It is notable that both my 20-move solution and my 19-move solution use non-standard techniques for solving the cube from the state of “Domino Reduction”. For the 20-move solution, which I do not further elaborate on in this document, I used Leave-Double-Slice with a targeted JZP-assisted NISS-cancellation. A few weeks after the European Championships 2024, where I placed 8th in the FMC final, the Warsaw Cubing Tour 2024 Saturday Round 1 Attempt 1 came. It was the first attempt of the day and I had arrived at the venue just 5 minutes before the start. I had one hour to find the 19-move solution and I actually did it. My 19-move solution used a 10-move Domino Reduction with a 5 Quarter-Turn Corner Case, which usually leads to very long finishes of more than 12 moves. The probability tables really speak against working from a 5-quarter-turn-case. However, the number of blocks and the 4 more moves to “leave slice + 3 corners unsolved” quickly caught my eye.

From there, I found a 16-move 3c-skeleton that led me to a situation I rarely find myself in. A corner insertion was needed, but I had never done a corner insertion in training nor in official competitions. I had skipped this rather outdated technique because it is rarely useful with modern HTR-techniques. My approach to getting into the FMC discipline was new at the time and still is not endorsed by some top competitors. However, this approach worked for me as I developed a training plan that ensured I didn’t fall into bad habits. I skipped “Block Building” methods, corner insertions and insertion algorithms and instead immediately jumped into Domino Reduction and Half Turn Reduction to familiarize myself with the current meta as fast as possible.

But the particular DR from my National Record actually required me to use a corner insertion - or so I thought at the time. (Later, I found out that a long HTR-path could have led to the same solution after shortening). Thankfully, I had started studying 3-style for Blindfolded Speedcubing earlier, so I had the fundamentals of corner commutators down. I wrote down my 16-move 3c-skeleton and found one spot to insert a commutator, which gave me a backup 24. Then I looked further and actually found a better spot. There, I tried two different commutators. One of them actually fit well and gave me an 8+5=+3 insertion. I instantly had the gut feeling that some slice reductions were possible.

This was also clear from inspecting the unshortened 21-move solution, as there are two sequences with “R2 L”. Those are parallel moves. I marked a sequence of Domino moves on the R/L axis, i.e., moves of the move group {R, L, F2, B2, U2, D2}. I scrambled through the 11-move sequence with “R2 L’ F2 L B2 L’ F2 L2 R’ F2 R” and solved it in 9 moves with: “L’ U2 L’ F2 L B2 R’ D2 R’ “. I wrote this down with a mistake with about 1 minute left on the timer. Then I fixed it, wrote it down again and only had the time to check it once.

There was still a high chance that I miswrote a move or two. So, after the timer was over, the National Record was still not secured. After submission and the noting deadline, I tried it out again without a time rush. The submitted solution indeed worked, confirming my German National Record!