French Championship 2026

2026-04-04 ~ 2026-04-06

Very lucky to not be down by 2 or even 3 moves after a chaotic A1, and then double tie with Mallard for A2 A3, NR is doable on this set but I’m very happy with this title as competition is France is quite ferocious. Congrats to Quentin for finally breaking the well deserved sub 22 barrier, and to LMR who is completing the podium after 2 consecutives wins !

Final

#1Mean21.33Single21 (22 / 21 / 21)

Attempt 1

Scramble

R' U' F D2 B R B' L2 D2 L2 D' F2 U2 F2 R D B L2 B' F U R' U' F

Results

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

L' F//EO(2)
L D' L2 F2 B2 U' B2 U2 L'//11 4b2 (2e)
(U2 B2 U' R2 D')//HTR(16)
(F2 L2 R2 U2 F2)//Slice(21), +1 for 22

 Amazing EO scramble with 1 2 mover, 4 3 mover including 1 NISS, so quickly decided RZP in 4 DR in 10 for this one.
Big nerves impacting the thinking at the start of the attempt, given that last results in official were bad, + 2 move EO on A1 of Nationals that directly gives an unusual attempt.
Rare +9 EO to DR, basically it’s the first DR’s I wrote thinking it would be 10. So I has this set as backup before 10mins, but I did not consider I would need these.

Then I spent 20 mins on all <=4 move Eo’s, switching 3 movers and premoving the 2 mover. Somehow managed to choke the rare DR’s giving sub 22 from the standards I chose, all 10 move DR’s I had were very bad subsets. Missed RZP on (F2 U’ L2 D) that after switching gives a set of 9+4 with trivial 21, inexplicable.
After 40 mins I decided accept I missed, and to not DNF, even if this could mean that I’m out after A1, so came back to this set where +5 to HTR is possible on inverse and this came up to save my attempt, even though I knew that 22 wasn’t going to be Woaj and very disappointed with the attempt. The 4 variants from L’ F L D’ are 22 opt but there’s a 20 on one of the L’ F L U’ that I did not check during the attempt. Big save where Woaj is 21 from LMR and Quentin, Alexis got same 22 as me pretty much.

April 23, 2026 4:20 PM

Attempt 2

Scramble

R' U' F R' F2 D2 R F' U R' B2 U2 D2 B D2 F2 U2 R2 F' B' U R F' R' U' F

Results

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

B' R' F' L'//EO(4)
F U B R2 D2 B'//2c3 4e(10), 4 variants
(L2 U' L2 F2 U R2 U')//HTR(17)
(L2 B2 L2)//Slice(20),+1 for 21


Not much to say on this, as the 10 + 3’s are almost the only good thing on this scramble, the last 4 mover I checked. All 4 of us had the same DR, but Quentin missed this slice and got 23 out of these.
This solve felt a lot better, nerves were ok and did not miss anything apparently.
After A2, status is 
LMR 21 21
Alexis/Adrien 22 21
Quentin 21 23, so everything will be set on A3 !

April 23, 2026 4:30 PM

Attempt 3

Scramble

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

Results

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

(R L ) B' D R'//EO(5)
B R2 F2 B2 U//4b2 2e (10)

22 backup from here : 
R2 U2 R2 B U2 B'//16
D2 B2 R' L' U2 L2 D2 B2 R L//(10-4/22) Nice

(L R') B' D R'
B (D2 R2 U2 F L2 F)// 12 4a1 4e, going back to extend on normal
R2 [U2 F2 B2 U//Extended HTR(17), looking at S slice now
D2] L2 D2 L2 B2//S slice(22) but it’s actually E+S in 20

[D2 F2 B2 U']//S slice(20), let’s rewrite

B' D R' B R2 D2 F2 B2 U' L2 D2 L2 [B2 F' L2 F'] U2 R2 D2 R' L
[F2 B' D2 B']//21

Here’s the unnecessary overcomplicated 21, unclear why I decided to reswitch to check 4a1’s on the other side : the classic way to find this might just be to extend the DR directly on normal. At this point I have 22 21 21 = 21.33, happy with this and feel unlikely that Alexis and Quentin both found a 20 so I’m guaranteed a podium in my head. Quentin found same solution but more normally, and sadly LMR and Alexis did not check this EO so got 24 and 25 on this garbage scramble…

April 23, 2026 4:34 PM