# Monthly Computer Cube Competition 3: August 2009



## qqwref (Aug 2, 2009)

This is the third monthly speedsolving.com computer cube competition! Hopefully this will give people an excuse to try computer cubes  Computer cubes are quite fun in my opinion, and they give you the opportunity to play with and practice puzzles that you wouldn't normally get a chance to see.

Here are the rules. _Please_ read these if you haven't yet!
- Please do all of the scrambles for a given round in a row. You get to decide when to start counting solves; that is, at some point before a solve you should decide that you will start counting times. At that point the next 3/5/12 solves you do on that puzzle count towards the competition and you may not do practice solves until you are done with the round. Do not rescramble; if you get a difficult scramble or make a mistake, just keep going, like in a real competition. However, if the program crashes or some other computer-related problem happens that prevents you from completing the solve, you may discard that solve and do a new one in its place. If you don't do enough scrambles I will add on DNS's at the end when calculating your average.
- You may use any simulator you want, although obviously you can't use a physical cube. Some good online ones are hi-games, gelatinbrain, and jfly's SquareOneSim, MegaminxSim, and PyraminxSim, but you may feel free to use any others. For Clock I strongly suggest Mitchell Stern's NxN clock simulator. If you want, you can even switch to a different simulator during the average, as long as you continue counting every solve you attempt.
- If the simulator you use lets you use any amount of inspection, please don't use more than 15 seconds, although I probably won't penalize you if you go over.
- If you submit very fast times that I don't believe you are capable of, please also provide some kind of proof that you can get those times. It doesn't have to be a high-quality video or anything; I just don't want people to win by cheating.
- For the Pyraminx event, you do not have to use a simulator with trivial tips, as I know not all simulators support this.
- At the end of the competition, for each event the top 5 people will receive, respectively, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point(s). A DNF finish will not receive any points, however, and if fewer than 5 people get points in an event the remaining prizes will simply not be given. The final competition ranking is just a list of the people with the most points.

This competition is over! The final results can be found here.

Good luck and have fun!

The current list of puzzles are as follows:
- *2x2x2*: Average of 12.
- *3x3x3*: Average of 12.
- *4x4x4*: Average of 5.
- *5x5x5*: Average of 5.
- *6x6x6*: Average of 5.
- *7x7x7*: Average of 5.
- *3x3x3 BLD*: Best of 5.
- *Clock (3x3)*: Average of 12.
- *Clock (5x5)*: Average of 12.
- *Clock (10x10)*: Average of 5.
- *Dino Cube*: Average of 12.
- *Gigaminx*: Mean of 3.
- *Helicopter Cube*: Average of 5.
- *Megaminx*: Average of 5.
- *Pyraminx*: Average of 12.
- *Skewb*: Average of 12.
- *Square-1*: Average of 5.
- *Super-X*: Average of 5.


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## Sa967St (Aug 2, 2009)

*2x2x2: 6.32*
6.37, 5.36, 6.49, 6.71, 7.15, 5.46, 6.42, (4.81), 7.23, (7.97), 6.06, 5.97, 
*3x3x3: 15.72*
16.00, 14.42, 18.83, 13.72, 16.89, 18.05, 14.48, 15.82, 15.22, (23.28), 13.79, (12.99)
*4x4x4: 1:14.43*
(1:05.86), (1:23.60), 1:19.23, 1:16.79, 1:07.28


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## Ethan Rosen (Aug 2, 2009)

I'm only gonna take up one post this week:
Don't laugh at my cube times, this was all done on GB

2x2: 17) :16 :15 : 17 :11 : 17 :13 10) :15 :11 :11 :15
Average: 14.1

on 3x3 it keeps thinking I want to do a slice move for some reason, which is REALLY annoying
3x3: 1:13 (1:44) 1:08 1:09 1:06 1:07 1:08 1:13 1:03 1:14 1:05 57) 
Average: 1:08.6

Dino Cube: :10 :8 :14 14) :13 :10 :9 7) :9 :13 :10 :11
Average: 10.7

Gigaminx: 25:08 DNS DNS
I'm not doing the last two this month due to an ambulance call. 

