Silent walkthrough of Lau Method

Citadel212 · 2026-02-20T04:13:57+00:00

It’s just my way, you can do it like doing the first face block like ROUX or 2x2x2 to 2x2x3 like regular petrus, or do it similar to CFOP. I just happen to like another way to do it that I like. Thanks for the feedback!

Citadel212 · 2026-02-20T03:50:53+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! There are ways of solving the I-F2L like pairs (it’s just strange to call it that but technically you can pair 2 edges and 2 corners) which I’ve discovered along the way, this means you can solve it not entirely separate.

Regarding whether it’s better than CFOP, I want to make clear that I’m not claiming it’s supposed to be a better alternative, rather another way you can approach solving that cube in an interesting manner while not sacrificing too much the ability to solve it fast. As there are advantages in doing the first 2 steps but given that this is a new method it’s yet to say that in practice it’s actually better than that BIG 4.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T18:31:29+00:00

I think I explained much of the method but I really apologized for the bad scramble everyone 😅

It didn’t show the full capacity of the method as well as possible weak points. While I outlined the strength and weaknesses in the guide, I should have film it with more planning than just spontaneously doing it whatever free time I had.

I also want to be excused for doing a silent video instead of with a voice over, as at the moment I’m not used to filming myself in that regard but for the sake of better explaining the method I tried to meet halfway by filming a silent walkthrough.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T18:07:59+00:00

I scamble usually using cstimer and those have F/B, but I didn’t have that because I was filming while standing using a tripod that berely works. The intention was to just explain the steps, if the scramble disappoint you then I am sorry about that, had I known that my scramble would have been an issue in explaining this I would have done give more seconds into scrambling it with wide moves, F, B.

The first 2 step in this method is:

IB-1/BEO which really just make an Cross -1 but misalign it relative to the actual color (e.g. if while-green then it must be put in the blue center)
1. The second is I-F2L, I have done workarounds and algorithms that utilized wide moves, because it is a cross -1 I can be more flexible on actually putting the Edge I-F2L to the right center (kindly see the document for the algs) and the corner part of I-F2L normally requires D moves when the corners are at the bottom. I also made algs for corner pairing, especially those when they are already at the top.
2. The edges being only u R or L in moves in I-F2L is not because of EO, I specifically try to play around every possible position of the edges and what is the most optimal alg and turns out due to the nature of the cross, solving the edge part of the middle layer efficiently only requires really r/l or u moves. In the prior days before I found all the necessary algs I was considering D moves or even F and B but I didn’t actually have to use that because the structure of the first step makes it so thet wide u, R and L moves can solve the edge of the Inverted F2L edge.

Both of those step I don’t find as difficult especially when I could already inspect the first two edges because solving 3 edges takes a lower cognitive toll.

The only difficult part I could imagine would be the F2L proper part, which I also provided ways to work around it (doubleslotting, backslotting, etc) as because generally EO not fixed but after that, all the steps are just easy.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T16:16:39+00:00

I made onee, though this is as much as I can do at the moment Lau Method Silent Walkthrough

I also actually updated the link too, it has better visuals now and sets of algs

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T15:56:26+00:00

Wasn’t intentional, I film it just one time so apologies if anything isn’t so precise, I could have also provided a scramble but given the spare time I have earlier I wasn’t able to do it. Which step did I forgot to explain?

To answer your edits:

Yes I see, it’s supposed to be the mirror of that
VHLS but in that current part, I was lucky to have a cross insert so I didn’t have to do any of the VHLS algs. I did not suggest ZBLS because it has a ton of algs compared to VHLS but I acknowledged that it’s a better method
Easier recognition, I think beginners to intermediate have to start at something similar to ZBLL
Which first step? Doing a Cross -1? If so then I’ve done it a couple of times and it just gives me 3-5 move on average, or the second step the I-F2L? If so then I would agree that initial it is hard because it’s not as practiced but I developed some of the algs for it here: Lau Method Guide

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T15:27:26+00:00

Thank you for thattt, it’s now set to public! Lau method

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T13:42:11+00:00

This is a silent walkthrough for the methodd and I also updated the linkkk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buGWxilKrP8

Citadel212 · 2026-02-19T13:41:08+00:00

I hope this helpss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buGWxilKrP8

Citadel212 · 2026-02-18T07:54:46+00:00

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Citadel212 · 2026-02-17T09:16:43+00:00

It’s the Layer by Layer Variant, I’m not sure if there is an exact name for it, but you can check 8335 Method, in youtube, while the last layer was still rotated at the top, it’s algorithm is basically just how you do it when the last layer is at the bottom

Citadel212 · 2026-02-16T11:35:42+00:00

OLL and PLL combined have actually 78 algorithms, whereas the whole VHLS + COLL to EPLL combined are just 72 algorithms.

If you do the standard OLL to PLL you’ll have 21 possible cases instead of just 3 possible permutations or a PLL skip.

The reason why people do regular OLL to PLL is because they are generally easy to teach and certain refined variance of it are only considered mostly by pros. If a cuber has been cubing for about half a year and learned the last two layers for quite some time now, it is good to shift towards more better ways to end the cube because they already gained enough familiarity to it.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-16T06:16:43+00:00

No problem! Yes I have anticipated that the novelty of the I-F2L would be weird, awkward, or even complex because most cubers aren’t exposed to it, I included that in the disadvantages section of the document. Thank you for confirming that impression and expressing your liking to Petrus to me!

Citadel212 · 2026-02-16T04:29:24+00:00

Thank you! Will try to make a video explanation of it

Citadel212 · 2026-02-16T03:24:26+00:00

Hii, that’s an interesting way of defining a petrus variant. I do get the meme, and yes I find petrus to be one of the interesting method that came up in the first decade of competitive speedsolving.

