Concerns about FMC regulations

[Cale S]

FMC already has a high DNF rate when competitors are given an hour with a scramble sequence, removing it would significantly increase the number of DNFs, even among experienced solvers

 

[AlphaSheep]

I know this is going to sound stupid, but I always found the fact that FMC competitors are given a written scramble AT ALL to be somewhat impure.

Why not just give them a single scrambled cube, as in all the other events?

Make them match-the-scramble to find a "scramble" for the cube. Then they can use that as their "scramble" and even do NISS, etc.

I understand that would drastically (negatively) affect the way FMCers find solutions and waste a minute or two (from the arbitrary 1-hour limit), but it would certainly avoid this entire debate and would standardize the regulations.

I've done this at home. It only takes a couple minutes to find the first solution anyway. After that, every shorter solution you find makes scrambling a tiny bit quicker anyway. Lots of fun and I actually wouldn't mind if the WCA went that route.

Implementing it would be as simple as leaving the scramble off the FMC sheet and leaving just the picture.

 

[pglewis]

I understand the mindset of not wanting to leave anything to chance or having to rely on someone else's decision. But when you enforce everything with hard and fast rules you can end up with silly situations because, "sorry, that's the rule". This is why we have courts and judges. I personally prefer case by case evaluation beyond a certain point because the cubing Gods have a way of throwing you novel situations that the rules can't anticipate.

Also, half of me says this is a discussion to fix a nonexistent problem. It seems clear that the original situation that spawned the discussion would not have been subject to a DNF in a competition. The other half of me knows that you can end up painted into a corner when you don't anticipate future problems, so I won't completely poo-poo it. But it's definitely leaning towards much ado about nothing for me.