Passion Blog 4: The 5×5

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In this blog entry, we can finally look at solving the 5×5 Rubik’s Cube! Surprisingly enough, despite having more pieces the 5×5 is actually simpler to solve than the 4×4 due to being an odd-numbered puzzle. Let’s start by scrambling the puzzle!

Similarly to the 4×4, we start by building the inner square of the puzzle on each side. The main difference, however, is that the 5×5 has designated center pieces, like the 3×3. This means that no matter how we rotate the puzzle, the center pieces will always be in the same position relative to each other. This makes solving the inner center easier than the 4×4 because we know where to build the inner squares, whereas in the 4×4 we had to remember the correct orientation of the standard centers to build the inner blocks.

After solving the inner centers, we have to complete edge pairing. The process is exactly the same as the 4×4 but has to be repeated twice because on the 4×4 each edge is 2×1 blocks, whereas on the 5×5 each edge is 3×1 blocks due to the inner center being 3×3 blocks. After completing edge pairing, the puzzle should look like this:

The next steps are again similar to the 4×4: solve the puzzle exactly like a 3×3! The paired edge blocks can be treated as a standard 3×3 edge piece, and the inner 3×3 center blocks can be treated as a normal center piece. Like normal, we start with the cross

And next we solve the corners and middle edges:

Finally, we are at the last layer. If you remember with the 4×4, parity was possible, where an edge piece has to be flipped or rotated using a special algorithm that does not exist on the 3×3. However, because this is a 5×5 which has designated centers, this cannot occur. This means solving the last layer is exactly the same as the 3×3 with nothing extra required! 

Because the 5×5 does not need you to memorize where each center should be positioned, as well as not needing parity, it is considered simpler than the 4×4. The set of rules for solving a 4×4 and 5×5 can be used to solve ANY cubic puzzle, no matter how large. You always start by solving the inner centers, then pair the edges, and from there solve it like a 3×3. The only caveat is on the even-numbered puzzles you can get parity, so an additional two algorithms are required. Because the pattern is the same for any cubic puzzle, for the next blog we will shift to a new type of puzzle: the megaminx, a twelve-sided puzzle with hexagon sides.

RCL Blog 8

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  1. The most helpful feedback I got was to focus more on my own thoughts. Sometimes I would just list research or statistics that support my point, but wouldn’t fully explain it in my own words which left the reader in a position where they had to piece the ideas together themselves. The reader is not an expert in the topic I am writing about, however, so I have to articulate the ideas in a simpler way that is easily comprehensible for those without extensive background knowledge.
  2. The biggest discovery I made while researching is how close the potential is for E-Sports in the Olympics. I knew from before that the idea was considered for the Olympics, but I thought it would be decades until it was a tangible event. However, with E-Sports becoming more organized and structured, it is possible to be an event in the Paris 2024 Olympics. If E-Sports continues to grow and does reach the Olympic level, it will be incredible how mainstream it becomes.
  3. The biggest takeaway from my paradigm shift is for readers to recognize that E-Sports is a valid, culturally significant sport. Players still have to work extremely hard to reach that level of competition, and the industry as a whole has many similarities to sports. The cultural significance is important to recognize so that people become more open to the idea of watching video game competitions and view it internally as the same concept of watching standard sports.
  4. The project helped me better understand how to research and extensively develop and support a point. Through finding many research points, I better understand how to use my resources to find reputable, scholarly sources to support my argument. I also had never written a paper this long before, so this helped me understand how to develop and support my argument through less common angles, which helps the paper be more unique.

RCL Blog 7: Paradigm Shift Outline

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E-Sports

Introduction

  • Imagine sitting in a huge stadium, everyone around you screaming in excitement, bright spotlights everywhere, and on stage is… video games? Although the Wells Fargo Center is typically used for hockey games or concerts, on September 29 of this year it was sold out for the Overwatch League Grand Finals.
  • E-Sports has massively increased in popularity since it originated, and is still rapidly growing. In the 1980s, esports featured games such as Quake, StarCraft, and Street Fighter. Nintendo World Championship (1990), Blockbuster World Game Championship (1990), Quake Red Annihilation (1997)
    • Prize pools: Recognition, car: quake, $10k bond + gold painted car + mario statue + 40” tv (Nintendo)
  • In 2016, the League of Legends Championship had 43 million streams, twitch.tv over 100 million
  • Causes of eSports growth: Organization (ex: in Korea government regulation), business investment, technology advancement, increased media coverage, collegiate/high school growth, human strive for improvement/competition, became a viable job
    • Essentially e-Sports pushing to resemble traditional sports besides tech advancement
  • Relevance today: Growing popularity for entertainment, push for Olympic legitimization, stadium in Philly, business

