[cyphar]

Interesting video.

As an ex-cuber, I disagree that including inspection time would make the event more fair or would reduce the number of ties.

The reason there's so much variance in inspection time (usually over 8 seconds since that's when you get the warning from the timekeeper) is because nobody has previously cared about inspection time. If it started being included, people would spend far less time inspecting (maybe just looking for the first cross pieces at most) and you'd end up with similar competitive levels.

I'm also not sure I agree with the statement that they're "already solving the cube". It's not wrong but it gives the wrong impression -- given enough inspection time you couldn't solve the whole cube in your head using traditional methods like CFOP (obviously you do this in blindfolded solves but that's much slower than CFOP). Cross planning is a thing but I doubt that the variance in times is actually because Felix is slower than other cubers at doing cross planning -- he just takes his time because he knows inspection times are not counted.

That being said, I'm not against having it as a new format. It would be interesting to see how the meta would evolve (though I suspect it would just result in cross-only inspections, if that -- but it would be interesting if CFOP fell out of favour because there are better techniques that don't need as much inspection to get off to a running start). I also get the viewpoint that "it makes more sense" but I've also never had issues when solving cubes for laypeople when I say "hang on, lemme take a look before I start" so I'm not sure it's that big of a deal (not that many laypeople care about speedcubing minutiae anyway).

I also wonder whether this would disproportionately affect vision-impaired cubers (though I don't personally know any so I can't ask them if they typically have longer inspection times or if they're doing anything special during inspection).

[michaelt]

> I'm also not sure I agree with the statement that they're "already solving the cube".

I think it depends on whether you think the record ought to represent a chess-style intellectual feat or a physical dexterity feat.

In the inspection time they've clearly started the intellectual feat - just not the dexterity one.

[cyphar]

You don't plan out the entire solve in your head during inspection. At most you plan out the cross and maybe the first F2L pair, the rest is dealing with what you see when you see it (so for the majority of the solve it is a question of dexterity, pattern recognition, and look-ahead ability).

My issue with saying "they're already solving the cube" is the implication that more inspection time would let you get even shorter solve times and I don't think that's the case (unless you went really ridiculous and gave everyone an hour to do a smallest-moves solve on paper).

(There are also practical issues with this kind of format that nsilvestri pointed out that I hadn't originally considered.)

[muti]

Note for others reading this thread, "fewest moves in an hour" is a WCA official event which is the natural conclusion when taking inspection time to the extreme.

I think it is one of the more interesting and underappreciated events, though it likely gets fewer entries due to the time commitment.

https://www.worldcubeassociation.org/regulations/#article-E-...

[hyperhopper]

Also, due to muscle memory, etc, a smallest move solve might not even necessarily be the fastest solve by time.

[spadros]

But to imply that the inspection time doesn’t affect the solve time at all seems totally disingenuous. I agree with the thesis of the video. “Time to solve a cube” should mean exactly that; how long, from first seeing the cube in front of you, it takes you to solve it.

[Blendtherules]

I don't think I implied that the inspection time doesn't affect the solve time, but I'm learning a lot about how people interpret the words you say in a monologue. For example, I totally misspoke when I said "they're solving it in their head", they are... but not completely, and that's what many people took my words to mean which was not my intention, lessons learned.

[GoldenRacer]

I've heard of colorblind cubers using alternative color schemes that have more contrast for helping them distinguish colors. WCA also allows textured cubes for blind solvers (obviously these aren't allowed in the blindfold event)

I agree, it would be interesting to see what techniques evolve. We can get some hint by looking at unofficial multicube records (most solves in 24 hours, most solves while holding breath underwater, etc). It would definitely wreck zz. Not sure which method would come out on top though. I've always been biased towards petrus so am enjoying coming up with reasons why that would potentially see a boost (although I doubt it would actually come out on top). I doubt we'd see many x-cross starts among CFOP solvers which I think is sad. I'm also wondering how this would effect color neutral solvers compared to solvers that stick to a specific color cross. I spent a month switching to be color neutral before my average times got back down to pre switch average.

[dehrmann]

> I also wonder whether this would disproportionately affect vision-impaired cubers

I'm sure it would, but you could say the same thing for biathletes.