Hey guys, its me CriticalCubing and Feliks Zemdegs recently broke the WR with a time of 4.73
Let us see what we can learn from him. This is the same scramble that he got and Feliks is a color neutral solver
He solves the cross on any color. In this scramble, the main thing we see is this huge 3x1 block. We see a green block in here and white here
and this can be either used for the white cross or green cross. Feliks did the green cross because we have the edge here
which gives us the opportunity to do XCross. The corner for this is here, and its connected to the cross edge
Now, green cross also has 2 cross pieces here which are already adjacent to each other, in relation to each other
If you do a D move right now, yellow matches with yellow and orange with orange. The other cross pieces are here at the top and here
Now for creating the XCross, you have to do R F R' which will put the block down in here so that you can create your XCross
However, how will you insert this last pair? For inserting this last pair, you can do R U' F R' but that breaks up the XCross
This edge, instead of being here goes back there which is bad.
And then you solve your Xcross like normal. You solve the cross like normal and then you have the XCross in here
And solving the cross like this also pairs up these two, and then F R' pairs up these two.
Just during the inspection, you have an XCross and first pair out for you.
You only have to lookahead for the remaining 2 pairs, OLL and then PLL
Let us solve the cross now. U' R F R' D and this is our first pair and before we solve this, we see this as our next pair
Now if we just insert normally, this gives us terrible case for the second pair
Instead Feliks put this pair at the back so that we have the edge in front and inserted with L' U2 L
which pairs this up here and also inserts it in the front. You can cancel into the f2l like this
Just by doing simple L moves, you insert 2 of your f2l pairs with ease
Then we have this last f2l remaining and this is a nice 2gen case that can be solved with RU moves
Then we have this kite shape OLL. Square at the top and lone corner here, and 2x1 bar in the front and back
And in this case, the normal OLL alg is also the OLLCP for this case
Once you are done with OLL, you will either get U/H/Z perm
Prediction for these cases is also easy, which I am going to elaborate further. Feliks already knew he was getting a U perm
Just after doing the OLL, he canceled into the U perm hence he did not even need to pause for his OLL to PLL transition
which gave him a huge advantage which made this solve a world record solve.
Lastly we only have to do AUF, which you can do like this
Now the question arises, how did Feliks have a pauseless OLL to PLL transition?
Now for this OLLCP case, if you have a bar in the front, then you are going to get a U perm
And if you have these two the same color then you will have a Ua perm
In this case, these two are not same, so I'll have a Ub perm.
and if you have a skip case, then you'll have a bar in here as well as here
and if you have a H perm or Z perm, then you will have opposites here
In this case, I know I have bar and these two are not matching so I have Ub perm. I can just directly go into PLL after I am done with OLL
And just as an example, opposites opposites, I know I have to do H perm after I am done with OLL
PLL prediction for these type of OLLCP cases is quite easy and that is what Feliks did which gave him a pauseless OLL/PLL transition
And all throughout the solve, he didn't pause for a single second which just shows how good his lookahead actually is
Another example, here we have a bar in front and these two are matching, so I know I'll have a Ua perm, so I can just cancel into it
And last example, bar in here and bar in here, that means I am going to get a skip
Knowing this simple thing gives you pauseless PLL. Beauty of this solve, unlike the previous WR's
like Collin's WR had PLL skip, Lucas' WR had PLL skip, Mats' WR had forced OLL and then PLL skip
Unlike all the previous WR's, Feliks' WR is fullstep. First he solved the XCross, then F2L, then OLL and then PLL
There were no skips anywhere in this solve which is brilliant. Generally, when we think of WR's
we think that the person might have got lucky with the LL like a PLL skip. But in this case, it was just pure skill
The main thing that I have to say is being dedicated to cubing. Feliks has been cubing for like 7-8 years, he has been cubing since 2008
and he has been constantly dedicating his time to cubing.
The main thing you have to do is being dedicated and practicing a lot and being patient. Your time will definitely come.
Apart from saying the generic things that I say, like lookahead practice and all that
The main thing that you can take away from Feliks "how to lookahead during LL"
I will be making a advanced video on how to lookahead during the LL
I already have made a video on cross and f2l lookahead, so the LL lookahead is pending. Stay tuned for that video
Generally the things that WR solves have in common is pauseless lookahead, and getting bit lucky with your solutions
Next thing that made this solve a WR was his fluid lookahead during the LL
While transitioning from OLL to PLL, he didn't pause for that
If he had paused there, then this solve would not have been a WR
The things that you can take away from Feliks is having proper lookahead where you don't need to pause
Learning some 1LLL cases so that you don't have to pause for your LL transitions
Getting better at intuitive stuff like XCrosses. Feliks is good at intuitive XCrosses
and lastly using your inspection wisely. In this solve we see Feliks take lots of time for inspection, which allowed him to lookahead even more further into the solve