 

Definition:

E-Sports – Electronic video games played competitively

Talk about similarities to standard sports as well

Timeframe:

Early E-Sports: StarCraft, Quake, CS1.6… (1990s-2010)

Evolving E-Sports: League of Legends, CS, Starcraft II, Dota (2011-Present)

Would it be useful to also dispel misconceptions about e-sports/gaming here too, or save it for the point of contention later on?

 

The main point for growth of e-sports:

 

Technology:  Advancements in technology decrease cost for systems, improvements in peripherals decrease the impact of random factors to increase competitiveness, increase in accessibility

 

Organization: Ex: Korean E-Sports Association provides infrastructure and standardization of rules which allow successful tournaments. The most successful esports have had strong infrastructure (Overwatch League, CS, League), e-Sports orgs (FNATIC, NRG, ENVY, FAZE, MLG)

 

Business Investment: Many businesses invest in esports as a growing industry, which helps to fund tournaments and stuff etc.  companies also sponsor individual players to both help their own public image and boost the publicity of the individual

 

Media Coverage: Korea: TV channels since the early 2000s, twitch.tv streaming platform, amazon signed rights for overwatch streaming rights, Disney broadcasts esports, journalism of esports

 

Collegiate/high school growth: Scholarships for prospective esports athletes by various colleges, TESPA, allows players to compete while still getting an education

 

Strive for improvement: the natural human tendency to want to improve/be the best at what they enjoy. 

(this is how esports and most sports started!)

 

Viable job/lifestyle: Players make high salaries plus winnings, oftentimes live in team houses w/ chef, trainers, therapists,

 

Reasons for relevance:

 

Growing viewership for entertainment: predicted 300m viewers and 2 billion pound net worth by 22 (British e-sports association)

 

Push for Olympic legalization – potential 2024 Olympic esports, held committee meeting previously and was open to the idea

 

Business – lots of potential money to be made from the marketing of teams/players, merchandising, broadcasting, journalism, competition

 

Example of relevance: Comcast building first dedicated eSports arena in Wells Fargo Complex

 

Point of contention: some do not recognize esports as a sport, media depicts esports as a cause for violence such as shootings in US, despite other countries with larger esports scenes having extremely few violent acts (Korea, Japan)

 

Conclusion:

eSports is a rapidly growing, newer form of entertainment that is likely to increase in popularity and relevance

Could eventually morph into a much more standardized organization like standard sports

 

Sources:

https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/1957210294/fulltext/6FA4DF7B9B354199PQ/1?accountid=13158 – Newtex Global Business Blog

 

https://search-proquest-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/1848145835?accountid=13158 – Newstex Global Business Blog

 

https://journals-sagepub-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/10.1177/1555412019840892 – Sage Journals (esports lit published per year chart)

 

http://thenespage.com/2017/04/1990-nintendo-world-championships/ – nintendo WC prize

 

https://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/17919126/2016-league-legends-worlds-prize-pool-507m-fan-contributions – league 2016 prize pool

 

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=5e450365-8a68-43cf-9cd1-912f8a5d5bb4%40sdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=124181296&db=s3h – student athlete

 

https://academic-oup-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/itnow/article/61/3/28/5552608 – predicted viewership & industry worth

https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/science/article/pii/S0148296315003306 

 

https://www.olympic.org/news/olympic-movement-esports-and-gaming-communities-meet-at-the-esports-forum -olympic

 

Passion Blog 3

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Now that the basics of solving a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube were covered in the previous blog post, we can now examine the general method for solving a 4×4!

