New Group.. Need ideas

[Robert_M]

Hello from Australia everyone.

I am new to this forum! (my two boys love speedcubing but I can only do two layers!)

I saw the need for a social group, away from youtube. So I have started a cubing group and have our second meet up tomorrow. Our first group was loads of fun with way more kids attending than expected. So it was chaotic to say the least!! Cubes everywhere! I had some timers and made up some sheet for keeping scores, so I could work out who was sub 20 or was sub 1min etc.. We also had a beginners table for kids that couldn't complete a solve.

Possibly expecting 30 kids tomorrow!! :-/

So for this next group I want to have a bit of competition. I have been trying to work out an easy way to have a basic comp.

But have some thoughts and looking for your advice:

I have some mat timers and could just use them and have someone assist the solves and write them down. They do 5 solves and we record average and best time.

The fastest 3 times or could get a prize?

Or I could use something like CSTimer on a laptop and let it suggest scrambles and record the information. Then we right it down.

Have a prize for best average and best time?

Would it be best to let each kid do 5 solves, then move on to the next person OR each kid does on solve then the next person does a solve and we go that way?

- My other thoughts were to have an elimination round as well. 5 kids all start at once and the slowest is eliminated until there is one person left?


Really I am just after keeping it fun and organised! Last time the had fun just trying each others cubes and showing off their skills. but want to keep the advance kids interested.

Cheers!!
Robert

 

[Duncan Bannon]

Congratulations on getting a nice sized group! An idea thst may work well is have each station have a computor and mat. The judge uses Cstimer to scramble cube. Then they call somebody up, they do solve, then enter into CS timer. Make each session a different kid. Then have kid leave, scramble cube, repeat. I would get prizes for top 3 averages, and best single. If you wanted to could take top 50% of kids to finals. Then give prizes for top 3 and single of finals. Just and idea, good luck to you!

 

[Robert_M]

Thanks Duncan. It's somewhere between really exciting and overwhelming!! lol but all good.

I do have an iMac that I could plug a mat timer into. Would only be one computer at the moment.
That way everyone could see the times.
So one kid, one solve and rotate.

Do you think I should have a cut-off of 1 minute? Just to keep it moving?

 

[Duncan Bannon]

I would put it a little higher. Don’t most of your kids solve it in over a minute? I would put it high enough that most kids could make it, you want them to have fun, not feel like they suck

 

[Robert_M]

HI Duncan - the group went well! We started a comp. I use and imac with CStimer and a mat timer hooked up.
We had one kid scramble, one kid solving and a parent record the stats. Was pretty fun.
Only about 7-10 wanted to do it. So I am thinking I will have 3 rounds of the comp. So it kinda goes a bit longer and I can have a prize. Prob for fastest time or best average. But need some for the kids trying, so most improved or even last!
Thanks heaps for your help. Hope someone else gets some use out of this thread!

 

[Duncan Bannon]

Glad to hear it! The idea about most improved or last sounds like a good incentive to try and compete. If you do decide to do another, feel free to let me know if you want more ideas, or just how it went

Edit- I just saw that your boys like to cube, but you "only" know how to solve the F2L. From there its just a few algs You should try and learn. Its fun.