My thought process while doing F2L - One step stop

Hi guys, I wanted to make a small sequel to my thought process video. I've received some good comments about it, so might as well go ahead and do pretty much more of the same thing. In this video, I'll concentrate more on just the F2L part, because it is the most important part, and yet many people struggle with it and want advice on it. I'll be going pretty fast, so I don't expect everyone to follow 100% of what I do, but maybe you will still be able to pick out some useful things. Keep in mind also that I only average 17 or 18 seconds, so I'm by no means a master of anything, but I'm still improving my F2L just like you are. But I don't see any other better cubers making videos like this, so I guess for now you're just stuck with me. Anyways, let's scramble the cube. Okay, so I'm just finishing up cross here. I've got the cross. Okay, so this is how I ended up. Now, as I see, I see a corner here, but I'm not sure what it is yet, and I see an edge. Now, on top here, I don't see any white, so this is bad. Now, I could hope that this corner has a white on it so that I can start— yes, it's got a white, and it just so happens that these two are now here because I noticed that this is the red-green and this is red-green as well. So I'll do these first. I have them here, and I saw red-blue here, So when I turn, I see a red-blue edge for it here, so I know the corner is now here, red-blue edge is here, and I know that they'll both end up on the top when I'm finished. So unless I see something better, I'll have to do these two, and I don't see anything better. Now I'm looking at what's gonna pop out when I insert the red-blue, and I see that nothing useful will pop out. These are both yellow pieces, so I know that after I finish these two, I'll have to probably do a cube rotation. I see a corner here. Now I have to do cube rotation. So this is orange-blue, so I'm trying to tilt the cube while I insert this and look for orange-blue. And I know that this is most likely it. So I'll insert that. I see edge here, corner just happened to pair up. I'll insert them, and that's it. So, uh, That was okay. Okay, so I'll finish the cross here. So this is how I ended up. Right away I see that these two are a pair. These two might be a pair. This could be a red, but I don't see that yet. So I'll go here. I see that these are a pair, so I'm lucky in that way, and I'm not gonna work on these two because this is a pair. Right away I can just insert it. Now I pop that edge out, it's now here, I was tracking it, the corner for it is here. I see that these two are most likely a pair and these two are most likely a pair. So now I have a pair here, a pair here, a pair here, and I'm aware of all three pairs and where they are. I'll do these three pairs first, these two, because they don't require me to do a cube rotation. I could also do these two, they're pretty nice as well. I think I'll actually decide for these two, huh. So I'm tracking these, these, they're all on top layer still. So now the corner is here, edge is here, I'll do that next. I'm tracking these two where they go, and they're now here, and I know that they have to come to this position, so I know that this position is now open, so I can hide the corner like that and just pop it in to solve them both. And this is a sune, I can't resist. Okay, so hopefully what you're noticing is that one of the most important things that I look at when determining what my next F2L pair is gonna be is number of cube rotations that I have to make in order to solve that pair. That's one of the biggest determining factors. So I'll solve the cross here, and I ended up and I see that these two are a pair, these two might be a pair. This is a very ugly pair, it required me to do cube rotation This is a pretty nice pair. I think I'll actually solve that next, but it will require me to do cube rotation as well, but it's okay because it's only like 5 moves. So I'll rotate this way, I'll solve it. I noticed that I got lucky and this ended up paired up. I think that these two are also a pair, so I'm keeping a lookout for what it is, and yes, they are a pair, and I know which case is gonna come next. The edge is gonna be here, the corner is gonna be here, I'm going to be able to solve them right away. And these two I see from here, 'cause this is white, this is a non-yellow edge, and I'll solve it. So that was an easy— Okay, so I'm scrambling. Okay, let's form the— let's form the— cross. Okay, so this is where I see when I ended up, and there is nothing. Yellow, yellow, yellow, so this is bad, this is bad, bad thing, but I'm thinking this might be a pair, and if it is, it's easy pair, so I'm making a rotation, and it is a pair, and I'll have to go with it. It will require me to do a cube rotation, but I see nothing else. This might be a pair, so I'm keeping a lookout on that, and yes, it is, but the corner is going away, so Anyway, I'll solve this. This might be a pair, terrible, terrible pair that it is, and I know that this edge was solved because I just saw it, and the corner for it I just saw came out of there and it's here, and this is an easy case. So I'll solve it, and I see that this is the red-blue, er, red-green, so after I solve this, they will both be here and I'll have to solve them next, and at the end I'll solve this pair. So at this point it's easy. And this is a terrible, terrible pair. I hate to solve this pair. I need to find a better way of doing it. Another important thing to note is that I have a pretty good idea of what insertions modify what parts of the cube. For example, which insertion will break up a pair or if it will not break up a pair. And you have to get this intuition through just practice. I mean, it's gonna take a little bit of time, but It's important. So this, right away I see a pair, so I can right away solve it. I know that it will require a cube— it will not require actually a cube rotation, so that's