# Who or what got you into cubing



## genwin (May 10, 2008)

for me, a local tv show that featured a competition for the cube.. i have a 3x3 ( 4 months old) but cannot solve it then...after that i immediately decided to look for solutions that i found through badmephisto's tutorial.. been cubing for 2 months now..


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## alexc (May 10, 2008)

I found a rubiks cube in my basement and I thought, "I wonder if it's really possible to solve this thing?" So, I looked it up on youtube, learned to solve it, discovered the online speedcubing community, and have enjoyed it since.


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## pcharles93 (May 10, 2008)

I speak for most cubers when I say this, curiosity.


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## LamentConfiguration (May 10, 2008)

Wal*Mart had one in a clearance bin for a couple bucks (damaged packaging), and I was bored...


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## fanwuq (May 10, 2008)

I was always interested in the cube. Since I got a cheap rip off when i was 5. I easily got one face, but I had no concept of solving pieces, not colors, so I gave up of for 10 years. Last summer, I went to CTY, I saw people solving the whole thing! I thought that was really cool, so I dicided to learn a really basic beginner method from them (Only 4 algs). Got down to 2:30. by the end of the week. When I got home, I looked up fingertrick, realized that the Tetris method was actually Petrus, started learning Petrus/Fridrich a few weeks later. Found lots of nice cubing sites and simulator programs... Now I think I can break 20s barrier average on ryanheise sim before DC.


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## Lt-UnReaL (May 10, 2008)

I came across Toby Mao's 10.48 world record video on youtube, thought that that was the most awesome thing ever, and bought a cube.


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## pjk (May 10, 2008)

When the 3x3 World Record of 11.13 was set. I bought a cube on eBay shortly after in late Feb. 2006.


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## LarsN (May 10, 2008)

I found a cheap cube at my local store and since I've always liked puzzle challenges I decided to try and solve it on my own. I gave up at the point where I only needed to orient last layer corners. Not knowing about speedcubing at all I search the internet for a solution. After some searching I found Lars Petrus site (in danish a rubiks cube is called professor cube, which didn't help my searching at all). I found out that the method I had used for first two layers and orienting last layer edges was exactly like petrus. But I was completely shocked when I read the statement that everyone should be able to learn how to solve the cube in 20 sec. That's when I found out about speedcubing and got hooked right away.


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## MiloD (May 10, 2008)

My brother learned to solve at a summer internship last summer. Within a week of him coming home I got one of my own and wanted to learn to solve so we could race.


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## Crzyazn (May 11, 2008)

CTY started me too....


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## SkateTracker (May 11, 2008)

A guy posted a video of a 3 year old solving it on a different forum I'm on. I watched the video, I was like, what the... if that kid can do it, I can too. So I found my old cheap cube that was floating around in my room, found Dan Brown's tutorial video on youtube, and I've been cubing ever since. (almost a year)


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## PCwizCube (May 11, 2008)

I started cubing when I saw my friend starting to cube. Now I can solve it like 3x faster than him 

CTY is the John Hopkins thing summer camp for people who get really high SAT scores right? Hmmm.... my mom forced me to get into it, but I didn't get high enough SAT scores. Maybe I would look forward into it - improve on the Rubik's Cube  I heard it's fun. Is it?


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## Kenneth (May 11, 2008)

The cube craze in 1981, like everybody else in my age


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## e_lee6o4 (May 11, 2008)

i wanted a stress reliever


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## Hadley4000 (May 11, 2008)

One of my friends brought one to school. He could solve it in about 1:30 or so, and I thought it was just amazing.

I went out and got one that night. Started working on it. I am stubborn, and REFUSED to let him teach me. A week later, I got it on my own 


That was around March 07.


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## davegocube (May 11, 2008)

Before I was hired, one of the guys at work who interviewed me solved it while i was writing some bit of C code on the white board to answer a question. Once I was hired I asked him how he was able to solve it so fast, that was the beginning for me.


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## Alex DiTuro (May 12, 2008)

It's kinda funny _when_ I learned how to cube. I how to cube on January 1st of 2008. I had an extra cube laying around in my room and my friend got me to look it up how to solve it with him. We actually solved the cube the first time at around 11:45PM on New Year's Eve.


