# Method Development Competition - August 2020



## Athefre (Aug 16, 2020)

*Click Here for the Results!*

Welcome everyone to the first method development competition! In this competition teams will compete to create the best 3x3 speedsolving method. At the end of the competition, the community will vote on which method they think is the best. To sign up, post here to let us know that you are interested and join the Method Debate and Discussion Discord server linked at the bottom of this post. The Discord server is where most of the discussion will occur.

*Competition Start: Saturday, August 22 at 10 P.M. GMT

Competition End: Saturday, September 12 at 10 P.M. GMT*

Rules:

1. The method must be intended for speedsolving. The goal should be to create a method that is equal to or faster than the most popular methods right now. Don’t focus too much on creating a method that averages 30 moves per solve. But also avoid having your team's method average 70 moves. Find a method that has the perfect balance of move-count, ergonomics, and the ability for humans to actually use it in a speedsolve.

2. Don't use a method that you've posted in the "New Method" thread or anywhere else. Try to be original. It will be a more interesting method if it isn’t a simple variation of an already existing method. The purpose is also to create a complete method, not a new substep.

3. Your team must provide accurate numbers. If your method has a step that requires an algorithm, your team must provide the exact number of cases for that step. Generating the algorithms for these steps would also go a long way toward showing the move count and ergonomics. It would also be appreciated by the community that is voting for one of the teams.

4. Your team must provide at least three example solves. These example solves must be clearly separated with the scramble and each step defined. You can provide this through text or by using alg.cubing.net.

5. Your team will not be allowed to see what the other teams are developing. This will be accomplished through channels on the Discord server. Your team will be placed into its own channel and won't have the permissions to view the messages on the channels of the other teams. All team discussion will occur in the team channel. Only share ideas with your team and avoid sharing your ideas in this thread.

The number of teams and team members will be decided after all of the volunteers are in. The end date for the competition will be decided once the teams are created. Your team can decide upon a team name before starting. At the end of the competition, submit all documents or messages directly to me. Please don't post your finished products to this thread. Also avoid including team or member names in any products. In the voting poll, the teams that created the method will be anonymous. The link to the poll will be shared both here and on Discord. A list of useful resources has been provided at the bottom of this post. Below is the link to the Discord server. Good luck!









Join the Method Debate and Development Discord Server!


Check out the Method Debate and Development community on Discord - hang out with 107 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.




discord.gg





Useful Resources:

SpeedSolving Wiki (to research what already exists)
Method and States Map (same purpose as above)
Google Sheets
Google Docs
CubeExplorer
VisualCube
Algorithm Translator
alg.cubing.net
AlgDb.net


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## MichaelZRC (Aug 17, 2020)

Me @RadicalMacaroni @AlphaCuber is awesome @Username: Username: and @Sosimomonon Have a team.


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## LeumaZZ (Aug 18, 2020)

Our team: @nuclearaven, @WarriorCatCuber, Caden, @slowhandzboi and Me


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## Humble Cuber (Aug 19, 2020)

Our team: me, Micah Morrison, Owen Morrison, Nmiles, Jorden(Reddit Silver)


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## Athefre (Aug 19, 2020)

Nice! We have a few teams now. There is more room for other teams. So you can sign up and we can help you form a team. Or you can do as others have and put together a team yourself.


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

Yes I think I will do it. Not because I'll win, but because it seems fun.


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## moh_33 (Aug 19, 2020)

Hey i wanna join! but i don't have a team =(


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

moh_33 said:


> Hey i wanna join! but i don't have a team =(



You and me start one


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## moh_33 (Aug 19, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> You and me start one


sure! but i guess we need 4 cubers per team? cuz the other teams have 4 cubers


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

moh_33 said:


> sure! but i guess we need 4 cubers per team? cuz the other teams have 4 cubers



I'll ask some people


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## PetrusQuber (Aug 19, 2020)

moh_33 said:


> sure! but i guess we need 4 cubers per team? cuz the other teams have 4 cubers





TheSlykrCubr said:


> I'll ask some people


I’m in with them.
That’s 4 groups with 3-5 people


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

So our team consist of Me, @PetrusQuber, @moh_33 and @kubesolver


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## Athefre (Aug 19, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> So our team consist of Me, @PetrusQuber, @moh_33 and @kubesolver



You can add another member to your team if you want. Others are making teams of five. That should be a good number. If you are ok with four people that's fine too!


