FMC à Montréal 2025

R1-A1

Scramble

R' U' F U' L2 D2 L2 R2 B L2 B2 L2 D L' D2 R' B2 U' L2 B F R' U' F

Results

U F' R' B2 D2 R2 B' L2 F' B L2 B L2 U2 R2 L F' R2 L F U' L F'

U (F L' U) // EO (4/4)

EO count is 6/6/6, all my 4-movers came from this axis
I didn't brute force +2 RZP on this scramble since the 4-move EOs didn't look good
In this case I saw there's a bar that I can put on the R face to orient a lot of pieces

F' R'

3c2e in 6, looks pretty bad regardless of whether you invert the R move
Definitely worth switching, I barely had any RZPs

(F' R2 L' F L') // DR, 4b2 4e (7/11)

Easy 2-move setup to the trigger
(U2 F' R2 L' F L') also works, I looked at it briefly after finishing this DR but it's 24 optimal

B2 D2 R2 F^' D2 @ L2 B // HTR (7/18)

After fixing 4b2 parity, this is just an easy 2-move setup to the trigger
Great opportunity to check out my 4b2 4e sheet btw
You can start with B2 D2 R2 or B2 D2 L2 with two variations each for 4 variations total 

L2 U2 R2 // S (3/21)

NR single #2 😳😳??

^ = w, @ = Fw F' (+2/23)

Nope lol
But it's shared woaj with LMR, no complaints here
Also optimal from DR
Mallard with 5/6/11 settings finds this scramble tricky too, if you exclude (U R F2 L U) it can't find better than a 23

February 28, 2026 2:16 AM

R1-A2

Scramble

R' U' F R2 U' B R U2 L' U2 F2 U2 L2 B2 R' U2 D B L2 D' F D2 B' R' U' F

Results

U2 F' L' F L' B2 L' U2 L U2 F2 R' U2 F2 L2 B2 D' R2 F' R'

(R F R2 D) // EO (4/4)

EO count is 4/6/4

I saw the premade square and saw that a lot of pairs would form so I tried to do blocks
Understandably the blockbuilders / CFOPers were audibly freaking out about this
By 12 minutes it was clear that I suck at blocks so I spent 5 minutes quickly writing down some EOs

This gives instant 3c2e, gotta switch

U2 F' L' F // DR, 2c4 2e (4/8)

Woah 👀
This is also an instantly a 2c4 trigger I know, it's always 8-move optimal no matter the case
From here it's just a matter of finding the right variation (the F here can also be reversed, preserving the trigger)

D2 B' R' B' here would give a 19 instead, unfortunately forgot to check this

L' B2 L' U2 R^ B2 U2 L^' // HTR (8/16)

Last variation of four I checked starting with L'

D2 B2 R^2 B2 // M (6/20)

Ok NR single surely this time

^ = w (+0/20)

NR!! J Perm NR gone 🦀
Elliott also got a 20 off the same DR with a different path, was super hype and we got a picture for the Speedcubing Canada insta
And then Bène Kille proceeded to get a 19 to Keaton us the next round wtf man 💀

Optimal from DR
There's also an 8+1 off of (D' R L' F) which LMR found an 18 off of, but somehow I just completely missed that EO

February 28, 2026 2:17 AM

R1-A3

Scramble

R' U' F D' R2 B' R' U' F U L F D R L2 U2 F D2 B2 R2 D2 R' U' F

Results

F L' D' R' U R2 B2 L' B' U2 D2 B2 R' U2 R' L' B2 R L D2 R U2 R2 B2

F L' D' R' U // EO (5/5)

EO count is 4/6/8
There's a three-mover on FB and quite a few extensions into four-movers, but they're all bad
After EO there's a big L shape with good E-slice, this is obviously good

R2 B2 L' B' // DR, 8c0 4e (4/9)

WTF

[F2 L] (B2 R2 U2 R') // HTR (6/15)

I wasted a lot of time trying L R into 4e on both sides, nothing looked good so I started looking for 1q+1q solutions
This HTR looks bad, let's switch and try to replace the normal part

[] -> U2 D2 B2 R' (+2/17)

Okay looks better now, all bars

U2 L2 @ D2 L2 % D2 // M (5/22)

@ = Lw' L, % = Lw L' (+2/24)

22.33 !! 🎉

I had 5 minutes left writing this slice solution down, but I didn't want to risk throwing away the 20 to another DNF mean -- there's a +1 slice, but it's not the most straightforward

This DR is what Mallard finds with 5/6/11 settings, and it has two 21 optimals:
F2 L' U2 D2 L' B2 L2 B2 D2 F2 B2 R2 (12)
U2 D2 B2 R U2 D2 R B2 L2 F2 D2 L2 (12)
Aside from this there are also plenty of reasonable 22s, somehow I managed to miss all of them either due to missing the HTR finish or missing the setup to the first qt 💀

Crazy to think that these DRs had 23, 19, 21 = 21.00 potential, shoutout to Alexandre Ondet and Louis Meunier for cooking with the scrambles

Also huge grats to Bène Kille for 19/22.67 (also with great 20.67 potential!) in R2, would have never thought that Canadian NRs would shift this much in one day

Next time we get scrambles like this we will not do anything stupid and it's gonna be awesome 👍

February 28, 2026 2:19 AM