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## Harry (May 12, 2008)

Mostly curiosity..... and I got in speedcubing after I saw this 3-years old girl solve it under 2 min (That time, my best time is about 3 min+)....


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## Jai (May 12, 2008)

When Harris first brought one to school (me and Harris Chan went to the same elementary school), and solved it, we were obviously amazed. But, then, we told him to stop cubing, because he was just cubing too much (in our opinion, back then; I now realize that there's no such thing as too much cubing (exception: Lofty's attempted 42 cube OH marathon ) )
. I don't remember the rest, but I do remember Harris linked me to Jason Thong's beginner method (it's been revamped to be more beginner-friendly recently, though. I loved his old beginner method, it was more of a method to help you transition from a "noob method", where you do like, 1 algo over and over again to solve something, to full Fridrich) on MSN. I was pretty lucky to have Harris around.


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## genwin (May 14, 2008)

too bad the 3 year old still beats me... i still have an un-lubed cube but i know 3 -LLL and my best time is 1:49...


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## ThePizzaGuy92 (May 14, 2008)

I put Rubik's Cube on my life goals list at a young age, and once I did one, I kept at it :]


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## Faz (May 14, 2008)

I was going on youtube to relax and saw the awards.

Dan Brown's vid was one of the instructional vids and i watched it.

I got hooked from that instant


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## Faz (May 14, 2008)

genwin said:


> too bad the 3 year old still beats me... i still have an un-lubed cube but i know 3 -LLL and my best time is 1:49...



Oh my god...

How do you know all the plls and still get an average of about 2 mins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I only know 4lll and my pb is 19.31


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## Johannes91 (May 14, 2008)

fazrulz said:


> How do you know all the plls and still get an average of about 2 mins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> I only know 4lll and my pb is 19.31


So, obviously the number of algs you know is not the only thing that matters. (I wonder how many times this has been said here.)


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## dChan (May 14, 2008)

Lol, fingertricks, looking ahead, etc. etc. etc. all are why.


Well, I got pretty much the same start as several other people. I was sitting on the couch watching T.V. and, I'm pretty sure on ABC-7(NBC-4 maybe?), they were covering a Rubik's Cube competition around February of last year. They were showing the competition but then they said something like, "And they not only solve the cube, but they do it in verious ways. From the impossible," cut to a shot of a guy solving one-handed, "to the unbelievable," cut to a shot of someone solving blindfolded. I was really amazed by the guy that could do it one-handed because I am really into magic and some of the flourishy moves require some good fingers skill(doing one-handed cuts for example) so I really thought that was cool. I think seeing that guy really sealed my future of wanting to learn to solve the cube. Next thing you know, I was bugging me parents to buy me a Rubik's Cube and about two weeks later they came home with a brand new one from the local Toys R' Us. Ever since then I have been solving(and obviously one-handed is probably my favorite event). 

I also had a period where I was helping my dad with stuff so I kind of lost interest in the cube for several months, then, at around March of this year I slowly started to pick the cube up again but when I saw the documentary about cubing on the Pursuit of Happiness DVD I remembered how cool and great it was to solve fast so I started cubing fully again. I finished learning all my OLLs and brought my average down. So I sort of had two "cube awakenings."


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## shelley (May 14, 2008)

I found an old Rubik's cube in my uncle's apartment in Taiwan in the early 1990s, when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I was only able to do one layer, but it fascinated me so much I ended up taking it back to the US with me. Over the years that cube was lost, and I didn't think much of it again until I went to Caltech. 

I noticed that a lot of people there could solve the Rubik's cube, and I figured I should be able to learn as well. I picked up a keychain cube during Rotation dinner at Lloyd House (they had a big box of cheap party favors for all the prefrosh. I spotted one Rubik's cube keychain and grabbed it), and figured out a very inefficient way to do the first two layers. I then looked up a solution for the last layer online. I actually skipped over the part explaining the first two layers at first, but when I went back to it several weeks later I was floored by the realization that there was a much easier way to do what I had been doing, and my solve times dropped by over a minute.

