AvGalen
Premium Member
At Euro 2018 I pitched this idea to a few people and now it is time to do the same on the forum.
The general idea is that instead of having events that we continue to do "for eternity", we add 1 "Event of the year" that will be a different puzzle every year. So for example for 2019 it would be KiloMinx, but in 2020 it would become TeamBlind, 2021 gets Match-The-Scramble and in 2021 it would become "whatever the buzzing in 2020 would suggest".
Currently we are still doing some puzzles where the only reason we do them seems to be "because we have always done them".
Some advantages of introducing a different event every year:
1) New records, excitement, race to hold the first competitions, etc
2) New personal challenge to learn another puzzle, develop methods, improve techniques, etc
3) Shops/manafacturers should see some opportunity here
Some disadvantages:
a) Every year we have to decide/vote which puzzle it is going to be and make sure that these are readily available from shops. This means that we should prepare at least 6 months in advance.
b) Every year regulations might have to be adjusted, databases prepared and organizers have to get used to new things
c) Because Worlds and other big tournaments aren't organized every year some puzzles might never be done at them
Some questions that come to mind:
I) Is 1 year a long enough time for such an alternating event?
II) Should there be a possibility to keep a puzzle if it is incredibly loved?
III) Should these always be relatively easy/short puzzles?
Just to be clear, this is just something that I mulled over in my mind and it doesn't have any official WCA-endorsement. I actually expect them to have some issues with this as it is quite cumbersome. I am just surprised that event-wise in the 15 years almost nothing has changed except (from memory):
* Addition and modification of Multi-Blind
* Addition of Big Cubes
* Removal of Magics
* Addition of Skewb
* Modification of several events (shorter time, more puzzles for mean/average)
I would personally link this to the removal of Clock, which to me is the best example of an event that has become completely stale. However for this forumtopic I don't want that to be the focus of the responses.
So....what do you think?
The general idea is that instead of having events that we continue to do "for eternity", we add 1 "Event of the year" that will be a different puzzle every year. So for example for 2019 it would be KiloMinx, but in 2020 it would become TeamBlind, 2021 gets Match-The-Scramble and in 2021 it would become "whatever the buzzing in 2020 would suggest".
Currently we are still doing some puzzles where the only reason we do them seems to be "because we have always done them".
Some advantages of introducing a different event every year:
1) New records, excitement, race to hold the first competitions, etc
2) New personal challenge to learn another puzzle, develop methods, improve techniques, etc
3) Shops/manafacturers should see some opportunity here
Some disadvantages:
a) Every year we have to decide/vote which puzzle it is going to be and make sure that these are readily available from shops. This means that we should prepare at least 6 months in advance.
b) Every year regulations might have to be adjusted, databases prepared and organizers have to get used to new things
c) Because Worlds and other big tournaments aren't organized every year some puzzles might never be done at them
Some questions that come to mind:
I) Is 1 year a long enough time for such an alternating event?
II) Should there be a possibility to keep a puzzle if it is incredibly loved?
III) Should these always be relatively easy/short puzzles?
Just to be clear, this is just something that I mulled over in my mind and it doesn't have any official WCA-endorsement. I actually expect them to have some issues with this as it is quite cumbersome. I am just surprised that event-wise in the 15 years almost nothing has changed except (from memory):
* Addition and modification of Multi-Blind
* Addition of Big Cubes
* Removal of Magics
* Addition of Skewb
* Modification of several events (shorter time, more puzzles for mean/average)
I would personally link this to the removal of Clock, which to me is the best example of an event that has become completely stale. However for this forumtopic I don't want that to be the focus of the responses.
So....what do you think?