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

We'refi


Athefre said:


> You can add another member to your team if you want. Others are making teams of five. That should be a good number. If you are ok with four people that's fine too!


we're fine with 4 people


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## PetrusQuber (Aug 19, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> So our team consist of Me, @PetrusQuber, @moh_33 and @kubesolver


What are your discords? I’m HexaticPetrus and Moh_33 is Moh_33


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

We've already got a discord server


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## PetrusQuber (Aug 19, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> We've already got a discord server


I mean what are your usernames


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## moh_33 (Aug 19, 2020)

...


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## TheSlykrCubr (Aug 19, 2020)

Im TheSlykrCubr and he's kuba


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## Athefre (Aug 19, 2020)

The tournament officially starts this Saturday at 10 P.M. GMT. So hurry and create your teams now! The tournament will run for three weeks, ending on September 12 at 10 P.M. GMT. All teams must submit everything they have to me by that time.


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## Athefre (Aug 21, 2020)

Anyone have a partial team and need another member to complete the team? We have someone looking to join one right now. Post here or join the Discord server and let us know there.

The tournament officially starts tomorrow, Saturday. So get your teams created! We have several teams already formed. It will be very interesting to see what everyone comes up with and who wins!


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## Jam88 (Aug 21, 2020)

I am in the discord but I don't have a team. Does anyone need someone else @Athefre
I am Luminescence2081/J8Cubes on Discord


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## Athefre (Aug 21, 2020)

Jam88 said:


> I am in the discord but I don't have a team. Does anyone need someone else @Athefre
> I am Luminescence2081/J8Cubes on Discord



The user named "shower" on Discord is also looking for a team. You two could find two or three more members and get a team formed.


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## Jam88 (Aug 21, 2020)

Does anyone want to go with me and shower on discord? 2/3 people?


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## TipsterTrickster (Aug 21, 2020)

I’ll do it by myself


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## Nmile7300 (Aug 21, 2020)

TipsterTrickster said:


> I’ll do it by myself


I think you have to be in a team of 3-5 people.
EDIT: @TipsterTrickster if you want to be in our team you can. We had 5 but one person left.


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## Jam88 (Aug 21, 2020)

@TipsterTrickster you can go with me and shower on discord if you want?


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## TipsterTrickster (Aug 21, 2020)

Jam88 said:


> @TipsterTrickster you can go with me and shower on discord if you want?


Sure why not
Edit: I am Tipster Trickster#5467 on discord


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## Jam88 (Aug 21, 2020)

have you joined the discord?


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## trangium (Aug 21, 2020)

Jam88 said:


> Does anyone want to go with me and shower on discord? 2/3 people?


If there's still an opening can I join your team?


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## Jam88 (Aug 21, 2020)

that should be fine


trangium said:


> If there's still an opening can I join your team?


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## PetrusQuber (Aug 22, 2020)

Tournament officially begins in 1 hour and 34 minutes I believe


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## Jam88 (Aug 22, 2020)

10 PM I thought?


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## PetrusQuber (Aug 22, 2020)

Jam88 said:


> 10 PM I thought?


10 GMT.


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## Athefre (Aug 22, 2020)

The tournament starts in around 8 hours, so finalize your teams now! I have also updated the main post to provide several resources to help with developing the method. A Word or Excel document with an explanation and the example solves is enough. You don't have to spend a lot of time generating algorithms and images. However, if your team plans to do a little more, the extra resources will be helpful.