I would have been happy just being able to solve the cube (I remember the cubing goals I set for myself at the beginning of freshman year: to be able to solve it consistently without referring to algorithm sheets by the end of the year, and to be able to solve it in under a minute by the time I graduated), but I met Tyson and Leyan through orchestra. I guess Tyson saw me cubing during rehearsal break and invited me to one of the first Caltech competitions. I replaced my cheap keychain cube (which was falling apart by then) with a proper cube, and the rest, as they say, is history.


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## genwin (May 15, 2008)

fazrulz said:


> genwin said:
> 
> 
> > too bad the 3 year old still beats me... i still have an un-lubed cube but i know 3 -LLL and my best time is 1:49...
> ...



i stopped practicing on the 3x3 after a month of learning all pll's(i just started about 2 months back)... i'm quite amused by the 4x4(solved it thrice) and 5x5(solved once) as i purchased both recently.... i only use the 3x3 for practicing the pll's and cross oll's as of the moment... but sooner or later i'll get back on the rest of the oll's...my aim is just sub-30, i'll be happy with that...


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## tim (May 15, 2008)

I found my mom's Rubik's Cube somewhere in my room and started trying to solve it. I just figured out the first two layers and looked up the last layer (shame on me...). After i could solve it, it became quite boring. And then i saw Tyson Mao solving a cube blindfolded on youtube and i got interested again.


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## SkateTracker (May 15, 2008)

Johannes91 said:


> fazrulz said:
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> 
> > How do you know all the plls and still get an average of about 2 mins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> ...



Yeah, I still use the last layer method that Dan Brown teaches (with intuitive F2L) and I average around 25-26 secs with a PB of 16.66.


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## badmephisto (May 15, 2008)

It happened for me in stages...
I first saw it a long time ago on streetcar and I made a mental note to check it out later.
Then I saw a 3yearold solve it on YouTube and I was like wow if she can do it so can I. Mental note to check it out later.
Later I saw it on my friends bookcase when I visited him at home, and I played a little with it, but none of us could solve it. Mental note to buy one later.
Then I saw Harris solve it on Youtube really quickly. Mental note to DEFINITELY check that out. 
Then a month later I saw some guy solve it on a streetcar again, and I was like ok screw this. That same day right after school I rushed across town to the biggest shopping mall, and ran around for an hour before I found Toys R Us, bought my first cube, and was hooked ever since.


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## fanwuq (May 16, 2008)

SkateTracker said:


> Johannes91 said:
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> > fazrulz said:
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Are you serious?!
You use that R'D'RD commutator. I never ever used it. I HATED it right from the beginning. Sune is the best! What's up with people watching his cubing tutorials? He sucks. Avgalen, badmephisto, ... and many legitimate cubers give much better explanations.


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## shelley (May 16, 2008)

There's nothing wrong with a tutorial teaching you to use the R' D' R D commutator. The tutorial teaches you how to solve the cube, and it accomplishes that. Not everyone needs to be a speedcuber immediately, and if they do want to get into speedcubing, there are other resources. While it's inefficient, using the commutator to orient corners is easier for beginners to see what's going on. Maybe some people like it better that way, rather than having yet another algorithm to memorize without really understanding what it does. When using the Sune to orient corners, some people have a hard time figuring out what to do if there aren't exactly three misoriented corners, especially when they're just starting out.


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## fanwuq (May 16, 2008)

Yeah, but R'D'RD is just so easy to mess up for me; the last D is very easy to forget when you move on to the next corner. I kept on DNFing on 3x3 BLD until I came up with using sune and U perm for CO.
Petrus explains clearly what is the target of the sune.


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## shelley (May 16, 2008)

I stopped using R' D' R D for BLD a while ago. I had to pick it up again for 4x4 BLD because none of the algs I've been using for 3 corner orient are center safe.


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## fanwuq (May 16, 2008)

cool! you are doing 4x4 BLD now! 5x5 multiBLD next. XD


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## LamentConfiguration (May 17, 2008)

As I mentioned before, there was one in the clearance bin at wal*mart, but what really got me into it was a certain series of movies inspired by Clive Barker.