Helicopter Cube: 48) (1:05) :52 :51 :52
Average: 51.67

Megaminx: (3:36) (4:26) 4:07 3:54 3:55
Average: 3:58.67

Pyraminx: :11 :11 :11 :13 :11 :8 :10 :11 :12 :12 :9 :12
Average: 11 This is definitely one of the most consistent averages I've ever taken

Super-x: 1:06 1:17 1:26p (it was :47 two pieces off) (1:05) (1:37)p
Average: 1:15.67

skewb: :33 39) :28 :29 :27 :24 :22 :26 :26 :22 :31 19)
Average: 26.8

3x3 Clock: DNS

I planned to do all of the events except for bld and sq-1, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I didn't spend much time on a computer.


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## Robert-Y (Aug 2, 2009)

3x3x3 average of 12: 11.57

11.67
12.29 (one small mistake)
(9.29)
12.75
10.23
10.60
11.99
12.36
10.80
11.84
(14.42) (Mistake on L perm )
11.20

Comment: It seems that I am no longer better on a virtual cube 

4x4x4 average of 5: 42.35

(50.53) (DP) (Screwed up PLL parity )
(35.33)
43.98 (DP)
37.25
45.83 (DP)

5x5x5: DNF

I'm out of shape for sure


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## Jude (Aug 2, 2009)

Is it just me or is this page down? Hopefully it will be back up later :s

P.S. I'll edit my results when I can.

3x3x3: 19.50, 18.84, 19.56, 23.03 (G), (26.11 (V)), 19.25, 24.23 (G), 18.52, 20.77, 18.45, (16.06), 17.45 = *19.97* --> _Awesome  My first sub 20 computer average of more than 5 solves. _

3x3x3 BLD: DNF, DNF, 5:04.34, DNS, DNS = *5:04.34* --> _Damn, I found this so difficult. I couldn't be bothered to try the last 2 after I finally got a success._


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## tsaoenator (Aug 2, 2009)

Andy Tsao
3x3x3: 09.53, 11.02, 11.22, (13.64), 10.30, 11.14, 09.48, 10.52, 09.81, (09.47), 12.85, 11.79 = 10.77 not bad
4x4x4: (38.12), 40.97, 44.74, (50.23), 41.95 = 42.55


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## Mike Hughey (Aug 3, 2009)

16 done. Looks like I won't get to the Helicopter Cube or Super-X this week.  Anyway, I don't remember how to do them - I tried a practice helicopter cube solve and gave up after about 10 minutes. I'll have to go back and relearn them sometime soon. Wow, a long break really hurts your times!

@Ethan: Thanks for finally letting me beat someone with a non-DNF in this competition (by doing your cubes on gelatinbrain). Someday I hope to accomplish that without the other person being handicapped, but probably not this month (other than BLD).