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## martinss (Aug 22, 2020)

This tournament is a very good idea! I don't want to participate but I'm curious to see the methods that will be proposed. To "research what already exists", I think you should add this in the useful resources: https://www.speedsolving.com/threads/a-rubiks-cube-methods-and-states-map.46753/


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## Athefre (Aug 22, 2020)

martinss said:


> This tournament is a very good idea! I don't want to participate but I'm curious to see the methods that will be proposed. To "research what already exists", I think you should add this in the useful resources: https://www.speedsolving.com/threads/a-rubiks-cube-methods-and-states-map.46753/



Good point! I'll add it to the main post.


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## Jam88 (Aug 24, 2020)

How will we submit our ideas?


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## PetrusQuber (Sep 12, 2020)

12 hours left!!!!


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 12, 2020)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


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## Username: Username: (Sep 12, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


??????? What the heck?


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 12, 2020)

excitement


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## ArbishAli (Sep 12, 2020)

You have created your methods?


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 12, 2020)

yes


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## ArbishAli (Sep 12, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> yes


When is it ending?


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 12, 2020)

10.5 hours


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## ArbishAli (Sep 12, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> 10.5 hours


Ok I am excited to see who wins.


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## Sosimomonon (Sep 12, 2020)

I had no idea so many people were competing, I thought we had like 4 teams. Happy to see that I was wrong.


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## ArbishAli (Sep 12, 2020)

There should be more tournaments like this. People should show their productivity.


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## Athefre (Sep 12, 2020)

ArbishAli said:


> There should be more tournaments like this. People should show their productivity.



I do plan to hold this regularly. Though not too often to keep it interesting and so that people have time to think.


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## PapaSmurf (Sep 12, 2020)

I want to see what other teams have created. I think there will be some new and interesting ideas.


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## Athefre (Sep 13, 2020)

*Voting Now Open!*

*Methods (click on each to learn more):*

2 Square
EBBP
Yellow Bird
23RF
Square-101
L2L5

Take time to carefully review each method and determine what you think is the best for each category in the poll. Even though not every team has the same number of members, I encourage the team members to also vote because some may vote anyway. You may vote for your own method or study the methods and vote for the one you truly think is deserving. Another note for the teams: Don't have your family and friends vote. Let the voting naturally happen from the views of the community. I will release the results once a good number of votes have been cast.


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## Athefre (Sep 14, 2020)

The results are in! The overall winner is...

*Team "the" with **EBBP**!*
Congratulations to @RadicalMacaroni, @MichaelZRC, @AlphaCuber is awesome, @Sosimomonon, and @Username: Username: for their work on the winning method.

Below are the statistics:

*EBBP won Best Overall Method*


*Square-101 won Best for FMC


Square-101 won Most Original Method*


Thanks to everyone for participating and making this such a fun competition. There were some interesting steps introduced in these methods. I've had this competition idea for 10 years and am glad to have finally gotten to make it happen. My goal with this was to get people thinking more about method development. Thanks to @MichaelZRC for allowing the use of his Discord server and for holding a small non-team method competition some time ago. That is what reminded me of this idea that I had. If anyone has suggestions for how to improve for the next one, please let me know. As the competition progressed and I learned what works and what doesn't, I added a lot of stuff to my personal template for this competition.


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## ArbishAli (Sep 14, 2020)

Congrats to all winners!


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 14, 2020)

That was Fun!

I await the next competition with anxiety


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## Hazel (Sep 14, 2020)

Awesome! Congratulations to the winners 
One idea for future method competitions is to include restrictions to make each individual comp unique—maybe something like the most advanced version of the method must have less than 100 algorithms, or the number of steps must be less than 5.


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## Owen Morrison (Sep 14, 2020)

I personally think having a few judges to decide which method is best would be better than having anyone vote on it. theoretically, someone could just use several alt accounts to vote for themselves. And people who are on a team most likely aren't going to be voting fairly, they will probably just vote for their own method without studying the other methods to see their potential. This means teams with the most members have an unfair advantage over teams with less members.

Still, this was a fun tournament and I am looking forward to competing in another. Thank you for hosting @Athefre!