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## genwin (May 17, 2008)

i also used dan browns tutorial at first( i solved the cube using his method about 3 times) then searched up on youtube and used badmephisto and dudemanpp tutorials... i messed up on the R'D'RD a lot..


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## ajmorgan25 (May 18, 2008)

I knew how to do one back when I was in 9th grade (currently 12th) but I forgot shortly after. Never really did it that much. Then I learned how to do it again in December 07. My dad worked with someone who had a cube on his desk. It wasn't solved so my dad did it for him and decided to buy one at Wal-Mart on the way home. He started doing it again and in the process taught me how to do it. He then began learning F2L....from badmephisto of course.

Just so happened that about a week after my dad taught me (for the second time) a kid was doing one in my physics class. Me and him kinda started talking and he was amazed at how fast I was. I averaged around 1:15 with beginner's method at the time.

Fast forward a few months into the school year and I now know Fridrich's F2L, all PLLs but six, and I average around 30 seconds. After solving for my fellow students word got out that I was pretty good. So now I'm constantly solving for students and even a few teachers and principals. I even taught a handful of other kids how to do it and it's become quite common to see kids solving cubes at my school. I'm still the fastest though


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## *LukeMayn* (May 22, 2008)

I always wanted to solve one but was always soooo not bothered to learn but one day my mum took me to a mall and I was like "ohhh rubik's cube" bought one, loved it ever since, taught 3 people! I took it to school and got all sub 30 solves and everyone was like "wooooah" and stuff, had a crowd of over 30 people  I never really take it to school anymore, I don't like attention. (well only from my friends)


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## DavidWoner (May 27, 2008)

fanwuq said:


> SkateTracker said:
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> > Johannes91 said:
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^largest multi-quote ever

dan brown is a pile of garbage. the "dan brown method" is also known as "the method from the little pamphlet that comes in the cube package"
i also broke 19 secs using 4 look ll.

as for what got me started: it was the first week of school, and a friend of mine brought his old cube to school. he did not know how to solve it so he let me borrow it. i went around solving only one side, and then a girl bet me $10 i couldn't learn how to solve it in a week. i learned how to solve it in less than two hours from this site : http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html 

i never got my $10 though.


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## hdskull (May 27, 2008)

At southern California ARML 3 people from my school(including myself) were assigned to be in a group with this Japanese dude to solve problems. He solved half of the problems while the rest of us solved barely one each. One of my friend and I thought his name is weird, so my friend looked him up on google. He then IMed me with a few links and it showed that Shotaro Makisumi, the guy with the weird name held world records in the Rubik's Cube. So that plus the fact that a few people were cubing at my school got me started.


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## JBCM627 (May 29, 2008)

Tyson Mao. Taught me and a bazillion other people at a summer camp (EPGY) back in 2004...


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## immortalcube (May 29, 2008)

Vault312 said:


> fanwuq said:
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> > SkateTracker said:
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how about this one?--> http://www.speedsolving.com/showthread.php?p=51619


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## Johannes91 (May 29, 2008)

immortalcube said:


> Vault312 said:
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> > fanwuq said:
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http://www.speedsolving.com/showthread.php?t=3024


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## DavidWoner (May 30, 2008)

Johannes91 said:


> immortalcube said:
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> > Vault312 said:
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i stand corrected on two counts.


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## AvGalen (May 30, 2008)

For everyone that thinks the RD-commutator is bad: I learned the same, only worse (FDF'D') 20 years ago. I still use that for blindfolded Corner orientation on the U-layer. For match-the-scramble and blindfolded corner orientation on the D-layer I use the same commutator, only then it becomes RUR'U' which faaaaaast.


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## Carlos (May 31, 2008)

I received an e-mail with that famous video of Tyson Mao solving the cube blindfolded, then i said: wow, i want to do this.
Thanks for the inspiration, Tyson


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## MasakitChan (Jun 1, 2008)

I saw my classmates solving it, everyone was solving it. The teachers were playing with it, the guard was speedcubing with it (ROF2L) many people were solving it, so I said I'll give it a shot. I looked up on youtube for tutorials, stopped for 2 months, and last march I started cubing again, first week of may learned the fridrich method and now practicing alot for faster times.


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