My Method for Pyraminx/ Learning?

So if you read my last post, you will know I briefly talked about my Pyraminx solving method, and how it wasn’t the best method for speed solving, but worked alright. So In this blog, I wanted to explain my method, and why I think you should learn it, and then where I think you can go from there. So, for starters, my method is so simple. One of the easiest methods that can ever be taught. It’s based on Paradox Cubing’s tutorial, and is great for any beginner Pyraminx solver. Basically, it is, at its most basic state, just a bunch of sledge hammers over and over again until the puzzle is solved. There is a little more to it, but it is very simple.

                To start, you simply line up the three “corner” type pieces on the correct side, so everything can be oriented correctly. Next, you use the sledge hammer move to insert the 3 edge pieces, to complete the first layer. From there, the top layer is oriented in one of 6 possible cases, so 5 algorithms (plus the solved state) complete the puzzle, minus the tips, which of course are easy to fix.

                There are a couple of reasons I wanted to share his method with everyone. For one, it’s just super easy. If you can solve a Rubik’s Cube, even just with the most beginner method, this method is perfectly attainable. Another reason I wanted to share it, is because using this simple method, I averaged 9 seconds at my last competition, which is decently fast. The main reason for this is because even using such a simple method, using some look ahead tactics and first layer tricks I learned from 3x3, it was not too much work to make a beginner method into a decently effective solving strategy. This is why I have “Learning?” in the title, because I am seeing the effects that my practice in other events. Now I don’t mean to brag, I am still not anywhere near competition winning times, but It does show what happens when you practice, and how effective things in one scenario can be in another.

                So what do I suggest you do? First, I would make sure you practice. I try to do so as much as possible, and even though it seems like sometimes I don’t learn anything, I am slowly absorbing information, which is very useful.  Then, after you have a bit of knowledge under your belt, for fun, pick up a small cuboid, or maybe an interesting shape mod, or maybe just another competition legal puzzle, and see what fun you can have, solving it in weird ways, or finding cool little tricks to make a layer or solve parity. I find it so satisfying to watch my skills have an application like this, and I think you might as well, so just give it a try, and most of all, just try to make cubing a little more enjoyable, because its one of the coolest things I think you can do.

Paradox Cubing's video

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP8uNejf3y8

Winter Break Update

Well I don’t know about the rest of my readers, but I am pretty excited for the holiday time! I finally get a break from school and some time to practice cubing. And since Christmas is right around the corner as well, I wanted to talk about some events I might want to get into. Then, after Christmas, I’m going to do a full review on the puzzles I get, and hopefully learn a few methods to different puzzles.

                So to start, I’m wondering if I should get into 4x4. It’s kind of the next step in competing; I have already gotten decent in 3x3, 2x2, and Pyraminx, but I don’t want to just stay in those. I want to keep adding puzzles to my repertoire, and 4x4 really seems to be calling my name. The reason is that both the aolong and the V2 were amazing, and the Aosu is reviewed as the best 4x4 of all time, which makes me think I will have a good time learning the method. I’m thinking I will learn Yao, because even though it is a little bit more complicated, it seems to be a very good method and all the main speedcubers use it.

                Besides that, I think the best thing I can over break and continuing into the New Year is continuing on learning OLL’s, because I can’t wait to get sub 10 and be really competitive. Now I fully understand full OLL isn’t the only thing that makes someone fast, but it is still very necessary in speedcubing, and I think it’s a very reasonable thing I should try for. After that, I’m not sure what I want to focus on. I could learn some algs for COLL, as that might help with my times for 3x3, but I think my next best practice option would be working on a new Pyraminx method. The current method I know is good, but won’t ever win me a competition, so I will have to get much better in order to have a fighting chance. So that’s my update for now, thanks!