*2x2x2*: 17.11, 13.61, (8.78), 8.80, 15.99, 11.38, 16.70, 13.86, (19.53), 14.42, 11.48, 13.45 = *13.680*
*3x3x3*: 49.73, (40.30), 58.89, 46.02, 44.33, 50.94, 46.26, 53.46, (1:24.70), 43.76, 56.95, 43.31 = *49.365*
*4x4x4*: (2:12.12), 3:01.67 (O), 2:55.23 (OP), 2:37.48 (O), (3:11.73) (O) = *2:51.460*
*5x5x5*: 4:29.09, (4:48.85), (3:59.59), 4:35.84, 4:19.43 = *4:28.120*
*6x6x6:* (13:52.77) (OP), 10:37.05 (O), (10:16.66) (P), 11:34.61 (OP), 10:53.01 (O) = *11:01.557*
Comment: Wow, major step back from last month. I've forgotten how to use the keys - it's almost like learning all over again. 
*7x7x7:* 13:41.48, 12:40.76, (12:08.45), 13:04.03, (13:43.81) = *13:08.757*
Comment: Not quite as bad as 6x6x6. It takes some practice to remember how to deal with wide vs. narrow turns.
*3x3x3 BLD:* 6:18.28, DNF, 4:03.95, DNF, 5:01.35 = *4:03.95*
Comment: Yes! If Jude doesn't bother to do the last two solves, I'll wind up not in last place for my first computer event ever! So appropriate that it would be a BLD event.  I still have so much trouble with using a different color scheme; I wish this were supported in the new hi-games.net.
*Clock (3x3):* 22.358, 26.218, 26.483, 24.406, 23.046, 33.312, 25.265, 30.452, 21.406, (19.859), 25.702, (1:11.200) = *25.865*
Comment: My first time to ever not improve on an event. I was doing okay until I had a disaster on the last solve - I panicked.
*Clock (5x5):* 1:27.341, 1:29.966, (1:20.372), 1:32.794, 1:23.325, 1:32.653, 1:22.763, 1:33.262, 1:25.857, 1:27.575, 1:27.654, (1:39.200) = *1:28.319*
Comment: I can't believe the consistency. As before, I panicked on the last solve.
*Clock (10x10):* (8:18.187), 5:37.239, (5:27.318), 5:35.005, 5:33.552 = *5:35.265*
Comment: Again, the consistency is amazing - big clock puzzles are just lots of the same thing over and over again, so the speed is really consistent. On the first one, I messed up the back side and didn't realize it, so I had to toggle a whole bunch of pegs to fix it.
*Dino Cube:* 37, 21, 33, 34, 33, (40), 27, 30, 25, 25, 27, (19) = *29.200*
Comment: Bad, bad, bad. I'm just so bad at this. I do it layer by layer, and a lot of times I freeze at the beginning trying to decide which face to start with. If there were an inspection time on gelatinbrain, it would REALLY help on this puzzle.
*Gigaminx:* 31:02, 26:30, 26:42 = *28:04.667*
Comment: Ugh - I got slow again. I'm starting to speed back up, but I need to practice a bit before next month's attempts.
*Megaminx:* (7:38), 5:22, 5:47, 5:17, (4:09) = *5:28.666*
*Pyraminx:* 26, (39), 23, (11), 21, 21, 20, 24, 30, 26, 22, 31 = *24.400*
*Skewb:* 37, 56, 37, (25), 46, 47, (1:08), 57, 45, 51, 36, 42 = *45.400*
Comment: Getting better. Gelatinbrain controls seem particularly difficult for me on this puzzle.
*Square-1:* 1:49.17 (P), (1:09.58), (2:14.25), 1:24.17, 1:25.70 (P) = *1:33.013*


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## fanwuq (Aug 17, 2009)

4x4x4:
1:00.67 PP 1:17.33 DP 1:06.27 PP 1:03.99 PP 1:07.53 DP
Good average. Will I ever average sub-1?

3x3x3: 
14.66	16.23	20.17	17.23	18.14	15.81	18.13	18.44	17.2	15.53	17.72	16.55
average: 17.098

2x2x2:
7.23 8.08 7.94 6.56 11.38 10.45 7.27 6.11 9.39 5.69 5.49 8.66
Relearned Ortega. No skips.


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## qqwref (Aug 17, 2009)

J-fly's website appears to still be down  I don't want to do my solves until it comes back up (although if it doesn't fix itself this month I guess I'll just do everything else).


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## qqwref (Aug 21, 2009)

Bump! Thanks to Jeremy Fleischman, I would like to present a mirrored version of his applets:
CuboidSim (this can do every size of cube, by the way)
MegaminxSim
PyraminxSim
SquareOneSim

Now there is no excuse to not do these puzzles


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## DavidWoner (Aug 27, 2009)

3x3 clock: 6.687, 5.672, 6.047, 7.188, 5.625, 5.906, 6.391, 5.937, 6.89, 6.406, 5.75, 5.922 = 6.16 avg

5x5 clock: 39.016, (42.719), 40.843, 39.640, 39.563, 41.438, 39.390, 38.843, 40.062, (38.297), 38.563, 39.563
Average: 39.68, Best Time: 38.297 Worst Time: 42.71

since when am I sub-40?