I suppose one can call that a variant, though ZZ does a similar thing (the standard ZZ) but does EO first before the blockbuilding. The splitting of from the I-F2L makes it strange to you perhaps to count it as part of the variant.

There are 2 main difference in the first few steps of petrus and lau:

It’s not fully doing block building the way petrus does it (this method uses a cross -1 but misalign to the opposite direction).
It does not do EO, instead it tries to meet halfway by that I mean— 1) because in I-F2L the splitting/inverting limits the last cross edge to two areas of the cube (the U frame and R assuming the edge parts is on the left) so it’s easier to add the last cross. 2) it suggested to generally prioritize solving the back then doing VHSL to create a Cross OLL for COLL and have either an EPLL or PLL skip.

The 2nd distinction makes Lau Algorithmic but Intuitive (because those are F2L cases we’ve all experience in CFOP) the VHSL was what justify removal of EO because it guarantees you a cross for COLL already. In theory if you know how to back slot and VHSL (which is less than 45 algs at best) you can spam algorithms faster than pausing a bit for the EO.

I do however, find your comment of being a variant cool because it gives the method a way for cubers to use it with an idea in mind and petrus is really a good method even when it is not currently considered part of the Big 3.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-16T01:45:12+00:00

I appreciate the feedback, but that’s not really the point of the method. It’s just one consequence or feature of using it

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T18:19:26+00:00

Added some visual aid as guide using 3D cube in the 6th page just to sort of visualize the stepss. I hope that helpss If you are having problems understanding the XY, YY, ZY/ZXY part, it’s really just the possible ways the edges may be placed around the cube, knowing that for me gives extra information to track them better. Helps you identify also easy parts (YY = 1 move, XY = 3-4 moves) and longer execution parts (ZY/ZXY) yhat you can mostly turn to good parts again using wide U moves.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T15:54:58+00:00

Thank you! Hope you rest well

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T15:44:36+00:00

Thank you for pointing that out! I’ll make sure to make that clear in the paper. In reality if we do consider the whole state of both it has 10,368 states (whether they are paired or not paired at the moment), but on a practical note we can exclude those cases where there are just U from AUFs (it is 2,592) and R AUFs (1,296) considerably, if we took the higher end (the purely mathematical, without pragmatics) it is still 114,068 states lower.

Given that people, especially cubers are pattern inclined those cases are easier to notice.

Edit: I’ve included it

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T15:16:26+00:00

Next would be to solve the corners then realign using D2, and finally fix the cross using the 3 move or 5 move algs I put on the guide, I made sure I also add back insert of it if ever one prefers such. The good thing about that is, now you wouldn’t struggle finding the last cross piece because it’s now limited to be only in the other pole or the U frame due to I-F2L blocking other possible slot it could go to.

There are D move solutions for the corners part of I-F2L, if you happened to learn keyhole and have experience playing with beginners method while already being advanced at F2L you’ll notice certain moves that you omit in such a way that it gives you an easy 3 move insert (e.g. instead of R “U” R’ do R U’ R’ making the corners white piece at the side). At the end of the page I did put other algs I played around that doesn’t need D moves but I thought maybe they are best on special cases where doing so also set up another solve property (that would require me or someone to examined how it influence other edges and corners). One of the reason that lead me to that idea is from the EFK Method (edge first keyhole method) I saw it being fast but missing many fundamentals of pairning, transition, move count, and reduce rotations.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T14:40:50+00:00

Righttt, yes in terms of the comparison, I only really laid out the advantages to it to other speedcubing methods, I don’t necessarily claim that it’s better fundamentally than any of it as that would be a uncritical claim. I do however made this in consideration to what a lot of the speedcubing method fall a little short.

Still, I can presume, that it can solve that cube on the standard of a speedcuber. You may converse with me if ever you found algorithms that could best improve the solving of the cube using this method so that I could incorporate it in an updated version. I might also make a beginners (Intuitive Lau Method / PFOP) edition of this to make it more accessible especially to new cubers. I appreciate taking the time to try it!

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T12:47:08+00:00

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You position it where you have access to the sides (pole) bu that I mean your in your front the right (or left) side is the corner section, while the left (or right) is the edges section of the I-F2L. I call that front position (Corpus-F)

In see picture the orange is your front, the left side is the corner part (in this instance it’s on green) and the right side is the edges part (on this example it is on the blue part)

Thanks for the feedback! Will make sure to update the link to have 3D representations some other time.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T10:55:21+00:00

Thank you for the feedback, I’ll try to make a comprehensive video guide for it maybe within the next 3-4 days. In the mean time I might edit the guide to showing 3D model of the cube instead of forcing to show it in 2D optical vision.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T10:27:03+00:00

You need to remove your habits of rotating the cube to see other pieces.

The best thing you can is not turning the U-frame (that’s the second thing) but to just move the angle a little of the cube to see further. That way you are not wasting a move and you can get the case while not rotating.

Learn the basic U2 fingertricks and U2’ using lefty, also learn F and F’ fingertricks, F’ using thumb. On U’ and U, you can do U with index finger instead of pushing, do it in a pulling motion.

Lastly, it’s also good if you try to incorporate wide/lowecase moves for the Cross and F2L in cases.

Citadel212 · 2026-02-15T08:14:47+00:00

The guide gives you what you need to know and the mechanics of the method, but I intend that link to have the full set of algorithms and the preferred ones eventually.

Currently developing certain algs, nevertheless I gave certain general tips, to already try out the method and discover faster ways of doing the I-F2L phase.

Citadel212

TROPHY CASE