubicle sponsorship, that this summer would be his last in the professional cubing world. He said he had to move on with his life and think about the rest of his college life and his working career beyond that. And it scared me a little to hear that. Sitting in a video in front of me was one of the world’s premier speedcubers, someone who has had so many world records and podiums in countless events, I won’t spend the time to look them up. This guy sitting in front of me, whose life had been intertwined with speedcubing for many years now, said he’s stopping after the summer. It got me thinking, who else? Who else is going to have to move on with their life and push cubing into the back ground, only to slowly disappear? When I think about it, Feliks is only a few years younger than Kevin, and Matts is the same age as Feliks. The cubing world as we know it will soon be out some of the best speedcubers ever to exist.

So now we have to wonder, who will take their place? I know I want too, but I can only average 13 seconds with a good warm up and some decent scrambles. It would take me a long time to average 7 or 8 seconds in order to be on top. But how about someone else? We need to inspire others so we can have a next batch of speedcubers. More than this, we need to inspire ourselves, so we don’t lose this awesome community we have constructed. So this is where I ask you, who do you think is next? Someone who already averages 9 seconds and just needs a push? Or a friend you have that has never picked up a cube? Will they be the next Feliks? Give them a chance, and see if they will take it.

I'm Back With Victoryish

Four days ago I competed in my latest competition, with some awesome success for me! In 2x2, I placed 18^th in the first round, with the limit to make round 2 at 25. This means I competed in it again, but because I don’t have a very good method for 2x2, and rarely average 5 seconds, I chose to enjoy myself a bit and slack off, receiving a final place at 25^th. However, I did have a good time with my 15 second solve where couldn’t complete a first layer, and a 7 second solve with only 3 seconds of inspection time, and really did enjoy myself. In pyraminx, I had a personal best single of 8.88 and received 11^th place overall in the one round competition. Oh, and a special note about pyraminx, I beat Kennan Lejuene, which made me feel pretty good.

         Finally in the main event Rubik’s cube I placed 16^th overall in the first round. This was good enough to make it in to round two with some buffer behind me, but that wasn’t the exciting bit of this round. The main thing that made me so happy with my performance was an 11.43 straight out of the blue, in between a few 14 second solves. I was happy like you couldn’t believe, because I had smashed my former personal best in competition, a 15.99, by 4 seconds! That confidence did me very well in round two, where I actually improved on my original average, earning a 14.97m enough to move me up one spot for a final placing of 15^th. In addition, in the second round I had another admirable solve for my skill level, a nice 12.59 was just a little icing on the cake.

         

          And it’s not over yet, I still have another competition before I get busy with end of the year stuff, it’s being held in solon, Iowa, on the 18^th of April. I’m really excited for it and I wanted to list a few goals for that competition. For 3x3 I want a personal best average, I’m not going to care about a single best here, and I’m hoping I will make the top 10 people in the competition. For 2x2, I just learned full Ortega, and I’m hoping to make round two, but of course, I won’t throw a fit if I don’t. Finally, maybe being in the top 8 or so for Pyraminx would really make my day. Anyways there is your update for my competitions, thanks for reading!

Moyu Aosu Overdue Review

That title though! But really, this review was long overdue because of a few problems that I will get into later, but first I need to review the puzzle itself. So let’s begin.

The general conception of this puzzle is that it is absolutely amazing, super-fast, really controllable, anti-popping, and overall an amazing puzzle. I honestly cannot agree with this full heartedly. The reason being that my cube came really tight tensioned, and was hard to turn from the get go, even after loosening I still found it weird to turn and awkwardly tensioned, so I might have to completely take it apart to re-tension when I lube. However, I might chalk down most of these problems to the fact that as of writing this, my personal best solve on 4x4 is over 4 minutes and I have been able to solve a 4x4 for less than a day. I guess if I was going to say much relevant to the cubing world right at the moment it is that the Aosu is not a beginner puzzle, and while most recommend it full out, I can only say it’s alright. However, I imagine that opinion will change dramatically when I actually learn a speedcubing method and become used to the puzzle. So right now I give a tentative 6 out of 10. We will see how it turns out later.