10x10: 3:20.188, 3:17.776, 2:59.578, 3:29.704, DNS = 3:2x.something


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## qqwref (Aug 31, 2009)

I'm going to extend this round to *September 1st* for Ethan Rosen. Good luck everyone!

By the way here are my times so far. I still have 3x3 clock and 3BLD left to do.
2x2: 3.62 4.09 4.70 4.24 4.01 8.61 (2.59) 6.28 3.90 5.09 (12.52) 3.59 => 4.813
3x3: 13.97 12.66 12.46 14.68 14.39 12.61 (11.27) 13.76 12.73 16.37 16.00 (19.74) => 13.963
4x4: (44.84) 50.83 46.66 48.14 (53.20) => 48.543
5x5: (1:07.83) (1:23.97) 1:14.62 1:11.78 1:21.31 => 1:15.903
6x6: 2:14.61 2:18.17 2:16.87 (2:40.37) (2:10.61) => 2:16.550
7x7: 3:20.75 (3:24.00) 3:14.45 (3:01.45) 3:12.39 => 3:15.863
Clock (5x5): 31.145 35.111 31.586 30.764 34.350 31.335 31.555 (30.744) 31.976 33.208 (35.400) 34.980 => 32.6010
Clock (10x10): 2:37.076 (2:49.504) (2:31.187) 2:31.478 2:35.613 => 2:34.7223
Dino Cube: 10 12 9 12 8 9 8 12 (17) (7) 14 10 => 10.4
Gigaminx: 9:53 9:57 10:09 => 9:59.7
Helicopter Cube: (48) 48 43 45 (31) => 45.3
Megaminx: 83 90 (97) 75 (71) => 82.7
Pyraminx: 3.56 (8.78) 6.85 8.65 8.64 6.26 6.57 5.84 4.99 4.48 5.32 (2.56) = 6.116
Skewb: 14 (23) 18 22 (9) 14 15 14 9 22 12 14 => 15.4
Square-1: (30.12) 25.51 (14.27) 28.63 25.26 => 26.467
Super-X: 1:20 (1:50p) 1:33p (1:17) 1:49 => 1:34.0


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## Mike Hughey (Aug 31, 2009)

qqwref said:


> I'm going to extend this round to *September 1st* for Ethan Rosen.


Thanks, that may help me get in an extra solve or two as well. I just couldn't get to everything this month because I was away from computers for 3 1/2 weeks.


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## qqwref (Sep 2, 2009)

You guys have 3 hours left, good luck 

3x3 BLD: DNF DNF DNF 2:58.14 DNS => 2:58.14 YEAAHHHH SUCCESS 
Clock (3x3): 8.282, 7.234, 6.969, (5.406), 6.203, (8.750), 6.953, 5.750, 6.343, 7.266, 5.844, 8.422 => 6.9266

I think overall I did OK this round, got some really nice times on a few events and some pretty bad times on a few others.

I think at the end of the year I'm going to make a summary topic, where only your BEST overall times in each event are compared. I think it could end up interesting.


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## Mike Hughey (Sep 2, 2009)

I think I'm done. I didn't get super-X or helicopter cube done this month.  I'll try to do better next month.

I think comparing best overall times would be great for the end of the year. Let's see if I can move out of last place in anything (other than BLD - I really hope I can at least manage to stay out of last place for that!).


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## Ethan Rosen (Sep 2, 2009)

Mike Hughey said:


> I think I'm done. I didn't get super-X or helicopter cube done this month.  I'll try to do better next month.
> 
> I think comparing best overall times would be great for the end of the year. Let's see if I can move out of last place in anything (other than BLD - I really hope I can at least manage to stay out of last place for that!).



Don't worry Mike, I still plan on doing clock. Since I no longer have QWERTY installed on my computer, I have to use a different control scheme, and I don't have much time to practice.

Edit: Not to mention you would've beaten me even without that 

Edit: Unfortunately, that version does not exist at the moment, and I don't really want to reinstall QWERTY.