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## Athefre (Sep 14, 2020)

Aerma said:


> Awesome! Congratulations to the winners
> One idea for future method competitions is to include restrictions to make each individual comp unique—maybe something like the most advanced version of the method must have less than 100 algorithms, or the number of steps must be less than 5.



That's an interesting idea. I'll think about that. Thank you!



Owen Morrison said:


> I personally think having a few judges to decide which method is best would be better than having anyone vote on it. theoretically, someone could just use several alt accounts to vote for themselves. And people who are on a team most likely aren't going to be voting fairly, they will probably just vote for their own method without studying the other methods to see their potential. This means teams with the most members have an unfair advantage over teams with less members.
> 
> Still, this was a fun tournament and I am looking forward to competing in another. Thank you for hosting @Athefre!



I'm not sure if I like the idea of having a team of judges. That is only a few people compared to the whole community. Having judges would get rid of the potential for cheating, but it would also keep the community from having a say. What we really need is more of the community to vote. There were only 30 votes this time. We just discussed this on the Discord server and I also brought up a combined idea. Basically a weighted system where the community counts for really high percentage. Then I pick experienced people as judges and their vote is the remaining percentage.

Thank you for participating @Owen Morrison! I could tell your team put a good amount of thought into the method.


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## LukasCubes (Sep 15, 2020)

is there going to be another one of these tournaments?


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## Athefre (Sep 15, 2020)

LukasCubes said:


> is there going to be another one of these tournaments?



Yes, but not very soon. Maybe in a few months. I want to keep it interesting.


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## LukasCubes (Sep 15, 2020)

Athefre said:


> Yes, but not very soon. Maybe in a few months. I want to keep it interesting.


ok thx, let me know 7 days before the tournament starts so i can try to find a team. I want to enter the next one.


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## Athefre (Sep 15, 2020)

Ok! I'll probably have it so that there is a longer amount of time from when the announcement is made to when the competition actually starts. This is to give people more time to form teams.


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## mukerflap (Sep 15, 2020)

Aerma said:


> Awesome! Congratulations to the winners
> One idea for future method competitions is to include restrictions to make each individual comp unique—maybe something like the most advanced version of the method must have less than 100 algorithms, or the number of steps must be less than 5.


100 algs isnt much


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## OreKehStrah (Sep 15, 2020)

I suggest that you have two voting systems. 
A community one like you did, and have a panel of judges of well respected and informed members of the community.

This could give a more interesting perspective on how the community as a whole vs more experience/influential members view new ideas


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## Athefre (Sep 15, 2020)

OreKehStrah said:


> I suggest that you have two voting systems.
> A community one like you did, and have a panel of judges of well respected and informed members of the community.
> 
> This could give a more interesting perspective on how the community as a whole vs more experience/influential members view new ideas



So like the weighted voting system that I posted in post #58? Using that, after the end of the competition I would show how the community voted and how the judges voted. Or do you mean have the community and the judges be completely separate? If separate, how do you suggest that a winner is determined?


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## Hazel (Sep 15, 2020)

mukerflap said:


> 100 algs isnt much


Exactly! It isn't much, so it would be interesting to see an influx of methods that stay at or under this count.
(However, it isn't _that_ small. Both Roux and base CFOP stay well under 100)


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 15, 2020)

Aerma said:


> Exactly! It isn't much, so it would be interesting to see an influx of methods that stay at or under this count.
> (However, it isn't _that_ small. Both Roux and base CFOP stay well under 100)



I mean, TECHNICALLY, using advanced f2l counts as algs, but should we ignore stuff like that?


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## CrispyCubing (Sep 15, 2020)

TheSlykrCubr said:


> I mean, TECHNICALLY, using advanced f2l counts as algs, but should we ignore stuff like that?





Aerma said:


> Both Roux and *base* CFOP stay well under 100)


I assume you would take the minimum number of algs required so you wouldn't count stuff like F2L algs or ZBLL.

But this does raise the question (Assuming an alg limit): Couldn't you get around a limit by using one alg multiple times? An example would be using sune for all cross oriented OLLs. The alternative would be to count the number of cases, but that could be hard to judge/regulate.


