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[Google Survey] What is your opinion on current WCA-related topics?

YouCubing

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imo we shouldn't remove any events. there's really no point, if you don't do/like the event, just don't do/like it, don't try getting it off the WCA. I know people whose favorite events are Clock and Feet, and removing those events would just make the really disappointed and it wouldn't really do much for the people who don't like the events.
 

DTCuber

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1. +2s should be removed
2. Add ball and cup: it requires skill, it requires luck, and it is fun to watch
 
D

Daniel Lin

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imo we shouldn't remove any events. there's really no point, if you don't do/like the event, just don't do/like it, don't try getting it off the WCA. I know people whose favorite events are Clock and Feet, and removing those events would just make the really disappointed and it wouldn't really do much for the people who don't like the events.
If we remove clock or feet, then there would be more time in comps to hold other events. And they aren't that popular anyway. Personally I think clock should be eliminated because it's not really a twisty puzzle and just looks weird. And feet is unsanitary and weird (sorry thecoolminxer).

Also, I've changed my mind about kilominx. I think it would be a good idea to add it if lots of people like it
 

One Wheel

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Personally I think clock should be eliminated because it's not really a twisty puzzle and just looks weird. And feet is unsanitary and weird (sorry thecoolminxer).

I'm with you on clock, but can somebody explain why feet is unsanitary? I know it's a generally accepted fact, but really our hands are touching all sorts of different dirty things all the time, while for most people their feet are wrapped up in shoes and socks all the time, usually with clean socks. Compared to what is on your hands, bacteriologically your feet may have more bacteria, but it will be a smaller variety of bacteria and what is there will be more picky about environment and therefore not as dangerous.
 

DGCubes

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I'm with you on clock, but can somebody explain why feet is unsanitary? I know it's a generally accepted fact, but really our hands are touching all sorts of different dirty things all the time, while for most people their feet are wrapped up in shoes and socks all the time, usually with clean socks. Compared to what is on your hands, bacteriologically your feet may have more bacteria, but it will be a smaller variety of bacteria and what is there will be more picky about environment and therefore not as dangerous.

Honestly the only problem I can think of is if people have some sort of foot fungus, although it's not like there aren't sanitary ways to hold feet at a comp even with this issue. Oftentimes they put plastic covers over the timers, and I think it would be a good idea for anyone worried about being unsanitary to just wear latex gloves while scrambling/transporting cubes. Sure, it's an extra step, but it's pretty much undeniably clean.

I like to take the stance that there's no reason to remove events unless there's something particularly wrong with them. All it does is makes the people who are serious about it upset.
 

One Wheel

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This is slightly off topic, but I'm curious to see if there will ever be a generational shift in cubing. These are obviously broad generalizations, but in my observation younger cubers, both in terms of age and how long they've been cubing obviously start with 3x3, and then move on toward smaller puzzles like 2x2, pyraminx, and skewb. As time goes on it seems that people either specialize or start to focus more on either big cubes or more commonly on blind events. There are enough young people coming in to skew the focus toward smaller "simpler" events. It will be interesting to see if that changes 5-10 years down the road.
 
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This is slightly off topic, but I'm curious to see if there will ever be a generational shift in cubing. These are obviously broad generalizations, but in my observation younger cubers, both in terms of age and how long they've been cubing obviously start with 3x3, and then move on toward smaller puzzles like 2x2, pyraminx, and skewb. As time goes on it seems that people either specialize or start to focus more on either big cubes or more commonly on blind events. There are enough young people coming in to skew the focus toward smaller "simpler" events. It will be interesting to see if that changes 5-10 years down the road.
Interesting ideas. I personally think that upwards of 2/3 of young cubers will not become very serious because of competitions getting "harder". If I were a few years younger and my first comp was last weekend I would never have gotten kinda good before everyone else is better.
 

One Wheel

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Interesting ideas. I personally think that upwards of 2/3 of young cubers will not become very serious because of competitions getting "harder". If I were a few years younger and my first comp was last weekend I would never have gotten kinda good before everyone else is better.

The kind of shift I'm talking about would only happen if there is a significant reduction (on a percentage basis) of the number of young cubers coming in.
 

One Wheel

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Just for the record, I'm also very much for removing 5BLD and I think a number of high profile BLDers are too.

I'm also keen to remove multi BLD.
Multi BLD, as a fixed - time event, is relatively easy to schedule. It also requires massive amounts of work, so the people who enjoy it would arguably have much more reason to be upset about its elimination than would the people who enjoy, say, clock.
 