Progress Plus a Thank You

Hi everyone! I had a little time over the weekend and I started learning a few of the OLL’s. Now, this in itself is not overly special, because so many people have learned much more than that, but it’s really cool for me because it’s the next step on my cubing journey and I can’t wait to continue going and see how far I get to go. In addition to that, I also achieved my new personal best time of 11.32 seconds on 3x3. Again, mildly impressive to those who have been doing this for a while, but I am amazed at my own improvement and so happy to see my progress.

Now on to the purpose of this blog, I wanted to give a big thank you to Anthony Brooks. For any of you that have read my blog for a while, you know that over the summer I really got in to speedcubing and went on a trip where I met Anthony at the Liberty Science center. I had been excited to go for months and thought I was just going to have a fun time. But meeting Anthony was so much more than I had ever anticipated. Watching someone solve a cube in 8 seconds flat in front of your face is just a little to amazing not to have a small freak out. It was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. But not only was he really good, Anthony was also a really nice guy to learn from and gave me quite a few useful tidbits on cubing. Then, some of you will know the story, I got really inspired to speedcube, learned 2 look OLL and PLL in two weeks while touring Europe, and by the time I touched down in America again, I had learned over 10 algorithms and received a personal best and my first sub 20 with a 19.87.

So with all the inspiration, I think it’s fair I give Anthony Brooks a big thank you for motivating me. I’m not sure if I ever would have gotten into speedcubing hard core unless I met him, but I did and I know my life has been changed for the better. So any time you are in Texas or a competition he might be at, make sure you talk to him to see what I’m talking about. Thanks Anthony!

Moyu Quality Control?

This post is more of just an idea to maybe improve something in the future. So here we go. You might occasionally hear about higher order cubes that have the single bad piece or unusually placed sticker, that makes the cube bad until you fix it. This may be a slight annoyance, but it is usually fixed pretty easily and I would only call it an inconvenience. However, recently Moyu has had a few blunders which weren’t just one or two bad pieces on the off puzzle, but defects effecting an entire batch or series of cubes. Of course everyone knows about the most recent incident, in which the Aolong V2 had a bad first batch, with very scratchy, dry and slow plastic. I have to commend them as they fixed the problem as soon as it became apparent, but I still think it could have been avoided. Another issue I have heard of as of “recent” is the Aosu 4x4, which evidently had some deformed center pieces that made for an awful puzzle. This is definitely not a huge deal, but it was more than just one or two people who had an issue so I figured it was worth noting.

Now at the beginning of this post, you probably thought I was going to bust some major stuff out on Moyu, things I had heard and had been compiling for years to give a scathing review of Moyu, that would put them out of business for good. No. you see, I actually like Moyu, it’s my favorite cubing brand and they make some of my favorite puzzles. This post is just to say, hey, there is room for improvement! For instance, they could put a tiny bit more money into their quality control department, hire an extra person, and maybe get a few of those extra problems resolved before the cubes hit the stores.

 But one thing I think would be really beneficial for Moyu is just to slow their roll a bit. In the last year, they have released so many cubes I didn’t bother to even find a number, but among them is the entire “Ao” series, which most of which were top notch cubes, along with the Pyraminx and the Skewb, which from what I have heard, are very good, and I really want to get the Pyraminx, as I think it will easily replace my Shengshou. The point is that they have released so many puzzles, and they only had one big issue, but in addition to that, the also had difficulties with corner twists on the original Aolong and according to Kevin Hayes, whom I would consider an expert in the area, the Moyu 6x6 left much to be desired. If they just slowed down the release of these puzzles a little bit, maybe had some more tests done to see if the 6x6 was a good cube, or if the Aolong was going to be a stable cube, they could have stopped some issues and had a few better products, and definitely would not have had to make a completely new batch of Aolong V2’s. So just a simple idea Moyu, slow it down, get it under control, and keep making the best products, and keep producing world record setting equipment!

Ranks in the WCA

So a while back, I had a post about new events the WCA could add to make the competition experience a little more diverse. Today I want to broaden that subject with the idea of adding ranks to the competition. I know for a fact that CrazyBadCuber did a video on this a very long time ago, so I wanted to talk about his ideas, and then give my opinions on them and my ideas on what might be able to happen.