good. And I'm gonna be looking for other stuff while I solve that one. So I'm thinking that these are a pair, but I'm not sure yet. So I'm solving that. So these two are a pair, as I saw. And I'll solve that next, and I'm looking for other stuff. These— this is not a pair, but it's paired with this, so I'll solve it next. I see the edge here, and the corner for it, it's not on top layer, so it must be down somewhere. I'm not exactly sure how yet, so after I insert this, I have to rotate the cube because I did not track where the corner ended up, in what rotation it ended up. I'm hoping that white is on this side because I know that, that then I could just align this edge here and solve it that way. And the white is on this side, so I can just align and solve. Another small observation that I had when I learned this was that if you have a cross on the bottom, it's much easier to track pieces that are stuck in wrong slots, like the edges here and the corners here. Because they don't move around as much as the pieces on top do. They only move if you pop them out, but, you know, it's still better. So I have the cross, and as I was solving the cross, I know that this is the pair, this blue-orange and blue-orange. I'm thinking this is a pair, but this could also be a pair, so I don't know, so I have to I mean, I'm just gonna guess that these two are a pair, and they are. And I think that this is a pair if I saw correctly. No, it's not because I just have the blue-red here. So I know that this is red, it will end up here when I insert these two, and I'll have a case here, and I think I'll do that one next. It requires me to do a cube rotation, but that's okay because this corner is not going to come out, and I'll be able to solve this. And the corner for this one is either here or there, I'm not sure yet. So I'm popping the corner out, I'm solving that one, and I see that the edge is here, corner for it is here, so this is orange on bottom. So I have this case here, or I have this case here. Other case is bad, but this doesn't require a cube rotation until later, so I'll do this one first. And now I don't need to do any extra cube rotations, so that's the choice that I made. I remember when I was starting out that it was really hard for me to track pieces around, and I know that some of you will ask me for tips on tracking 8 pieces at the same time, and it's easy for me now, but it only comes from practice. I cannot explain how I do it, and the pieces just seem to pop out at me. I don't see the yellow pieces, I just like It's just as if they were not there, but I mean, let's just practice. So I finished the cross. I have something here. This is just bad because nothing's here, nothing's here. This is an edge, I take a mental note. I have to check what this is, or I could do a rotation, and I think I'll do a rotation in this case. Rotation. I see nothing else, so this is just bad. I'll do a U'. So, okay, so the reason I didn't see anything was that one corner-edge pair is already solved, so I accidentally made an extended cross. So this is a good case. I see that this is a case here, and these two are a case, so I'm tracking these 4 pieces now as I insert stuff around, and this is an easier case for me to do, so I'll just do this one. I'm tracking the corner, the edge is gonna come out when I do this, so as I insert this, I know the next case, and I'm done. So accidental extended crosses are never good because they scare the shit out of you, because you finish and you're like, where's all this? Where's all the stuff? I meant the stuff. You can't find stuff. You can't find anything. Okay, so what am I doing? I'm solving cross. Okay, so terrible, terrible cross, whatever. So this is how I finish. Bad because I don't see anything. This could be a case, or this is the case. So I don't know, but I'm hoping that this is a case, and if it is, then it's a very nice case. So please? Okay, maybe not. But anyway, this is a case and it's very easy to solve, so I'll solve it next. And oh, look, there it is. So I'll insert this, and I know that inserting this will not screw up this case here, so that's nice, and I can insert it next. And I know that when I insert this one next, it will I'll pop this one out. So I'm checking what this is and I'm looking for where the matching edge is. I see that this is some red-green stuff here and this is red-green corner. So I'm checking where all of that goes. I know that they're here and I'm thinking that this is a pair now. I'm not sure why, I think I saw orange there. Anyway, I'll solve this next. Yep, so these are our case. And now I track them and I know that they're here, so I'll just solve that easily. So that's it. I think you have a pretty good idea of what is going on through my head when I solve a 2x2. Most important thing is the ability to tell how pairs get affected when you make certain moves and insertions. Also, it's very important to be able to see in advance which cases you're going to get after you insert pairs. Another very important thing is to tell us how much work each case is and also the ability to solve all those cases from every angle using your left and your right hand interchangeably. This is one of the biggest reasons that I recommend that you always use primarily intuitive F2L, because if you use algorithms, you have to first rotate your cube to the correct angle and then apply your algorithm. With intuitive, you can just, you know, reason it out and use it from then on. It's less work. Also, as you noticed, there's a lot of guessing involved at times. At least for me, and you have to know if the guess is worth it or not. Most of the time when I make a risky move, I have a backup plan in my mind for what to do when my guess is wrong, and many times it is, but it doesn't always work out. That's just the way it is. Anyway, see you later. Okay, so these two are a pair, and they're an easy pair. What the hell happened? Oh, no way. I assume this is white. Huh?