• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 00:54
CEST 06:54
KST 13:54
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Season 1 - Final Week6[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16Code S RO4 & Finals Preview: herO, Rogue, Classic, GuMiho0
Community News
Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed18Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission extension3Firefly given lifetime ban by ESIC following match-fixing investigation17$25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced7
StarCraft 2
General
Heaven's Balance Suggestions (roast me) The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL Who will win EWC 2025? Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread
Tourneys
Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series $5,100+ SEL Season 2 Championship (SC: Evo)
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava Mutation # 480 Moths to the Flame Mutation # 479 Worn Out Welcome
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Flash Announces (and Retracts) Hiatus From ASL Soulkey Muta Micro Map? BW General Discussion [ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues 2025 ACS Season 2 Qualifier [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET CSL Xiamen International Invitational
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile Nintendo Switch Thread CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project The PlayStation 5
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion Movie Discussion! [\m/] Heavy Metal Thread
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 570 users

Post-Cube Competition

Blogs > FlaShFTW
Post a Reply
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10151 Posts
March 31 2013 16:29 GMT
#1
For those who don't know, I went to a cubing competition (Princeton Spring) yesterday. The pre-comp blog is here http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=405304

So obviously, as my first comp, I knew no one there. Just took a seat in the corner and started practicing. As the venue filled up, it was time for my 3x3 solves.

Solve 1: Messed up the OLL and ended up re-solving half the cube. 34.66s
Solve 2: Best solve. Pretty simple F2L and a good OLL with my favorite PLL. 18.30s
Solve 3: Good solve but I choke the end. Finish but apparently I didn't stop the timer so I ended up getting like 2 more seconds TT.TT. 20.03s
Solve 4: Didn't like the cross at all. 23.47s
Solve 5: Messed up my PLL TT.TT. 30.44s.
Total: (34.66), (18.30), 20.03, 23.47, 30.44 = 24.65 avg.
Not bad but not good either. Nervousness for a few solves but in general, pretty happy about those middle 3 solves.

Next up was my Pyraminx competition. Note that I do not practice anything other than the 3x3 xD Overall pretty boring since you always end up with only like 2 possible different situations for the final step. Got a 7.75 though, super excited about that but it was the easiest solve (solve 2) and someone got like 2.77 on it O.o

Total: 19.97, (7.75), (22.93), 21.71, 15.50 = 19.06

2x2 and 5x5 went at the same time, so I did the 2x2 first. Pretty boring stuff again, though i did get a PLL skip on my last solve. Didn't qualify for the 5x5 so I only solved it twice xD

2x2 Total: 7.86, 13.55, 11.50, (15.66), (5.59) = 10.97
5x5 Total: 3:34.90, 3:33.05

Overall, I was really happy about this competition. I didn't end up qualifying past round 1 for anything xD but I'm fine with that. Just gives me motivation to try even harder for the next competition in Newark May 18th!

Thanks for reading!

O, and P.S., I added a megaminx, a shengshou 4x4, and what looks like a 2x2 eastsheen to my collection. :D

***
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
iamho
Profile Joined June 2009
United States3347 Posts
March 31 2013 17:28 GMT
#2
Can I ask what the point of these competitions are? I thought to solve those cubes fast, you just memorize algorithms and hope you get a lucky initial configuration. I don't mean this in a rude way, I'm genuinely curious.
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10151 Posts
March 31 2013 17:38 GMT
#3
On April 01 2013 02:28 iamho wrote:
Can I ask what the point of these competitions are? I thought to solve those cubes fast, you just memorize algorithms and hope you get a lucky initial configuration. I don't mean this in a rude way, I'm genuinely curious.

The big competition is the 3x3, so I'll just give you the overview of the set up.
Step 1: Cross
Step 2: F2L
Step 3: OLL
Step 4: PLL

The Breakdown and why we care:
In general, everyone is competent at all 4 of these. However, what separates people is their entire memorization. First off, I don't even know half the OLLs yet (there are like 90 of them) while I've memorized all the PLLs.

When we have 15 seconds to "look ahead", the best can look ahead up to half the F2L, maybe even the entire F2L step. But people like me can only get up to the cross. Precious seconds right there to pause and look for your F2L pairings instead of intuitively going into each. F2L is a whole monster altogether. Algorithmic vs Intuitive, both are fine. People's knowledge of this step makes the difference, as F2L is the most time consuming. Each person has a different mindset to solve this section.

Yes, we want to get lucky, but that's why we have the average of 5. Get rid of your best (maybe a lucky solve), and get rid of your worst (maybe a messup solve), and take the 3 middle ones. This will give you your "true" average. So not everything is based upon luck.
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
docvoc
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States5491 Posts
March 31 2013 18:36 GMT
#4
This sounds fun, but it also sounds like a competition of memory. How do people with photographic memories not constantly win these?
User was warned for too many mimes.
Aerisky
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States12129 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-03-31 21:44:43
March 31 2013 21:44 GMT
#5
Oh whoa that's an interesting format to go about it. Sounds pretty fair.

Seems like it was really good for you, glad to see you had fun!
Jim while Johnny had had had had had had had; had had had had the better effect on the teacher.
im a roc
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States745 Posts
March 31 2013 21:44 GMT
#6
What do the acronyms mean? O.o
Beware The Proxy Pool Rush
FlaShFTW
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States10151 Posts
March 31 2013 22:13 GMT
#7
On April 01 2013 03:36 docvoc wrote:
This sounds fun, but it also sounds like a competition of memory. How do people with photographic memories not constantly win these?

because each situation is different and you need a ton of muscle memory as well. how confident in your ability to quickly perform the algorithm, as well as your thought time to process the next step is very hard to get good at.

On April 01 2013 06:44 im a roc wrote:
What do the acronyms mean? O.o

Cross = just the cross. simple as that.
F2L = first 2 layers. the beginner method involves solving the corner, then the 2nd layer after. f2l combines both steps into one.
OLL = orienting last layer. getting the whole yellow side (if yellow is top)
PLL = permutating last layer. solving the whole yellow side.
Writer#1 KT and FlaSh Fanboy || Woo Jung Ho Never Forget || Teamliquid Political Decision Desk
TL+ Member
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 5h 6m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 262
ProTech86
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 32152
Leta 264
PianO 62
Noble 35
ajuk12(nOOB) 11
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm107
LuMiX2
League of Legends
JimRising 733
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K1024
Other Games
summit1g12762
WinterStarcraft467
ViBE221
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick2182
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 12 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• OhrlRock 4
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Rush1885
Upcoming Events
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5h 6m
Online Event
11h 6m
BSL 2v2 ProLeague S3
13h 6m
Esports World Cup
2 days
ByuN vs Astrea
Lambo vs HeRoMaRinE
Clem vs TBD
Solar vs Zoun
SHIN vs Reynor
Maru vs TriGGeR
herO vs Lancer
Cure vs ShoWTimE
Esports World Cup
3 days
Esports World Cup
4 days
Esports World Cup
5 days
CranKy Ducklings
6 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
6 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
6 days
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
Liquipedia Results

Completed

2025 ACS Season 2
RSL Revival: Season 1
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

BSL 2v2 Season 3
Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
CSL Xiamen Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
Underdog Cup #2
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
Esports World Cup 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.