Ollie

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Multi BLD, as a fixed - time event, is relatively easy to schedule. It also requires massive amounts of work, so the people who enjoy it would arguably have much more reason to be upset about its elimination than would the people who enjoy, say, clock.

Some people put a lot of effort into Magic and Master Magic, and the removal of those events affected a lot more people than would affect Multi.

My main purpose for it's removal is that as a blind event it adds virtually nothing on what 3BLD brings. You're testing sheer memory capacity, but so does 4BLD and 5BLD. 5BLD barely adds anything new to 4BLD in terms of solving or memorization either.

The puzzle being solved and the methods used do not change - it's just an hour of continuous 3BLD. It's more of a memory sport in that regard.
 

One Wheel

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Some people put a lot of effort into Magic and Master Magic, and the removal of those events affected a lot more people than would affect Multi.

My main purpose for it's removal is that as a blind event it adds virtually nothing on what 3BLD brings. You're testing sheer memory capacity, but so does 4BLD and 5BLD. 5BLD barely adds anything new to 4BLD in terms of solving or memorization either.

The puzzle being solved and the methods used do not change - it's just an hour of continuous 3BLD. It's more of a memory sport in that regard.

My understanding is that magic and master magic were removed because they had turned into pure dexterity contests rather than puzzles. As to MBLD adding anything, 2x2 doesn't add anything because you have to solve the corners on every other cube. Sure, MBLD is similar to 3BLD, but it's a whole other scale of amazing, especially the really big MBLD attempts. Plus the issue that it's easy to schedule around stands.
 

Matt11111

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Technically, those have no luck involved. But cubing technically doesn't either.
3 words: 2x2 four movers.

My understanding is that magic and master magic were removed because they had turned into pure dexterity contests rather than puzzles. As to MBLD adding anything, 2x2 doesn't add anything because you have to solve the corners on every other cube. Sure, MBLD is similar to 3BLD, but it's a whole other scale of amazing, especially the really big MBLD attempts. Plus the issue that it's easy to schedule around stands.
2x2 is a bit more than just the corners of any NxN cube, because since there are no other pieces, you have more freedom and more algs can be developed.
 

mark49152

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My main purpose for it's removal is that as a blind event it adds virtually nothing on what 3BLD brings. You're testing sheer memory capacity, but so does 4BLD and 5BLD. 5BLD barely adds anything new to 4BLD in terms of solving or memorization either.

The puzzle being solved and the methods used do not change - it's just an hour of continuous 3BLD. It's more of a memory sport in that regard.
All of that's true to a point, but you could make similar points about the similarity of other events, like 5x5-7x7. It doesn't make them any less legitimate.

If the discussion were about whether these become new events, maybe these are good arguments against; but I think that once an event is established, there's a history of competition, and there are people who have committed serious effort to it, it should require much stronger and more practical objections to justify removing it. Especially when organisers already have the option of simply not holding the events.
 
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Just for the record, I'm also very much for removing 5BLD and I think a number of high profile BLDers are too.

I'm also keen to remove multi BLD.
I wouldn't be too upset if 5BLD were to be removed, and it's my best ranking. 4BLD should definitely stay though.

I remember a discussion about whether MBLD should be changed to have a much smaller time limit, possibly 30 mins? I would be in favour of that: less boring and fewer cubes to heave around in my backpack - I'm making the most of not having practised MBLD for a long time and not having loads 3x3s in my rucksack at a comp, though I will get back to it eventually. Practicing at home wasn't too bad.
 

Chree

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I wanna shift gears here a bit and bring up one of the survey questions that I was curious about. The very last one about ambiguous scorecard results. As a person with terrible handwriting, it's a worry I often have: being responsible for clearly writing results. And since most volunteers are young kids with equally terrible handwriting, I frequently ask my judges to rewrite my times.

As it stands, the WCA Regulations around this, I feel, are a practical necessity. Scorechecking is also practical necessity, and usually doesn't take place until well after the competition is over. So by the time such ambiguity is given proper attention, it's far too late to ask the judge or competitor what really happened. I mean, it's usually hard enough to find who the judge was DURING the competition.

The solution may not come until we can migrate to a digital replacement to the current scorecard system. And the practicality of such a system, with the current WCA, makes it basically infeasible. So I'm curious to know if anyone else has ideas about how to improve this.
 
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