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## JustinJ (Sep 2, 2009)

It's still September 1st!

2x2: 2.94, 2.64, 4.27, 3.59, 2.11, 2.91, (7.58), 4.55, 5.03, (0.61), 4.67, 5.00 = 3.77

I had really easy cases on most of them, the 0.61 was obviously an LL skip with an easy FL.

Is it just me, or does j-fly's sim give really easy scrambles?


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## qqwref (Sep 2, 2009)

I decided to accept Yalow's post since it was right on the line. But don't do it again! 

So, here are the final results, and then the rankings for all events:

*Final Results*
*1:* qqwref - 96 points!!!
*2:* Mike Hughey - 46 points!!
*3:* Ethan Rosen - 26 points!
4: DavidWoner: 14 points
5: Robert-Y & tsaoenator: 10 points
7: Sa967St & Yalow: 6 points
9: fanwuq: 5 points
10: Jude: 3 points

Individual events:

```
[B]2x2[/B]
1. Yalow: 3.771
2. qqwref: 4.813
3. Sa967St: 6.322
4. fanwuq: 7.738
5. Mike Hughey: 13.680
6. Ethan Rosen: 14.1

[B]3x3[/B]
1. tsaoenator: 10.766
2. Robert-Y: 11.573
3. qqwref: 13.963
4. Sa967St: 15.722
5. fanwuq: 17.098
6. Jude: 19.960
7. Mike Hughey: 49.365
8. Ethan Rosen: 1:08.6

[B]4x4[/B]
1. Robert-Y: 42.353
2. tsaoenator: 42.553
3. qqwref: 48.543
4. fanwuq: 1:05.930
5. Sa967St: 1:14.433
6. Mike Hughey: 2:51.460

[B]5x5[/B]
1. qqwref: 1:15.903
2. Mike Hughey: 4:28.120

[B]6x6[/B]
1. qqwref: 2:16.550
2. Mike Hughey: 11:01.557

[B]7x7[/B]
1. qqwref: 3:15.863
2. Mike Hughey: 13:08.757

[B]3x3 BLD[/B]
1. qqwref: 2:58.14
2. Mike Hughey: 4:03.95
3. Jude: 5:04.34

[B]Clock (3x3)[/B]
1. DavidWoner: 6.1608
2. qqwref: 6.9266
3. Mike Hughey: 25.8648

[B]Clock (5x5)[/B]
1. qqwref: 32.6010
2. DavidWoner: 39.6921
3. Mike Hughey: 1:28.3190

[B]Clock (10x10)[/B]
1. qqwref: 2:34.7223
2. DavidWoner: 3:22.5560
3. Mike Hughey: 5:35.2653

[B]Dino Cube[/B]
1. qqwref: 10.4
2. Ethan Rosen: 10.7
3. Mike Hughey: 29.2

[B]Gigaminx[/B]
1. qqwref: 9:59.7
2. Mike Hughey: 28:04.7
3. Ethan Rosen: DNF (did 1 solve)

[B]Helicopter Cube[/B]
1. qqwref: 45.3
2. Ethan Rosen: 51.7

[B]Megaminx[/B]
1. qqwref: 1:22.7
2. Ethan Rosen: 3:58.7
3. Mike Hughey: 5:28.7

[B]Pyraminx[/B]
1. qqwref: 6.116
2. Ethan Rosen: 11.0
3. Mike Hughey: 24.4

[B]Skewb[/B]
1. qqwref: 15.4
2. Ethan Rosen: 26.8
3. Mike Hughey: 45.4

[B]Square-1[/B]
1. qqwref: 26.467
2. Mike Hughey: 1:33.013

[B]Super-X[/B]
1. Ethan Rosen: 1:16.3
2. qqwref: 1:34.0
```


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## JustinJ (Sep 2, 2009)

Yay, I won 2x2 

But I really think j-fly's sim gives easy scrambles, out of 100 solves I just did, I had 7 LL skips, and a handful of OLL skips/easy CLLs, way more than I've ever had on hi-games, and I've done more solves on there.


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