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## Hazel (Sep 15, 2020)

CrispyCubing said:


> I assume you would take the minimum number of algs required so you wouldn't count stuff like F2L algs or ZBLL.
> 
> But this does raise the question (Assuming an alg limit): Couldn't you get around a limit by using one alg multiple times? An example would be using sune for all cross oriented OLLs. The alternative would be to count the number of cases, but that could be hard to judge/regulate.


You could get around the limit this way, but it would impact how good the method is.


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## TheSlykrCubr (Sep 15, 2020)

hahaahha im genning TEG-1 Algorithms for fun im wierd

Edit: ive done 8 and i've been at it for like 30 minutes


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## OreKehStrah (Sep 15, 2020)

Athefre said:


> So like the weighted voting system that I posted in post #58? Using that, after the end of the competition I would show how the community voted and how the judges voted. Or do you mean have the community and the judges be completely separate? If separate, how do you suggest that a winner is determined?


I was thinking separately so that way we could see what the community as a whole would say the winner is and what the judge panel would choose, then we could discuss why each group ended up with their result. It would be an interesting way to see how the community as a whole views and critiques new ideas


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## Athefre (Sep 15, 2020)

OreKehStrah said:


> I was thinking separately so that way we could see what the community as a whole would say the winner is and what the judge panel would choose, then we could discuss why each group ended up with their result. It would be an interesting way to see how the community as a whole views and critiques new ideas



So potentially have two winners? Or do you have an idea for how to decide a winner between the community vote and the judges' vote?


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## OreKehStrah (Sep 16, 2020)

Athefre said:


> So potentially have two winners? Or do you have an idea for how to decide a winner between the community vote and the judges' vote?


I’d say two winners and then we can analyze how each group came to their decision on the winner


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## Athefre (Sep 16, 2020)

OreKehStrah said:


> I’d say two winners and then we can analyze how each group came to their decision on the winner



Ok. I'll think about it and discuss it with the teams that just completed. They may be able to express how they would feel about there possibly being two winners. My initial reaction is that I wouldn't like it as a competitor because, if I won, I would want it to be a clear win. I wouldn't want there to be one side saying "You may have won the community vote, but my team won what matters - the judge vote!" On either side it wouldn't feel as special to have won.

I think I like either the way it was done this time or a weighted system. If the weighted system, then I would provide the two additional charts at the end. Community Vote and Judge Vote.


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## EngiNerdBrian (Sep 16, 2020)

This is a cool comp and a great thread. I hope to see more content like this on the forums. It was fun reading through the methods and getting a new perspective on solving the cube. I look forward to trying out all the methods more in casual solves.


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## Cuberstache (Sep 16, 2020)

Just something I noticed about this yellow bird solve (the one they said was bad)

R B' L2 D2 B' F' D2 R2 L' F' U2 B D' U B' D2 U'

z2 
U2 L2 B' L' B U B //222 (7/7)
R' F U2 R' F2 U2 R' F R F //p223 (10/17)
R U R' U2 R2 F R2 F' //br (8/25)
U2 R' F R F' U2 R U R' U2 F' //f2l (11/36)
U2 S' F R U R' U' F' U S //oll (10/46)
R U R' U R' U' R2 U' R' U R' U R U //pll (14/60)
U2 R U' R2' F R F2' // F2L (7/32)
U R U R' U' R' F R2 U' R' U' R U R' F // LL (15/47)

Not as bad as you thought 
I missed the voting period but I would have voted for yellow bird, it seems pretty awesome.


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## JKS (Feb 18, 2021)

I have a really great method that I can solve with almost as fast as cfop even though I learned it in one day however I don't have time to make an entire doc about it. will the future competitions have 3x3 again?


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## Owen Morrison (Feb 23, 2021)

JKS said:


> I have a really great method that I can solve with almost as fast as cfop even though I learned it in one day however I don't have time to make an entire doc about it. will the future competitions have 3x3 again?


What are the steps in your method?


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## JKS (Feb 24, 2021)

Nevermind I found out that it was already invented


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