So at a camp a few months back, one of my friends solved my 3x3 with a method which had a few unreasonably fast attributes. First, solving the edge pairs took no more than a few seconds. Second, solving the edge pairs also oriented the last layer pieces properly.

I apologize if this method is widely known and/or widely used, but I'm not very knowledgeable about various solving methods. Usually, once I solve a puzzle, I don't care to know faster or more efficient methods, but for this, I'm curious.

Any pointers?

Thanks!

You haven't described the system in much detail but Petrus method involves a step fixes the orientations of the last-layer edges with a simple [1,1] commutator before you get to the last layer.

EDIT: Specifically http://lar5.com/cube/fas3.html