Hey!

Well then im one of those weird cubers :D I do centers last on the
4x4x4 and 5x5x5. And as u can see from the unofficial world records
im quite fast with it too ;-) The benefit of doing centers last (for
me anyway) is that the rest of the solve speeds up. Doing the
centers on the last 5 faces last is a bit slower than doing centers
first. But at least by now the rest of the cube is solves and u have
easier recognition. Easy recognition is the way to success on the
larger cubes. many (including me) find that pairing up is too
awkward since ur only ppoint of reference is one (or two) other edge
(s) only. The pairing up stage is what most ppl struggle to speed
up. I know of good cubers who spend more time on the pairing-up
stage than on one of my complete solves. So the normal 3x3x3
reduction "regime" is not the salvation for everyone :-)

I would call my method the cage method. It's somewhat similar to
columns first method.

First layer (top)
Middle layers edges (hold solved layer to the left)
Last layer corners then edges (and parity)
Final centers

Happy cubing !!

-Per

> --- In speedsolvingrubikscube@yahoogroups.com, Joël van Noort
<joel_vn@y...> wrote:
>
> Centres last? What kind of weird cubers try that?
>
> --- In speedsolvingrubikscube@yahoogroups.com, "Gilles Roux"
> <grrroux@f...> wrote:
> >
> > --- In speedsolvingrubikscube@yahoogroups.com, cmhardw
> <no_reply@y...>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > I just realized something I had never thought of. Winning
moves
> > > doesn't produce true general cubes where the orientations of
the
> > > centers doesn't matter. The white sticker always has a design
> on it,
> > > so in competitions your cube is only solved 1/4 the time, yet
we
> still
> > > consider it solved.
> > >
> > > So we've all been frequently (75% of the time actually)
counting
> cubes
> > > as solved that never were in fact solved. There has been
rampant
> > > cheating in the cubing community for almost 2 years :)
> > >
> > > Perhaps we should memorize which way the design of the white
> sticker
> > > is oriented when we buy our cubes to make sure we don't cheat
> and just
> > > half solve it :)
> > >
> > > And no I'm not serious at all in my claims of cheating. I just
> > > thought it was a funny way to look at things ;-)
> > >
> > > Chris
> >
> > Logos on stickers should be forbidden in competitions. At least,
it
> > can help "centers-last" cubers locate pieces faster.
> > And yes, I'm serious. ;-)
> >
> > Gilles.