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The story of ZZMethod.com

The story of ZZMethod.com

Feb 9th, 2024 by crystalcuber, Swagrid, yoruba

How it started

Over the past several years, the ZZ method has evolved significantly. Solvers are now preferring EOCross over EOLine, and ZBLL is gaining popularity. We found very few resources for this new style of ZZ. They were scattered across the web, making it more difficult to learn and master the method. In September of 2023, we decided to start working on a solution to this problem. We wanted to build a central website that would explain the basics of ZZ and how to improve with it. We took inspiration from the trail-blazing tutorials by ZZ legends Conrad Rider (opens in a new tab) and Phil Yu (opens in a new tab).

The team

We are a team of friends and volunteers who enjoy the ZZ Method. Here are the three initial contributors:

Building the website

We used a tool called Nextra (opens in a new tab) to generate the site for us. It provides the basic UI of the site, allowing us to focus on writing the articles. Nextra is usually used to make documentation for software, but it worked great for documenting Rubik's cube methods too!

Writing the content

We began writing the content around September of 2023, with the goal of releasing by Halloween.

crystalcuber started working on a tutorial section for learning each step of the method. At the same time, Yoruba started writing articles for how to improve at each step. However, we realized it was going to take much longer than expected.

The EO tutorial was based on crystalcuber's existing video tutorial (opens in a new tab) which saved a lot of time. However, it was a challenge to replicate the visuals of the video within the written version. We needed to create interactive 3D cubes that would show how EO worked. Thankfully, cubing.js (opens in a new tab) is an amazing tool that helped us build these visualizations.

In the meantime, Yoruba created an ambitious list of 15 topics he wanted to cover for the improvement guide. Then, he started writing articles at a breakneck speed, with the quality never faltering. Yoruba wrote step-by-step instructions for improving skill at each step of the method, from EOCross and ZZF2L techniques to advice for learning ZBLL. He also shared his practice drills for targeting specific skills.

Despite the rapid progress, the project proved too large to make the initial launch date, and we had to delay the release by a month. The new target date was November 26th, giving S1neWav_ some time during his holidays to contribute.

Our friend and YouTuber Swagrid (opens in a new tab) filmed the video How to master the ZZ method where he graciously promoted our project. We all worked together to coordinate the simultaneous release of both projects on the 26th.

Yoruba went full steam ahead and completed most of the improvement guide. The tutorial section needed some help however, because ZZF2L was proving to be a challenge to explain. We wanted our site to have a dedicated ZZF2L tutorial that did not base its explanation on CFOP F2L. It needed to be accessible to cubers who did not have a foundation in CFOP. S1neWav_ stepped in and created an intuitive beginner ZZF2L method. He also wrote an outline for the Last Layer tutorial, choosing to teach beginners OCLL and 2-look PLL.

For a second time, we started running out of time before our new launch day. We were close enough to the end that we only needed to delay its release by one week. We completed the improvement guide and the beginner tutorial, adding some finishing touches.

Launch

On December 4th, 2023 we shared our website with the world.

Swagrid released his How to MASTER the ZZ Method video (opens in a new tab) after delaying it for over a month just for us. The video performed well for both of us: Swagrid earned a new wave of subscribers and our site experienced a massive spike of initial traffic.

We got a lot of feedback from online ZZ users, and we spent some time adding their suggestions. Overall, the website was well-received. It was great to start seeing people send ZZMethod.com links whenever someone asked for help with ZZ.

Gratitude

We want to give a big thanks to everyone who helped us along the way!

Thank you Lucas Garron (opens in a new tab) for the cubing.js library. The TwistyPlayer visualizer enabled us to build highly visual tutorials and resources with ease. Thanks for continuing to maintain and improve the library, and directly giving us help using it.

Athefre (opens in a new tab), thank you for your eye-opening research on the origins of methods (opens in a new tab), including the ZZ method. It helped us write a more accurate introduction to ZZ.

Thanks Swagrid (opens in a new tab) for promoting our website on your YouTube channel. You even delayed your own upload just for us.

Shoutout to Gen The Snail (opens in a new tab) and Fahmi Aulia Rachman (opens in a new tab) for your suggestions to improve the site.

Thank you Bas for adding us to speedcubing.com (opens in a new tab).

And finally, thanks to many online users who offer feedback and are sharing our work with others. It makes us happy to see our resources being used to help people across various forums and social media.

What's next?

We're planning to add more blog posts and more resources. Stay tuned!