Here’s a quick follow-up to my C-Shape OLL tutorial, this one focussed on the “Frying Pan” OLLs (##53-54). Why “Frying Pan”? I have no idea. Leave a comment if you know.
I filmed this at the same time as the C-Shape one, trying to squeeze in as much production before my wrist surgery. It follows the same multi-cam approach:
My Two-Look OLL post inspired me to keep pushing along with learning more OLLs. I had started learning the C-shapes (##34 and 46), but got distracted when I couldn’t find a decent flow for the latter. Now, I finally found an alternate algorithm for it.
OLL #34
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OLL #46
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Here’s a video tutorial, followed by further explanation:
I’ve wanted to make this Two-Look OLL tutorial for a while, and finally found the time. Although the video embedded below is comprehensive (read: long) and should stand alone, this post’s further background and table of algorithms should help with learning/practice.
The third-step in 3×3 solving under the CFOP/Fridrich Method is OLL (Orient Last Layer). By the OLL stage, with the Cross and F2L complete, the bottom face and first two layers will be solved. The goal of OLL is to orient the up face stickers (generally yellow for white-on-bottom solvers so that all are facing up and none are facing “out.”
There are 57 possible cases/states at the OLL stage, too many for most cubers to learn/remember all solutions. (Two years in, and I know only about 30 of them….) Two-Look OLL is designed to lighten the burden by breaking OLL into two steps. The first step (or “look”) of Two-Look OLL is to orient the four edges, forming a yellow cross or plus-sign (ignoring the edges). The second “look” orients the four corners so that yellow faces up, completing the top face. The center cubie is, of course, fixed and can never be “un-oriented.” As the Speedsolving Wiki summarizes:
[Y]ou do not need to know all 57 OLLs to use 2-look OLL, rather the system is divided up. By first orienting the edges (3 cases), then orienting the corners (7 cases), orientation of all pieces on the last layer is completed.
I think we all can agree that 10 cases is better than 57!?! Here’s a video teaching and contextualizing them:
The Mouse OLLs (##3, 4) are hard. Not so much their execution (certainly the Sexy Move variants aren’t all that bad), but orientation. Where does that corner go? Top-right? Bottom left? And what about that side with just the un-oriented edge? Which is Mouse and which is Anti-?
Having concentrated on these OLLs quite a bit, I now no longer mind them. Here’s a simple table and video tutorial — its soundtrack a tribute to Lou Reed, RIP — followed after the jump by further explanation.
| OLL 3 | OLL 4 | ORIENTATION | |
| SEXY-BASED | f (R U R’ U’) f’ (U’) F (R U R’ U’) F’  |
f (R U R’ U’) f’ (U) F (R U R’ U’) F’  |
oriented corner: R layer edge-only face: |
SUNE-BASED | M (R U R’ U) Rw U2 Rw’ U M’  |
M U’ Rw U2 Rw’ (U’ R U’ R’) M’  |
oriented corner: F layer edge-only face: |
Generally, I find the OLL “dot” cases frustrating — there are a bunch of them, they’re hard to identify/distinguish quickly, and their algorithms are long. A few months ago, I worked on a couple OLL dot cases that I had previously two-looked. Those came rather easily. Then I got side-tracked by the Megaminx, 4×4 modding, and PLL time attacks.
I decided to work on more OLLs last week, after stumbling onto Ottozing’s very good Cubing World video showing all of the dot cases. Specifically, these three:
OLL #18
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OLL #19
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OLL #20
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adventures in cubing 