Now for the main thing I wanted to talk about in this essay, I had a major issue about this cube that was the reason for the lateness of this post. I had a defective center piece, as well as so misaligned edges, causing nasty catches and bad turning. These defects were terrible and caused me to have to email the Cubicle to have them replaced. It made me frustrated at the time but not with the Cubicle, but Moyu itself, for not having a more prepared product lacking issues. However, this is where the Cubicle shined through to become one of my favorite stores to buy from for anything. They fully understood these defects weren’t their fault, but they also knew it was their problem, and handled it very well, being super kind and sending me the pieces I needed. In addition to this delay, however, when the cube was originally ordered, the cubicle forgot about sending it and it didn’t come for a week after it was supposed to arrive. While I was a bit annoyed, the Cubicle’s amazing customer service shone through and they sent out the package immediately after I inquired about it, and I received it 4 days later.

 I share this “epic” tale with you because I want to make the point that even though a company like the cubicle makes mistakes, they are nicer than any other business I have ever worked with in correcting them and should definitely be rewarded with your business. No I am not getting paid to say this, I just honestly think in this world more companies should be so nice and any company that is should be held with honor. Thanks for reading!

Warning+ Where do I go?

I am currently about half way through OLL, having about 33 of 57 cases memorized, which is taking a lot of work and effort to accomplish and is very difficult. So before I move on to my question for this blog I have to give a warning. Cubing gets super difficult as you keep going, and I want you to make sure you are having fun the entire time you are practicing or trying to improve. Feliks has always said never force yourself to practice, and I whole heartedly agree. Cubing is one of those sports where very little mindless boring work is required, and most things that can be done to get better are actually pretty enjoyable, you just have to wait for the right time. I know personally I could probably memorize two OLL algorithms a day if I had the time and felt like it, but sometimes all I can do is wait until I am feeling up to memorizing before I do, because otherwise the sport just wouldn’t be fun anymore, and chances are I would quit cubing before long. I definitely think, especially if you are about to start learning OLL, make a pact with yourself, that you will only cube when you want to, and when it makes sense for your schedule, so it doesn’t stress you out. This way you will be able to go for longer before ever getting bored, and will have more fun over all.

                Now my question for all of the cubers who read this blog, where do I go from here? I’m halfway done with OLL and when I get done with that I will have mastered basic CFOP and won’t have much place else to go. Obviously, there are things I can do, like increasing my look ahead, which right now is shoddy at best, but I know there are more tangible things that are easier to practice, so I want to try one of those. My thoughts were to try and learn the extended cross for a lot of basic cases, because one major problem I have in my solves in the cross to F2L transition, and I feel like knowing how to do X cross could be really beneficial. In addition to this, I think my next step is just to learn more F2L tricks, because right now my F2L is very basic and is cause for a lot of cube rotations and wasted moves, and I think it could be much improved. So just some ideas to consider, if you have a specific thing you think would be good to work on please comment. Thanks!

World Record Strats

                Now warning before I start, this might be extremely obvious to some of you and other would say that this post is really unnecessary just because it’s so blatantly obvious, but I think this idea is legitimate and one everyone needs to consider. Plus I’m writing it so I guess I win.

                World record strategy. What am I saying when I say these words? Is there some perfect algorithm that will solve your cube in 5 seconds every time? Most certainly not. Is there some epic way to guarantee yourself a world record whenever you compete? If there is, I haven’t found it. No the strategy I’m talking about first takes years and years of practice. And by that, I mean the first step of this strategy is being good enough to get a world record anyway. You have to be Feliks or Matts good. The reason for this is because there is no special trick to have the ability to get a world record. Only once you have the ability is this applicable. Think about every time someone asks you about your cube. Are they asking for specific algs or something? No, they are asking for the “secret” for the cube. So yes, step number one is practice until you are able to achieve the world record in your event of choice, and of course the more often you can achieve it in your own practice, the higher a chance you will have elsewhere.

                Next is the actual strategy. This is when you already have the ability to solve on a world record scale, and now you just need to actually break it. And the special secret is… Spamming competitions. Yup. That’s it. The basic idea is that once you are able to solve cubes really fast all the time, you need the opportunity to have a lucky enough solve that you can actually achieve a world record solve. Unfortunately, these kinds of lucky solves are far and few between, so you have to go to enough competitions that at least one of these are available. This takes a while, which is why, in addition to having fun, the best cubers are competing once a month, to have another chance at glory in a solve.

                Finally, all that is left is solve itself, which is by far the hardest. You have to be ready to act upon the solve, ready to take it and score big. Only then will you actually be a world record holder, to live amongst the best in history.