When trying to apply the method for solving the standard Rubik’s Cube to a fully scrambled 4×4, we immediately encounter difficulty. Because this is a cube with an even number of pieces on each side, there is no specific center piece to build a cross off of as we previously did. We have to introduce a new step of creating 2×2 centers on each face of the cube. This step is necessary for all even-numbered puzzles because there is not a specific center like there is with any odd-numbered cube. When completed correctly, the 4×4 should have a solid 2×2 on the inner part of each face, as shown below.

There is still another step that we must complete before we can start with the cross: edge paring. Because our “centers” that we created are 2×2 blocks, our edges must also be two pieces each to be able to properly form a cross. This means we have to pair all the edges with their respective colors. After edge pairing is properly performed, as shown below, we can start to use the same method we used with solving the 3×3.

We start with the white cross:

And solve the corners and middle edges:

However, when starting to solve the last layer, a few more differences occur with the 4×4. There is a chance that no matter how you rotate the outer layers you cannot get a cross on the yellow face; this error is called “edge flip parity.” Essentially, because the centers are not fixed, an edge can get flipped during edge pairing and it is not evident until this point. If this occurs, a specific algorithm is needed to flip the edge, and complete the cross.

Next, we continue solving the last layer as normal, but in the last step of permuting the last layer, another potential parity can occur. This time, two of the edge pieces are swapped, leading to another state that is impossible on a standard Rubik’s Cube. This is called “edge rotation parity,” and similar to the previous parity a specific algorithm is necessary to solve the puzzle.

Solving the 4×4 cube is essentially turning the 4×4 into a state that is solvable using the same method as the standard Rubik’s Cube. Creating centers and performing edge pairing makes the puzzle resemble a standard 3×3, and from there solving is the same except for the two easily recognizable and solvable parities that occur due to the nature of even-numbered puzzled cubes.

In the next blog entry, we will cover our last standard cubic puzzle, the 5x5x5.

RCL Blog 6

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  1. My chosen topic for the Ted Talk is the evolution of competitive video game sports (E-Sports). It intends to focus on how the E-Sports scene originated, has changed since that, and how it is currently becoming much more mainstream. It tells the story of how E-Sports has consistently been growing on popularity, with a recent jump in viewership as a result of more recent factors. It will also explain the market projections for E-Sports, with it being predicted to overtake standard sports. The time period it will cover is from the early 1970s, when the first “E-Sport” tournament occurred, to the present day.

 

  1. The specific change I plan to analyze is how the public’s view of video games and E-Sports transformed from a “waste of time” into a booming multimillion-dollar industry with feasible career paths. This distinction occurred more recently, with E-Sports players starting to gain recognition as traditional athletes, and the industry is becoming much more mainstream. For example, Comcast is building a stadium in the Wells Fargo Comcast for their Overwatch League team, the Philadelphia Fusion, and this is the first dedicated E-Sports arena in the US. It is important to explore and understand this shift in E-Sports because as it continues to grow in popularity, it will also gain greater civic relevance. Because there is a lot of potential money to be made in the industry, it will become a focus for many businesses and companies to invest in, which further increases the significance it holds in society. Furthermore, by informing the public about E-Sports, it could help to smoothen its transition into society and allow it to encompass a greater viewer base.

RCL Blog 5: Speech Reflection

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  1. Overall, I think my points and use of statistics was strong to deliver my message. Many of the statements about phone usage were relatable to most of the room, which also helped. I also think I presented the speech, with the exception of the part explained in #2, with a fairly continuous flow, and did not use many filler words. The concluding questions also gave the audience something to think about after the speech, which I think was good.
  2. I think that the third main point of my speech, that being the corporate influence, had too many pauses/stutters while I was presenting, and I also noticed I used some filler words like “um” in that section. Sometimes I think I was also talking a little too fast and could have slowed my pace a little to make the speech more understandable. 
  3. One thing I didn’t realize that I was distracted from watching the video was that my head was tilted slightly to the left for the entire time I was presenting. I also didn’t realize how much I was moving my hands while talking, but I don’t think this was a big deal. A third thing I didn’t notice was the ending “thank you” felt kind of abrupt. While listening, it felt like I should’ve continued a bit more about the topic of ethics in phone data usage, and transitioned more cleanly into the ending.