Month: August 2012

V Perm — Booya

Adventures in Cubing4 Comments
UPDATE: This alg sucks. I long ago migrated to a totally different version, which is (odd as it may sound) my favorite alg.

After a brief hitaus from learning new algorithms, I posted over the weekend about learning Y Perm (and its two constituent OLLs). Feeling emboldened, I ventured into V Perm this week.  According to smart people, 1/18 of solves should see a V Perm.  Maybe something about my F2L technique puts a thumb on the V Perm scale, but I feel like I see it at least every 6 or 7 solves.

In any event, I learned it.  It was hard.  About as hard as I expected.  And I’m still slow at it.  But it works.  Here’s a quickie video showing me clunk through it:

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Y Perm (OLL 37 + OLL 33)

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Over the past month, my F2L speed has increased considerably — now averaging about 20-22 seconds…and dropping. My cross can get faster, but it’s not terrible at 6-ish seconds.

That leaves the last layer as the big x-factor. I know a handful of OLLs and PLLs. Still, I’m two-looking the orientation stage and then two-(and-sometimes-even-three-)looking the permutation stage.

I haven’t tried to pick up new algorithms for a while, mostly because I feel like I’ve already picked the low hanging fruit. (A glutton for punishment, I did recently learn Na Perm but then stalled at the tougher Nb.)

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28 seconds

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My first sub-30 solve: 28.28 seconds!  Pretty Lights’ “Finally Moving” played in the background.

Clearly, this is well outside of my ~40 second average. Even with the benefit of the 28-second solve, the session average was over 40 seconds. Everything just came together easily: I visualized the cross perfectly and performed it in six moves; my four F2L insertions went off without a hitch and with minimal hunting; and I knew the OLL (#23).

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I got lucky with a PLL skip, which probably saved me 4 seconds. But, even if you throw in a 2-look PLL, I should have been below my previous personal best of 34 seconds (with best-recorded of 39 seconds).

I guess my recent F2L work is paying off!