So CrazyBadCuber’s idea was to have a ranked system based upon your average time in competition. He thought having four divisions, A-D with lower times for each division would be best. While I see his idea here, I think there are a few flaws. One, he says in his video that you are ranked based on the average of your previous competition. The problem I have with this that what if you have never been at a competition before, or had an average of a DNF? Are you instantly put in the bottom, D, division? Another problem I had was his method for moving up a rank. He said that you started in whatever level you were at from your average from the last competition, and that if you wanted, you could go for a faster average and try to move up a division, but if you did, you would be not be able to come down a ranking ever again. But what if you have a lucky average, like I did on 2x2 at my last competition? Am I instantly in the big leagues and can never go back?

I have a few proposed solutions to these problems, plus a couple extra tidbits to make the process better. To start with where you get ranked because of your last competition, just simply do a mean of 3 solves at the start of the comp, for all the competitors who are new. This will give them practice in competing and determine their ranking. To solve the other issue of lucky averages, I think if you had time, you could just have everyone do a mean of 3 for that competition, to get a baseline for their rank. Then they can compete from there, like normal. Of course that is a lot of extra time, so one thing you could do is have a sign up for the division you would like to be put in, and completely exclude time. Instead, focus on the status of the division and the prize each division winner gets. Make it somehow clear that if you compete in the top class with a 20 second average, you are still “better” than the guy who has a 10 second average, but chose class 2 because he wanted to win. Enforce this by making the prizes decrease dramatically for each division, so there is more incentive to move up a rank.

I feel like rankings in the WCA would be very difficult, and even though I haven’t yet expressed this, I don’t think they are the best idea, because you make people feel like winners who haven’t done the work. However, I wanted to share how it could be done, and maybe if some other cubers give their own input, these rankings could be a very fun addition in the future!

CrazyBadCuber's video on this subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtfo4ZS6CU

Competition Success!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will know that I recently competed in a cubing competition, and I can honestly say, that it was a complete success! I competed in Rubik’s Cube, 2x2 and Pyraminx, and did very well for myself in all 3.

                To start, in round one I placed 14th in 2x2 with a low 6 second average. While not the most amazing time for those here who are proficient in 2x2, but I rarely practice it and was quite happy to have such a reasonable time. This was also very fun because 14th place got me into round two, which was an amazing first for me. In all three of my competitions I had never made even close to a second round, and it felt amazing to be able to continue the fun and keep competing. Unfortunately, I got a little bit nervous and dropped back to last in the round, finishing the day with a high 8 second average and 20th place. I do have to comment though; my scrambles in the first round of competition were insanely easy, with a few OLL skips and very easy first layers. I cannot say the same for my second round, which had less luck on what I received to solve.

                I can’t use the same excuse for 3x3 unfortunately. I had very reasonable and realistic solves, and I just decided I was going to get really nervous and do very poorly. In the mix of my solves I had a 25 v second, a 24 second, and a 22 second, which are very bad, especially when you look at the 16 average I had had that morning. However, it did turn out alright, also in the mix of my solves I had a 16 and a 15.9. which by far are my best solves in competition to date. Unfortunately, the high 24 second solve kept me out of round 2, but I  am still very happy because a major goal for me was to get a sub 20 solve and I had more than one, so I am content.

                Pyraminx was probably the best event I competed in. For my first time in competing, I earned my personal best average time of 9.92 which was good enough to barely land me in the top 10, I finished in 9^th place. This made me so happy because as it was the first time I had ever competed in the event and I did better than any other event , however a small portion of this is due to the fact that only a small number of people compete in Pyraminx.

                Overall I am overjoyed with my success in this competition. I got decent or great ranks in ever event I competed in, got an official sub 20 solve for 3x3, and most of all I managed to learn all the PLL’s for the competition, which was another major goal I had strived for. I’m so happy and anxious to compete again!